D.D. wrote:
I just wonder, one day, whether Hughes will look back and see Kolo Toure as being largely responsible for his downfall? He bestowed the title of captain upon him and he has let him down in every area including leadership, command of his defence and not least his comical defending.
He’s been terrible. He seems to make the other defenders panic too. IMO our best partnership would be Lescott and Nedum.
In my book, the sale of Dunne and the pig-headed insistance on keeping the partnership of Toure and Lescott together, to justify his expenditure, has certainly been the major factor.
TBF Dunne was arguably the worst centre-half in the Prem last season, and, in general, he was pathetic for the latter half of Sven’s time at the club. He had to go.
I like Lescott. I think he will go on to be a key player for City. He has had two poor games but reading reports, he has had to miss quite a bit of training this season because of injury.
However, the strange substitutions, the inability to motivate the big guns such as Robinho and Adebayor and the tactical naivety have all played their part.
Strange substitutions? You will generally find that fans think the manager of their club makes strange substitution decisions. It’s a widespread whinge made by supporters. What supporters don’t know, are the reasons behind the decisions. For example, the player may be running out of steam or have picked-up a knock. Is the player recovering from illness. Not to mention the tactical issues that supporters don’t understand. If management was so easy, I would be doing it.
IMO Adebayor looks annoyed with the tactics or the fact that his teammates are not carrying out instructions. Against Spurs, Given was kicking the ball to areas 20 or 30 metres away from where Adebayor was. Also, we seem to be getting into the habit of lumping it up to Adebayor but no-one is running beyond him. It’s therefore even a waste of time him challenging for the header as he outnumbered and he can hardly flick it on for himself while being challenged.
I have to disagree with Cibaman. Robinho can handle the physicality as he has great feet and balance. His problem is that he doesn’t have it in him to get a grip of a game. He needs teammates to do the donkey work for him.
Again, re the issue of tactics, I am unsure. Managers know a lot more than we do. It’s not as if we can see something they can’t. I am unsure what happened against Spurs. In the first 35 minutes I could not see Spurs scoring. They only had one attacking outlet. Our defenders pushed up to the half-way line as Defoe and Crouch did not have the pace to beat Onouha and Toure. It also brought into play Onouha if they tried firing the over-the-top ball to Lennon. Onouha could deal with his pace. In that first 35 minutes, Barry was helping out Sylvinho in dealing with Lennon. Spurs scored, and then suddenly, we started defending deeper and Barry was no longer helping out Sylvinho. Was Barry covering because Robinho ignored instructions to track-back? Did Barry simply think he has to play in a more attacking role and leave Sylvinho to his own devices? Was that a Hughes instruction or did Barry make that decision? Goodness knows.
Fans will often moan about the tactics of managers. United fans sometimes moan about Ferguson’s tactics and some Liverpool fans moan about Benitez’s tactics. Let’s just say the fans are right in criticising Ferguson and Benitez. Well if Ferguson and Benitez makes mistakes then we have to accept that the likes of Hughes will make mistakes too. I am wary about criticising the tactics of managers because they understand the game far more than we fans do.
Just out of interest – have you heard the rumours that Adebayor and Toure were essentially Brian Marwood signings that were reluctantly accepted by Hughes. Not sure how true it is.
I am not overjoyed with the appointment of Mancini. However, I am happy with Brian Kidd appointment. He is apparently an excellent coach. The question is though: how will Kidd and Mancini get on? I have a feeling it’s a short-term appointment.
