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23 Sport maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 15 JANUARY 2014 OPINION Pointing fingers Giggs, Paul Scholes and Phil Neville. In walks David Moyes, down falls van Persie, out for six weeks and further reports of another injury setback are creeping through. David Moyes admitted that he had over trained the Dutchman and as a result his old injuries re surfaced. In his first week as manager Moyes sacked Sir Alex's trustees and Mike Phelan and Rene Muelenstein were asked the leave the club. This move was bold, but had to be done to give the manager his own time and space to steer the ship. What Moyes did lack however was the inside knowledge on most of the players and as a result injuries to van Persie have occurred. On top of that there are further rumours that David Moyes took training one step further and change the whole system at Carrington, meaning that all the squad members had to re adjust their winning formulas despite having been there for several years. A direct result of that would be the severe lack of form displayed on the pitch as even though you can blame a player for having a bad game or two, a bad run of form in my eyes shows a lack of good training practice. From my experience as a coach training is where it all happens. Each ingredient can in- Mark Strijbosch NOW that Manchester United have at last recorded their first win in 2014 the obvious thing for the British media to do is to spread rumours about a rift at the club. I guess when the chips are down thats the logical thing to do and the media love to kick people when they are down. Reports of a rift had surfaced in October, following Robin van Persie's injury. The injury prone ex Arsenal forward was known to have spent more time on the sidelines than playing at the Emirates and the most frustrating element of his departure was that at Old Trafford last season he seemed to be bullet proof. When Sir Alex Ferguson signed him he ran an equal risk of losing his star man through injury as Wenger did, however things at Carrington were different. Van Persie developed his own training regime and often ran different sessions than his team mates. At his age this helped prolong his career and I imagine that creative freedom on the training grounds is what helped the likes of Ryan vious, bark on about how the club has lost its spark and the die hard attitude of the players followed Ferguson through the exit doors. This can be true but I can not for the life of me imagine why David Moyes wouldn't posses a fighting spirit. Interviewing Everton fans many of them agreed that Moysey was indeed too defensive at his former club and often tried to defend slim margins rather than kill games off. United certainly have been on the wrong side of late goals so far this campaign so the Evertonian insight might prove something. CR7 David Moyes teract and the chemistry is developed in the kitchen, and not on the hot plate ready for serving. Now it is easy to point fingers at David Moyes for doing that however I do feel that those alterations needed to happen due to the fact that the man has every right to establish his rule at Old Trafford. My only hope is that he hasn't tampered with the recipe too much for obvious reasons. Pointing fingers is very easy, es- pecially when you are simply looking from the outside in. David Moyes must shoulder some of the blame however I also have to point my fingers towards the under achievers on the pitch. Defensively United have looked notoriously open, which is not characteristic of the club. Many feel that the likes of Johnny Evans is not up to scratch, or that perhaps Rio Ferdinand is indeed past his best. Others, perhaps stating the ob- Its about time lad! I for one have to say it is about time Ronaldo's raw athletic talent got recognised as he celebrates winning the Ballon D'or over league rival Leo Messi. The four time winner had to pave way for Ronaldo to scoop his award after he netted no less than 69 goals in 59 matches for both club and country. France winger Frank Ribery made the podium in what I can see a one of the best podiums we will see in a long time. There was also time to celebrate the achievements of Pele who won the inaugural Ballon D'Or Prix d'Honneur, while even Zlatan Ibrahimovic was honoured for his ridiculous 40- yard bicycle kick over over Hart which won goal of the year. Pursuits Across 1. Beginning (4-3) 4. Chats (7) 8. Those who study heavenly bodies (11) 12. Pained expression (4) 13. Not difficult (4) 14. Indian tent (5) 15. The communication system of the body (6) 17. Male servant (5) 22. Mines (4) 23. Repasts (5) 24. Team (4) 25. Debris (5) 28. Seat for two or more persons (6) 30. Long stories (5) 32. Very small (4) 34. Group of three persons (4) 35. Witches (11) 38. Italian dish (7) 39. Study of rocks (7) Sudoku Sudoku rules are extremely easy: Fill all empty squares so that the numbers 1 to 9 appear once in each row, column and 9x9 box. Answers to the MaltaToday crossword will be published next Wednesday Last week's solution Chess Today's Weather 8 8 WEATHER Cloudy with showers locally thundery at times, becoming partly to rather cloudy with isolated showers. VISIBILITY: Good except in some showers WIND: 7 West to Northwest force 3 to 4 locally force 4 to 5 at times. SEA: Slight becoming moderate. SWELL: Negligible. 6 7 5 6 4 3 5 2 1 4 A 3 2 1 A B C D E F G H White to play and mate in four moves B Qc4+ Qc8+ Qe8+ Re6# games C D E F Kf8 (or Qe6) Kf7 Kf6 G H PARTLY CLOUDY 15ºC / 10ºC UV INDEX: 2 SEA TEMP: 17 °C Down 1. Yellowish citrus fruit (5) 2. Kitchen utensil (4) 3. At a great distance (3) 5. Upper limb (3) 6. Cushion round a wheel (4) 7. Chinese revolutionary leader (3,7) 8. 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