Hull City look like they have no team spirit, that has to change please log in to view this image WHEN I think back to the 2007-08 season and our promotion to the Premier League, I certainly don't remember us being the greatest of teams , writes Dean Windass. We weren't particularly skilful or dynamic and we had our limitations. There were a few of us – and I include myself in this – who could barely maintain a sprint. But if we had a strength in that season it was our team spirt and togetherness. That's what made us successful. We were such a tight group that we probably managed ourselves most of the time. Ian Ashbee and I used to fight like cat and dog during half-time of most games. I'd shout at him for not giving me the ball and he'd shout back at me for not holding it up. Phil Brown used to give us all three minutes to say our piece and then he'd step in and give his instructions. It wasn't just the senior pros either. Even quiet lads like Michael Turner would chip in and dig people out if it was needed. It was that sort of dressing room. Everyone cared about getting the club up and that's what made it such an unbelievable feeling when we managed that in the play-off final at Wembley. I look at the current Hull City side and you have to wonder if it's the same. They might be a more gifted set of players but that only takes you so far in a division like the Championship. I don't know what goes on behind the dressing room door or who the big characters are but this current run of poor form is concerning. You can't question the ability and talent of this City team, the vast majority of them have played in the Premier League or higher, but this is the stage of the season when that's no longer the most important quality. You have to be mentally tough. You have to show resilience. All the successful teams do that. They handle the pressure and stick together. Trust is a big thing as well. I used to go into games eight years ago believing that Wayne Brown, Michael Turner and Boaz Myhill were going to keep a clean-sheet in the same way they had faith in me and Fraizer Campbell getting a goal. Everyone knew each other's strengths and weaknesses and that understanding took us a long way. This City team is chopping and changing at the minute and the easy thing is to point the finger at Steve Bruce for not knowing his best team. I doubt he does at the minute but the blame lies as much with the players. How many of this squad can currently say they deserve a place in the team each week? Not many I'm afraid. They're making Bruce's job difficult. Look at his career as a manager and Bruce is not the type to tinker every week, certainly not if his side is winning. I'm sure there's nothing he'd like more than to be naming the same XI each week at this stage of the season because you need that trust in one another. If you don't think the man alongside you is up to it, that's when you've got a problem. It's time for the players to take some responsibility for this run of form, to show that they want to win promotion out of the Championship as much as the supporters. They have to be able to go home after a match and know they couldn't have possibly done anymore for the team. That might not always be enough but you've got to roll up your sleeves and be ready to give blood, sweat and tears. Only this group of players can tell you if they can look in the mirror and been able to say they've done that over the last month. Losing dressing rooms are never happy dressing rooms but the key is having the togetherness and unity to come through adversity like this. It's not too late for City to end this season in the same way we did in 2007-08 but it's going to need every single player to stand up and be counted. Don't be left with regrets in the summer. http://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/Hull...tory-29097932-detail/story.html#ixzz45gw7rTtR
Yes, it's a decent summary of this snapshot in time. What it doesn't discuss is the road to this situation. But he is right and most of us acknowledged it some time back, it is only the players who can get us out of this, as Bruce is the true clueless one.
I get the Diame out bit. Maguire was in part to blame for both goals Saturday. A leader he ain't. The two biggest characters at city were moved on. McShane and Rosey. They wouldn't have let this heartless version of City happen.
Yes I remember recognizing at the time the reason we were promoted in 2008 was the team ethic and not the talent of our players.
Our problem is clearly not the defence, it's no leaders in midfield or up top, coupled with no legs in midfield or up top when Diame/Hudds play and Livermore or who else is supporting them have to run themselves into the ground to compensate. Ultimate fault lies with the manager
Fair point. I give Maguire a partial pass for Saturday's failings because he hadn't played a competitive match for several weeks. I still think he is a galvanising force for the team - and just as crucially the fans - if he is picked regularly.
Following on from this. We have six games left. Even if we win all six, it's probable we won't finish in the top 2. If we win two of the six, it's very improbable that we will fall out of the playoff places. Beat Bolton and one other, it's not insurmountable even on the patchy form of recent weeks. While there are still many twists and turns to come, there remains a (slightly) stronger likelihood that we will play Derby on the playoff semis. The pressure is therefore off for now. We now need to pick a team and formation that is best suited to reverse our fortunes when we next play Derby, and stick to that team for the next six matches so it can get accustomed to the style of play chosen. That team needs to include the battlers and the figureheads and exclude the show ponies. That's my plan. Wonder if it is Bruce's?
