Torquay United Fans Forum

To add to the points made already. I thought the managerial performance on Saturday cost us the game and made Hargreaves look a mug. I understand Hutchings is young, but surely he would have been better at centre half than Richards. I dont buy that he isnt ready, he has been mentioned for a long time now, its only one game against supposedly weak opposition. Maybe Richards looked good in training, but like others have said, why wasnt it changed when things werent working.

Was Hargreaves being too cautious, was it stubbornness, was it ego or was it just clueless. I dont believe it was clueless, any one of us could see what was wrong and could tell when we saw the line up it probably wouldnt work. No doubt Hargreaves must have too, an ex pro and a coach/ manager paid to do the job, he surely knows more than we all do. :}

Actually Saturday could have been a blessing to finally route out the complacency that may have set in. Hargreaves made himself look a right t0$$er and he probably knows it, so hopefully he wont do it again.

I'm surprised the berk didn't get Fanny Stevens in to play at centre back.

Top of the sh*t pile of course is the new found amateurism of the current board. Businessmen to a man are they? Lost money hand over fist these past few seasons.Run it like a South Devon League club and expect soon to be a member club of the South Devon League.

Gullscorer wrote:Hope CH will be reading all this. If he wants his team (and himself) to have a successful season all he has to do is to follow the good comments and advice given on this forum..

lol yep hope he does, not sure of much but I'm pretty sure he doesn't want to be known as a Buckle!

One thing that concerns me is why he shows so much confidence in Wakefield and is this misplaced. Haven't seen many games this season but he's hardly set the world alight and was last nights decision to play people out of position to make room for Wakefield?

Would like to know exactly why he seems determined to stick with him come what may bit of a Bukleism that.

Dont think it's anything to do with a learning curve, it looked like pure arrogance to me. Media darling Hargreaves no doubt thought that Richards could play against Hawley and was no doubt ready to be lauded for the plaudits by making such a brilliant tactical decision.
We just didn't look up for the game at all.
Pearce looked hopeless (what has happened to him) Tonge reverted to his useless self, Rice looks overweight and clueless and most of our players looked like that only had to turn up to win.
Yes we had problems at the back but that was just inexcusable.

As you know I am a big fan of Hargreaves but I WAS SCREAMING at the TV for more than most of the match for him to bring Wakefield off - stick Richards in midfield and Hutchings at the back. It was obvious to all so not sure why CH stuck to his game plan which was clearly being exploited (by the like of Hawley too!). Rice commands nothing in the box and with the partnership of Pearce and Richards we looked worse than pi$$ poor at the back.

Have to see I was also unimpressed with Pearce yesterday. Looked low on confidence at almost at times looked like he did not care.

CH has had a big learning curve yesterday - I hope he becomes a better manager for it.

CP Gull wrote:
- it was pretty obvious early on that it was a bad mistake to play young Richards at centre back
- when something obviously isn't working any decent Manager will change things around. So why didn't Hargreaves change things around at half time if not sooner?
- stubborn streak in him!

Totally agree with this. In Hutchings' position I would be in the office on Monday morning asking for another loan out to Grays or somewhere similar.

To be fair, Chris Hargreaves has got a lot more right as manager so far this season than he's got wrong. However Captain fork up came to town in his decision making today , I was shocked to see Richards picked to play CB , and dumb founded to see him come back out at half time, he was like a fish out of water at CB, clear for all to see after 10 minutes.

The one thing that's impressed me so far this season, is CH has proved he can and will take though decisions, even when there not going to be popular with the fan base, today as said 10 minutes in he had areal though decision to make and didn't, even at half time he could have made the switch, CH said on the side lines, their long balls were causing us problems.

Hutchings is a centre back, if you ca not play, what the fork is he doing here, keep the back four balanced surely, if the oppositions long ball tactics are causing problems, persist with the little guy, or bring someone like Harding, who's taller, doesn't matter if Richards is the better footballer, DER.

I so want to find something positive to say - it is after all only one game and this is, as I always maintain, a marathon not a sprint. But I can't. This, like the other performances against the weakest sides in the division, was an unmitigated disaster.

Hawley looked like a world beater tonight and we set him up by having the arrogance to play someone in mid defence who was clearly not up to the job. The manager got this totally wrong and was unable to see his mistake leaving Richards to take the blame and probably destroying his self-confidence.

Although many have blamed Rice as well, the plain fact is that he was totally let down by the players in front of him, particularly Richards and Tonge.

IMO Hargreaves should have chosen Hutchings to play alongside Pearce and selected a three man midfield with Richards sitting in front of the back two to cover the lack of experience. This would have meant dropping Cameron (who had very little impact) and playing Bowman on his own up front in a 4-5-1 or 4-1-4-1 formation.

At least this game has shown the answer to a question posed on another thread - Downes and McDonald have to return to the heart of the defence next week.

Agree with most of the posts on this thread especially the comments about Hargreaves not making changes at half time when it was obvious that Courtney Richards was not coping in the middle of defence. Richards and Young are a great partnership in midfield and that's where he should have been tonight - playing in his best position.

Hargreaves decisions don't do anything for Richards confidence nor young Jake Hutchings. I hope he has the courage by holding up his hands and admitting he got the team selection badly wrong tonight.

Hope CH will be reading all this. If he wants his team (and himself) to have a successful season all he has to do is to follow the good comments and advice given on this forum..

Yes my tips are so bad that I had another winner again tonight. Sorry please remind me what the score was at half time again?
Shame that I cannot divulge my website on here - the site on which I have given out free football selections for the past four months and is currently 125 points in profit.

OK, it was pretty obvious early on that it was a bad mistake to play young Richards at centre back but as someone who advocated choosing Harding to play alongside Pearce (instead of young Hutchings) I have to accept that sometimes you have to take a gamble.

The problem I have is that when something obviously isn't working ... any decent Manager will change things around. So why the heck didn't Greavsie change things around at half time ... if not sooner???

Perhaps it was a stubborn streak in him, if it was it is something he needs to address - as ultimately he needs to accept that he will not always get it right and when he doesn't he needs to accept that and change things ... something he could and perhaps should have done at half time in this game .... but didn't!!!!

Performance was somehow worse than Brucies betting tips

Yep, agreed that one was down to Hargreaves that one as much as the victories were.

That was poor tonight. Very poor.