Just back from the Emitates. No match report as I only do those for home games. Still like to make a few comments and player ratings though: First up....brilliant away support. We totally out-sung the Arsenal fans who were shockingly quiet! Now then....Mark Hughes!! Every single person within earshot of me today was saying the same thing....we had to play 3 centre mids today, with Diakite behind Granero and Faurlin, with Hoilett and Taarabt each side of them. But no!!!! Hughes plays ****ing 4-4-2 away from home against a midfield 3 of Wilshire, Arteta and Cazorla!!!! Diakite held, so it was more a 4-1-3-2 but even so, we were murdered in midfield. Hoilett never works into the hole when we don't have the ball so we are always out-mumbered in the middle. Against THAT Arsenal midfield it was complete madness!! Hughes has got to be totally inept tactically....totally!! When the Rangers team were called out, everyone got a cheer except SWP whose name was met with silence along with a couple of boos!! We all know it, but Hughes carries on making the same mistake over and over again. Apart from a couple of half decent crosses, which I had more inclination to go for than ****ing Zamora, SWP was hopeless. Time and again he gave the ball away in the 2nd half in particular. I'm absolutely fuming, as we had a great chance to take something from them today. Even then, Granero could have drawn us level near the end and Mackie SHOULD have!! I know the Hughes lovers will use M'Bia's crazy sending off as an excuse and we may well have hung on with 11 men, although we were right under the cosh even before he lost the plot. But the BBC has the possession as 70% for them. That says it all and without a world class display from Cesar, we would have been hammered!! That's it now. Me and the lad traveled a long way and spent a lot of money to watch that today and Hughes got it wrong AGAIN!! HE HAS TO GO!!!! Player ratings and comments: Cesar - 9 - Absolutely stunning display. Made save after save. World class. Bosingwa - 5 - Poor display. Got forward well and then totally messed up the final ball time after time. Dozy in defence. M'Bia - 3 - Played well....but a moment of madness to get sent off and probably cost us the game. Nelsen - 7 - A solid, assured display from Ryan. Traore - 7 - Showed some great composure and touch defensively. Shame he couldn't get forward more. SWP - 3 - Awful. Travesty that he was out there and Faurlin was sat on the bench!! Granero - 7 - Played well. Came close with a late free kick. Should have hit the target with a late chance. Taarabt - 7 - Similar to Granero. Retained the ball well and tried to get us forward. Also worked back well at times. Diakite - 7 - Worked hard against the tide of possession whilst Hughes's tactics left him so out-numbered. Hoilett - 6 - Looked a threat on the break, but no real efforts to speak of. Zamora - 4 - Awful....again!! Doesn't look bothered and never looks like being able to hold the ball up. So, as he can't hold it up we may as well play Cisse!! Zamora hardly won a header all game....again!! Subs: Mackie - 7 - Did really well but should have scored after a fantastic run in stoppage time. Our section would have exploded had that gone in!! Cisse - 6 - Tried to get in behind them and must be given a run in the team now to try to find some goal scoring form. Zamora is a waste of space!! Onuoha - 6 - Filled in ok for Traore. Hughes is either thick or mentally ill. Either way....he has to go or we're down!! Thoughts?
Read an interesting article today in which Hughes said' " although we are bottom our supporters find this sort of dogfight exciting. What an incompetent delusionest.
Yep col important with you. Im sticking to my guns and not going to anymore away games while he is in charge. The club might be going forward but the team certainly isn't! He has to be one of the worst managers we've ever had!
Great article col, agree completely. How Hughes has the audacity to play SWP when we have players like Faurlin and Cisse on the bench is beyond me. I'd be willing to give Green a run out at RM at this point rather than play him!
You have it spot on. As soon as the match started with that languid, uncreative, go-wide tactic, we should've changed formation and shoved it down their throats right down the middle. I can't fathom why we can't even try to sling through-balls diagonally in towards the box on the corner of the Area for us to run onto. If we have the right formation, we can, but with the sat-back 4-4-2 with the old-fashioned winger run without anybody to cross to - why does anybody think that MH is a good manager?
