Hull City (A) Match Thread

[Ruud Aralliss]

Have just arrived back and I think I’m going to erase today from my mind with beer and wine. A tried and tested method.

i want to forget the horrendous weather and wet feet, the seemingly open goal we missed at the end of the 1st half, the way I was the last one still celebrating the goal we had disallowed ( not sure why), our lack of attacking threat in the final third, the decision not to bring on JM and MW till 1-0 down with 13 mins to go and the traffic on the way back.

in fact all I want to remember when I arise tomorrow is that I thought Bielik had a good first half.

[May Contain Nuts]

1 hour ago, Ellafella said:

Nigel Clough managed to do it in far more trying times. 

He took over with a lot of work to do but at the time nobody had any expectations for us to do anything better than finish 18th. He was allowed about 3 years of largely poo performances without any real pressure as well as his surname providing him with a lot of good will and patience.

People were delighted with us finishing 10th (or thereabouts) in his 4th season in charge.

How many of our young players did he blood in his first 2 years? Not many, I'd guess. It wasn't until late in 2011 when Will Hughes emerged.

Just because Cocu has inherited different problems doesn't mean they aren't as difficult to deal with in their own way, especially with fans baying for his blood after 14 games and expecting us to be challenging for the top 6, he's also dealing with some mile xenophobia from fuckwits who complaining about and using his tone of voice and pattern of speech against him.

[RoyMac5]

4 minutes ago, SaintRam said:

Stability will just help. Across the board. I like Cocu but frankly I don't care who that stability is with. 

I agree to a certain point - and that is it isn't it...where is that certain point. Some fans think we didn't give Clough Jnr long enough.

[therealhantsram]

2 hours ago, Abu Dhabi Ram said:

I think we have played reasonably well today, well, in comparison with the last two games. 

The issue for me is the complete lack of pace in our two centre backs, this a serious weakness. They cannot push up and leave space behind, but when our midfield push up, the gap between them opens up. Hull have exploited this well in the second half and is the main reason we lost. 

Our final ball is also abysmal, which prevent us from getting a couple today.

 

And this is why we can't play like last season. Keogh and Tomori were way more mobile, and it was their mobility that allowed Bogle and Forsyth/Malone to be so progressive. 

 

[therealhantsram]

2 hours ago, SaintRam said:

The selected team was the better team for 75 minutes though? 

I get we all want Marriott to be playing; but lets imagine all this noise about his fitness is justified and then I ask, what changes would you have wanted? 

We're pretty light in the department of competent players, it seems.

In the run up to last Saturdays match, Cocu was asked about whether Jack would be back from his injury. His reply was that he had completed half the training session that day. 

I think its clear that Jack just isn't ready to be starting matches yet. 

[Ellafella]

8 minutes ago, SaintRam said:

I'm a big ol' advocate of the youth. But if we replaced everyone who's not up to promotion worthy performances in our squad with youth we would 100% get relegated, cos that's basically the whole team - and our youth isn't that good.

Yes but to be fair I wasn’t advocating the whole 11. I’m not that daft. I want to see some development...a player or possibly 2 breaking through would be a tonic and a sign of progress and I suspect MM would too. 

[rammieib]

1 hour ago, Alpha said:

We had an awful pre season and the only exciting part of it was that Martin and Marriott link vs Sarasota. 

Now I know Marriott has it in his contract that he has 320 days annual leave but unless Cocu fell asleep during that game then I'm fairly sure that showed more promise than a single second if any other attacking combo since. 

I'm with you, we can't say for sure they are our best options. But I think by how utterly hopeless the other are that the performance v Sarasota is the stuff of legend. 

I think we really have to consider that Cocu himself is our best midfielder even though we lack evidence.

Playing Cocu is a great shout. I hadn't considered that one.

You know, everytime I think back to last season I remember sitting in the stand at West Brom away, seeing the line up and thinking "Jesus, he's playing 4-1-5 with Marriott, Mount, Wilson, Lawrence and Waghorn. We have regressed so far it's scary. Just a passion or a desire to go for it. We are obviously crap at the back so let's just go for it.

P.S I think Saratosa might beat us now, especially if we play them away from home.

[A Ram for All Seasons]

1 hour ago, Jimbo Ram said:

I think the 11 point team were pretty dire ?

Erased that from my memory

[lrm14]

3 minutes ago, RoyMac5 said:

I agree to a certain point - and that is it isn't it...where is that certain point. Some fans think we didn't give Clough Jnr long enough.

A season and a half I reckon, write this one off as mid table mediocrity and then expect an improvement the following season. We've got a really unbalanced squad that's decent in some areas but spectacularly awful in other areas and it will take at least 2 more windows to sort it out properly. I think Cocu is also in the really awkward spot where he's aware we have poor wingers and poor creativity in midfield, yet the most obvious youth options to make the step up (Whittaker, Knight and Sibley) aren't quite ready yet but we don't really want to buy anyone to block their progression into the first team. This bunch of players would be a headache for pretty much every manager in the game other than your anti-football Rowett types.

