Moyes sets the tone

The caution of the Man Utd manager permeates this under-achieving team, writes Adam Bate.

After witnessing Manchester United's woeful display in Athens on Tuesday night, curiously, it was the recent comments of former player Tim Howard in praising Everton manager Roberto Martinez that sprang to mind. Evidently, the experienced goalkeeper has been inspired by the positive attitude of David Moyes' successor at Goodison Park. "No matter what game we go into," said Howard, "the focus has not at any point this season been on the other team - it has always been about us. You have to do this 40 weeks of the year, it is nice not to come into work every day thinking 'Oh, that's looming ahead'. The manager keeps us bright and bubbly and focused on ourselves. Not always having to look over your shoulder at who is coming next is good. We work on ourselves and it's a difference." It certainly seemed very different to the United team that walked out to face Olympiakos in the first leg of their last 16 clash in the Champions League. The game was Moyes' first in the knockout stages of the competition and there were clues to his outlook in the pre-match interview. Fans of Moyes bingo were in business. Tough place to come. Check. Be compact. Check. Be hard to play against. Check. There was even a warning to watch out for the Greek side's adventurous free-kicks. Clearly the United boss had done his homework but the focus felt negative. The plan seemed to be to play with little tempo in the hope of keeping the vociferous home support quiet. This was about stopping Olympiakos and nicking the away goal. Get it right and it's called a professional European performance. Get it wrong and it can be interpreted as more of the same from a Moyes - an overly-cautious approach from an inexplicably cautious manager.

Context

A little context: This is not a good Olympiakos team. It's 15 years since the club from the Piraeus reached the quarter finals of the Champions League and this vintage is far from their best. It's not even as good as last month's version with Kostas Mitroglou, the prize asset who was sold to Premier League bottom club Fulham. Even last week's incarnation with a fit Javier Saviola can be considered superior. Accepted wisdom was that they were the weakest side left in the draw. Indeed, when Borussia Dortmund scored two early goals in St Petersburg earlier in the evening, the aggregate tally stood at 11-0 in favour of the seeded teams among the last 16 despite the underdogs enjoying home advantage each time. Trust United to bust the narrative. And against a side they'd beaten in their previous four encounters. Praise the Greeks, but do not doubt United were the architects of their own demise. Their work was sterile and without purpose. With Juan Mata cup-tied and Adnan Januzaj omitted from the squad, it was left to Antonio Valencia and Ashley Young to provide their particular brand of one-dimensional invention from wide. In truth, conspicuously under instruction, they operated narrower than usual. But for the ploy to succeed in an attacking sense, it required nominal full-back Chris Smalling to get forward with gusto - a role in which he's seldom appeared comfortable. As a result, with Michael Carrick and Tom Cleverley sitting deep and offering neither protection nor penetration, getting star striker Robin van Persie into the game proved something of a chore. The Dutchman had just 12 touches in the first half - fewer than any player on the pitch -