Who would have thought this in August....

[kiam06]

Hughes's signings have been top quality, he seems to want hard working, commited players such as Kompany, De Jong, Zabaleta etc....

What is everyones problem, the premiership is all about graft and that is what he is trying to bring to our team, can nobody else see that?

The Premiership is not all about graft though is it? Of course you need to work hard but you need quality in the manager & the players also.

The Premiership is about graft, look at Rags, Liverpool, Chelsea squads full of grafters. Arsenal have the least grafters since they let Viera, Petit etc go and guess what they've done nothing since. Why do you think Rafa wants to sign Barry and didn't want Robbie Keane?

You said the Premiership is all about graft! Are you saying that the top 4 are the top 4 purely because they work harder than the rest?

Exactly, have you never realised that? How much time on the ball do you get against Liverpool, Chelsea etc... Answer is not very much, thats through hardwork first and then the fancy players come into it. We need to get our team working hard before we will see the best of Robbie etc..

 

[ConnorMCFC]

hate to say it, and tin hat will be firmly on now but....

look at united, not only have they got IMO the best team in the league, they also work just as if not harder than any other in the league, something you cant fault united for is there work rate and willingness to battle for on another

 

[DontLookBackInAnger]

hate to say it, and tin hat will be firmly on now but....

look at united, not only have they got IMO the best team in the league, they also work just as if not harder than any other in the league, something you cant fault united for is there work rate and willingness to battle for on another

And the fact that they play hard for 90mins they never seem to give up.

 

[kiam06]

Last two posts are spot on, look at Chelsea who are on now, just a team full of grafters with the exception of probably Malouda and Anelka. The Liverpool team today worked theie socks off, again a team full of grafters. That is where we need to try and get. The fancy players will fit in later.

 

[ArabFan12]

I am really sick of Hughes. I have no belief in him anymore. I feel that I cannot trust him to run the whole club. I certainly do not trust him on tactics.

However, his fitness regime I like. Also, I like his no none sense approach on the pitch, where if you do not run then you are shit. I like that haha

But to be honest, I feel he is more of a coach than a manager. We need tacticians, he is not that. He can build a squad as much as he likes but if you cannot guide players to specific tasks effectively you will loose the plot. Harry Rednap although I hate him, does that. Martin O'neil only does that.

WE NEED A TACTICIAN.

The team quality has progressed but not due to Mark Hughes genius instinct but due to the owners wealth. I admit one of Hughes assets are his shrewdness in the transfer market, but from where I stand, I feel that any player would come to us, not because Mark's charisma but if we finish 7th or 6th. Something I feel he cannot achieve. So for me Hughes out.

 

[Ricster]

Lets look back to August, we were getting beat at Villa and there was so much unrest at the club as we thought Thaksin may go and the club would struggle to get a new owner.

Now we have become the richest club in the world, we have one of the best goalkeepers in the world, we have one of the best players in the world in his prime in Robinho and a host of top quality internationals such as De Jong, Kompany, Zabaleta, SWP, Bellamy etc....

Still people come on this forum and say the club has made no progress, you are having a laugh. The club and the squad has come on leaps and bounds we can all see where we need to strengthen so lets get behind our manager and we will see the club get to where we want it to be, if we turn on our manager now I think it would be a disaster.

If you compare this season to last season, and take into consideration that MH has spent £100m, alot of people will feel we have taken a backward step.

 

[kiam06]

I thought his tactics were pretty good at Blackburn, they battered us a few times. So with money to spend I think he will be able to take it on. He has played at Rags, Barcs, Chelsea etc... under great managers so I think he will have some tactical awarness. Also changed a team of average Welsh players into a half decent outfit so I think his tactical awareness is there, again give it time.

 

[kiam06]

Lets look back to August, we were getting beat at Villa and there was so much unrest at the club as we thought Thaksin may go and the club would struggle to get a new owner.

Now we have become the richest club in the world, we have one of the best goalkeepers in the world, we have one of the best players in the world in his prime in Robinho and a host of top quality internationals such as De Jong, Kompany, Zabaleta, SWP, Bellamy etc....

Still people come on this forum and say the club has made no progress, you are having a laugh. The club and the squad has come on leaps and bounds we can all see where we need to strengthen so lets get behind our manager and we will see the club get to where we want it to be, if we turn on our manager now I think it would be a disaster.

If you compare this season to last season, and take into consideration that MH has spent £100m, alot of people will feel we have taken a backward step.

Jo and Robinho were bought by the club so theres 50m out of your argument.

I can see the improvement we have made, I think it will become more evident next season when he has a chance to get rid of our deadwood, lets remember Hughes has not had a proper transfer window with the money yet.

 

[BobKowalski]

we finished 9th last season, at the moment we are 10th.

Yes but your just splitting hairs, a matter of a few points.

Tell that to boro or the barcodes or to Liverpool. Those few points you mention are the difference between relegation disaster or safety, glory or failure.

We need to change the way we look at things

 

[mr t]

9th last year we are 10th now, so not a huge improvement.

I think it's a great improvement. As I said on another thread this time last year we were dire. Loads of us went to Middlesborough to see us get hammered 8-1 and it was the only City game I have ever been to in my life where we were actually cheering the oppositions goals in the end because we'd given up. After a good start to the seaon we'd gone into freefall after beating the scum and if the season had not ended when it did we would have finished further down the league than 9th. We really were that bad - remember Fulham stayed up courtesy of a poor 2nd half performance from us at COMS.

Yesterday we went to Spurs who we have a terrible record against and who have only conceded 9 goals all year. After a poor first half we scored and with 25 minutes to go were level. We were playing well only to lose the game on a dodgy penalty decision. We didn't lose by a street and we will be better next year - no doubt.

A lot of people on here seem to think that we aren't going forward but that's not the case at all.