Hughes has the Midas Touch

Blackburn Rovers have been quietly going about business this season, with Mark Hughes making the most from unremarkable resources. Now they are beginning to receive the attention and credit that there play has been deserving of. Currently they lie 5th in the table, level on 21 points with Chelsea but with a game in hand over the Londoners and 3rd place Man City. Indeed a win in their home game against Liverpool in next Saturday’s 5.15pm kick off could lift Rovers to 3rd.

Transfer Guile
They have lost just once this season, 1-0 to Portsmouth, and a few wise signings have given Mark Hughes real optimism for the season ahead. It is a shame that their European campaign went so disastrously awry against minnows Larissa of Greece, or they would have fancied their chances of making decent headway in the competition. With players such as Benni McCarthy and Roque Santa Cruz, Rovers have an attack to rival any in the Premiership and further a field for that matter. Stephen Warnock has proved a surprise bargain buy. A fringe player at Liverpool and rarely talked of, he has come to Ewood Park and performed very well, both going forward and in defence.

Another defensive signing, surely Hughes’ most satisfying of the lot has to be Christopher Samba, who has emerged from almost nowhere and been excellent so far this season. The six foot 3 Congolese arrived from Hertha Berlin and has settled well alongside Ryan Nelson at the back. Samba is an immense presence - tall, stocky and very strong he has taken to the Premiership like a duck to water. He is a Mark Hughes type of player through and through, and showed great bravery going in where it hurts against Chelsea, receiving a concussing kick to the head for his trouble. Great ability in the air because of his height, it makes Samba a useful asset for set pieces as well as in defence. The fans love him too, and he endeared himself no end when he scored a splendid 90th minute winner at White hart Lane for a 2-1 win.

Mehodical Approach
Hughes has built his team gradually at Rovers and he has been given the time to do so by his board and the patience is now being rewarded. When Hughes took over from Graeme Souness there was some dead wood in the squad and several ageing players past their prime (Andy Cole, Dwight Yorke, etc). He saw that first he needed to tighten up the defence and made it his primary task to turn Blackburn into a tough team who were hard to beat. Robbie Savage, Andy Todd, and Ryan Nelson were the heart of this consensus and it soon began to work. When Hughes used his Welsh connections to sign Craig Bellamy they also found a regular source of goals. Rovers were inevitably tagged as a ‘rough-house’ team that bullied opponents and played little football on the deck although this was something that Hughes was prepared to put up with for the time being. Hughes appears to have a very methodical approach to management; he sets himself disciplined targets and solely focuses on them until they are achieved. With Premiership attackers cowering away from their rugged defence and midfield, he began to develop Blackburn’s creative game and focused on utilising the potential of his talented wide players.

Morten Gamst Pedersen arrived in 2004 and has now played well for a number of seasons, becoming a solid and reliable Premiership player, also occasionally providing the odd wonder goal from his left foot. But it is what Hughes has done with David Bentley that is most impressive though. Given a first team berth at Rovers that he desperately wanted at Arsenal but was never going to be permitted with the likes of Robert Pires around, Bentley’s confidence has soared. He has the capacity to bewitch the very best of players as he showed with a hat-trick against Man Utd in his first season at Ewood Park. And this season he has shown the consistency that was lacking in previous years and has finally broken into the full England squad. Bentley has such an array of tricks that he nearly always succeeds in creating the half a yard of space needed to get his crosses in, which are usually excellent. With a trustworthy and reliable target such as Santa Cruz in the box, Bentley knows just where and when to deliver the ball in. Hughes revitalised the self-belief in the winger and Bentley now often takes the opportunity to strike at goal from distance, with some success. The only slight concern with Bentley is his temperament and he is still booed by opposing fans for snubbing an England U21 call up in the summer.

Lucky Strike
It may be down to having a successful career as an attacking player that Hughes has a knack of identifying and attracting very high quality strikers to the club. In any case he has a great track record. Benni McCarthy, looking stale at Porto, proved a revelation when he arrived, much the same as Roque Santa Cruz has done so far this term. He is also carefully nurturing the development of Matt Derbyshire, using him to great effect as a substitute on many occasions but importantly keeping him hungry and not disillusioned. Derbyshire has also played very well for the England U21’s where he has a good scoring record and looks to be a natural finisher.

Blackburn Rovers now have three games which will test just how far this team have progressed and may determine the fate of their season. On Wednesday they have chance to avenge their defeat to Portsmouth when the two meet o nth e Carling Cup, before Saturday’s visit of Liverpool. After this they play Hughes’ old team Man Utd at Old Trafford where the manager will really want to impress his managerial development.