Match Day Thread Hull City v Stoke

The "Best Seat in the House" today would have been one looking towards West Park

 

Happy birthday John, hope most of your day was enjoyable.
My first grandson was born today and even City's dismal showing has not taken the smile off my face or the tears in my eyes.

 

McCann has to go.

Hopefully the new owner buys into the Hull City way and will find a manager who plays 4-3-3.

 

There's all sorts you could analyse about the game today and the similarities with other games this season, but the biggest thing for me is it's just so flat. Crowd was quiet and the team clearly lacked confidence. It was always going to be the case after the excitement of last weekend and still without a takeover to celebrate. It just needs sorting in order to breathe some excitement and positivity into the club.

Our home form for the last two seasons with crowds has been abysmal and the half empty stadium is clearly a big part of it. The ref gave loads of little things against us today and there were just a few murmurs from the crowd. With a bit of atmosphere and pressure on him we'd maybe benefit from home advantage like other clubs do.

 

This is a better one!

 

Happy 74th Birthday John. Glad you at least enjoyed the BBQ!

In the cricket that was the 150th time that Aus. have beaten England. Hope the English women do better in their imminent Ashes series!

 

Happy birthday John, hope you have a great day.

Oh and Dutch that ‘Nello’ recommendation was great, very uplifting, what a truly great fella he is. It was also great to see another side, the human side, of a footballing great, Lou Macari, I very much enjoyed that tonight so thanks for the mention.

 

I don’t think the supporters quite understand how effected by the Magennis move the coaching and playing staff have been.
This was a bit of a shock to the system. McCann was probably the most effected. He put a lot of faith in the player and the realisation that the squad may be broken up might not be something he planned for.
It doesn’t matter what we think of a player, to lose a mainstay of the group as quickly as that would have upset quite a few.
McCann has not been a poor coach in the opinion of the squad. He has built a team, stood by his players and has earns their respect.
He knows he is on borrowed time and the pity is that even with great results, he would be on his way.
Let’s hope his replacement has more to offer, because if he hasn’t we are well and truly ****ed.

 

The most entertaining part of the day was watching some of the Stoke players trying to take on Hudd physically and getting brushed off like Jonah Lomu in his prime. The incident with Wright-Phillips was reminiscent of another match.

 

I keep banging on about it but this has been a problem at the club for years. We let regular first team players go for no good reason. Winning teams are very rarely built on the kind of turnover we've had in the last few years. Yes there's a takeover but does everything have to grind to a halt for several months? We took up his option year last summer supposedly to buy us time to sort out a proper contract. Then nothing happens and he ends up leaving when the manager still wants him. Utterly ridiculous situation, whatever you think of the player.

 

Grant said it suits both us and them but it doesn't suit us yet.

I imagine the expectation was that the takeover be ratified, we bring in a couple of forwards and Josh be given a heavily reduced role. Therefore JM taking up a very good contract makes sense. You've no idea if that offer from Wigan would still be around in the summer, he's a great lad so I can understand why he's been allowed to grab it by Grant who's probably going to be gone in the next fortnight too.

But the takeover hasn't gone through as of yet so we're a bit ****ed...

 

It's games like this, against the better teams when playing 352, you need your wing-backs to be defensive-minded not attacking. Having KLP and Longman as wing-backs gives these teams too much room behind. We miss Coyle and Elder in these situations.

 

Very true John I don’t think stoke will cause teams with a couple of quick full backs the same problems has they did us

 

We are well and truly ****ed either way in the short term

 

This team is full of young players trying to find their way and career in professional football with only one or two exceptions, therefore any respect the players have, or may have for Terry, I take with a pinch of salt.
Would that situation change with a new coach, I think not!

 

At first I thought that said 'Mascot'.

 

OK.....Blackpool wasn't great was it! (memory clouded by a hangover....), but I don't think it was the stinker that was served up yesterday, stats wise we'd had more shots on and off target vs Blackpool and at least created something, yesterday was another level of ****. I'd still back GM to keep us up with or without the takeover and squad strengthening, yesterday I was VERY impressed with Stoke, they're possibly the best team I've seen us play at our place this season

 

Well,I wouldn't mind having Wright-Philips, who is younger than the vast majority of our players, in our squad.

 

Yeah, I do think not having Smallwood in DM played a big part in that, and like I'd said, the way we'd played with Hudd in cm vs Everton, it wasn't a bizarre call to go with the 3 he went with, all credit to Stoke tho, thought they were v good

 

And you know all of that how, exactly? Spoken to many of the players and staff?