CALM REFLECTION ON TONIGHT

citoeast

Well-Known Member
Joined
3 Nov 2008
Messages
989
After calm reflection in a dark room with a bottle of wine and a box of Kleenex tissues, here are my thoughts for what they are worth.

It should not be a Hughes in or out divide and slanging match, but serious hard questions must be asked. We now have a team, a squad of new quality players in the main but are we any better than previously?

We raise our game for the top 4 but fail to beat lesser rivals, like we have always done; 'TYPICAL CITY'.

We are leaking like a sieve in defence, seriously worse defensive record than last year, when we were supposed to be bad.
We look disjointed in our play, 11 guys trying their hearts out but as individuals not a team.

Hughes appears TACTICALLY NAIVE, in a big way and has done for most of his 18 months; I like the guy but seriously question whether he or his backroom staff are anywhere near good enough, RSC as a substitute tonight when two down, Petrov left on the bench until too late, even a blind man can see RSC is not good enough currently and is not a guy to bring on to change a game going against you.

Under Hughes good players suddenly look bad players. I see no leadership qualities in him, or his players.

Anyway for me it is not about tonight’s result we are still in the race for a top 4 place. It is about the fact that for me the bubble (of illusion) burst tonight bigtime as tonight just highlighted what has been obvious for ages but been masked by the one defeat argument (8 draws, 1 win, 1 defeat), we are not anywhere near good enough as a team to finish in the top 4 and our return over the last 10 league games is put simply near relegation form.

We will not collect 9 points from our next 3 games which we should which for me will reinforce the fact that we are not going forward, just standing still, which in previous days of few resources would have been fine but given our multitude of resources now is APPALLING FAILURE. We are behind Birmingham in the league and just ahead of Fulham who have the distraction of Europe and very limited resources.

I was prepared to give Hughes this season and next but now I must seriously question the wisdom of letting him have even the January transfer window to waste more money. My greatest fear is we will end up buying BENTLEY a useless twat like RSC at massively inflated transfer money and wages.

I think Khaldoon Al Mubarak needs to spend time like me in a dark room thinking deep thoughts about where we are going and whether or not we are progressing, regressing or worse maybe just standing still.

I do not care if Hughes stays or goes but things need to improve, we need to see progress on the field to match that off the field, no matter who manages the team.
 
citoeast said:
After calm reflection in a dark room with a bottle of wine and a box of Kleenex tissues, here are my thoughts for what they are worth.

It should not be a Hughes in or out divide and slanging match, but serious hard questions must be asked. We now have a team, a squad of new quality players in the main but are we any better than previously?

We raise our game for the top 4 but fail to beat lesser rivals, like we have always done; 'TYPICAL CITY'.

We are leaking like a sieve in defence, seriously worse defensive record than last year, when we were supposed to be bad.
We look disjointed in our play, 11 guys trying their hearts out but as individuals not a team.

Hughes appears TACTICALLY NAIVE, in a big way and has done for most of his 18 months; I like the guy but seriously question whether he or his backroom staff are anywhere near good enough, RSC as a substitute tonight when two down, Petrov left on the bench until too late, even a blind man can see RSC is not good enough currently and is not a guy to bring on to change a game going against you.

Under Hughes good players suddenly look bad players. I see no leadership qualities in him, or his players.

Anyway for me it is not about tonight’s result we are still in the race for a top 4 place. It is about the fact that for me the bubble (of illusion) burst tonight bigtime as tonight just highlighted what has been obvious for ages but been masked by the one defeat argument (8 draws, 1 win, 1 defeat), we are not anywhere near good enough as a team to finish in the top 4 and our return over the last 10 league games is put simply near relegation form.

We will not collect 9 points from our next 3 games which we should which for me will reinforce the fact that we are not going forward, just standing still, which in previous days of few resources would have been fine but given our multitude of resources now is APPALLING FAILURE. We are behind Birmingham in the league and just ahead of Fulham who have the distraction of Europe and very limited resources.

I was prepared to give Hughes this season and next but now I must seriously question the wisdom of letting him have even the January transfer window to waste more money. My greatest fear is we will end up buying BENTLEY a useless twat like RSC at massively inflated transfer money and wages.

I think Khaldoon Al Mubarak needs to spend time like me in a dark room thinking deep thoughts about where we are going and whether or not we are progressing, regressing or worse maybe just standing still.

I do not care if Hughes stays or goes but things need to improve, we need to see progress on the field to match that off the field, no matter who manages the team.

Some good points here-although I'd be happy to see Bentley here if he can bang over a few good crosses. As you say, Hughes has brought in some quality players, which begs the question: if you have a squad of good players and they can't play to anything like a consistent standard, who's to blame, if not the manager and his staff, (who were appointed by him)?
Tonight sickened me. Spurs were not that good. If they had been able to shoot on target they could have had ten goals and this against a team of Stars(???)

This can't go on.
 
remoh said:
citoeast said:
After calm reflection in a dark room with a bottle of wine and a box of Kleenex tissues, here are my thoughts for what they are worth.

It should not be a Hughes in or out divide and slanging match, but serious hard questions must be asked. We now have a team, a squad of new quality players in the main but are we any better than previously?

We raise our game for the top 4 but fail to beat lesser rivals, like we have always done; 'TYPICAL CITY'.

