David Moyes has endured a difficult start to his Manchester United career

One of the reasons people argued that David Moyes wasn’t the right man to replace Sir Alex Ferguson as Manchester United manager was his lack of experience of Champions League football.

He got his first game out of the way a couple of weeks ago and United put in an impressive display to beat Bayer Leverkusen 4-2 at Old Trafford.

It should be noted that Leverkusen are currently third in the Bundesliga, just one point behind Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund.

On the same week, Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea lost to FC Basel at Stamford Bridge, suggesting that a wealth of experience in the competition isn’t the be all and end all.




However, Moyes has been asked about United’s chances of success in the competition this season and his response didn’t follow the usual script for a football manager.

“To win the Champions League, you need five or six world-class players,” Moyes said. “Look at Bayern Munich, they have it. Look at Barcelona, who had it in the past and Real Madrid, who have maybe got it now. That’s the level you have to be at to win it. We’ve not got that yet but what we have got is experience.”

Moyes surely isn’t telling the players anything they aren’t already aware of

As the Champions League is a knock-out competition, it doesn’t necessarily prove which side is the best in Europe, unlike a league, but the best team is usually there or there abouts.

If you look at the winners over recent years, it would be hard to argue against United being the best in 2008, Barcelona in 2009 and 2011 or Bayern Munich in 2013.

But every now and against a side will slip through the net. Take Chelsea in 2012 for example, who were the third best team in London that year, or Liverpool in 2005, who were the second best team on Merseyside. To lift the trophy you don’t necessarily have to be the best, but it obviously helps.

Still, you do have to wonder what impact these comments will have on the morale of the team, with the manager essentially telling them they’re not good enough to win it.

It also sets alarms bell off over what the club were thinking about this summer when it came to investing in the transfer window.

Ed Woodward claimed we had the money to buy any top player we wanted, so if the manager doesn’t believe the current squad is good enough to compete for the Champions League, why didn’t we sign more players?

However, Moyes surely isn’t telling the players anything they aren’t already aware of.

A large proportion of this current squad has won the Champions League before and they’ve got to know that this current team doesn’t match that quality.

Also, it’s fairly refreshing to hear a manager being honest in an interview, rather than reeling out the usual guff.

Had Moyes claimed that we were good enough to win the Champions League, he’d almost certainly be mocked for that as well, seeing as though we all know this group isn’t good enough.



Looks like Moyes can’t win at the moment, on and off the pitch.

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