Is it? Both of those players were in the team that got relegated with a wimper last season, that's hardly a reason to believe they were capable of having any influence on team spirit.
I have no doubt this will get back to the players, probably via Phelan, if they don't see it themselves. How they react is another matter.
With Brownie to fire them up. This season when "we needed Winston Churchill we got Iain Duncan-Smith."
Got to admit our loss of form after January is becoming or has become a regular event, as it is at the moment I don't even think the play offs are 100% certain, we seam to be diving faster than a U-boat.
With Alex Bruce on the bench. One had already gotten a contract the other wasn't going to be offered one. The manager certainly thought McShane was the better player given the situation we were in.
This one's quite interesting as well... Hull City fans: a right to feel disenchanted? please log in to view this image I was recently talking to a good friend at the pub, who happens to support Fulham. He asked me how I though City’s season had gone this year, and what my opinion was of Steve Bruce. I answered with what I believe most Tigers fans would have said in similar conversations at the moment – that in all honesty we have disappointed this season, that Bruce appears out of ideas, and that, in fact, for the first time in 15 years I feel completely despondent, almost disenchanted, with the owners, the manager, and the players of my hometown club. He laughed and said, “It could be worse, you could be a Fulham fan! Over a decade in the Premier League and now we’re happy for Championship survival!” This got me thinking. As a lifelong Hull City fan, who remembers playing the likes of Halifax, Scarborough and Rochdale regularly at Boothferry Park, what right have I got to feel this way when we are currently sitting in the play-off positions in the country’s second tier? Let’s look at the facts (insert Rafa Benitez pun). City are currently 4th in the Championship, ten points off the top and nine off the automatic promotion places, with six games to play. Admittidly, after terrible performances last week against Derby and Huddersfield, automatic promotion looks out of reach, but similarly, when looking at our remaining fixtures, dropping out of the play-off positions would require a quite remarkable run of poor results. While the Championship Play-Offs understandably appear rather underwhelming after two years of Premier League football, FA Cup Finals, and brief excursions into Europe, this is a situation of the club’s own making. It is a cliche, but it’s true – we may very well have the best side in The Championship on paper, but this does not give us a divine right to an immediate return to the Premier League. Former Bolton and Burnley manager, Owen Coyle, once famously remarked of the Premier League that, “Even if all 20 clubs were managed by the World’s best 20 managers, 3 would still see their sides relegated”. This is the same in The Championship. All 24 teams could have fantastic players and managers, but at the end of the season, only 2 sides will be promoted automatically. The harsh reality of this season is simply that Burnley and Middlesbrough have performed better than the Tigers, on a more consistent basis, since the turn of the year. But is it just City’s terrible recent form that’s getting me down? It seems much more than that to me. It’s strange. In my lifetime as a City fan we have been battling for our very survival at the foot of the football league, yet still as a club felt 100 times more unified than at this very moment. I don’t know whether it’s the lingering aftertaste of pro-Allam fans v anti-Allam fans in the wake of the whole name-change saga, the decision to close the ticket office in favour of machines, or the scrapping of season tickets in favour of a ‘membership scheme’, but somewhere along the line the family atmosphere that has kept this club going in its darkest days appears, to me at least, to be dying. Just look at recent attendances. 16,521 fans attended our recent home game against Bristol City. Let’s put this into perspective – During our promotion season from what is now know as League 2, in 2003/04, we were averaging larger home attendances. Granted, ticket prices have steadily increased, but of course, so has the standard of football we pay to watch. At the risk of crossing the thin line and turning this blog into what could only described as a rant, even Steve Bruce looks fed-up! This is perhaps understandable considering he has to work closely with the Allam family on and day-to-day basis, but in the interest of fairness, I must say he has been backed financially in every year for his reign as City manager. So why am I, and I am presuming thousands of other City fans, feeling so disenchanted with my beloved club? More importantly, what is it going to take for this horrible feeling to be reversed? Well, I think the sooner the Allam family find a buyer for the club, the better. And look, before the pro-Allam brigade get on my back, I am perfectly aware they saved the club from financial ruin! However, the way I’m feeling about City at this moment in time, half of me is wondering if I wouldn’t have been happier back in League 2, without two pennies to rub together. Who knows? But one thing is for sure – That community, almost family-esque, atmosphere that the Allam’s steadily seem to be squeezing out of the club, would certainly have kept us going. https://gregfromhull.wordpress.com/2016/04/11/hull-city-fans-a-right-to-feel-disenchanted/
