The above is taken from a thread* on the Liverpool board about numbers in football. Interesting to find Moyes is a numbers man, its not something I recall Fergie being so into. He liked to trust his instinct more often than not and why not, he was justified in doing so. It does mention something about selling Stam due to finding out his number of tackles per game had decreased ( not really true ) but numbers didnt seem to play too much of a part for him. I think it will mean less sentimental appearances for some players and we will see our best side more often under Moyes. What effect this will have isn't something to look forward to and it may lead to more appearances from the likes of Hernandez who in terms of numbers is right up there with the best of them. *http://www.not606.com/showthread.php/215585-From-the-leftfield-stats-and-the-new-Football
Thought the more interesting bit of that thread was about the weakest link tending to decide the league. That's probably where SAF was at his strongest - for all that chat about our squad being 'weak', we generally never had weak links like Nasri, Shevchenko, Squillaci or Traore screwing up our chances. Shows how right we were to focus on having a strong squad overall, rather than following the 'buy the biggest name possible' approach. Fingers crossed Moyes will do the same, and not let the pursuit of superstars undermine the overall balance of our squad.
I've said this approach for years and I have said it many times that it was of the reason Man Utd are so strong each year. Although you don't have a star studded squad to the level of a Chelsea, Man City, Real or Barca etc, you never really have a really weak component and when you have had one, Fergie's not played them. I'm not really into stats but reading the examples in that thread would suggest otherwise since they all go along the way I think of the game
