Hull Vs Manchester City preview

Well hughes has dealt with the Brazillians this week, had meetings with the Owners and had have been given the thumbs up for january. The question is, will he make it to january.

Hull have some decent players and a decent manager in phill brown. We also welcome back Geovanni, the talented brazillian will hopefully get a warm recpetion from the away fans, he is a quality player, shows how blind sven was.

But we have to beat them, we are better than hull, man for man, it's up to the players and managment to get it right, stop these individual errors, be more clinical away from home.

Hughes really has to get these guys playing football, it's a result business and if he doesn't win tomorrow, we will have had our worst start in the league since we were relegated in the 95/96 season. Let's hope not!

City have to win tomorrow, hopefully a convincing win too...

Hughes backs the wrong man!

Hughes has moved to support Richard dunne who has been in a rich vein of poor form since the end of last season and has continued with style this season with 2 goals and plenty of assists. ok, fair enough, he needs a boost, but stories circulating elano and micah richards being targeted as the one's underachieving, makes me question what has Mark Hughes been watching this season.

Elano interview

It's clear he has laid the blame on Elano, one of the best players at the club, who has performed well this season. He dropped elano and in doing so, removed any support for the back 4, and loses the creative force that elano brings with excellent passing.
Elano has come out and said, he plays for Brazil but can't get in the city side, why? It puzzles me, what is Hughes up to. Elano also said Hughes doesn't talk to him when he comes off, so he doesn't know what he is doing wrong. Elano has cleared up the rumour that the three Brazilians dislike Hughes and his coaching style, although it appears with Jo going out midweek whilst being ill and then skipping training, shows our Brazilians are not quite content.

Robinho has scored 2 in 2 and both times he has run to the touchline to cheer with elano. This sends a clear message to Hughes, that if he sells elano, robinho is almost certain to want to leave.

feel free to leave your views (as long as your not abusive cockneys)

Hughes: the right man for the job!

Al Muburak has come out in support of Mark Hughes, rightly so! We have a long season in front of us, with january edging closer, that will define the beginning of the mark hughes era, his previous (very good transfers ) were on a budget, he has yet to get his hands on the millions that brought Robinho to manchester. Hughes needs time to iron out the problems in the team, and he has to play around with the squad to do it. Some of his decisions may not be liked, i know several decisions which i regard as mistakes, but he is in the early stages of building a side and needs a lot of time to do so. Were not playing that badly, but have been restricted by poor discipline, unlucky decisions and some individual errors. His tasks should be to sure up the back line, sort richard dunne out and then buy the right players in january.

The defense, we have;
- onouha a young talented player, needs to play himself into form.
-Ben Haim- i am sick of people saying he is shit, he's looked better every game he's played. Mourinho wouldn't of signed him if he was shite, he can also pass the ball better than dunne and richards.
- Glauber Berti- An unknown quantity, tall, left footed, one cap for brazil, cant be bad.
-Kompany- a gifted centre back, a risk losing him in the centre as we have nothing to replace him with.


Dunne- this suspension will do him good, give him to get his head straight and for hughes and co to work him hard and sharpen up.


Transfers.

A left back: we need someone strong, good tackler and positionally good. Taye taiwo is strong quick, hard tackler, but can also attack, with a ferocious shot. Others linked haven't been so great, Wayne bridge doesn't get regular football and hasn't done for years. He isn't getting younger either, spent too long on the sidelines, never really been a fan. Warnock from Blackburn, er no thanks, liverpool reject, we don't want him.

Centre back? not sure about this, depends on dunnie!

Midfield: we never replaced Foe as a box to box midfielder, even joey barton, for all his faults, he was able to pick the ball up and drive it forward and grip the midfield when needed. We could do with Lassana Diarra as well, who will play more like makelele, but is good on the ball and can pass, he would be an ideal acquisition. Javi martinez the young spanish midfielder is tall and strong, and can pick the ball up from the back and drive it forward.

i would also recommend Rafael Carioca a quality young DM. While were at it, get the new Robinho in Douglas Costa, to add to our brazillian contingent.

Striker wise- i am unsure, Jo needs his chance, he's good and needs confidence, but i wouldn't say no to the likes of vagner love, huntelaar, just not santa cruz. Bojinov set to return for the New Year we could be ok. Goals are not the problem.

Anyway, city fans, have patience, you may not like hughes, i hate the man, never liked him at blackburn, don't like him now, but i recognise he is a top manager and one of the best British managers around. He will implement his changes in january and then we will see what hughes is trying to do with our team.

