Match Thread Accrington (A) - League Cup

Football fortune's can change really quickly. Only a few years ago the start of the season felt downbeat then Josh Cullen was signed back for another spell and the place was immediately lifted. Getting Stubbs back is huge, I'm hoping MacDonald has the same effect when he gets into the first team.

 

That's what I love about football, always a good laugh to be had even when the footy is as bad as it was back then.

 

that implies Hughes thought the team was sub par. Evidently he doesn't.

but then to go full circle ( you have missed peoples point on this)

what benefit is there to lambast your players in public which brings me back onto my question from before - What does it improve? - which you didnt answer.

did Adams get a better performance from the team when he roasted them week in and out?

 

30:years of hard learning before calling it a day agrees with you RT.

 

Right, so you'd expect a manager to say we were 'very good' after the Crawley game and that any other remark would be 'pretty thick'?

That's the comment I was referring to.

I wouldn't lambast or roast the team but I don't think there is a problem with being critical about aspects of it. @JonButterfield mentioned that saying anything other than we were 'very good' would be thick. That's the remark I thought was bizarre. There's a whole host of remarks you could make between 'very good' and lambasting the players.

 

That's massively worrying.

 

I think a lot is down to player availability at the moment.

If Stubbs would have been fit for the Crawley game, Oggy would not have played in a back 3, Taylor wouldn’t have played at all. If we had a good LWB , Rides wouldn’t have started either. Ditto Smith, carrying a knock hasn’t seen him start yet to partner Cook.

I bet there are a few carrying injuries or niggles and certainly a few that can’t be doing 100 mins either!

Early days.

 

And Lewis only just saved the fluffed, rolling ball penalty. Why????
Because once again goalkeepers 'guess' and throw themselves to one side before the ball is kicked.
For goodness sake, watch the ball, not the man!!

 

It genuinely would be thick to criticise a team for losing narrowly after playing most of a game with fewer players, then progressing in the cup.

Why would anyone do that in public?

You've pointed out that Hughes acknowledged things weren't perfect, but there's no reason whatsoever for him to express his dissatisfaction with his players so early in the season when they're still working towards his aims in terms of style of play and adapting to a new formation

Its one thing for a fan to throw the toys out of the pram, but it would be dumb for Hughes to do the same.

He's said exactly the right things for me, which is no surprise as he's hardly overwhelmed by the media after his career, is he?

I don't expect him to make silly mistakes when speaking to Radio Leeds or the T&A, and he has avoided doing so.

A less savvy manager might have handled it differently. Thankfully that hasn't happened.

 

But you said it'd be thick to not say we were 'very good'. It's a moot point because he never said that anyway but I'd rather not hear we were 'very good'. I'm not saying he has to slam the players but praising them for me just comes across as insulting to the fans and I don't see what motivational benefits there are in that approach. I say this more in response to the Crawley game.

For arguments sake, if we get beaten heavily on Saturday by Colchester with a poor performance, I wouldn't suggest that saying we were 'very good' would be advisable.

 

what motivational benefits are there to saying it in public?

you have no idea what he says behind closed doors, you only care because you want to hear Hughes have the same opinion as yourself and you want to see the players get shamed.

 

Again, we were severely hampered for over half a game and still only lost 1-0. It was the first game of the season.

What do you expect the players to do?

They were put into a near unwinnable situation, I think he can praise them for their efforts? How would you feel if everything went wrong at work through no fault of your own and some imbecile manager walked in and told you how poor your performance in front of friends and family was as a result?

Anything other than acknowledging the players would have been a daft move.

 

you still didn't answer my question.

and Hughes never said we were "very good" after the Crawely game? So I dont get your point there..

https://www.bradfordcityafc.com/news/2023/august/hughes-disappointed-with-opening-day-defeat/

 

Exactly this Kev, just because its the start of the season doesn't mean we don't have issues to contend with and I'm not sure folk understand that. A fit Stubbs and MacDonald both start in this team and both are pretty much linked to how successful we are. When your key players are fit it makes the others jobs around them easier.

 

And a few years later we were upbeat, won the first match away at Shrewsbury, before realising exactly how bad Josh Wright was. Funny old game football.

 

I guess it was watching the man that lead him to throwing himself to the ground !

 

I know he didn't. It was in response to post #246. Ironically, he didn't say we were very good at Crawley, so I'm not sure where that leaves Jon's comment that he'd be thick for not saying they were.

As for your question about how not being positive about a performance affects the players. I suppose I could post a link to the many times the top managers criticise their own teams' performances. It seems to be alright with them. I'm no sports psychologist so I can't give you a satisfactory answer but I'm happy to defer to the judgement of the likes of Klopp, Guardiola and Arteta.

 

Quite possibly. Due to the play off

It wouldnt have counted. The ref signalled as such

 

So because 3 of the biggest teams in the country arguably the world and have some best players in the world sometimes take public criticism.

With no actual evidence it actually improves performance.

thats why League Two Bradford City should do it?

Right.

And ultimately you have no evidence they didn’t actually play the way hughes wanted to anyway!

you are sticking words into hughes mind and then beef he doesn’t say what you think and your justification is

“pep does it”