Yokohama F-Marinos 3 Manchester United 2.  The result of a friendly played in Japan recently, whose final score-line was, in essence, irrelevant.  Nevertheless, the unique position in which David Moyes finds himself ensures that the new Old Trafford boss will be judged at every turn.

That microscopic scrutiny was exerted from the minute his team kicked-off their first pre-season fixture in Bangkok on July 13^th, against a collection of Thai players representing a cobbled together ‘Singha All Stars XI’.

A 1-0 defeat at such an embryonic stage of United’s preparations merited no concern, but did attract worldwide attention.  Long gone are the days when the country’s football sides could quietly go about their summer business, with reporting of friendly matches spreading to no more than a couple of paragraphs in the local paper, and the result hidden away inside the back pages.

Now, these games are beamed around the world and, in the case of the very elite who travel far and wide to promote their brand, take place in modern, packed arenas.

There is no opportunity for Moyes to slip stealthily into the office now vacated by one of football’s greatest managers.  Sir Alex Ferguson’s unparalleled success is, of course, the predominant influence in ramping up the scale of the task which lies ahead for the 50 year-old.

His new group of supporters are drunk on success, and they are in no hurry to deal with any hangover quite yet.  The first hint at a drop in United’s stratospheric standards, therefore, will be latched upon as evidence that the man, whose Division Two title won with Preston North End in 2000 is the only tangible achievement to his name during a fifteen-and-a-half year managerial career, is not fit to hold the pre-eminent job in English football.

Moyes will have been relieved to see his side rout an A-League All Stars team 5-1 in Sydney seven days after the Thai defeat.  Equally, although not ‘devastated’ as one tabloid proclaimed, the Scot was notably perturbed by United’s defending in Yokohama 72 hours on, and declared himself to be ‘disappointed with the goals we conceded’.

The mitigating circumstances for the Red Devils’ defeat in Japan are numerous.  The club’s extensive tour of Asia and Australia is necessitating regular travel across thousands of miles at a time.  United’s players are in the midst of their heavier pre-season leg-work, while their most recent opponents are immersed in a J-League campaign.  Additionally, Moyes is some way short of being able to name anything resembling what will be his first choice X1.

Such factors will only offer a caveat for a limited period.  In reduced surroundings, even those of Moyes’ previous home at Everton, any agitation or excessive reaction to a barren pre-season is restricted to that particular club’s fan-base.  At Manchester United, every result, every below-par performance – be that collective or individual – ignites television, radio, internet, and newspaper, analysis and debate.

Supporters at Goodison Park detected a thin-skin on their erstwhile manager when he perceived criticism thrust in his direction to be unjust.  The Scot positively bristled at the merest indication of any outward dissent concerning the Toffees style of play, or an inability to get across the line when the stakes were at their highest.

For more than a minority of Evertonians their side’s 2-1 surrender to Liverpool in an April 2012 F.A. Cup semi-final was the final straw.  For those who held that strident view, the meek derby performance was the continuation of a theme whereby Moyes’ negative instincts put the handbrake on his team just as they were set to make good on their definite promise.

It is an admittedly harsh take on Moyes’ body of work on Merseyside.  After arriving from Preston in March 2002, the rookie boss steadily went about transforming Everton from a stricken giant, into a regular top-eight presence – with European qualification once more on the Goodison agenda.  Moreover, he restored the pride to a club whose fans were long wearied by mediocrity which, on occasion, had slipped into rank hopelessness.

United followers however, apply wholly different parameters when passing judgment.  When Moyes’ Everton saw their hard won Champions League entry scuppered at the first stage by Villarreal in 2005, choked in the 2009 F.A. Cup final against Chelsea, or turned in an incongruously limp home display to lose 3-0 to Wigan Athletic in last term’s F.A. Cup quarter-final, the blow could be absorbed and, in time, shaken off.  Moyes, although not completely exempt from any censure, had enough credit in the bank to receive a hasty pardon from a significant portion of his club’s support.

Likewise, when during his latter years at Old Trafford, Ferguson’s Manchester United were bundled out of the Champions League by Real Madrid, lost a League title in the season’s final minutes, or were thumped 4-1 on their own ground by Liverpool, the boss had leeway, and then some, with his adoring flock.

It is the fans’ faith in Ferguson that might just buy Moyes precious extra time to earn acceptance at United – something which will be vital if he doesn’t get off to a lightning start. As he made a valedictory address to a chock-a-block Old Trafford, following his concluding home game as manager, Ferguson forcefully informed  his rapt audience that;

‘Your job now is to stand by our new manager’.

Ferguson’s patent sureness that Moyes was the only candidate to be his successor is afforded added weight by his own role in the new man’s recruitment – although how the approach for the then Everton manager hasn’t spiked the interest of the governing F.A. is a mystery.

Moyes revealed that he was summoned to Sir Alex’s house for a meeting – a get together which Moyes travelled to in the expectancy that Ferguson would say;

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