We are leaking like a sieve in defence, seriously worse defensive record than last year, when we were supposed to be bad.
We look disjointed in our play, 11 guys trying their hearts out but as individuals not a team.

Hughes appears TACTICALLY NAIVE, in a big way and has done for most of his 18 months; I like the guy but seriously question whether he or his backroom staff are anywhere near good enough, RSC as a substitute tonight when two down, Petrov left on the bench until too late, even a blind man can see RSC is not good enough currently and is not a guy to bring on to change a game going against you.

Under Hughes good players suddenly look bad players. I see no leadership qualities in him, or his players.

Anyway for me it is not about tonight’s result we are still in the race for a top 4 place. It is about the fact that for me the bubble (of illusion) burst tonight bigtime as tonight just highlighted what has been obvious for ages but been masked by the one defeat argument (8 draws, 1 win, 1 defeat), we are not anywhere near good enough as a team to finish in the top 4 and our return over the last 10 league games is put simply near relegation form.

We will not collect 9 points from our next 3 games which we should which for me will reinforce the fact that we are not going forward, just standing still, which in previous days of few resources would have been fine but given our multitude of resources now is APPALLING FAILURE. We are behind Birmingham in the league and just ahead of Fulham who have the distraction of Europe and very limited resources.

I was prepared to give Hughes this season and next but now I must seriously question the wisdom of letting him have even the January transfer window to waste more money. My greatest fear is we will end up buying BENTLEY a useless twat like RSC at massively inflated transfer money and wages.

I think Khaldoon Al Mubarak needs to spend time like me in a dark room thinking deep thoughts about where we are going and whether or not we are progressing, regressing or worse maybe just standing still.

I do not care if Hughes stays or goes but things need to improve, we need to see progress on the field to match that off the field, no matter who manages the team.

Some good points here-although I'd be happy to see Bentley here if he can bang over a few good crosses. As you say, Hughes has brought in some quality players, which begs the question: if you have a squad of good players and they can't play to anything like a consistent standard, who's to blame, if not the manager and his staff, (who were appointed by him)?
Tonight sickened me. Spurs were not that good. If they had been able to shoot on target they could have had ten goals and this against a team of Stars(???)

This can't go on.

Both spot on Although Santa did more than Ade in less time
 
Maybe because santa is used to having the ball lumped up to him, where the big fella is more used to being played to?.

Some of the points are spot on, with the 11 individuals comment the most relavant, hughes will never be able to build a team because he simply does not have it in him to understand how players need to interact, his buying of players is more like a kid on a playstation than a football manager who has some idea of what players can play together, Bentley is just another over hyped average player at best, and why bother with a winger anyway when its lump the ball up the middle most of the time under this fool.
 
citoeast said:
My greatest fear is we will end up buying BENTLEY a useless twat like RSC at massively inflated transfer money and wages. .

lol, citoeast.
 
Here is what I think

We tried to play a very high defensive line to negate the threat of Crouch - perfectly understandable, just look what happened when we dropped deep - 85 yard ball, Crouch wins the flick - goal.

However, this created problems - the middle of the park got very congested, and players that rely on space to create things couldn't find any. We had no natural width and therefore Spurs could flood the middle of the park and were able to negate much of our attacking threat.

If we had natural width we could have carried much more of a threat, but then Petrov is still coming back from injury and Weiss is young and inexperienced and would have undoubtedly got absolutely slated if he had a bad game, Hughes obviously didn't want to knock his confidence. In hindsight we should probably have taken the risk and played one of the two.

So in conclusion Hughes got it wrong, but I can completely understand his reasoning behind the tactics, it just didn't work for him. If one of our early long range efforts had flown in we could have stolen a win, but it wasn't to be. That being said I think a couple of the players really should be giving a lot more to the cause, and that certainly didn't help our chances.
 
We really need a leader, espeicially in midfield, someone who will work hard and kick butts big time. They do not even need to be a world class
player just a world class leader of people or a bully. These current players need their ass kicked and kicked hard.

I cannot help thinking when was our plkayers Christmas Party, they looked as if they all were suffering from a hangover, it would make me feel better if this was the problem.
 
Pam said:
citoeast said:
My greatest fear is we will end up buying BENTLEY a useless twat like RSC at massively inflated transfer money and wages. .

lol, citoeast.

Harsh on Santa he should have got a penalty and he ran 10x more than Ade and wanted the ball and tried.

Not his fault the team was in the process of imploding last night.
 
my thoughts

last night was a very poor performance...no arguement.

however the performances over most of the season have been ok to good to excellent in some matches.....we lack consistency and that is clear.

consistency comes from patience and time together (Villa are proof of that)

Last night as far as tactics were concerned MH did waht he could with the personnal he had to combat the threat of lennon (putting barry out on the left) but there was not much he could do about crouch.....we all know we need a centre half who is dominant in the air......we have two good centre halves but they are small in comparrison and noway were they goin but didnt going to outjump crouch....same as when we aply villa and they use carew).....MH tried to sin that centre half when he tried for terry but it didnt come off......I think he will still look for this type of player

as for leaders...dejong is a natural and was trying last night to lead......toure is too quiet but then aggaon so was dunne and there are many people on here who are sayign we shouldnt have got rid of him(half of who wanted rid origionally)

knee jerk reactions get us nowhere
 

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