He didn’t look interested in the slightest on Monday, and only really got involved in the last half an hour when he moved into central midfield.
We look so apologetic in the middle that there’s now a genuine feeling growing that even pushing Phil Neville back in there would at least see us win the odd tackle against the likes of Lee Cattermole and Michael Brown – bog average players who were made to look like Patrick Vieira and Emmanuel Petit the other night.
What happened to the spirit and the competitiveness that have always been the very least that Moyes’s teams give, even when perhaps their passing isn’t as slick as we might like? It didn’t all travel down to Birmingham with Lee Carsley, did it?
Whatever’s occurred, Moyes needs to make some big decisions in the coming weeks. Firstly, about how he uses the players he has, and if that means dropping his record signing then he should just get on with it, and then what he plans to do when the transfer window opens.
If he has no money as he’s said, then some will have to be raised by sales. It seems like not so long ago that it would have been unthinkable that we would even consider cashing in on the likes of Arteta, Joleon Lescott or Yakubu, but as things stand, we’re almost in December and they have hardly performed all season. Worse than that though, is that they are starting to look as if they want away. If that is indeed the case then let’s sell them while we can still get a decent price.
This might all sound quite dramatic, but that Wigan result has been coming for a while now. And looking at the fixture list, worse could be on the way unless there’s a fundamental change in attitudes and the way the Blues go about their business.