[SaintRam]

8 minutes ago, Ellafella said:

Yes but to be fair I wasn’t advocating the whole 11. I’m not that daft. I want to see some development...a player or possibly 2 breaking through would be a tonic and a sign of progress and I suspect MM would too. 

I'd imagine that was probably the precise reason that Whittaker played today. What we saw today is what you're asking for will look like. They're not going to go from the youth team to the starting XI in league games;

but Whittaker's not ready for first team football at all in my opinion, playing him today seems like a sign that Cocu's decided to transfer more energy towards development than success this season. Which if so, based on the performances of our senior players, seems like a good decision.

[Steve How Hard?]

44 minutes ago, TommyPowel said:

 

The worst choice would be sacking any manager after 14 games

Correct in this instance but sacking Pearson after a similar amount was 100% the correct decision too. 

[nottingram]

8 minutes ago, rammieib said:

Playing Cocu is a great shout. I hadn't considered that one.

You know, everytime I think back to last season I remember sitting in the stand at West Brom away, seeing the line up and thinking "Jesus, he's playing 4-1-5 with Marriott, Mount, Wilson, Lawrence and Waghorn. We have regressed so far it's scary. Just a passion or a desire to go for it. We are obviously crap at the back so let's just go for it.

P.S I think Saratosa might beat us now, especially if we play them away from home.

Maybe if every time you think back to last season, you also recall Rotherham, Ipswich, Bolton, Forest, Leeds, Millwall, Villa away, you might realise that our away form has largely been poo for over a year

[rammieib]

Just now, nottingram said:

Maybe if every time you think back to last season, you also recall Rotherham, Ipswich, Bolton, Forest, Leeds, Millwall, Villa away, you might realise that our away form has largely been poo for over a year

I know - I was at four of them.... my point more was the team selection.

[Ruud Aralliss]

3 hours ago, blackNwhites said:

Roos should've saved that, he was right there. Too busy looking at Curtis Davies. TBF Davies is much taller than the scorer, so he probably should've cleared it as well. Silly goal to concede.

He did do a bizarre star jump thing, another memory to erase.

more beer please

[GrimsbyRam]

27 minutes ago, RoyMac5 said:

That's the worst part of it all though. At least with Frank we thought we'd get some good loans. Will we at least get some 'interesting' foreign players with Cocu?

Well he signed 11 plus players at Fenerbache for quite a bit of money.  Few of them have already been shipped out a year on.  Plus I am not convinced that our scouting system is fit for purpose.  How many players that we own have improved since being with us?  I could probably count the number on one hand in the last 5 years.

[Jimbo Ram]

3 minutes ago, Steve How Hard? said:

Correct in this instance but sacking Pearson after a similar amount was 100% the correct decision too. 

That was different because he was sacked for gross misconduct...

[GrimsbyRam]

10 minutes ago, SaintRam said:

I'd imagine that was probably the precise reason that Whittaker played today. What we saw today is what you're asking for will look like. They're not going to go from the youth team to the starting XI in league games;

but Whittaker's not ready for first team football at all in my opinion, playing him today seems like a sign that Cocu's decided to transfer more energy towards development than success this season. Which if so, based on the performances of our senior players, seems like a good decision.

Playing Whittaker where he did today, doesn't help!  Same thing as Marriott Wednesday (but a lot worse with him being so inexperienced).

Bringing Dowell back rather than Knight is a balmy decision however.

[SaintRam]

4 minutes ago, GrimsbyRam said:

Playing Whittaker where he did today, doesn't help!  Same thing as Marriott Wednesday (but a lot worse with him being so inexperienced).

Bringing Dowell back rather than Knight is a balmy decision however.

Whittaker is very comfortable on the right wing. 

[Grumpy Git]

And to think a mate (who is an Everton fan) told me in August that Derby might have problems shoehorning Rooney into a balanced side!

I think he secretly wants him back at Goodison (they seem to be the Prem equivalent of us ATM)?

[DCFC1388]

Finally home after todays match...actually thought we plaed well today up until the 1st sub. Not sure why Whittaker came on over Waghorn or even Marriott and his poor positioning made an easy out ball for Hull to attack us and he never recovered position well at all. No coincedence both goals came down our right, wasnt impressed with Bogle or Lowe today.

Really should have taken the chance at the end of the 1st half and I still dont know why Lawrences goal was ruled out, wasnt a foul nor handball so not a clue. Same story of poor final balls. Dont think Dowell did himself any favours, grew into the game during the first half but went missing again 2nd half.