[Archived] Do Not Blame Hughes !

[BrianPotter]

Already we seem to have one or two suggesting that Hughes is not the man for the job.

Ok, we have had poor start under Hughes, and we all had bit of "head in clouds" syndrome where a little part of us thought that Hughes would come in and turn things around immediatley. Realisticly this is not going to happen, whether Hughes is top level management material is not the question here - and I for one beleive the jury is still out on that. At the end of the day whovever came in would only be as good as the players that go out on the pitch each week and train with him each day. These are players that the manager has inherited - and it may be that in an ideal world Hughes (or any other manager) would not choose a single one of them to play in his team, but at this stage, with the transfer window closed he has no option other than use the tools he has. (B&Q's own brand instead of his usual Stanley ones !).

Although water under the bridge, there is only one place to point the finger and that is firmly in the face of Mr Souness. The team we have now that goes out on the pitch was moulded and constructed over a period of time by Souness. In my opinion, what he has done to Rovers can be talked about in the same manner as John Bond and the dingles. Souness inherited a reasonably talented team (with at least two top class home grown players). Over a period of time he spent heavily on new players with full financial backing. But in general all he has done is get rid of higher quality players and replace them with ones of a far poorer standard.

This is the simple reason that we are in the position we are now - a good team does not become a bad team overnight, it happens over period of time and that period of time was whilst Souness was in charge.

Ask yourselves this question - did we have a better team when Souness took over than we do now, I think that you will only come up with one answer - yes we did.

This season will be a long hard battle against relegation. If we stay up this season under Hughes the man deserves a medal.

Souness should be summoned to court to account for his gross negligance and mis-conduct whilst employed by Rovers ! He spent all our cash and left us with sunday league eleven.

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

I totally agree that our present problems are not the making of Hughes but I must say that I am now of the opinion that we may well have to go down and start all over again.

Again I ask the question,

Why have our players not responded to the appointment of Hughes?......

[doctorryan]

This season will be a long hard battle against relegation. If we stay up this season under Hughes the man deserves a medal.

Try Sainthood.

[bazcaz]

At the end of the day blackburn are a no shape no skill no talent team

[Ewood Dream]

I totally agree that our present problems are not the making of Hughes but I must say that I am now of the opinion that we may well have to go down and start all over again.

Yeah lets go down and be drained of money before sinking lower and lower into oblivion like Sheff Wed and Bradford....

My proper judgement for Hughes will emerge when I see what he produces when the transfer market is avaiable...

[krislu]

I dont blame Hughes, but WHY OH WHY is Emerton playing left wing?

[den]

The best thing Hughes can do, is to write this season off and start on a complete rebuilding programme. This isn't a decent side playing badly, it's a very poor side playing awfully.

[krislu]

The best thing Hughes can do, is to write this season off and start on a complete rebuilding programme. This isn't a decent side playing badly, it's a very poor side playing awfully.

Agree, everyone seems to think that we have a top 6 team on paper, thats RUBBISH! We aint better than Palace, WBA or Norwich in fact, we are worse.

We dont have any player who can go past their man, no-one! We dont have pace, we dont have creativity, we are poorly organized, we have no plan in our atticking play, our players dont understand each other, we are crap!

Players that IMO have no future at Blackburn Rovers:

Matteo - one of the worst defenders of the PL along side Amoruso

Amoruso - see above

Flitcroft - offers nothing

Neill - cant defend

Gray - see above

[Ewood Dream]

Its time Hughes looked deeper into his entire squad and tried to seek out players who can change the set of crap we have that is called a 'defence'.

Andy Todd is no Paolo Maldini but at least he would add more solidity than say Matteo or Amoruso until the market reopens.

Like krislu said, we have NO player who can beat players (remember when Duff and Dunn would do this?) How about Ciaran Donnelly? Isn't he an attacking midfielder?

To be honest, I really feel Hughes won't make major changes in terms of offloading when the market reopens... Which is a shame because the likes of Flitcroft, Tugay and Matteo need punting out..

Edited October 23, 2004 by Ewood Dream

[broadsword]

What a shame Souness did not eff off earlier!

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

Its time Hughes looked deeper into his entire squad and tried to seek out players who can change the set of crap we have that is called a 'defence'

LOL...they are all crap full stop!

[Ewood Dream]

What a shame Souness did not eff off earlier!

Yeah yet on GSS, they made it out like it was good GS jumped-ship when he did, as if he wasn't at all responsible for the mess we have now that is a 'team'.

[bazza]

My proper judgement for Hughes will emerge when I see what he produces when the transfer market is avaiable...

Forget the transfer market. It IS possible to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. Just look at David Moyes and Everton.

So I'm expecting Sparky and his team to have us out of the bottom four by January.

If he doesn't produce, then I'll start to doubt.

[Neil Weaver]

Forget the transfer market. It IS possible to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. Just look at David Moyes and Everton.

So I'm expecting Sparky and his team to have us out of the bottom four by January.

If he doesn't produce, then I'll start to doubt.

Got to agree Bazza. Compare the Rovers squad man-for-man against those of the likes of Palace, WBA, Norwich, Charlton, Portsmouth, Everton, Southampton and we're at least on a par. At the moment, compare the team and we're not far off the worst of that lot (and that's optimistic). Time to earn your money between now and Jan, Mark. If we've 20 points by the end of the year, he'll have worked a minor miracle and well and truly earnt whatever wage he's on.

