David Moyes Makes A Quiet Debut In Spain

Former Manchester United manager David Moyes made his debut in Spain yesterday as his new club, Real Sociedad, traveled to Deportivo La Coruna for the late match on the Saturday La Liga schedule.

His Spanish debut didn’t start with a “bang”, in fact, he was almost late for his first match with the club because his team’s plane had to be re-routed to Santiago De Compostela due to bad weather. But Moyes and his players were able to arrive on time in A Coruna and would play out a 0-0 draw.

There were some talking points in the match. But overall the night was trumped by the news of Lionel Messi breaking the all-time La Liga’s goalscoring record just a few minutes before kick-off in A Coruna, as well as both Madrid clubs’ winning earlier in the day.

While there were some press on hand, it was a far cry from the media storm that surrounded the Scottish manager’s arrival a few days ago. As some in the media noted, the coverage of this match is an early lesson for the Scotsman that whatever you do, everyone will still be focused on what is happening in Barcelona and Madrid.

Welcome to La Liga, Mr. Moyes.

The manager’s debut was completely ‘muted’. Moyes made some waves in his team selection, largely due to an injury crisis in Real’s defense. He was forced to replace first-choice central defenders Inigo Martinez and Mikel Gonzalez with the centre-back pairing of Ion Ansotegi and Gorka Elustondo.

He also elected to start Sergio Canales, the under-performing midfielder who joined Sociedad after stints in Real Madrid and Valenica. Canales is one of those players who has the talent, but has failed to consistently perform when the light come on.

Moyes last change to Real’s lineup was electing to start right-back Carlos Martinez, who had previously been benched by former manager Jagoba Arrasate. The popular 28-year-old defender would make only his third start of the season.

Real lined up 4-4-2 and started off strong. They were on top of Deportivo and created a handful of chances, with Carlos Vela looking the most likely to score (and will be Moyes biggest threat going forward this season). But Moyes eventually switched to a 4-5-1 formation later in the match when his team tired and Deportivo began pushing for the win.

Overall, the match itself was a typical bottom-half of the table league fixture which could have gone either way.

There was a talking point in the match when after thirty minutes Deportivo assistant coach Roberto Cabellud yelled at Moyes and approached the Scot on the touchline. At the time there was confusion as to why the coach was visibly upset with the new manager. But it was later learned that Cabellud felt that Moyes had stepped on the pitch while Real Sociedad’s Carlos Vela was making a run towards goal.

Regardless of the reasoning behind the flare-up, Moyes reacted calmly to the strange situation by telling the coach to ‘calm down’ by slowly waving his hands, and the official sent off the irritated coach.

The overall verdict of Moyes first match in charge of Real Sociedad is that the squad is still a “work in progress”. The manager only took over training a few days ago and it will take some time for him to get his theories across (sound familar United fans).

Joking aside, there was a gameplan and the players were committed to executing it – which wasn’t always while Arrasate was in charge. What let the team down was their overall fitness levels. Something Moyes has been working on while overseeing double training sessions during the week leading up to the match. But the team fought through fatigue and a motivated home-side to leave the contest with a point.

“It was a great experience and I’m excited to debut in the league,” Moyes said after the match. “It’s true I don’t know the players that well but I’m happy to be here and gradually we will improve.”

“The first half was good and we were far superior. The second half was a little disappointing and Deportivo were better.”

“I wanted to win and I’m not happy with the draw because we worked hard, but in the end we can say that it is a fair point.”

Real Sociedad are currently fourteenth in La Liga, although they are only one point off the drop zone. Their next match will be this coming Friday at home to Elche, who are currently in Spain’s bottom three with a match in hand.