I remember the immediate positive effect Warnock had on us when he first came to us.He's not the biggest tactition,but I really do think Harry would be just right to motivate the players and have the same effect on our team.I just dont think Hughes can motivate the players and right now,we dont need a manager folding his arms,looking like the world is against him. The players dont look motivated.I think they would with Rednapp. Anwyay,I cant see Tony getting rid of MH and it looks like Harry wants the Blackburn job.
Hard to argue with rangercol assessment of todays game we just cannot afford to carry passengers week in week out, SWP and Zamora were dire.
Spot on assessment rangercol, apart from the away support which I didn't think was that great today, but having said that I don't really like the Emirates stadium as it's hard to create a decent atmosphere there. I particularly like your scoring of Zamora and SWP who were/are cr@p!
Rangercol appreciate your time as always. I take your point re Zamora but i don't think Cisse is any better, does my head in with his moaning and getting caught offside so many times, one of which he must have been 10 yards off! Give Mackie a go upfront, he came closest today going past 3 players.
Yep...I'd give Mackie a go mate. Zamora is just plain awful I'm afraid. I just think that Cisse is POTENTIALLY our biggest goal threat. We may as well play him from the start for a few games to see if we can play him into some kind of form. Couldn't be worse than Zamora and much more likely to score.
Grim reading mate. I think we have Hughes until end November. I realise it may be to late by then........
No I dont, I found losing 3-2 to Man City last year exciting where we had a go and lost. I dont find it exciting to play every game hoping for a 0-0 and maybe get a penalty or lucky goal. Youd have to go back to Holloway to find us as bad to watch as Hughes teams but at least the team back then was crap. Hughes has got a mid table team playing like a L1 team.
The players dont look motivated because they are taught to be negative, defensive and not get caught forward. That went out the window once they scored and we had 2 great chances, I want Hughes out even if we win the next couple of games because we will have won them despite him, not because of him.
I slightly disagree with the formation point. Yes against that Arsenal midfield the 3 were always going to have more possession. But in my opinion for the first half we looked very dangerous on the counter with the pace of Hoilett and Taarabt getting into good positions out wide, even with Bosingwa going forward. If we played 4-5-1 today it would have been exactly the same, only the ball would have come back more frequently. Even with that extra man, the arsenal midfield would have outplayed ours so it wouldn't have done anything, especially when your out ball would have been to Zamora who couldn't hold anything up to save his life. I think Hughes made a bold decision today, which may well have paid off had Mbia not been sent off. It was highly unlucky that he got sent off straight after we made our 3rd and final sub. As for putting Mackie at right back, again I don't necessarily disagree with it because when you are defending against quick wingers, would you prefer to have a stable Mackie who won't do anything stupid? Or would prefer Diakite who gets booked in nearly every single game and would put us in more danger? Playing 4-5-1 today would not have been the way to go at all.
You can play 451 and have 10 men behind the ball or you can play 451 and hit teams on the break, with Hoilett and Taarabt on the wings, we would have had the skill to break and Granero and Diakite could have got into the box. Trouble is, it doesnt matter what formation we play when every game is played to get a 0-0 draw, eg we play 442 with 2 defensive wingers and create nothing.
The problem is playing 4 at the back!!!! Stop playing 4 at the back. We need to play 3 CBs, and push the other 2 up in front of them. Therefore, we actually need to play 3-2-3-2, not 4 at the back. Make the midfielders work hard. They should be working hard, keeping the ball and running overlaps. Today we kept passing wide - but that was the end. There were no runs inside, no overlaps, it just got stuck wide and then we crossed poorly. So if we have overlapping mid-centre, we can out-stuff the opponent as we should've done today, and not wasted it on the wings.
