What HAS gone wrong??

Same in the kop, seen more arguments and a fight this season than I usually would.

 

Those "nice" sponsorship deals will very soon Dry Up unless things improve on the pitch
We are a football club not an advertising sales company we sell the brand Bradford City which is devaluing match by match
It's on the pitch where it matters most sponsors will either support or withdraw depending success on the pitch

 

And in Lewis and Cook both have been poor also so far this season.

 

I spoke to Stephen at the end of last season about a lad in the lower leagues of Europe banging goals in. Tall, strong, physical. Perfect for next to Cook or a more pacy player at this level and unfortunately, he wouldn't qualify for a visa

 

Dimitri Was it das Bruenker? come on mate was it?

 

I'll be honest - I think we were massively lucky last season. Other than a small handful of performances, the majority of games were on a par with what we have this season (i.e. tight, cagey affairs with few chances at either end). The data supports this - I believe all the metrics pointed to us being a firmly mid-table side. Luckily for us we had Cook having the season of his life, where almost every shot of his went in, and Lewis performing well. This season we have neither of these, and are performing largely to type.

I feel like the "success" of reaching the playoffs (which should be a minimum expectation really) meant that we didn't focus on the issues that were clear last season - we were defensively solid then, but lacked energy and movement in midfield and creativity in the final third.

 

For me it’s simple. This team is no worse than last season. Hughes has just been found out and has no plan b or the capacity to change things when not going his way. It’s very simple for the opposition. Press high, and they will cause us problems.

 

I, along with most other fans was excited at such a big name being appointed manager but, when you think about it, was it ever going to work?

The Premier League and League Two are worlds apart. Hughes was used to playing with, and managing, players with football brains and practical ability far in excess of his new charges. The culture shock would have been difficult for a younger person to adjust to, let alone someone of Hughes' age. It's a completely different wavelength.

The same applied to the players, who have struggled to come to terms with what Hughes was demanding, because they just don't possess the skills required. The failed "three at the back" tactic being a prime example of players struggling to adapt.

A hard nosed, dyed in the wool, lower league manager, such as Steve Evans (not a suggestion, just an example!) would have hit the ground running whereas, 70+ games in, Hughes still hasn't got to grips with it. The dyed in the wool, higher league manager, Hughes, is persisting with higher league tactics , which are just not suited to the hurly burly of League Two.

Would Jurgen Klopp fare any better? No, because he'd be just as bad a fit as Mark Hughes has turned out to be.

 

the players would run through a wall for Klopp. ..... For Hughes just about get out of bed to make training ......

 

He'd be worse, then, because we'd have a squad nursing impact injuries!!!!

 

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/not-the-top-20-podcast/id1112915286?i=1000629918720

1:20:35

these lads know their stuff and give an unbiased view of life at city under hughes.

 

Damning few minutes but he’s absolutely spot on. I hope Sparks and Rupp hear it!

 

I’m guessing the players are disillusioned with MH styles of play and lack of plan B, coupled with his man management skills of freezing players out and only playing his chosen few is leading to the basics being played certainly at home matches, as if they have downed tools and doing the bare minimum.
Plenty on here have said and can see the quality in the squad but the players don’t show.

 

https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/24222841/man-utd-bradford-mark-hughes-job/?fbclid=IwAR3DyweODUpqK2KnE6dUIG5sWKCdcWdu8HPfxLAMS481rICZl0ZZVcGf82Q

The Sun sating he’s got one game left

 

Good thread. What has gone wrong? OK for me…

1. An indifferent summer transfer window. Ash Taylor appears to have had a reasonable early career and recent spell at Kilmarnock, but ultimately turned into a bit of a journeyman and apparently awful at Walsall and Northampton. Now 33 - a strange signing.

Clarke Oduor and Tyler Smith I can understand - players with age on their side and a reasonable amount of experience.

Kevin McDonald, I can kind of understand too - lots of experience and shows to me that Hughes wanted him to challenge Smallwood for the “experienced midfielder” spot.

Oyegoke seemed to be signed as a right sided centre half for the failed 3 at the back, or a right back in a back 4. Halliday has hit form and we’ve dropped the back 3 so he’s been put into an unfamiliar midfield position. Sparks said Oyegoke was identified by the recruitment team a year ago. Seems like a player we don’t actually need!

