David Moyes has reportedly held crisis talks in hopes of potentially helping his status with Manchester United.
The manager's situation has seemingly gone from bad to worse every single week. His team, despite being filled with players that won the Premier League title under Sir Alex Ferguson last season, has found new ways to reach a newer low and it is becoming increasingly clear that the first-year coach is not suited for the side.
According to Goal.com, Moyes and his back room team sat down with some senior players that were "understood to have been mocking his perilous situation." It cannot get worse when your own players are essentially asking for your head after a season full of failures.
United is coming off an embarrassing 3-0 loss at home against Liverpool in a game that was the epitome of the old cliché "boys against men." Brendan Rodgers' side was disciplined and filled with creativity. The side managed to create three penalties, two of which were scored by Captain Steven Gerrard. Luis Suarez added the third goal of the match to add more pain to the wound. Moyes' side looked lost throughout the game without any sense of structure in the midfield.
The loss put the team 14 points behind Manchester City for the fourth spot in the Premier League; City has two games in hand. What this means is that United is likely to qualify for the Champions League in 2014-15 unless it manages to emerge as the Champion in 2013-14. And in a season that is essentially lost, a UCL run is the only thing worth playing for.
But even those hopes of making a deep run in the tournament are in enormous peril. The team hosts Olympiacos on Wednesday but is trailing 2-0 on the aggregate. Manchester would need to win 3-0 or 4-1 to avoid elimination, a lofty goal considering the team's play.
Moyes' decisions behind the bench have been repeatedly questioned not only by the media, but also by his own players. Robin Van Persie recently complained that he was frustrated with the lack of space up top.
"Our fellow players are sometimes occupying the spaces I want to play in. And when I see that it makes it difficult for me to come to those spaces as well," he said, according to The Guardian. "So that forces me to adjust my runs, based on the position of my fellow players. And unfortunately, they're often playing in my zones. I think that's a shame."
There can be no doubt that such a statement is an indictment of the system and the team lack of comprehension or respect for it.
Moyes' two big acquisitions, Marouane Fellaini and Juan Mata, have been unqualified busts thus far. Fellaini has been injured for most of the year and has proven largely ineffective when he has played. Mata has been forced out onto the wing where he is clearly uncomfortable. It has become common to see the Spaniard drift to the middle throughout matches.
Should Moyes' be fired? He isn't likely to have a job much longer if this team is eliminated on Wednesday. The question will then likely shift to: will he be fired right away or will the team's executives spare him until the summer?