The season is now over for Hull City. What are your conclusions of what turned out to be a disappointing 2012 after a very promising 2011? Personally I put the fact that we didn't reach the play-offs squarely on the shoulders of the man / men who decided not to improve the squad in January (whoever they might be).
Totally frustrating from start to finish. All season it's been 'we should have won'. You can't pin it on certain players but it Evans or particularly Fryatt could finish more than 5% of chances we'd be in the playoffs without a doubt and if the whole attack had a reasonable level of finishing we'd be looking at the top 2.
Yes its dissapointing and fustrating but look at it this way were top half and have chance to start concentrating early on next year and do a good push for promotion! and barmby can put his mark on the team properly with pre season im happy with the way it looks just fingers crossed we can get the players in we need
Inactivity in January has cost us, we were in a very good position at the end of January to push on and we didn't. The positive hopefully is of course that we've now realised we need to add to the squad and not stick with what we've got and push on next season. Hopefully we can end the season on a high in the last 3 games, there's positives to take out of this season and you only have to look at Portsmouth to see how the last 18 months could have gone for us post premier league. Disappointed after being in a good position to go up (look at Reading) but there's still positives to take.
Only if we spend money. And either way it pisses me off that we were so far ahead of the likes of Leicester and now we're level with them(?), that we were in with a serious chance of automatic promotion and by wasting more and more chances it gradually became a good chance of playoffs, then an outside chance, now none at all. How was that chance allowed to just evaporate like that?
Err... yeah that's the problem we've had all season. We've dominated almost every game this season and hardly anyone has outplayed us but they've all finished their chances better than we have. Blackpool, Palace, Derby, Brighton, Donny, Watford today, West Ham, Burnley both games, Boro away and even Macclesfield and Crawley. There have been way, way too many games this season where we've been left wondering how our strikers can miss so many chances. The only attackers we have who I think can shoot well are King and Cairney. I've been to most games this season and Fryatt has been the biggest culprit in terms of quanitity of chances missed. I understand he makes a lot of them himself but there's no point if you're going to keep scuffing every single shot. I mentioned Evans too because although he hasn't had the quantity of chances that Fryatt has he has missed far too many absolute sitters for me. There are plenty of other culprits such as Brady and Stewart. You have to wonder if we actually shoot in training.
Don't you remember the statement that if the team were competing for promotion in December funds would be made available for team strenthening in January? And when asked the club said that "millions" would be available to NB.
I think by 'whoever they might be' he means that if there was no money available then he blames the people making that decision. I'd agree with him.
No disappointment for me. I've always felt we'd need a lot of luck with injuries/suspensions/runs of games to make the playoffs and expecting us to keep up the good luck for 9 months was pushing it so I made sure my head ruled my heart on that. Failure to address the causes of that has eventually cost us, but since we've had a change of manager I don't think meeting my preseason expectations based on the squad should be looked on as a failure. I expect certain issues in the squad to be addressed in the summer, otherwise we'll just have the same issues again, but until transfers in and out start being completed I haven't got a clue where we'll be. Given the number of players leaving/out of contract there should be a busy summer ahead. EDIT: When we start signing players in the summer I'll draw conclusions on January. If we go and sign a striker from a PL relegation battle team or one of our promotion rivals this season on a bargain deal (or out of contract) then it will explain why we couldn't sign them in January or on loan. If we sign some random squad player from somewhere then I'll be back to questionning our approach in January.
Based on King's one shot? Blaming our top scorer for our lack of goals is beyond idiotic, it's ****ing ******ed.
1 in 20 is pushing it a bit, maybe 1 in 30. And OLM, as for King I think he's basing it on a fair few shots that have come very close, including of course the one that went in.
Fryatt is one of the best finishers we have had for many years Very cool under pressure, sure- footed etc No other player at the club comes remotely near in terms of goalscoring instinct
No based on all the shots he's had. I said it a few times after the Southampton game; he had 3 volleys from awkward angles, two hit the woodwork and the other forced a great save from Davis. King is definitely a good finisher. I certainly don't blame the top scorer for lack of goals, that as you say is inherently flawed. I blame all the attackers (and I can't help singling out the one who has missed the most chances) for a lack of goals compared to chances we've had. If we created one or two chances per game then you can't say a word about the strikers. But the amount of times this season we've made 15-20 chances and scored 0 or 1 is just inexcusable and all of the front 4 have to take the blame. I single out Fryatt n particular because of all the 1-on-1s where he hasn't even managed to shoot and all the 'scuffed' shots he's had. It pisses me off that he's so good at making a chance for himself but just can't seem to learn to strike a ball cleanly like King does.
So......who will bail out? Who will go to a club they perceive as having a better chance for glory? Or to a PL club? We're disappointed, but what about the players? They will know/feel more about it than us. They just might not trust the hierarchy to make it all work. And what about Nick Barmby's position and budget? These are worrying days.....
I can't see many players being sought by other clubs to be honest. I think Chester might have PL suitors but he's the only one I'd worry about us losing. Our next best asset is probably Hobbs and no one will want him now. McKenna and Koren are two of our other best players but their age makes them less tempting than the young lads.
Right, I'm stepping down from this board, there's no point in me speaking other than to say "This^^" to basically every ISTPLT comment as has been the case for many months.
You confuse shots in the OPTA stats with genuine chances. We have many shots from distance, weak ones saved easily by the keeper, mile wide ones etc- these are not genuine chances, they are often desperate pot shots from distance. They distort the balance of play.
You seem to be watching games inside your own head man.How many real chances has Fryatt had ? The kid scores when he gets a chance. The fact is,he rarely gets a chance. Fryatt has to make his own chances as assists aren't coming from anywhere. The problem lies with a lack of goals of goals from the rest of the squad.With the exception of Koren,who else has weighed in ? Look at Reading,goals from all over the place. How many is their top scorer on,8 ? No the problem is lads like Mclean,Stewart,Evans,Mckenna and the team as a whole. Blaming the top goal scorer for the teams lack of goals is ****ing idiotic. All i can say is,i hope your an eight year old,in which case i appologise !
