Monday 6 April 2009

Away form

Hughes in the MEN:
"The longer this run goes maybe the self-belief aspect comes into it," said Hughes.

"We have confidence at Eastlands. There we are a fantastic team to watch and we score goals.

"Away from home you have to stick your chest out and say to the opposition 'come on what have you got'.

"But we just weren't able to ask enough questions and at the moment that is happening too many times away from home."
I thought that 'sticking your chest out and saying 'come on what have you got'' was precisely why we got Hughes in to replace Eriksson. Last season we were a push over in scrappy away games. To have got much, much worse in that regard is an embarrassment.

2 comments:

nb said...

Personally, I feel utterly conflicted about Mark Hughes.

Normally, the rational response is to give the manager time, allow him to develop his own team (you label this process 'Sparkyisation') and refrain from making knee-jerk reactions. Conversely, the emotional choice is to sack the manager, employ someone else and begin the process again next season. Usually, the former is sensible and the latter is irrational. To sack a manager after so little time smacks of desperation, short termism and impatience.

However, on this occasion I wonder if we have got things the wrong way around. I desperately want Sparky to succeed and to have some stability at this club; so much so that I fear it has clouded my better judgement. After all, regardless of Sparkyisation, I would still expect more from these players and this manager. Away from home we have been an utter disgrace. Moreover, whilst I realise Hughes has faced dissatisfaction and dissent from some players, he has been employed to deal with it, not excuse it.

Honestly, I'm more confused than ever. When friends ask my opinion on Hughes, I really can't make up my mind.

Anonymous said...

nb, I was just as conflicted about Keegan, Pearce and to some extent Eriksson. I desperatley wanted the m to succeed, and to succeed at Manchester City.

There does appear to be an inherent defect in the club in that it really wants to succeed and when it does start to do well on the pitch, the club really doesn't seem able to know what to do next.

We certainly have the players capable of success and come the summer when the deadwood is pruned, we will have the core of a very good team. It is just a matter of overcoming that mental block that says "hang on, we're Manchester City, we aren't supposed to be any good".