Just when it seemed Manchester United were settling down, following their win over Crystal Palace, they turned in what David Moyes freely admitted was a bewilderingly poor performance against Olympiakos.

Inevitably the spotlight is back on David, something he had to get accustomed to quickly after succeeding Sir Alex Ferguson.

The first thing to say is that none of the English clubs have covered themselves with glory in the Champions League over the last week or so. Chelsea were the pick, with a draw against Galatasaray.

There is no hiding that United’s performance and result in Greece were a long way from what David expected. The Champions League is United’s last chance of success this season — and they know they’re up against it following their 2-0 defeat.

This has been a tough learning curve for David and he will be assessing how he attacks the job in the future. He knows he must re-establish United to where they need to be.

Everyone knew it would be difficult for the man who replaced Sir Alex Ferguson but I don’t think David would have thought it was going to be this much of a challenge.

I hope that, in the end, he will become as successful as his predecessor. There was a transition when Sir Alex went to United but in the modern day game, David knows he will not be accorded the same sort of time as back then. These days, you have to work as quickly as you can.

I would say he has found out an awful lot about his squad of players over the past few months. He will have seen them from the outside but you don’t really get to know players until you work with them regularly.

Come the end of the season, he will have to make some tough decisions about a number of players, decisions we, as managers, all have to make.

Robin van Persie’s comments on Dutch TV that other United players are taking his space have added fuel to the fire but to suggest, as some have, that the striker is criticising his manager’s tactics is stretching things way too far.

The way I read those quotes was that some of Van Persie’s team-mates are not playing to their potential, rather than tactical mistakes by the manager.

These days, when a manager is having a bad time, almost every word is examined and often misconstrued to pile on more pressure.

That’s why, as I pointed out at a London Press Club Q&A earlier this week, it is very difficult to answer questions openly any more. It pays, these days, to be constantly on your guard.

With regard to United, it is undeniable that most of the players who did so well last season, are not performing anywhere near as effectively this year.

I expected their squad to be more self-motivated. Whenever I spoke to Sir Alex, especially in more recent times, he said the early days of the hairdryer were rarely needed — the history and achievements of one of the best clubs in the world demanded that players were always 100 per cent motivated.

Part of the problem could be the transitional period in which the club are in. Three of the back four, Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic and Patrice Evra, could all be moving on soon and because they are all still top players, they will probably already have a good idea of where they will be going.

Here at West Ham it’s slightly different. We have players such as George McCartney, Matt Taylor, Jack Collison and Joe Cole who are busting a gut to do well when they have an opportunity because they are fighting for new contracts.

David is left with having to make more decisions about players at the end of the season than he expected. It looks like he will have to plan a rebuild and for a club like United, that could mean an outlay of £200million.

As a manager, it is almost expected that your first rebuild is when you come into a club unless you inherit, ironically, as good a squad as Roberto Martinez has at Everton. Then it’s about reaffirming your position and doing as well as the manager you have succeeded.

The hard bit, even if you are United, is finding the players. They didn’t do that last summer and that’s probably one of things David now regrets.

He may have thought it was a big, strong squad — one which had just run away with the Premier League title — and that it just needed some tinkering.

Finals can be a costly bonus, the priority is staying up

Gus Poyet’s Sunderland face Manchester City in the Capital One Cup Final on Sunday — and I wish him well.

Recently he said that, given the choice, he would rather keep Sunderland in the Premier League and, believe me, that sentiment would be echoed by every manager.

It is the club owners who, quite rightly, make decisions about priorities. It is the task of the manager to then attempt to fulfil that policy.

David Gold and David Sullivan would surely have said to Alex McLeish, when they were at Birmingham and winning the Carling Cup: “Please keep us up.”

People keep pointing the finger at the managers but it is in every Premier League club’s business plan to stay up.

If cup success comes along, then fine. We said at the start of the season that we wanted to finish as high as we could in the Premier League and have a good cup run.

Well, we’re 10th in the Premier League now with 11 matches to go and we reached the semi-final of the Capital One Cup, even though we shipped six goals in the first leg of the semi-final to a Manchester City side that were scoring for fun at that time.

We, as managers, ask the owners: “Where do you want to go? What do you want to do? How quickly do you want to get there?” Once you have the answers, you then provide them with an opportunity and a way to get there.

Reaching a cup final is a bonus but it cannot jeopardise your position in the top league.

When we reached a final at Bolton my chairman, Phil Gartside, pointed out to me that there were financial implications if we qualified for Europe, in terms of the cost of new players and bonus payments.

As a manager, my focus was winning the final, then growing the squad to do well in Europe — and I wanted him to give allocate funds so I could do that.

It was a horrible thing to hear but I could half‑understand why he said it.

Taylor made for the Premier League

Matt Taylor ran 1,962m at high intensity against Southampton last weekend and totalled 13.62km over 90 minutes — more than anyone else. He epitomises the application and the determination which all our players have demonstrated in recent weeks.

An Andy problem to have…

I have a team selection problem for Everton tomorrow — and I’m loving it. Andy Carroll’s back following his unjustified ban but does he go straight back in? Winston Reid’s fit again but will he have to wait? It’s a great problem for me and one I’ve not had for most of this season.