Results: Hughes has managed 20 points from 27 matches (0.74 points a game), Warnock managed 17 points from 20 matches (0.85 points a game). Squad improvements: Im not gonna even attempt to argue that Warnock is a better manager than Hughes at building a squad, as our current squad nowadays shows just how fr we have gone. However, probably our 3 best players from our time in the prem (Hill, Taarabt and Mackie) are all Warnock signings. Yet at the same time, it still pains me to see Kaspars Gorkss playing the prem for Reading just so that we could start Hall and Gabbidon. Whilst Hughes has recruited a very talented squad with a significant transfer fund (in comparison to Warnock), we remain lacking in several positions (the whole of defence) and Hughes also decided to sell last season top scorer and probably the best header of the ball in the country, Heidar Helguson, who has since continued scoring for Cardiff whilst we get to watch Zamora fail to win a single header either as a big man upfront or as a defender on set pieces. Managerial ability: Both are tactically inept but Warnock is by far the better man manager. Just look at our teams from our only 2 away wins in the prem (something Hughes has still yet to manage). vs Everton: Kenny, orr, hall, gabbidon, connolly, derry, taarabt, faurlin, buzsaky, agyemang, smith. Subs: murphy, gorkss, perone, moen, ephraim, andrade, bothroyd vs Stoke: Kenny, hill, gabbidon, ferdinand, young, faurlin, traore, barton, swp, mackie, helguson. Subs: orr, derry, buzsaky, smith, hewitt. That stoke game in particular is the perfect example of what a good manager can achieve. We had a real injury crisis at that point. We only had 16 fit players, one of whom is now playing in the Blue Square Premier I believe. So in conclusion, is Hughes the better manager? For me, no. The only thing that appears to have even kept him in his job upto this point was a forced substitute he had to make against West Ham. Finally our best player in the prem, someone Hughes had intentionally frozen out, much like Warnock did before him, came on and proved exactly we he should have been starting every week. After every game Hughes has had an excuse, we didnt get the luck today, the ref has missed a blatant pen, it was a brief moment of madness etc yet every week the same thing will happen. This is due to the lack of accountability Hughes has brought to the squad. In the 27 matches he has been manager, we have recieved 9 red cards. Not only is that a premier league and club record, but it is a indictment of how little influence Hughes has among his players. The question has to be asked of whether he has the support of the dressing room. He has proven wrong tactically every week, he picks players irregardless of how their performance has been, which can only have a negative effect on those trying to get into the team, and he then is shown up, when his less favoured players come on and show exactly why they should be starting. So should Hughes stay? Remember when a majority were calling for Warnock's head with us sitting in 17th place despite coming off a run against the top 6. Well Hughes promised we would never be in that situation again and we found ourselves 17th last season, and 20th now. With a roughly a quarter of the season gone, we find ourselves on pace for the massive total of 12 points. Its all very well saying there are winnable games coming up but actually we have just completely thrown away 2 of them. Against a 10 man Everton team, Hughes made his standard like for like move of Cisse for Zamora (inspite of them being completely different types of striker and is a move that has yet to see a goal) and 2 defensive subs, whilst against possibly the worst Arsenal team in recent memory (in terms of performance), we were thoughtfully lined up to give Arsenal complete dominance of the midfield (Wilshere completed 37 of 37 passes) and created a single shot (off target) until the 85th minute, when Jamie Mackie who had been brought on for the outstandingly crap SWP (on a side note, does anyone think he would have ever played premier league football/got an england cap if his name was Shaun Phillips? And as a result would he even be playing for a league football club nowadays, if he didnt have either of those things) managed to create a chance. So for me Hughes has to go. The guy has put us in much better shape, but he is holding us back. I can only hope that the board see fit to dismiss him whilst we are still within touching distance of 17th and not by xmas, by which team it will surely be too late.
This has to be the best article i have read to date. It shows everyone what they need to know. I don't think you will get anyone arguing with this!
Don't forget our win against Wolves as well! I dont particularly like Hughes but I feel we should carry on at the moment. November will be vital. If in a months time we only have 4 or 5 more points to show for it then he can pack up and leave. But the players also have to take a large amount of the blame. How as a manager can you suffice for your CB taking a mad swing at the opposition for no apparent reason or letting Sylvain Distin and Phil Jagielka have two free headers within a minute of each other? Some things a manager can't have an influence on. Sack him now? No. He's signed too many players and another manager coming in and signing another 5 in January would not help us at all.
Excellent article. We have a good squad with some very good players....Hughes is not good enough to get them playing well enough to keep us in this league. He can take credit for getting these good players to the club but he is tactically inept!! Maybe he should fill Rigg's job and concentrate on getting top players to the club? Let someone else go about trying to keep us up...an already very unlikely possibility anyway given the position Hughes has placed us in. A quarter of the season is now gone FFS!!
Hughes has got every team hes managed into Europe, Warnock has relegated every top level team hes managed. Hughes is the better man over his career but hes not right for us, neither is Warnock.
