Indeed, if the rumours are true and Adel and Hoilett did indeed take the train back to London things need investigating. How many players have now been ignored and disrespected in the last few months. The cost is ultimately not only a performance one but also financial.
It was Traore, not Hoilett. I like Traore but he can have no complaints, hes been awful and very, very lazy as well. Hughes is a hard line manager, you either do it his way or you are out which is fair enough. We shouldnt be pandering to these prima donnas.
Imaz, not all players can play on a saturday, they all know that and if they feel 'disrespected' if they are not picked then perhaps they have an ego problem. I understand you don't like MH but i dont think you can blame him for certain palyers lack of respect/inflated egos.
Exactly, this is probably why Mackie will be ahead in the pecking order now. We will have very good midfielders left out of every squad from now on.
I think we are now showing signs of a decent coherent top-flight team. M'Bia will take us to another level. Anton is currently our weakest link, but CB's and GK's are exposed faster than outfield players. A small tweak in Jan will see us ok.
Our defensive shape was key to being able to counter attack at all. We'd drop off and set up the the banks of 4 with Zamora + Johnson snapping at the heels of their men in posession, and aim to harry them towards the touchlines where our fullbacks and wingers would interchange and restrict space for their attackers, hopefully forcing them to pass back to the middle and recycle posession via a different route. Without a decent amount of selfless play and communication between the FB+Winger, shape would have been completely lost and we'd have picked up off willy nilly. Keeping a rigid shape, and not getting drawn out of position, meant that hopefully whenever they did lose the ball, we'd have enough options to pass to and be able to counter attack as a unit, rather than in the drips and drabs that result from a shapeless defensive formation(probably caused by players like taraabt). Swp is great at this kind of marking partnership with a fullback, and he's good on the break, he won us a few free kicks from Kompany, and made some crucial tackles. You can't say he has zero attacking threat because he scored a hatfull in preseason and got one agaisnt walsall. On his current form he definitely is a threat, so i think you're still referring to last season's SWP. We were forced to make all three of our subs, so there was no opportunity to bring on Hoilett.
Are you wumming me? We needed strikers who can defend as well as attack considering we were away to the most potent strikeforce in the league. By "more defensively minded" i meant they're better at defending, not that they're less likely to attack...or whatever meaning you're trying to conjure from a pretty simple statement. I'm not going to respond to you until you've answered my point regarding Hughes "not knowing how to defend", which you've dodged 4/5 time now: "edit: and you STILL haven't adressed the defensive performances last year?! We beat spurs/liverpool/arsenal and almost city whilst down to 10 men. We'd have drawn if it wasn't for the bench reacting to the bolton score.. (that's without even mentioning swansea/stoke) "
Phil, what happened to Robinho? I had to unfollow you when you claimed JB acted like a "real man" at the etihad.
From the responses it looks like MH will be criticised no matter what he does. If expectations weren't high enough already, they've certainly hit the roof now. If we didn't walk out with a draw, he's a dead man walking....why is that? He moved Park further out wide, he started Nelsen, paired Faurlin and Granero in the middle.....exactly what a lot of fans called for, we played decent football for the first time, didn't fold, stepped up when we were down yet he's coping it left right and centre. I haven't been this calm after a loss in a very long time but clearly the majority don't feel this way.
What an idiotic post. If thats all you can add then don't bother. Some amazingly dense posts on this long thread. People questioning whether Park can play on the left?! Moaning about Cisse not starting despite the garbage performances he's turned in this season and also forgetting the good performance Johnson put in and the great patrnership he has with Zamora. As much as I think Hughes has made a couple of tactical mistakes this season; formation at Swansea afer we went behind. Playing SWP yesterday and then not taking him of for Hoilett. It does not justify all the extent of the moaning from the reactionary football illiterate's on this board. We have no choice but to stick with Hughes for the whole season so all this negativity is counter-productive. He has made mistakes but remains a good manager. He is putting a great and professional structure in place at the club and making good signings. We played against the best team in the country away from home but for anyone with more than two brain cells to rub together there were plenty of positive signs to be seen. And because of this all true fans need to wind your neck in and back the team. We are on the road to becoming a really good side but the plonkers who litter this board are posioning the atmosphere at this club and threatening to destabilise us further. - Granero and Faurlin werent match fit but looked very good and will get much much better. - Diakite to come back and hoppefully back to the form he showed last year - Cesar would have saved 1st goal yesterday and against Swansea. And he is world class. - Mbia is seriously top quality. - With the exception of centre back position we have strength in depth all over the squad and the centre back position will be addressed in January So lets back the team and stop focusing on the negatives. All the football illiterates who cant see past the negatives, and love to moan can go support Tottenham
Calm down. It is this type of post that is starting to turn a lot of people off this board including me. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, noone is entitled to get abusive particularly from the comfort of behind a keyboard.
I suspect that there are a lot of people on here that never go to games but still like to dish it out I'm not saying that those people shouldn't express an opinion but I respect those individuals who stump up their hard earned week in week out to support the Rs more
If we cannot focus on the negatives, how can we recognise the positives. Football is a game of opinions. As to 'go and support Tottenham', who died and made you King?
People say Im negative but Im not, I focus on the things that need improving just as every player or manager should. Ill only point out a negative if I disagreed with it at the time, eg I was wanting Hughes to bring off SWP to put on Hoilett at 2-1. Then again I was wanting cisse on for Johnson about a minute before we scored. Ill state now I think it was a huge mistake not bringing in another target man and wont just say it when Zamora gets injured and then we look shocking without him.