Man city 1- spurs 2 - ref ruins a good game

The pressure on Hughes shoulders in now immense, with Hull, Arsenal and Manyoo coming up along with Schalke in Europe, this spell will be the most important one of hughes managerial career. There is plenty of hostility on radio phone-in's, message-boards alike calling for hughes to be sacked. Are we really going to sack a manager so quickly again? Hughes has made mistakes but has also been unfortunate with injuries and refereeing decisions that have certainly contributed to our poor form. Sending off at liverpool changed the game, penalty at boro changed the game and yesterdays match was ruined by 3 sending offs. I think, if by the end of january we are still around the bottom, his position becomes untenable, but for now i hope Al Mubarak and crew stick with him. It appears he will regarding comments on the official site, i for one am happy with that.

We scored 1st in a game that was open and exciting, we were the better side, vassell did something right, shot on target, gomes with his ability to be brilliant and rubbish in one game, excelled once again pushing the ball out in the box, where robinho was waiting to pounce. The mood around the ground was generally good, despite the awful weather. Mike Dean decided to spoil what would of been a good spectacle of two good attacking sides. He 1st booked Gelson for a reckless but not dangerous challenge and then again for a minor foul, considering how early it was in the game, the horrible conditions of the pitch, the mediocre nature of the challenges, common sense should of prevailed, instead an officious, arrogant ref, couldn't wait to show a red card and make sure he had his stamp on the game.

spurs then dominated in patches as we still tried to score. A lofted pass, that was easy to deal with would become city's downfall, the captain missed the ball completely allowing Darren Bent to place the ball beyond Joe Hart for the equalizer. Dunne once again showed how out of form he is, and how wrong he was criticizing our attacking nature, when he and richard have been at fault for most goals through individual errors. There second goal would come about through some poor defending from dunne allowing jenas to hold up the ball in our box, we were carved open and bent shot passed hart on to the post and in.
To cap off a calamitous performance a through ball from huddlestone would spell the end to Dunnes game. The ball managed to ricochet off the clueless defender into the patch of bent, dunne gave chase and touched bent on the side with his hand, according to the ref any contact on a player constitutes a foul and as he was last man, he had to go. It was far too harsh, dunne barely did anything wrong, the conditions were awful and bent slipped under the pressure. The Fa have reduced his ban to 1 game.

Manchester City Vs Spurs - predictions

I think there is a sense of ambiguity towards city at the moment. I dont think there is much confidence in a win tomorrow against a vastly improving spurs side, rejuvenated by 'arry' Rednapp. There is certainly confidence in our attacking ability, we have scored more goals at home in the league than any other team, yet away we have conceded the highest amount of goals along with Blackburn rovers, hughes former club. After Thursday nights defensive display it's clear we have a lot to worry about tomorrow. With Kompany missing out through suspension our midfield looks really light weight, gelson struggled against an average FC Twente, how would he cope with Huddlestone. Didi Hamann has looked off the pace recently and I'm not convinced he can really cut it now at this level. We should go all out to beat off advances from spurs for lassana diarra and get him in quick. Richard Dunne has to be sorted out, he isn't leading the team very well with some inept performances and others around him are suffering now as a result. Tomorrow we have to be back to our best, i have no idea what Hughes is going to do, to combat the situation. We can't lose, hughes can't lose or he may well be on is way out. We can't afford to drop points at home with our away record being as shambolic as it is. If spurs were to win, they would only be 1 point behind us in the table.

It is really up to our attacking players to put pressure on the spurs back line, which still isn't great, i would encourage the likes of elano and robinho to get plenty of shots on Gomes as he seems a quite unstable character. Benjani and Jo will hopefully start scoring goals for us upfront. We need our talisman Robinho to continue his form.

I really can't predict, but i will go for a home win.

EURO Cup Clash Result for city!

First thing's first, it only cost £25 sterling for two European Home tie games. It's not as if we have been in Europe for years, this is a big tournament that we haven't reached for a long time, certainly to this stage. Where was everyone? Twente fans brought a handful but were loud all night, we decided that we couldnt be bothered. It bet the invisible fans will suddenly appear if we progress from the group stage! It was a disgraceful turnout last night, and i personally was embarrassed my the half empty stadium.

On to the game.

A decent attacking performance all round, good to see swp and ireland stepping back into the swing of things. An odd formation really, swp is best on the right, vassell is best without a contract! I thought Jo was playing really well, created two of three decent chances for himself, his only error was not finding the net, he needs confidence and that comes with goals, hughes please stick with him. Robinho waited till he scored a Brilliant goal to step up a gear, and could of had three goals, with two coming off the post. Steve Ireland despite still being goal shy, was on top form passing and effort wise! Good to see Benjani back, lucky deflection of course on his goal, but he worked hard, had another decent shot forcing the decent keeper to save, he will be working his way back to full fitness. But of course with city we can score 10 goals but we could of conceded 12.