Excellent article which I hope manages to make some think their long held beliefs that Hughes was a much better manager in the first place. Curious though that you forgot one of our best attacking and defensive displays last season - Wolves away. I doubt we will recapture that sort of performance again because that is not the way Hughes sets up his sides particularly away from home. You get the feeling at home that the bar is set at getting noses in front and then ensuring we give nothing away. Any more goals scored is seen as an unexpected bonus. Away from home it's clear that the aim is a clean sheet - any goal at all which we might score by chance is seen as the bonus. There is one flaw which both are prone to. Favouritism. But then tell me any manager that we have had in the last 10 years or so who has not stood by his favourites. In Sean Derry, Clint Hill and Paddy Kenny, Warnock came up trumps in spite of almost universal condemnation on this board for his lack of ambition. But what about Hulse? By the way, let's give credit where credit is due. Taarabt was recruited by none other than Gianni Paladini without any input from either Paulo Sousa or Gareth Ainsworth both of whom played him as little as they could. Ali Faurlin the same. Magilton may have been the name on the door at the time but we all know that he had no say in the buy. He promptly dropped him and it is a testament to Faurlin's temperament that he hung around and scrapped his way back into the team. In some ways, I fear that the same logic which told us that Briatore should not meddle in team affairs is now working against us in that Fernandes keeps his opinions to himself about team selection and tactics. Looks like it's up to us and especially those who think that he listens to their opinions to get him to speak to Hughes and change his tactics and undying loyalty to particular players. Having said all that, and we can all see the problems, I just do not see any viable alternative other than to voice our opinions and hope that the "advice" is heeded beofre it's too late. Those of you ready to pull the trigger should remember that: It is not your money that is at stake. A new manager will want at least as much money as Hughes has been given to put right "the shocking mess left behind by the previous manager/builder". Reputations count for nothing. Hughes has been successful elsewhere. So have a host of other former Man U players who have since had their reputations blown. Who else is out there? Harry?McLeish? Bruce? Perhaps a return for Sousa or Di Canio? Of course we could always go about it the Wolves way and pitch some non-entity in because he's a nice guy and won't say boo to as goose or stand up for himself. Sounds like Gareth Ainsworth. We're saddled with him mates. So make the most of it and change the record please. The season has been a huge disappointment so far but I don't see it getting any better
It's worth pointing out that Redknapp took over at Southampton at the end of November 2004 and got them relegated, so it doesn't always work out for him. Trouble is, with the squad we've got, whoever might replace MH IF he's sacked, our defence will be suspect until January at least, by then we may be too far gone. Also, we still can't string three passes together - Shut up, I'm depressing myself...
Redknapp went into Spurs in practically the same position and took them from the relegation zone to safety, before building on a similar budget to Hughes, a top table team that began to challenge after a couple of seasons for the top 4. Even if we choose not to get of rid Hughes now because we're saddled with him and he leads us down (which is a highly likely scenario), do you honestly seem him staying after that and even if he did, do you think he has the ability to get a team promoted?
if yuy are going to cross the border and invade our board, at least tell us who the question is directed at?
No I don't see him staying but I would prefer someone else in charge at the start of the season - someone like Warnock or Holloway who will get us firing on all cylinders and attacking teams but the truth is there are too many ifs and buts in the seond question? Depends on the players who remain and the ones who come in.
Hughes is all smoke and mirrors. Warnock has forgotten more about being football manager than he'll ever know.
You say hughes had got everygame wroung in hes tatics, how about spurs, arsenal and swansea at home last season, also chelsea this season??
Just for the record, last season under Warnock, despite those two awful games against Bolton and Fulham, with a much weaker squad, we managed to accumulate 15 points from the first 12 games, including 3 away wins. Our main problem seemed to be not taking advantage of more home wins, especially in the case of the Newcastle, Aston Villa and Blackburn drawn games. We also demonstrated very plucky team performances in the losses to Spurs and Man City. Currently we are 9 games into our season, with only 3 pts and no wins, so even if we were to pick up 6 pts from the next 3 games, giving us 9 points, we would be way behind last season's performance. I wonder if TF ever makes simple comparisons like this? Really surprised that we are still only 2/1 odds for relegation with the bookies? They obviously see some potential that we are certainly not currently witnessing. 13 August 2011 Queens Park Rangers 0 â 4 Bolton Wanderers 20 August 2011 Everton 0 â 1 Queens Park Rangers 27 August 2011 Wigan Athletic 2 â 0 Queens Park Rangers 12 September 2011 Queens Park Rangers 0 â 0 Newcastle United 17 September 2011 Wolverhampton Wanderers 0 â 3 Queens Park Rangers 25 September 2011 Queens Park Rangers 1 â 1 Aston Villa 2 October 2011 Fulham 6 â 0 Queens Park Rangers 15 October 2011 Queens Park Rangers 1 â 1 Blackburn Rovers 23 October 2011 Queens Park Rangers 1 â 0 Chelsea 30 October 2011 Tottenham Hotspur 3 â 1 Queens Park Rangers 5 November 2011 Queens Park Rangers 2 â 3 Manchester City 19 November 2011 Stoke City 2 â 3 Queens Park Rangers
We were going down under Warnock. Obviously we'll never know for sure but he lost the proverbial dressing room.
