Former Manchester United player Adrian Janujaz has revealed why he believes David Moyes has struggled at Premier League level after playing for him at Sunderland.
And in so doing he seems to have identified all the issues that Javier Hernandez has struggled with at West Ham.”
Moyes preceded his short Hammers spell as boss at Sunderland and led them to relegation. Among his signings was the 23 year old who has now spilled the beans on his tactical approach at the Stadium of Light.
The Belgian international blamed his philosophy of playing long balls and hoping something would happen in the final third. Instead the Black Cats managed 29 goals from 38 games
He said: “It seemed to me my best choice was to stay in England with David Moyes with whom I had made progress at Manchester United.
“However. it was a frustrating period (sigh). The philosophy at Sunderland was one of long balls and then try something. But it doesn’t work for me, Sunderland and it didn’t fit together – good analysts will have seen that too.
“I have to make the difference in the last 30 metres not running behind long balls.”
Not a bad return 29 goals in 3 games, typo I think?
Typo adjusted I see (-:
Moyes like any good manager certainly cuts his team according to the cloth available. Sunderland probably had the worst squad and attitude of any team for many years. So to ask them to play the beautiful passing game was a non-starter. Of course for us he did not play the long ball to any great extent, and actually ended with us playing some of the best 1-touch we have played for decades. Most of our attacks came through Lanzini, Mario and Arnie, well supported by the wing-backs.
As for Januzaz he is an event still waiting to happen, but at least he acknowledges the progress he made under Moyes.
Oh and Hernandez, who we signed for only £16 million, strangely without any intervention from all the top teams in the whole world. I wonder why. Of course he is now being tipped for an early retirement to er Mexico, or USA or china perhaps? It’s a funny old game.
Perhaps the fact that they dropped straight through to the 3rd tier shows just how bad their squad was.