I will get it right at United, says David Moyes

David Moyes: Difficult start. Picture: Getty

Moyes has endured another roller-coaster week, plunging from the high of that five-goal hammering of Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League to a first home defeat by Everton in 21 years, with a battling draw at Tottenham in between. It means that instead of basking in qualification for the knockout stage of Europe’s elite club competition with one match to spare, Moyes has been put through the emotional wringer once more, with social media sites buzzing with theories about what the new man is doing wrong.

Caught in the teeth of the storm, Moyes is ploughing on through, even if it is painful viewing at times, with his side ninth in the table, 12 points adrift of leaders Arsenal. Eventually, the Scot is adamant he will turn the situation around.

“When people go into new jobs it can take a little bit of time to settle in,” he said. “We have got ourselves into a position that is a bit further away in the league than we would like.

“We had a difficult start, then we had a couple of slip-ups. We would have expected to kick into gear by now and we haven’t. We have to do better. But we will get it right. I am sure of that.

“I have lost plenty of football matches. I was at Everton for 11 years. I was at Preston before that. I lost lots of games and had difficult times. We have lost one in 13. If someone had been told before those 13 games we would lose one out of the next 13 the response might have been that is really good. Obviously, when you get to that point, you don’t say that.”

Moyes accepts he has been frustrated by the inconsistency of his side. Failure to take chances is an obvious cause, which merely heightens the problems created by Wayne Rooney’s absence for today’s visit of Newcastle through suspension, coupled with the on-going injury concern surrounding Robin van Persie.

Moyes has refused to say when Van Persie will be fit following toe and groin complaints that have kept him on the sidelines since scoring the winner against his former club at the beginning of last month.

The return of Michael Carrick from an Achilles injury cannot come quickly enough, whilst it will be interesting to see when Moyes elects to ease Darren Fletcher back into the first-time picture after the Scot completed the second full 90 minutes of his comeback from a chronic bowel problem earlier this week.