Manchester United manager David Moyes doing his best to step out of Sir Alex Ferguson's shadow at Old Trafford Moyes has been playing to the gallery to a certain extent, but that has been a smart move. Managing Manchester United requires a strong character and a readiness to lead from the front, in every aspect of the game, and he has quickly grasped the need to add new elements to the more understated persona he projected as Everton manager. His early moves to take his Everton backroom staff to United, displacing Ferguson's long-serving coaches Mike Phelan, Rene Meulensteen and Eric Steele, hinted at a risky strategy which could alienate players who had won titles and European Cups with those lieutenants. But Moyes's more recent decision to promote Ryan Giggs to the coaching team has ensured a link to the dressing-room and the winning mentality of the previous regime and the manager has also already credited the 39-year-old with key pointers in terms of current players and potential targets. A hands-on, all-controlling leader at Everton, Moyes has softened his approach at United, admitting to canvassing the advice and opinion of Giggs and senior players such as Rio Ferdinand, Michael Carrick and Nemanja Vidic. During the club's pre-season tour of the Far East and Australia, the communication between Moyes and his experienced players - Ferdinand, in particular - was evident throughout training sessions and games. It is as though Moyes has chosen to adopt a collective approach to guide him through early days at Old Trafford, particularly those days and weeks when the demands of the club remain an unknown quantity. During the three-week summer tour, Moyes candidly admitted that it was "not ideal" to prepare for the new campaign half the world away, particularly with deals needing to be done and the Wayne Rooney saga providing an unwelcome distraction back in Manchester. As a manager whose strength is working on the training pitch, searching for suitable facilities in Sydney and altering fitness work to avoid the effects of jet lag would have been an irritation. Moyes's biggest victory so far, however, has been to win the respect of a squad built by Ferguson. There is talk within the camp of the players being energised by the new manager, with Moyes himself admitting to being taken aback by the readiness of the squad to meet all the demands placed upon them, even the tough double sessions in Sydney and Japan. Throughout the weeks building up to the season, though, there was a sense of Moyes wanting the phoney war to end and for the real business to begin. That will come soon enough and it will be when the job will really take hold.