Hughes Out-

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

Calm down, it is not a 'Hughes out' post, I like the man, just a catchy headline.

'Hughes out-mastered' by SAF second half, simple fact. I like Hughes, do not want rid of him, and he needs time, but I am not convinced he can tactically change the direction of a game. Yesterday showed this failing again, I have been going on about my concerns over this all last year, not just now.

Our defence was poor yesterday, 4 goals conceded, but that was down to Hughes, he failed to take the corrective action early enough. Richards was totally exposed as lazy and not good enough and needed to be replaced at half time but was not. Zabaleta should have come on yesterday for him.

We needed to change the set up when it became clear Utd had taken control, moving Ireland to the left was bizarre, imho, and clearly weakened us further. He was out thought and outplayed in the mangement game.

I also think De Jong became irrelevant second half, because Utd just outplayed us down the wings.

I want Mark Hughes to be given time, but equally I am realistic, yesterday exposed some significant weaknesses in his management of the team, he should have organised our defence better second half and made organisational changes to the team set up, in this he failed.

Ultimately we were robbed of a well earned draw by an appalling Referee scared to blow the whistle in case he incurred the wrath of Fergie, and consequently got dropped from refereeing future big games.

Bring on the abuse, usually by those who do not actually read the post, just the headlines.

Outmastered by the ref, not by the Sir Alkie Ferguson. You sound as though the matter of re-engineering the main thrust of a Premier League football team is the simple matter of 'Hey, you and you off, youse two on, click me fingers clickety-click- game won'. Methinks it's a little more complex.

 

[Nelly's Left Foot]

Is swapping Zabba for Richards a tactical decision?. I tend to agree I would have done it but that's nothing tactical is it , just a preference of a player in a position.
As for switching Ireland to the left it was an attempt to change things to give us more up top so that we would have an out ball as the scum were winning almost every ball in midfield. That didn't work too well either but I do think that was as much to do with our guys not playing well in that period and the scum's greater experience.

 

[PaulPowre]

Richards should have gone off in the first half for Zab, Ireland at half time for Petrov and i'd have used the last sub in injury time to break up the Utd pressure. Why he chose to not use them last two subs in injury time i will never know, think he may of been caught up in the moment and forgot?. Surley it wasn't tactical to keep two subs unused and not break the Utd pressure.

Just makes no sense?

 

[mammutly]

Richards should have gone off in the first half for Zab, Ireland at half time for Petrov and i'd have used the last sub in injury time to break up the Utd pressure. Why he chose to not use them last two subs in injury time i will never know, think he may of been caught up in the moment and forgot?. Surley it wasn't tactical to keep two subs unused and not break the Utd pressure.Just makes no sense?

Ferguson was savvy enough to know he'd get an extra 30 seconds for making a very quick substitution taking half that time.

You're right. Hughes should have made two slow substitutions, one right after Bellamy equalised and another 2 minutes later. That was an obvious card that he just forgot to play.

 

[HolisticJim]

I agree about reland and about MH's subs. I think it was coincidence that we scored seconds after brining a man on against Arsenal.
Against UTD the worst thing was that in the 2nd half everytime Given kicked the ball out - and I mean EVERY time - it went straight to a UTD player which in turn brought pressure onto us - badly.
It concerned me that neither Hughes, Toure or any other player for that matter didn't tell Given to pass the ball out.

But to be honest I think we have to remember that Hughes is still young in experience and I feel he is becoming part of us and part of our makeup. When we were robbed yesterday it will have brought him closer to the team and I think we will actually benefit from this.
Unless we perform horrifically this season I think Hughes should be allowed to learn along with the team - we have never gain anything from changing managers before - and I think we need to be patient and not lose sight on our original goals - top 6 this season.

 

[bluenova]

'Hughes out-mastered' by SAF second half, simple fact.

Against UTD the worst thing was that in the 2nd half everytime Given kicked the ball out - and I mean EVERY time - it went straight to a UTD player which in turn brought pressure onto us - badly.

Ok...but we did have the better of the first half and cleverly used Barry as a target man. So, Mark Hughes out-mastered SAF in the first half - something teams will rarely do at the Swamp.

I was wondering at half time what Hughes could do. It was clear that United would come up with something to outdo our midfield and it would be obvious to start man marking Barry out of the game when it came to Given's kicks. The Rags don't reach Champions League finals or win titles by luck - they have some of the best players and know have matched up against the best tactical minds for 15 years. If we'd come out after half time with an even better plan and dominated possession then he'd be hailed as a tactical genius, but it was unlikely to happen. This is the first season he's ever matched up to the big four in terms of players, but he's a LONG way behind in experience - yet we thrashed Arsenal and had probably our best 45 minutes at the Swamp for many years. He's got six more games against teams with equal/better players than us - any improvement on the last week would be a huge achievement.

 

[jasterixstrange]

i had to watch the live text feed from Sky on my BlackBerry whilst the missus dragged me round Manchester Fort and could be heard all around moaning about how Hughes wasn't reacting in the correct manner.
the rags ended the game with 4-5 strikers on the pitch and we did nothing to strengthen our defense. can't afford to make such basic mistakes if we're aiming for top 4 this season.
micah richards as been pretty poor now for 18 months and i'd seriously start benching the guy until he wakes up to the fact that he has to play good, consistent football.
january transfer window richards will surely be on his way to pompey or hull and i have no doubt we'll spend big on our weak defense.
repeat fixture with improved squad and at middle eastlands ... we'll smash the rags 4 - 1.

 

[DifferentBlueBoy]

Certainly!
I agree with almost everything that you guys are talking about. Hughes should definitely last a couple more seasons!

 

[c4lv3rt]

i agree with the richards thing. in fact my only criticism of him is he doesn't bring on players when there is clearly need for it

the only thing i can think of tOO

 

[Anonymous]

LOL...we're back to Hughes being tactically unaware.

I really don't get this type of post, because it implies that IF Hughes had changed things, the result would've been different. You simply don't know that. IMO, a team who equalizes in the 90th minute at $old Trafford should be able to see the game out. Whatever players are on the park, and whatever ridiculous, cheating, amount of time is added on by the officials.

We were poor at the back - but to criticize Hughes for that is shockingly myopic and blinkered when looked at within the context of the start to the season we've had, and the number of new players we have who need to get to know each other.