I posted that from these four games, 7 points would be the minimum to get us back into the top half, and 9 would convince me that progress had been made since last year. I qualified that by saying that if we didnt achieve it, I would not write Hughes off at this stage.
Everton was a poor second half performance, capped by two inexplicable defensive mistakes (again) that gave them the win in time added on. I was very disappointed, but i didnt really learn anything new from that game. Elano went missing in the second half when everton took control of the midfield, and Jo kept coming so deep, it was a nightmare to watch. Robinho was clearly unfit and Micheal Ball was wretched in possesion. The midfield was outnumbered, outfought, out-played, but it hasnt looked right all season, because we only have kompany who drops deep, and ireland, who gambles all the time going forward (as well they both should). In between, there is nothing. I cant for the life of me think how i would solve this problem with the squad as it is.
West Brom was a different matter. There were rumours of fall-outs, which seemed to be in line with the team that was picked. MH picked our most physical team, and we looked short of creativity and quality, and benjani had a poor game. What i couldnt figure out for the life of me was how with kompany and gelson playing infront of the back four, we managed to be wide open to WBA on the break. Two big negatives against hughes came from this match. one, either he had got the tactics wrong, or the team were not carrying them out correctly. either way, the buck stops with him. and secondly, with the team he picked, he had formulated a game plan that failed to capitalise on our strengths OR WBA's weaknesses. However, it was Micah and Micah alone who capped it all for the second week running turned a poor result into a humiliating one.
At this point, december the twenty-something, we fell into the drop zone, and our humiliation was complete. Personally, I went into melt-down. Christmas is a hard enough time of year for some of us without this kind of thing happening. I read the independants re-hashing of a story stating that MH had serious doubts about the mentality and viability of, well, nearly everybody. Were Robinho's poor performances down to the alleged splits in the dressing room? was his injury as much in the mind as in his ankle? Was he now not the messiah, but the flake that many had called him when he signed for us? Were we doomed to sign shitty 'star' players, who only turned it on for themselves, on their own terms? Even though we had all the money in the world, would we turn out to be the english equvalent of the inter-milan of the 1990s, outrageous talents, totally wasted?
The league position was hugely troubling in itself. The taunts were endless. Diarra signed for madrid two hours after we dropped into the bottom three. All the kaka and villa rumours had dried up, replaced by bellamy and bullard. It seemed that if MH had split the dressing room, he now had to sign players who would get us out of trouble in the short term, and who would be loyal to him. In other words, the kind of short-termism that has landed WHAM and Newcastle in so much trouble.
I think the tipping point was hearing Alan Green giving mark hughes a ringing endorsment. A man can only take so much.
So, lonely, depressed and fueled by some rancid chardonnay, I flipped to the dark side. Hughes out! said I, in so many words. He's made a balls up of everything! He's belittled the players achievements last year, broken their trust by slagging them off to the media behind their backs! what a coward, what an idiot! He's tried to change too much before he had established his authority, and it's backfired on him, and now it's backfired on us, because the team is in tatters, and no one in their right mind will join us now.
There isnt too much to say about the next two games. Hull was the perfect game at the perfect time. The simple fact that robinho was clearly fit again (and as such had clearly not been faking it), and elano played 60 minutes and shook MH's hand on leaving the pitch told me that I had been taken in by the rumours. I am sure things are not quite right. But either relations have thawed over the christmas period, or they were never quite as serious as they were made out to be. Maybe everyone has found themselves thrown together by the horror of our league position, and they realise they have to dig each other out. MH certainly appeared less arrogant and bullish in his comments. He stopped pointing the finger at the players and started talking about the things that have affected us collectively.
OK, we still lacked shape yesterday. quelle suprise, there is still no midfield, richards and dunne are still richards and dunne, and Joe Hart's distribution is a part of his game that even he doesnt have much confidence in, so the ball gets hoofed long too much. The plus side is that we were not out-fought, that the players displayed excellent hunger for the game, despite being slightly unfortunate to go two down, and robinho kept at it for 90 minutes. He worked, worked, worked, and at the end of 95 minutes, we had two players on the pitch who displayed unbelievable composure, technique and confidence to score on the last kick of the match.
We are a exquisite corpse at the moment, thrown together by managers with differing philosophies. We don't know our best game, we dont really know how to match the pieces of our squad together into a cohesieve game plan. Ball and robinho playing next to each other? you couldnt make it up. We dont trust each other fully. For all of these things, MH has not found the answers yet. In his defence, MH has been undermined by thaksin, then by Sulaiman, then by elano. And 'his' assesment of the squad's mentality and professionalism speaks volumes about the way our club has been run over recent years. I do however accept that it looks like he has made things worse on occasions. But it IS equally true to say that we are struggling because we are missing the vital organs that will turn us into a functioning whole, and that MH deserves the opportunity to put this right in the coming month.
Anything else would be desparate short termism. No manager can make a proper assesment of the squad, devise targets that will be right in the long term, and sign them, in a couple of weeks. Like it or not MH is best placed to do this. Once he has had his turn, then I will judge him.
p.s. looking at our upcoming games and those of our rivals, I think that our league position will improve drastically over the next 6 weeks. you can hang me by this, if it doesnt turn out so.