Tomkinson - can’t even get in the match day squad! Very inexperienced. Is he the type of player we need? I guess we signed him because Hughes realised Taylor isn’t up to the mark, so why sign Taylor?

Lewis Richards and Adam Lewis - permanent signings for the future, hopefully they will develop, but ultimately very inexperienced at the current time. They’re both being eased in slowly.

Afoka - very raw and seems like an odd signing.
Tulloch a bit more experienced and has pace which we’ve lacked at times.

Pattison - probably our best signing on paper and on the grass.

Ultimately we have a squad of 30 (including the youth team players that came through) and it seems very bloated.

2. Young and Odusina - players signed on long term deals who have been outcast after barely playing. No one knows the true backstory but perhaps it can’t help with morale.

3. Formation. To be fair to Hughes he said before the off that we weren’t necessarily going to stick to a back 3, and he’s realised it’s not working and changed it. However time has been wasted. But for those who wanted it changing (me included), the back 4 hasn’t yielded a positive change. As good as we were at Newport, Walsall was awful and we can’t blame a back 3 for that. He should have realised in pre season that the back 3 was not going to work, there was enough evidence of it before the actual competitive season started!

4. Injuries. Lay-offs for Cook and Pattison haven’t helped with early momentum.

5. Play off hangover. It’s clearly there, but teams have failed in the playoffs before and gone on to have a good season the year after. It’s down to Hughes to get positivity in the squad.

6. Pre-season. Seemed a bit strange to me. Boiling hot in Spain and it probably wasn’t the best pre season tour we’ve had. Getafe game (not the intended opposition) in 40C heat a complete waste of time. Rochdale were the only opposition who were closely matched, the rest either being Championship or in the lower reaches of non-league.

7. Fans. We have no divine right to be in the top 3 and we’ve got to earn it. However performances haven’t exactly given us anything to shout about. I think we can all agree that if we lose then at least go down fighting, but the fight isn’t there. We appeared to have a weak core and weak mentality last year and it’s no better now and arguably worse. But talk of protests and tennis balls on the pitch seems a bit ridiculous to me.

I started this post thinking I’d make reasonable arguments for sticking with Hughes but even I’m talking myself out of it. The thing that annoys me is that Hughes is so experienced as a player and manager - he MUST know what to do and command respect from the dressing room. Also, I’m generally of the view that we need consistency - chopping and changing managers is no good and we are getting a reputation. I said when Hughes joined that if he can’t get us up then we all may as well give up and go home.

In conclusion, Hughes needs to grab these next two games by the scruff of the neck and show he’s up for the fight. For me, he needs 6 points minimum to save himself, and not only that, the players need to put in good, purposeful performances, full of passion and endeavour and with a little luck. Otherwise i think he’ll go and the cycle starts all over again. I don’t think I can stomach another season ticket renewal for 2024/25 if we fail this year.

 

Sparks looked in his spam folder.

 

That short passage pretty much sums up Hughes tenure at City. A team that looks unmotivated and uncomfortable in the way it's been asked to play.

 

Weirdest red flag with Hughes in my opinion was the agreement in his contract that he had a walk away point in the summer after taking over from Adams in case he wasn't feeling management again. I can't believe a club would agree to that.

Just had the nightmare of Adams, another failed appointment, it was the 3rd sacking in just over a year of Sparks from memory? You needed to get the appointment right, but you decide to let him walk if he can't be arsed after 15 ish games? Hiring someone with that mindset going in just confuses me. But OK, Sparks agrees to it, but the fans don't need to know he wasn't sure he wanted the job long term! No idea why Ryan said that on national TV at the play offs. Just seems like we saw the name and that was it, mind made up.

 

I agree. I certainly wouldn’t hire anyone who wanted that clause in their contract. We are Bradford City we want the real deal eager and ready to go; we are not a practice session for out of work managers.

 

Great post and pretty much sums up my thoughts. I hate the revolving managerial door scenario that we've had since Parky left, and I've posted regularly that we have to give MH more time, particularly with the injuries we've had. We've seen too many horror shows already though so something has to happen. I believe MH will be with us at 5pm on Saturday, but as to whether he's around for the following match will wholly depend on what happens over the next 2 games imo. If he goes then I really fear the worst, as I dont trust the club at all to get the next appointment right. The level of discontent is such that I doubt any new incumbent would get a prolonged honeymoon period, and my fear is that we havent actually hit rock bottom yet! It really is a mess!!