The defense is a shambles. Zabaleta had a fairly poor 1st half, being skinned a few times and lost the ball in the lead up to the 1st goal. But at least he did improve second half and made some good tackles. Garrido was the best at the back and I'm delighted for him, he made some last gap tackles, passed well, it's what we need. Micah Richards was woeful, school boy stuff from him with the 1st goal, appealing for off-side while their attacker broke on goal. Dunne another rubbish performance, this guy is meant to be our captain, he is off the pace defensive wise, slow for the 1st goal, way off the mark for the 2nd. He needs to be dropped! Joe Hart is apart of the problem, i expect him to be beaten most times now, we need an experienced goalie who can command the defense. Dunne and Hart caused us alot of problems last night, the lost the team possession so many times, just kicking it up field aimlessly, it's horrible to watch and is actually detrimental to the teams progress. The benefit of elano is he collect the ball from the back stopping them form giving the ball away.

Other worries.
Gelson runs around like road-runner, great energy, has ability but he seems so rushed, he doesn't do anything properly. He gave away the ball alot and didn't nearly do enough good tackling. He was horribly exposed, but simply isn't as good as Kompany, who will miss the Spurs game, a great worry for me, as we can lose the game in the middle to the likes of modric and huddleston. My other worry is why did Hughes pick Vassell. He can't attack, can't pass, can't take anyone on, h just runs alot. He doesn't deserve to be in the team, and should be sold very quickly in Jan.


Happy with the result, Twente are a well organized, average European side, and Mclaren is an idiot. We need to beat Spurs next, who are in good form with saggy face 'arry', if we dont sort out defense out by tomorrow we could be in for a goal-fest.

Views on Hughes

Big game tomorrow Vs the mighty mclaren. We need to win! The major plus point for city is we are at home, where our form has been fairly good. Hughes has allot to sort out, to dampen the growing pressure on his job, otherwise change may come quicker than he thinks. Defensive wise, we are doing so well, one of the left back has to play, I’d still pick Javier Garrido as an all round better player than Ball, to counter his weakness at left back, I would put Micah Richards at the left of centre back, as Dunne is currently playing blind potato headed buffoon and isn't as athletic or quick to help cover on the left. That should of been Hughes move rather than moving Micah to left back. Dunne looks likely to miss the game with an injury, I think this is a blessing! He has been on woeful form and Ben Haim has been getting sharper. Hughes also has to stamp out the bad habit that appeared again at Bolton game. Joe Hart, Dunne, and too a lesser extent Ben Haim, should stop booting the ball across the pitch to our small midfield and striker force, especially against a giant physical Bolton side. It's awful to watch and we lose possession each time.

Attacking wise, perhaps a change is needed! Elano and Kompany in the middle, with ireland and Swp on either side will do. Robinho behind Jo as the second striker.
Here arises my worries about Hughes. Elano is such a gifted player, he needs to be given the chance to play, I don’t know why he always get subbed or dropped. Hughes is more inclined to go for heart and lungs rather than class and ability. Steven Ireland for all his early form and praise has some serious flaws, one being his limited brain capability, it irritates me no-end the amount of times ireland, arrives to late, or is offside, or generally in a poor position but thinks he should of been given the ball and walks away whinging, throwing his arms in the air, it's good he want's the ball, but his special awareness is poor. His finishing is also very poor, when he does get a chance on goal he doesn’t have a very good shot, I believe he is living a charmed life in side. I think there is allot to do in January, I believe a box-to-box midfielder is in order, I would recommend Javi Martinez, tall young Spanish midfielder who can drive the ball forward from the defence and create goals.

Nery castillo is hoping to leave in January! He said the new management has really spoken to him. This also really worries me. Hughes let Geovanni go with out really looking at him, castillo isn’t a bad player, he played so well against spurs last season, but suffered several injuries. He's quick, he is also left footed, While petrov is out, we have a replacement. Felipe Caicedo is a talented lad, only 20, rated as one of the most promising prospects in world football, he is strong and can score, will he get, I doubt it. I think he will be better than ched Evans, who by all accounts hasn't really impressed anyone, let alone his opposition defenders. I am worried that Hughes is so reluctant to try these guys out, Vs Bolton the game was begging for another striker, yet Felipe just sat and watched. He will lose his place now to benjani.

I have worries of course, but I think Hughes needs to be given a few seasons to build a good side. I just think he should listen to me!

twente will be physical and have some decent player, but it think we can put them away along with the Wally on the touch line