There are two major, major shortcomings in the way Hughes manages us. The first of these is how he's got us set up. The team he's assembled is made up predominantly of quality players who thrive on pass and move football which we see with the majority of the top clubs. Hughes' tactics have got us stuck playing route 1, long ball football which is about as good to watch as Susan Boyle going down on Yoda. When we play teams like Hull we get outclassed in this department because they've got players who are built to play like that. I'm just wondering where the creativity we saw quite a lot of last season has gone. We've got (mostly) the same players as last year plus even more attackers, so why are we stuck playing it between the midfield and the back 4 with little or no penetration of their lines?
Secondly, formation. 4-4-2 doesn't work. It doesn't take a genius to work that out, yet Hughes still sticks with it. It's far too rigid a formation for the players we've got, we need our attacking midfielders up the park, not back on the halfway line. If we're going to come out of this slump we're going to need to adopt 4-3-3 against teams like Hull, who we really should be beating. We've got such good players but we can't finish teams off, and we sit back and let them attack. And with a defence as leaky as ours that's a tactic we shouldn't adopt.
Quality players with Blackburn tactics. Story of the season. I'm on the fence regarding Hughes' position at the moment but if we don't improve over Christmas I'll be rethinking my stance.
Secondly, formation. 4-4-2 doesn't work. It doesn't take a genius to work that out, yet Hughes still sticks with it. It's far too rigid a formation for the players we've got, we need our attacking midfielders up the park, not back on the halfway line. If we're going to come out of this slump we're going to need to adopt 4-3-3 against teams like Hull, who we really should be beating. We've got such good players but we can't finish teams off, and we sit back and let them attack. And with a defence as leaky as ours that's a tactic we shouldn't adopt.
Quality players with Blackburn tactics. Story of the season. I'm on the fence regarding Hughes' position at the moment but if we don't improve over Christmas I'll be rethinking my stance.