“Stuck with Moyes,” thousands of Everton fans chanted at their Manchester United counterparts, taunting their former manager and the supporters who had come to realise that the Scot would not succeed as Alex Ferguson’s successor.
It was April 2014, and Everton’s 2-0 defeat of United brought David Moyes’ ill-fated nine-month spell in charge of the champions to an end.
United ended the season in seventh — their lowest final placing for 24 years — while Everton, whose attractive brand of football won manager Roberto Martinez many admirers around Goodison Park, just missed out on a Uefa Champions League spot by finishing fifth.
Louis van Gaal took over at Old Trafford ahead of the 2014/15 season, with United followers confident that they now had a man at the helm who was cut out for a managerial job at one of the biggest clubs in the world.
Neither Everton nor United supporters seemed to miss Moyes, then, but ahead of the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley on Saturday, they are no longer so enamoured with their clubs’ current coaches either. Not only have both sides underachieved this season, their managers have attracted criticism for their stubborn reluctance to adapt their overriding football philosophies.
Van Gaal just about met expectations in his debut campaign by guiding United back into the Champions League, but the team has regressed this year and finds itself outside the top four with four Premier League matches remaining.
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The style of football has drawn many complaints, with Van Gaal’s team routinely dominating possession but struggling for goals: only Arsenal and Manchester City have averaged a higher share of the ball, but United are only the 10th most prolific shooters and the 10th highest scorers.
While the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich manager has been praised for promoting youngsters, his unwillingness to countenance even a slight alteration in approach over a sustained period of time has not gone down well.
“He has been himself from Day 1 that we met him to how he is now,” Chris Smalling said in December. “He is not going to change and that is why he has had a lot of success throughout the years. I can’t ever see him changing because he’s got a track record.”
Many followers of the Premier League would find Martinez’s Everton more entertaining to watch than Van Gaal’s United, but the Spaniard has also been guilty of sticking too rigidly to his principles.
Although Martinez’s commitment to attacking football was previously admirable, the extent to which he has pursued that end this season has had a profound effect on Everton’s performance.
A squad that contains plenty of talent looks set to finish in the bottom half of the table for a second successive season, with Everton largely undone by problems at the back and a failure to display any sort of pragmatic edge.
Sadio Mane’s equaliser in last Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Southampton took Everton’s tally of dropped points from winning positions to 18, the worst record in the Premier League, while Wednesday’s 4-0 thrashing by Liverpool was the lowest ebb yet.
“My philosophy and my way of working is not to keep clean sheets,” he said in January, dismissing suggestions he might seek to tighten up defensively to make his team better equipped to grind out results.
Given United and Everton’s disappointing league campaigns, Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final could define the futures of both Van Gaal and Martinez, two managers who have, on the whole, failed to deliver on their early promise.
Whichever team triumphs in the first last-four tie of the weekend will be favourites to overcome Watford or Crystal Palace in the final, with a piece of silverware perhaps being eyed by both managers as a means of placating the critics.
One thing is for sure, though: if either Van Gaal or Martinez leads his side to the FA Cup next month, he will have done it his way.
Koeman’s stunning Southampton job
No joke was intended, but those who had followed Southampton’s transfer activity ahead of the 2014/15 season certainly saw the funny side.
“Ready for training,” manager Ronald Koeman tweeted in late July, along with a picture that showed a deserted pitch without a soul in sight. Given that key players Adam Lallana, Rickie Lambert, Luke Shaw, Dejan Lovren and Calum Chambers had been sold before the start of August, it seemed like an apt summation of Southampton’s summer.
There were plenty of predictions that relegation would follow, but Koeman guided his new side to a seventh-place finish, with Southampton fighting for a top-four spot until the final weeks of the season.
They have an excellent chance of replicating that achievement this season, with Southampton just three points behind Liverpool in seventh ahead of their clash with relegated Aston Villa on Saturday.
Whereas Southampton were the division’s biggest surprise package last season, the accomplishments of Leicester City and West Ham United this time around have meant that Koeman’s team have gone under the radar somewhat. That, though, should not detract from what has been another fine campaign for Southampton, one of the best-run clubs in the Premier League.
Koeman has done a terrific job at St Mary’s Park and, given his previous coaching feats and stellar playing career, it is no surprise that he has been linked with a number of big jobs at various points this year.
The Dutchman has 14 months remaining on his contract and has been rather non-committal on his future, but Southampton have shown in the past that they are able to absorb managerial and player changes without falling off course.
While Koeman would be a loss if he chooses to depart this summer, Southampton have the structure in place to continue progressing without him.
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