Expectations can be a tricky thing to handle for managers. At the start of the season, David Moyes attempted to temper expectations on his club saying it wasn’t going to be easy to stay up. Tony Pulis meanwhile has to deal with his reputation as one of the leagues more pragmatic and defensive coaches. As the new year approaches, it’s worth noting that neither manager is living up to those particular expectations, and that’s not a bad thing.
To start off, Moyes came in to manage Sunderland with a reputation that has been utterly tarnished. Disastrous stints at Manchester United and Real Sociedad undid about a decade of terrific work he did at Everton. The Scot took over for Sam Allardyce to help save Sunderland but the mood among Sunderland supports was pretty bleak.
To be fair, things looked pretty bad for Moyes at the start of the season. In fact, the Black Cats didn’t pick up a Premier League win until November. Moyes’ admission that Sunderland would struggle didn’t make calls for his job any quieter. The expectation for Sunderland was they would be relegated, but a series of losses that saw last minute goals against made that idea harder to stomach.
Recently, however, things have been going well for Moyes and Sunderland. His side is winning matches. Beating Bournemouth at the start of November seems to have gotten the monkey off the backs of the players. They’ve subsequently gone on to win against Hull City and Leicester City. Sunderland is still down in the bottom three, but they’ve done well to gain a bit of steam heading into December, winning three of their last four. It’s a small sample size, but considering relegation seemed a foregone conclusion a month ago, this is progress. Moyes’ job at Sunderland is as much about staying in the Premier League as it is about reviving his reputation. Expectations will rise if he keeps picking up wins.
[link_box id=”23195″ site_id=”158″ layout=”link-box-third” alignment=”alignright”]About 200 miles southwest of Sunderland is West Bromwich, a small town outside of Birmingham, and home to West Bromwich Albion, a club currently sitting one point behind Manchester United. Managed by Tony Pulis, the Baggies have had a remarkable start to the season. Pulis, who has a reputation of playing a “negative” style has West Brom playing on the front foot these last few weeks. In their last four matches, West Brom has scored more goals than Manchester City (10-6).
Pulis’ reputation as a defensive manager wasn’t given to him by accident. When he managed Stoke the direct and physical style of play was never easy on the eyes. Last year with West Brom, the club only scored more than one goal in a game nine times and played out to a scoreless draw on four occasions. Meanwhile, in their last four games West Brom have scored 10 goals and have the seventh most goals in the Premier League with 20.
Like with Sunderland, this run could be nothing more than a fluke. West Brom’s last four opponents are all teams at the bottom of the table. That said, for a team that hadn’t scored four goals in any competition in 2015-16, they’ve already reached that number twice this year.
Like Moyes, Pulis has been turning expectations around in November, albeit in a different manner. Moyes is doing his best to try to think of Sunderland as something other than cannon fodder for the big clubs. Three wins in four games is a pretty good start, even if those three wins are the only ones this whole season. Pulis is challenging the idea that he’s simply a “park the bus and hope for a lucky break” kind of manager. West Brom Scored 34 goals last year. They’re on pace for about 54 this year.
Moyes and Pulis might not be making an actual effort to change public opinion, they’re simply trying to win games. November was good for both men, whether or not December is as kind remains to be seen. Just expect anything to happen.
