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Do others like me find some of Hughes tactics and substitutions baffling?

I am not basing this on one match, I am basing with observations I made last season and this season, last season there were many matches where I felt Hughes dawdled in making substitutions, and when he did belatedly make them I was just confused, throwing a 2-0 lead against Liverpool because we were unable to shut up shop is one that springs to mind, playing right sided players on the left etc were others.

We have had a great season so far, yet I feel we lost to the Scum because Hughes changed things at half time and took far to long to revert back to the same system, I remember De Jong pleading with him to sure up the midfield because we were being over run, he took far to long to change things, tonight for me it was evident very early on that midfield was none existent, substitutions should have been made after maybe just half an hour, bringing on SI was a positive move, then any benefit from it effectively evaporated by bringing on the clearly unfit RSC ,I feel we could and should have beaten these if the right choices were made by Hughes.

bad choices might cost us in the bigger games where Hughes needs to pit his whit’s against the top 4.

I agree wholeheartedly with you mate his subs and tactics have always been nuts and sometimes lost us games especially last season. This season they havn't been too bad but tonight was a bit off.

to be fair , and i fucking hate hughes, he was ready to make 2 changes it seemed , but we scored so he made 1. and that was with 20-30 minutes left. perfect time to make a change.

CITYTILLIDIE11 wrote:bad choices might cost us in the bigger games where Hughes needs to pit his whit’s against the top 4.

That's kinda funny, "he needs to pit his small bits against the top 4"?

Well he brought Stevie Ireland on tonight who I thought changed the game for us, opening space for the likes of Ade who then played Bellamy the ball to score. So all in all I thought he did a decent job tonight with his tactics although I still think it was a bit early to throw RSC on for half an hour and I would of taken SWP rather than Tevez.

Like I said though Stevie changed the game for us so well done Hughes.

CITYTILLIDIE11 wrote:Do others like me find some of Hughes tactics and substitutions baffling?

I am not basing this on one match, I am basing with observations I made last season and this season, last season there were many matches where I felt Hughes dawdled in making substitutions, and when he did belatedly make them I was just confused, throwing a 2-0 lead against Liverpool because we were unable to shut up shop is one that springs to mind, playing right sided players on the left etc were others.

We have had a great season so far, yet I feel we lost to the Scum because Hughes changed things at half time and took far to long to revert back to the same system, I remember De Jong pleading with him to sure up the midfield because we were being over run, he took far to long to change things, tonight for me it was evident very early on that midfield was none existent, substitutions should have been made after maybe just half an hour, bringing on SI was a positive move, then any benefit from it effectively evaporated by bringing on the clearly unfit RSC ,I feel we could and should have beaten these if the right choices were made by Hughes.

It might cost us in the bigger games where Hughes needs to pit his whit’s against the top 4.

I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt in the absence of any really stunning substitutions like Gelson this season, however have to give him credit for example for Petrov vs Arsenal and one or two others.

I think this is the major issue Hughes has to overcome this season for me to get me properly onside. He has proven he can bring the right players into the club, but I have yet to be convinced that he has the right stuff to get the VERY best out of them and to deploy the players in the right way week in week out - and also questionmarks about how he adapts the tactics in adversity. That, and defending from set pieces and crosses, which has also not really improved from last year, but hopefully will as Lescott settles down.

Apart from the RSC substitution and sitting back the last 10 mins I can't say I am complaining tonight, we got a creditable draw against a very strong side who had won 5 on the bounce

i agree with you on last season.I also was baffled but put it down to a lack of options in certain areas.
Tonights game he brought on Ireland only because De jong was unable to play and it worked cuz Superman was involved with the goal.Just remember Ireland has lacked form and has been ill befoe tonights game so its understandable he would be on the bench.

9secondlegend wrote:to be fair , and i fucking hate hughes, he was ready to make 2 changes it seemed , but we scored so he made 1. and that was with 20-30 minutes left. perfect time to make a change.

I just felt we were set up wrong very early on, playing Tevez ,Adebayor,and Bellamy at the cost of the midfield cost us in my opinion, luckily we went in only 1-0 down.

In all fairness he brought on SI at the expense of De Jong but in my opinion it was belated, then bringing on RSC probably cost us the 3 points we effectively snuffed out our own threat going forward.

Maybe we need a good world class coach or assistant sat in the stands to advise Hughes during games,

I am not sure that harping back to last season is going to be really relevant - he has the personnel now to offer all options - so he needs to make the right choices

Must admit I thought his substitutions were the right ones tonight - although RSC did not shine putting him on was a positive move to win the game - the choice was right - just wish RSC had made more of the chance - Stevie was good, dropping in straight away

maybe but i prefer to see us in the atacking formation as i know we are very dangerous. i have read on here that tevez was poor today but i thought he was ok.
i thought the subs should have been swp for petrov and maybe barry for cruz( but i didnt realize how unfit cruz was so it was a bad sub) and shuffle it about a bit.

