David Moyes is preparing to venture into the unknown again at Manchester United.


It's been a summer of firsts for the Scot after taking charge of his first game, his first Community Shield, overseeing a first Premier League win and a first defeat.

He left it late, but he even managed to make his first signing.
But when the players return from the international break, he will experience another first.

With games in the Premier League, Champions League and Capital One Cup coming up, Moyes will have to chop and change his side for the first time this season.

It's not something he's used to.

Last season, Everton played 45 games in all competitions while United played 54. Moyes used 25 players last season while Sir Alex Ferguson used 32. Everton played a midweek game eight times while United had doubled that amount with 16.

And that's not including playing two games in three days when they met Sunderland in the league on March 30 and Chelsea in an FA Cup replay on April 1.

Playing once a week so far this season has allowed Moyes to be consistent.

But when United line up against Crystal Palace at Old Trafford on Saturday it will kick off a run of seven games in 22 days.

That includes a Manchester derby with City at the Etihad Stadium, a Capital One Cup date with Liverpool, a first Champions League tie with Bayer Leverkusen and a 4,000-mile round trip to Ukraine to play Shakhtar Donetsk.
That's a heavy load even by United's standards.
Hi-res-179711251_crop_exact Scott Heavey/Getty Images
By way of a contrast, Moyes' former club Everton will play five times in the same period, with a trip to London to play Fulham in the Capital One Cup the most gruelling.

The extra games mean there are chances for the fringe players to impress. Javier Hernandez, Anderson, Chris Smalling, Shinji Kagawa, Nani, Wilfried Zaha, Fabio and Alexander Buttner are all yet to start a game this season.

There is also Marouane Fellaini, signed from Everton for £27.5m last week, to add competition in midfield.
Ferguson used to joke at his press conferences that he'd give a holiday to any reporter who could predict his team. No one ever collected.

He was a master of rotating and springing the odd surprise, keeping his players fresh but never at a cost of losing games. Moyes' first taste of that particular challenge is fast approaching.