Real Sociedad Job Ideal Chance for David Moyes to Relaunch Career
A high-profile managerial casualty in La Liga is never too far away, and the latest boss to lose his job is Real Sociedad's Jagoba Arrasate.
According to Marca, La Real's woeful start to the season means that last season's seventh-placed side are looking for a new head coach, with Pepe Mel, Alejandro Sabella and David Moyes among those listed by the Spanish paper as candidates.
Outside of his comfort zone though it might be, the job at Anoeta would be a great choice for former Everton and Manchester United manager Moyes to take over, giving him an opportunity to re-establish his credentials and find a platform on which to build a successful team once more.
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La Real, 14-15
Real Sociedad have been nothing short of appalling so far: just one win domestically in 10 matches, ridiculously against Real Madrid after having been 2-0 down at one point.
Since then, it has been five defeats in eight games, leaving them 19th in the table above only newly promoted Cordoba by a single point.
The summer sale of Antoine Griezmann brought in funds which were partly spent on Icelandic striker Alfred Finnbogason and midfielder Esteban Granero, but little else. An injury to the former over the summer means he is barely up to speed yet, while Granero's decline is clearly terminal.
He lacks pace, energy and any kind of impact on games at all.
Goalkeeper Claudio Bravo was not replaced by a new signing, rather by second in command Enaut Zubikarai, a good shot-stopper but not a commanding figure. He is prone to errors of judgement.
Elsewhere, last year's stars included Carlos Vela, but the Mexican has been in rotten form this season, barely mustering up a look on his face which implies he wants to try—let alone showing the technique he is capable of.
Moyes' Traits
There are problems aplenty for the incoming manager to work on, but as Moyes showed in his time with Everton, his big strength is giving teams a structure, a way of playing—making them difficult to beat.
Organisation and defensive solidity aren't words which have been associated with Real Sociedad often this season.
They've not kept a single clean sheet during 2014-15 other than a Europa League qualifier against Krasnodar, and although they're not disastrously leaky defensively, they do look weak, disjointed and unprotected at times—especially down the flanks.
A hard worker who expects others to give him the same, Moyes would find himself surrounded by plenty of players at Anoeta whose natural instincts are to put everything into their performances.
David Zurutuza, Xabi Prieto, Imanol Agirretxe and others are all reliable and consistent with their efforts, even if collectively they have been largely unable to procure positive results.
Formation-wise, La Real are 4-2-3-1 to the core over recent seasons. Whether Moyes would opt to change this would perhaps depend on how quickly he was instructed to change things around. Where could he accommodate the technical, creative qualities of Sergio Canales and Vela, or can only one play at a time?
There are problems, but there is a clutch of good players to work with, too. This squad has lost some of its top players, but that doesn't make it ready for the drop straight away.
Inigo Martinez, Carlos Martinez and even Alberto de la Bella give a base for the defence to work with, and Moyes could build from there—especially if some of the roughly €30 million they made over summer was reinvested in January.
Abroad
The last at least reasonably high-profile British coach who moved to Spain to work was probably Chris Coleman, the now-Wales manager who, back in 2007, took over briefly at...Real Sociedad.
It didn't last particularly long, but since then there have been precious few managers from the UK who have tried their luck abroad.
Moyes would have to overcome the language, of course—in the Basque speech quite possibly, at least for day-to-day wellbeing, as well as the Spanish castellano language—while the adaptation to a new league would place unfamiliar demands and stresses on him.
Crucially, though, he would be outside of the Premier League, where intense scrutiny would be on him simply because his last job was at Manchester United.
Every defeat would be proof that his career is over, every win would be a sign that United kicked him too quickly—especially while Louis van Gaal has a worse record.
At Real Sociedad, he would have room to rethink his approach, learn a new way of coaching if he so chose and hone his coaching beliefs with a talented, though vastly underperforming, group of players.
It's a big decision for a British coach to move away from the hype and coverage of the Premier League, but it might be exactly what Moyes needs next to kick-start his coaching career and show that he is still capable of sustaining some kind of success.
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