Not always been a fan of Hughes' substitutions but I won't comlain about tonight. Brought on Ireland who changed the balance in midfield and looked really threatening with plenty of time to make a difference. Tevez had not looked sharp. The only way we looked like conceding was arially against set pieces. Santa Cruz was good insurance against that and at the same time would have given us a bigger threat if we had some. As it was we did not and Santa Cruz looked a little off the pace in a fast moving game, on another day his contribution could have been important.

Santa Cruz clearly needs match time and I think that was the idea behind Hughes giving him 20 minutes. I personally would have slung petrov on but hey ho in Hughes we trust an' all that.

SORTED wrote:Santa Cruz clearly needs match time and I think that was the idea behind Hughes giving him 20 minutes. I personally would have slung petrov on but hey ho in Hughes we trust an' all that.

Spot on..But can u change that annoying Avatar it fookin does me bastard head in lol ;-0

shawzy wrote:

SORTED wrote:Santa Cruz clearly needs match time and I think that was the idea behind Hughes giving him 20 minutes. I personally would have slung petrov on but hey ho in Hughes we trust an' all that.

Spot on..But can u change that annoying Avatar it fookin does me bastard head in lol ;-0

No it doesn't.

SORTED wrote:

shawzy wrote:

SORTED wrote:Santa Cruz clearly needs match time and I think that was the idea behind Hughes giving him 20 minutes. I personally would have slung petrov on but hey ho in Hughes we trust an' all that.

Spot on..But can u change that annoying Avatar it fookin does me bastard head in lol ;-0

No it doesn't.

yes it is

mcfc1632 wrote:I am not sure that harping back to last season is going to be really relevant - he has the personnel now to offer all options - so he needs to make the right choices

I dont know mate, I cannot let the madness of the Gelson substitution go when at the time of Zabaleta's sending off we had Micah at centre half who was playing right back for England that month, Kompany in midfield who could have sorted the CB position out, and even had TBH on the bench, so I can't accept that he didnt have options in many of the situations last year, rather he had options that he did not deploy properly. You really would have to have taken leave of your senses to play Gelson at RB when you had all those options on hand - it really worries me this tactical/substitutions issue

Having said that, I was reasonably happy tonight. RSC has to get some game time to get his sharpness back. The next big test for Hughes is to see if RSC had any sharpness in the first place - fortunately he might get away with RSC tanking on the grounds of the exceptional form of Bellers

The RSC substitution possibly cost us a win, but at least it wasnt an embarrassing defeat like last years Liverpool / Spuds decisions were - that is progress!

CITYTILLIDIE11 wrote:

SORTED wrote:

shawzy wrote:

SORTED wrote:Santa Cruz clearly needs match time and I think that was the idea behind Hughes giving him 20 minutes. I personally would have slung petrov on but hey ho in Hughes we trust an' all that.

Spot on..But can u change that annoying Avatar it fookin does me bastard head in lol ;-0

No it doesn't.

yes it is

Haha I knew someone would oblige. Well in CitytillIdie.

...tbh honest it was gettin on my nerves as well so say hello to Stevie!

SORTED wrote:

shawzy wrote:

SORTED wrote:Santa Cruz clearly needs match time and I think that was the idea behind Hughes giving him 20 minutes. I personally would have slung petrov on but hey ho in Hughes we trust an' all that.

Spot on..But can u change that annoying Avatar it fookin does me bastard head in lol ;-0

No it doesn't.

Yes it does ;-0

Wheres that blue headed monster thing you used to have on ya avatar? haha.It suited you ;-0

What an absolutely fucking weird thread. He makes a substitution that immediately succeeds & people are saying if he'd done what THEY want it would've automatically worked out better? Of course if he'd done that & we lost it'd be his mistake though. What a load of speculative bullshit.

johnpb78 wrote:

mcfc1632 wrote:I am not sure that harping back to last season is going to be really relevant - he has the personnel now to offer all options - so he needs to make the right choices

I dont know mate, I cannot let the madness of the Gelson substitution go when at the time of Zabaleta's sending off we had Micah at centre half who was playing right back for England that month, Kompany in midfield who could have sorted the CB position out, and even had TBH on the bench, so I can't accept that he didnt have options in many of the situations last year, rather he had options that he did not deploy properly. You really would have to have taken leave of your senses to play Gelson at RB when you had all those options on hand - it really worries me this tactical/substitutions issue

Having said that, I was reasonably happy tonight. RSC has to get some game time to get his sharpness back. The next big test for Hughes is to see if RSC had any sharpness in the first place - fortunately he might get away with RSC tanking on the grounds of the exceptional form of Bellers

The RSC substitution possibly cost us a win, but at least it wasnt an embarrassing defeat like last years Liverpool / Spuds decisions were - that is progress!

you rightly point out we are making progress, last season the personnel we had at our disposal meant that bad choices by Hughes would have meant almost certain defeat, today we came away with a point after playing nowhere near as good as we can.


Quote
“ The next big test for Hughes is to see if RSC had any sharpness in the first place - fortunately he might get away with RSC tanking on the grounds of the exceptional form of Bellers”

Is that a rhetorical question mate ( love it lmao)