The level of coaching at City

[blueinsa]

Does having an 'opinion' licence count with you?

Your opinion doesn't.

Im over it, honest!

 

[Freestyler]

I've been pretty much saying what the OP is saying for about 9 months now.

About ruling midfield, hughes team selection faults that to, he plays both barry and kompany away at bolton, its shocking

should of been ireland in for barry yesterday, the creativity in that game yesterday in the centre of the pitch was never ever there.

 

[Marvin]

This is something i've been banging on about for a good few months now. To me, it seems poor. In fact, very poor.

I'll start at the back. First of all, we look a shambles defensively. We can't deal with crosses or set pieces. We don't deal well with balls over the top, we struggle to win the second ball. We have full backs who bomb without regard to what they're leaving behind them. There is little communication, and under a little pressure, our expensively assembled backline looks a bit like a joke (Given aside).

Moving on to midfield. We have nobody who dominates the midfield. Nobody who is comfortable enough on the ball or has the character to be able to stamp their authority on the game. There's little off the ball movement, and for some unknown reason, even when we play 2 defensive minded midfielders, we still look incredibly shaky at the back.

When you move on to the forwards, it's clear as day as to what is happening. Once we move the ball forwards, we are relying on moments of brilliance to pick us up points. This has lead to us, at times, looking devoid of all ideas.

Now this, to me, is where coaching comes in. Watch Arsenal and watch how they can pretty much field a vastly inexperienced side but more often than not, still play close to the ability of the first team. They have a coaching foundation that is buried deep within the club. Once players reach a certain age, they seem ready to step up and immediately look comfortable. The off the ball movement and style of play is breathtakingly good at times. They have their own way of playing and it is very evident. Just keep the ball moving and have at least 2 options for the ball carrier to pass to.

Then watch Barcelona and watch how they play. It helps that they have Messi, Iniesta, Xavi et al, but think back to the friendly we played at the start of the season. They had Gai, Jeffren, Fontas, Pedro, Jonathan Dos Santos - all players alien to probably even the biggest FM fans out there. Yet, despite the scoreline, were able to dominate the game. They were every bit as good as the first team that night, and at times made our strong team look pretty clueless.

Now, keep an eye on how many of those players actually make it at Barca. Probably only Pedro. The rest will probably fall short, but because of the way they have been taught to play football, they are able to collectively dominate a team packed with expensive, experienced internationals.

Now i'm not saying we should instantly have the coaching infastructure of Arsenal or Barcelona. But i am saying, we are the richest club in the world, we have £250m worth of talent at our disposal, so we should have our own identity on the pitch, and it should be successful. We certainly shouldn't be launching pitch length passes to the head of a striker. We certainly shouldn't be relying on moments of individual brilliance to win us games. In an ideal world, individual brilliance should be the safety net when a certain footballing philosophy isn't working. We seem to have the individuals capable of brilliant things but i'm still not sure as to what our footballing philiosophy is.

This is where Hughes backroom staff come in. Apart from the goalkeeping coach, they've been drafted in from Blackburn/Wales. They've been part of set-ups that have had limited success albeit with players of a supposed lesser ability. They appear to have done well with instilling a work ethic, but to me that's probably as far as we can go without bringing in more help. I'm not for one minute suggesting we get rid of his backroom staff, but we are quite clearly missing something. Some form of tehnical and tactical coaching to compliment the work ethic and desire, or somebody who can organise us at the back. Somebody who can teach us to be comfortable on the ball and not hurry the ball forwards. Somebody who can give us our own footballing identity.

As a fan i can only use what we are witnessing on the pitch to figure out what's going on off the pitch, and to me there is quite clearly something missing. We aren't performing much better than Hughes' Blackburn side. The only difference is, we have the individual quality to fall back on. Hopefully in the near future our level of coaching will be up there with the very best. Until that happens, what we're seeing now, is probably about as good as it's going to get.

Arsenal and Barca have been playing football together on the training oitches for years. There's continuity there and years of work so of course the understanding and organisation shines through on the pitch.

As it happens Wenger has an increasing number of critics amongst Arsenal fans- I was reading their message boards before we played them and a lot of their fans think that Wenger has no plan B, and their team can't defend set-pieces.

You are right to identify the training ground as City's workplace, but perhaps you expect too much too soon. Teams like Villa concentrate on getting mena behind the ball, and hitting teams on the break, whereas we are flooding men forward. That to me is something to criticise.

 

[The Fixer]

Did you actually read the whole post?

Yes - typical pile of "We spent £250m so should be winning everything in sight" shite from a Hughes-outer.

Well i suppose thats your opinion which you're entitled to but you could look at it another way... perhaps the op is highlighting problems that aren't going away and then looking behind the scenes at carrington and asking the question what are we doing in training to put these things right. Surely you can see we do look all over the place at times.

We need a true leader and organiser at the back, but finding one is another thing altogether.

 

[KenTheLandlord]

This is something i've been banging on about for a good few months now. To me, it seems poor. In fact, very poor.

I'll start at the back. First of all, we look a shambles defensively. We can't deal with crosses or set pieces. We don't deal well with balls over the top, we struggle to win the second ball. We have full backs who bomb without regard to what they're leaving behind them. There is little communication, and under a little pressure, our expensively assembled backline looks a bit like a joke (Given aside).

