Bantams players go public with views on Mark Hughes' tactics

With each interview, the players are coming out one by one with their verdict on the previous manager and his style of play.

For Hughes, it doesn’t make particularly comfortable listening.

Trying to shoehorn Premier League tactics into the League Two environment, not running themselves into the ground every game and now not really understanding their roles.

The “charge sheet” being laid out from within the dressing room grows against the Welshman.

It’s a natural given that a manager’s exit will be followed with indications and insinuations that something had not been right.

Mark Hughes was sacked after City lost at Tranmere a fortnight ago (Image: Thomas Gadd)

Had everything been going tickety-boo, there would have been no need for a change in the first place.

But the speed with which City players are almost queueing up to air their grievances suggests the mood inside the club had become just as frustrated as in the stands.

And Emmanuel Osadebe brought that to the attention of the nation at the weekend.

Another tedious international break wiping out the Championship fixture list – and all but four games in League One – meant City’s trip to Wimbledon became the unexpected “game of the day” for ITV’s EFL highlights programme.

It helped, no doubt, that it was also the only fixture taking place in London that day.

But what was teed up as a Wimbledon-fest to mark the home side moving into the top two was gate-crashed by a third straight Bantams win under Kevin McDonald’s temporary stewardship.

ITV’s love for interviewing everyone bar the groundsman afterwards saw extended reaction – including that cutting shot from Osadebe.

Asked by presenter Jules Breach about the main difference between caretaker boss McDonald and his predecessor, the match-winning substitute spelled it out for everyone.

League Two footballers are not a particularly complicated bunch who needed to be overloaded with tactical tweaks and nuance.

McDonald’s clear instructions had made the biggest impact on Osadebe, who has now got two goals in two games under his belt having failed to hit the target at all for Hughes previously.

Osadebe is publicly banging the drum for the big Scot’s chances of keeping the role on a full-time basis right now. But it can also be seen as a not particularly subtle dig at how the last manager wanted City to play.

Emmanuel Osadebe has scored in consecutive City games (Image: Thomas Gadd)

The senior voices in the squad have been particularly forthright in their views since Hughes was axed.

Brad Halliday referenced McDonald’s demand for a more “front-foot” approach, stressing that doing the hard yards was the least that was expected at this level.

“If you look across the board, everyone ran their socks off,” he said after the Valley Parade win against Swindon. “The lads went off blowing.

“You look back at games and that hasn’t happened too many times this season.”

Then it was Alex Gilliead talking about trying to emulate Manchester City with the way Hughes had them set up to keep the ball – and frustrating the crowd in the process.

“You see Man City doing it with world-class players but it's tougher in League Two.

"We've had games in the last 18 months where teams have just come and sit in and passed the ball around the back. It's not what the fans want us to do.

"We wanted to be a possession team but it's tough to break teams down.

"Getting on the front foot, getting in people's faces brings the crowd into the game and they're out of their seats cheering, even at little tackles here and there. We’re a bit more in teams’ faces.”

Now Osadebe has added his opinion about receiving clearer instructions from the sideline.

You wonder when Richie Smallwood will have his say publicly. He looks a rejuvenated figure in the City engine room since the change at the top, amid rumours that captain and manager did not always see eye to eye.

Bad-mouthing the old boss is nothing new. Let’s face it, we’ve all been there in every job.

But football is a world where interviewees tend to be very careful what they say. Opinions are hinted at rather than laid out bare for the world to see.

City’s players have made it plain what they think.