LONDON: David Moyes, the new Manchester United manager, has admitted he is still coming to terms with the enormity of the job he’s inherited from Alex Ferguson.
The Scotsman took on one of the most unenviable challenges in modern football when he agreed to leave Everton and succeed the long-serving Ferguson as United manager before the start of this season.
And while Moyes, 50, had more than a decade of experience at Goodison Park behind him, he said Friday the size of his new job had taken some getting used to.
“When you first come into the job as a manager, it can be different,” said Moyes. “I found that when I was a young manager at Preston and then when I was a young manager at Everton. I feel like I’ve come into this job as an experienced manager.
“I’ve done a lot of years in the Premier League, I know exactly how it works. You’ll never get used to the enormity of this club, or at least not until you’ve been here for awhile,” he also told a news conference.
“But you have to deal with that, that’s what happens when you come into these football management jobs.”
The challenge facing Moyes has been made all the harder by a difficult start to the season, most notably last weekend’s Manchester derby in which his side suffered a humiliating 4-1 defeat by Manchester City.
However, with the pressure mounting, Moyes steadied the ship when he led his team to a midweek 1-0 home victory over Liverpool in the League Cup.
“Any game against Liverpool is a big game,” said Moyes.
“We made seven or eight changes and made sure that everyone at the club was able to show what they can do.
“They did well. I thought it was a really good game and was really pleased with how we performed to get through to the next round of the cup.”
Moyes, who also has an eye on next week’s Champions League visit to Shakhtar Donetsk, revealed Tom Cleverley has suffered a minor knee injury but is expected to be available for the group game on Wednesday. But he was less forthcoming about the future of teenage winger Adnan Januzaj, whose form has not only kept £12 million ($19 million) summer signing Wilfried Zaha out of first team contention to date, but has also been one of the highlights of a fairly underwhelming start to the season. (Agencies)