David Moyes Less Tactical Than Roberto Martinez, Claims Ross Barkley

Everton and England starlet Ross Barkley has called David Moyes' football nous into question, claiming that new Toffees manager Roberto Martinez is more tactical than his predecessor.

In an interview with Match of the Day magazine via Joe Ridge of the Daily Mail, the 20-year-old noted:

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He’s [Martinez] similar to David Moyes as they both like to take over the training session and be the main man.

But Martinez is more tactical. We do a lot more tactical work which is good for me because I’m young and still learning.

"

Barkley's comments throw fresh light on how Moyes goes about his daily routine, and perhaps gives a small insight into why the manager finds himself under fire presently.

The Red Devils have to win all of their final nine Premier League games to avoid their lowest points total for the last 21 years, in itself a damning indictment on Moyes' first season at Old Trafford.

Everton academy coach Kevin Sheedy had already gone public on Twitter earlier in the week over the Scots' lack of desire to work with the youth teams (h/t Nick Lustig of the Daily Star), and it seems Barkley is the latest in an ever-growing line willing to take potshots at his ex-manager.

More galling perhaps for Moyes is having to look upward in the table to find his old side.

Although only one place and three points separate Manchester United from Everton, the latter have a game in hand and are patently playing the better football.

Martinez's confidence appears to have radiated onto his players, whose expansive brand of football this campaign has won them many admirers.

The Toffees' young and vibrant side look to be really going places despite some patchy recent form, per WhoScored.com.

Moyes, by contrast, seems to hobble from one crisis to the next. Louise Taylor of The Guardian gives us some insight into what the problem might be: 

"

While Moyes's United, like his Everton, have at times played some pleasing enough football, the mish-mash of different systems and styles Sir Alex Ferguson's successor has experimented with suggest a pragmatist too busy fire-fighting and attempting to achieve reasonable short-term results to properly address the need for a defined ethos.

The result is that no one really knows what United currently stand for. True Moyes lacks, among others, strikers of the calibre of Luis Suárez and Daniel Sturridge but would he really have re-invented Jordan Henderson as successfully as Rodgers?

"

The whole mood around Old Trafford is one of despair rather than delight, and this latest broadside from one of England's brightest prospects will do little to enhance his credibility.