Moving on to midfield. We have nobody who dominates the midfield. Nobody who is comfortable enough on the ball or has the character to be able to stamp their authority on the game. There's little off the ball movement, and for some unknown reason, even when we play 2 defensive minded midfielders, we still look incredibly shaky at the back.

When you move on to the forwards, it's clear as day as to what is happening. Once we move the ball forwards, we are relying on moments of brilliance to pick us up points. This has lead to us, at times, looking devoid of all ideas.

Now this, to me, is where coaching comes in. Watch Arsenal and watch how they can pretty much field a vastly inexperienced side but more often than not, still play close to the ability of the first team. They have a coaching foundation that is buried deep within the club. Once players reach a certain age, they seem ready to step up and immediately look comfortable. The off the ball movement and style of play is breathtakingly good at times. They have their own way of playing and it is very evident. Just keep the ball moving and have at least 2 options for the ball carrier to pass to.

Then watch Barcelona and watch how they play. It helps that they have Messi, Iniesta, Xavi et al, but think back to the friendly we played at the start of the season. They had Gai, Jeffren, Fontas, Pedro, Jonathan Dos Santos - all players alien to probably even the biggest FM fans out there. Yet, despite the scoreline, were able to dominate the game. They were every bit as good as the first team that night, and at times made our strong team look pretty clueless.

Now, keep an eye on how many of those players actually make it at Barca. Probably only Pedro. The rest will probably fall short, but because of the way they have been taught to play football, they are able to collectively dominate a team packed with expensive, experienced internationals.

Now i'm not saying we should instantly have the coaching infastructure of Arsenal or Barcelona. But i am saying, we are the richest club in the world, we have £250m worth of talent at our disposal, so we should have our own identity on the pitch, and it should be successful. We certainly shouldn't be launching pitch length passes to the head of a striker. We certainly shouldn't be relying on moments of individual brilliance to win us games. In an ideal world, individual brilliance should be the safety net when a certain footballing philosophy isn't working. We seem to have the individuals capable of brilliant things but i'm still not sure as to what our footballing philiosophy is.

This is where Hughes backroom staff come in. Apart from the goalkeeping coach, they've been drafted in from Blackburn/Wales. They've been part of set-ups that have had limited success albeit with players of a supposed lesser ability. They appear to have done well with instilling a work ethic, but to me that's probably as far as we can go without bringing in more help. I'm not for one minute suggesting we get rid of his backroom staff, but we are quite clearly missing something. Some form of tehnical and tactical coaching to compliment the work ethic and desire, or somebody who can organise us at the back. Somebody who can teach us to be comfortable on the ball and not hurry the ball forwards. Somebody who can give us our own footballing identity.

As a fan i can only use what we are witnessing on the pitch to figure out what's going on off the pitch, and to me there is quite clearly something missing. We aren't performing much better than Hughes' Blackburn side. The only difference is, we have the individual quality to fall back on. Hopefully in the near future our level of coaching will be up there with the very best. Until that happens, what we're seeing now, is probably about as good as it's going to get.

Two points that have convinced me Hughes should stay. Well done pal.

 

[BlueLlama]

Anyone watching City who is prepared to be objective about the play can only agree with the proposal that they are not well coached. For me the results and our current position are down to a group of highly skilled and expensive individuals playing as individuals and not as a team or even in positional groups on the pitch. Take off those blue tinted glasses for a game even ones we win and watch as a neutral or at least with objectivity. As soon as a manager can combine the individual talents with team play we will have an exceptional team.

 

[ShaunMCFC]

Theres no point being up for the big games (i.e Chelsea, Liverpool etc) and getting good results if at the likes of Bolton, Burnley and Fulham we just fall to pieces and don't really do too much.

 

[ono]

Did you actually read the whole post?

Yes - typical pile of "We spent £250m so should be winning everything in sight" shite from a Hughes-outer.

No it isn't. There is evidently something wrong at the club. Anybody can see that. Anybody can see we lack any form of cohesion in midfield and at the back. Anybody can see there is little off the ball movement. I don't think we're ready to win anything yet and spending money doesn't change that fact. But in 18 months in charge, i'd expect us to look better than we did when the coaching staff took over. We're getting by on moments of brilliance. Which particular game this season do you think we've actually produced the kind of football that Ireland, Barry, Tevez, Adebayor and SWP are capable of? Which games last season did we do it?

 

[pee dubya]

A reasonable post i think, but a bit early to damn the coaching methods used i think. Firstly we really have no idea exactly what Hughes et al are working on right now, style of play could be on the back burner currently, we have no problems scoring goals at all, the problem is at the other end.

Obviously there doesn't seem to have been a huge improvement defensively as of yet, but even now we don't have a settled back 4, how long does it take 4 new players to form a cohesive unit, with the level of understanding and communication required?

I don't know, but personally i'd give more than a third of a season.

 

[BlueLlama]

A reasonable post i think, but a bit early to damn the coaching methods used i think. Firstly we really have no idea exactly what Hughes et al are working on right now, style of play could be on the back burner currently, we have no problems scoring goals at all, the problem is at the other end.

Obviously there doesn't seem to have been a huge improvement defensively as of yet, but even now we don't have a settled back 4, how long does it take 4 new players to form a cohesive unit, with the level of understanding and communication required?

I don't know, but personally i'd give more than a third of a season.

What about adding the whole of last season when he was in charge?