As there are lots of posts that just say Hughes out that decend into a slanging match and abuse, im going to put down some serious concerns that i have. Then those who want him to stay can do the same and hopefully well meet amicably in the middle.
Firstly - why Mark Hughes in the first place. We played Blackburn a lot of times while he was in charge, and i never once came away thinking to myself, you know what, they played some good stuff today. If we get beat by a team who outplayed us, i down leave games feeling frustrated or angry, i think fair does they were a good side. Coming away from Ewood Park over the years i was always thinking, my god theyre shite, how havnt we beaten them!
He got them into Europe, well fair play, but that was the season Bolton finished 6th which tells you what you need to know about the quality of the prem that year and they didnt get past the qualifying round. He got them to two FA cup semi-finals, Neil Warnock got to two semi's in the same time... do you want him???
Next the team, people say that the 2nd half of last season was a disaster. I will point out (again) that the demise last season was due to two things, one a lack of pre season, ask any pro and they will tell you that if you dont have a proper pre-season you fitness suffers down the line. And it was true, we simply ran out of steam. Second wad injury, in March our back 4 was Williamson, Dunne, Ball, Elano and in Arpil and May we had the luxury of Sun Jihai to play there as well. No wonder we let a few in!! The Boro fiasco was a tools down protest in my view, i was there and as humiliated as the next man but the way we conducted our business at board room level had filtered down.
So Hughes took over a pretty good team in my view, we played good fast flowing football and we had a system that suited our players. To date he has spent £116mil and lets be honest, weve gone a long way backwards.
There isnt an ounce of team spirit, no togetherness ro willing to fight for the ball, this comes directly back to man management. A lot of games this season have seen us go down without a fight, the only game we have shown it in was the Wigan game, other than that its been non existant.
We have totally lost all our attacking flair, the movement is gone from the midfield and there is no coherent team play. Our goals in recent games have come from moments of individual skill, and not from dynamic team play. We have a good base of players, some of the signings have been good, but that is only i feel a futher endightment of his tactics and awareness. The playing staff is there, the ability is there, the tactics and the system is what is lacking.
Our play in 2009 has been awful, the defeats to Forrest, Stoke and then today were abysmal, the victories came against two very very poor teams. Only Given kept us from loosing the boro game!!
Tactically we have been poor all season, a few examples...
v Liverpool - bringing Gelson on at right back. When we could of moved Micah to RB and Kompany the CB, we could of even brought on Ben Haim at DC and moved Micah. For 35mins he then watched as Benayoun tore Gelson to shreds and created 2/3 goals.
v United - Fergie picks Park at right mid to nullify RObinho, Park offered nothing going forward all game. He should of moved RObbie inside to find him some space. SWP played in the middle and Ireland on the right, United best player on the day was Evra, he was able to roam up and down the line knowing he was always going to beat Ireland back for pace. SWP on the right would of held Evra back.
v Newcastle (away) - playing with 2 DM against 10 men for 74 mins, before ifnally bringing Caceido on for Hamman in a game that was screaming out for Elano
v Newcastle (home) - 2nd half they pushed right right onto our back four, forcing us to play long balls that we were never going to win, instead of dropping the midfield deeper to give the defence someone to pass short too we did nothing. Our 2nd goal evertually came on the counter.
v Brighton and Forrest - oh dear me
I could go on but this is becoming to long for people to bother reading. I could mention Jo and using him properly upfront, Jo played 13 games for us, we won 7 drew 3 and lost 3. 2/3 lossed were v Liverpool and Chelsea. His height and ability to hold up the ball as he did so easily fgor Everton last week is what were lacking. Our only outlet at the mo is when Bellamy runs into wide areas but then we have nothing in the middle!! Neither De Jong nor Zabaleta are coming short to pick up the ball and carry it forwad for any of Ireland, Robinho, Elano, SWP etc to get into the game.
My mate once bought a house that had big cracks in the walls, he spent a lot of money decorating the place, new wallpaper, furniture, TV, carpets. It looked brilliant. A year later that house fell down and he lost everything.