[G Somerset Rover]

Boys "on paper" means absoloutely nothing. All my none Rover fan mates say "oh youve got a good squad-too good to go down". Absoloute rubbish. We have quite a big squad full of tripe. We have an awful defence-worst in the league by miles. And we don't have one striker who can net 10 plus (and thats being v generous). I do agree that Hughes cannot be blamed for our current predicement, but as someone mentioned, why have the players not responed at all to him? The other slightly worrying thing is that Hughes has won about one of his last 15 competitive matches now, that is shocking. He seems to have brought his losing mentality with him, and coupled with our awful team its been a cocktail for disaster. I think we've gotta start facing up to the stark reality of just how bad this Rovers team is. It breaks my heart, but it is the truth.

[roversWASmylife]

Interesting topic.

I am not going to blame Hughes for the run of defeats that we have had. Hughes is doing as best as he can with the 'average' squad that Souness had bought and what he builded.

The defence needs to be sorted out quickly. Amo's out for three months, Short hasn't got the pace, from watching the highlights of the game last night it looked like the defence didn't have any shape to it at all.

I'd like to see Todd brought in, he brings a stable look to the team.

Where's McEveily? I'd give him a run out as well.

I dread to see Cisse and Baros playing against our defence next Saturday...

[92er]

I think the squad is worse than when we last got relegated, but I hope it doesn't take Hughes too long to sort out his tactics.

[Scotty]

I think the squad is worse than when we last got relegated, but I hope it doesn't take Hughes too long to sort out his tactics.

I think that's a good point. I've heard people comparing Hughes to Kidd but I think Kidd had far more to work with when he joined us. He had a much better squad, a huge transfer budget, and no transfer window. We should never have been relegated then.

Hughes on the other hand has a poor squad, little money, and no opportunity to buy anyone until January. As I said on another thread, if he keeps us up he'll have done a great job.

[LeChuck]

I hope it doesn't take Hughes too long to sort out his tactics.

The problem is...these ARE Hughes' tactics, he used them for Wales...I was hoping that that was down to the fact that Wales had a limited number of players and he wanted a way of fitting them into one team...but our tactics are starting to mirror those that he used for Wales. He would often play just Hartson up front on his own (Dickov), mess with his wingers which included Giggs playing right sometimes (Emerton).

If we stay with one up front we will go down, we won't magically stop conceding goals so we have to make sure we're a threat at the other end...if we stick with one up front we'll have to the worst attack in the league as well as the worst defence. Relying on a First Division quality striker like Dickov to fire us to Premiership safety is nuts.

[philipl]

LeChuck, have to say you are spot on. We are Wales mark 2.

My worry about Hughes was what was happening at Wales. Yes they had very limited players, many of whom were fizzling out (ditto Rovers), but Hughes seemed incapable of motivating them- especially that home defeat against Russia when in the biggest game for their country in two generations, Wales were remarkably under-motivated and easilly defeated by a pretty ordinary side (look at Russia's results since Cardiff).

Hughes looked good becausee he walked into the biggest shambles in interntional football.

At this point, I wish we had Dowie. Palace do not have better players than us but look where they are standing relative to us today.

This is not a Hughes out rant. He is a big improvement over Souness who did supinely lose games 0-4 (Brum and Liverpool). More to the point, Rovers beat Pompey- very unlikely a Souness-led Rovers would have won that one.

Edited October 25, 2004 by philipl

[emglch]

Hughes to strengthen squad come Jan

wonder who's he going to get??? with the kind of money Blackburn has. not forgetting the table position by then.

maybe he would have check out CM5 by then.

[den]

The time to judge Hughes, is when he has had time to prune and reshape this poor squad of players he has inherited.

Criticise his tactics by all means. But whatever formations he chooses, if the players are too old, too slow and generally not good enough, there's very little he can do.

[Hughesy]

Ok so we beat Fulham, lose to Charlton, draw with villa and then lose 2 games 4-0. Ok it isn’t the best of starts but I have to agree that none of this is Hughes’ fault.

I for have deffinatley seen singns of improvement in the players we have, however the 4 he is playing at the back is not the correct 4. Short is too slow. Amo is now injured so we don’t need to worry about him hopefully. Gray should be dropped as he has been poor and either Gresko or McEveley should be given a chance. Neill has also been poor but I still think he merits his place in the team.

For me I would go with Neill, Todd, Johanson and McEveley in defence. What’s the worst that could happen? Another 4 – 0? That I find highly unlikely!

With Liverpool next at home, we will need a lot of grit and a lot of pace at the back!

[cravenblue]

i hope for god sake he doesnt play reid anymore. whats the point of having de pedro mgp and jansen, all left footers and play emerton on the left to accomdate the donkey reid!!

[broadsword]

Hughes to strengthen squad come Jan

wonder who's he going to get??? with the kind of money Blackburn has. not forgetting the table position by then.

maybe he would have check out CM5 by then.

I'm hoping for Superman, Spiderman, Elastoman, the Thing, Darkman, Ironman, Darth Vader and John Hartson.