Flatcap Canary

[quote user="NR1"]Were we not 3-0 up at half time against the very same Swansea?[/quote]   We beat United and Arsenal. Are we better than them too?

The Glamour and the Catch From the moment Paul Lambert''s magic came to the boil to the animosity of his departure to Aston Villa, I''m sure we''re all in agreement that we stormed up the leagues in the face of adversity playing exciting, almost gung-ho attacking football. There is nobody who would say that they weren''t entertained by Lambert''s bravery and vigour in management style. Now, I''m not going to go on to moan about Negative Hughton because I don''t view him or his tactics in that way whatsoever (I''m sure that will instantly lead to some/most of you shaking your heads, labelling us one dimensional and pseudo- comatose) Get real. I''m going to cast an admiring glance across the country to Swansea, who under Laudrup have reached giddier heights than we are currently able to and leaving us desperately wishing for Hughton to go 4-2-4 in the last ten minutes, equalise and bag a 90+5 minute winner a la the heady days of PL. Instead we defend, we contain, and we counter. And we get spanked 5-0 by Liverpool. Yes, that was bad. But we will bounce back. You see Swansea City have had the solid years of Championship consolidation under Roberto Martinez, who is a Very Clever manager (anyone who can get Wigan playing attractive football and keep them in the Prem playing 3 at the back has to be Very Clever). Brendan Rodgers took the plaudits for basically continuing the work of Martinez and further drilling that patient passing game he had them playing into his players. Meanwhile on the back of the Lambert momentum we stormed into the Premier League like an enigma, taking apart all comers and leaving Leeds and the pitiful Scum crying in our wake. I think that now those years of building a solid foundation at Swansea are starting to show. Laudrup has added Michu and the ''outlet ball'' to their game, so they can now take a more direct approach when needed. They have a squad with decent depth immersed in the mentality of continuity throughout those years, and they''re ready to push on. In my opinion, I will happily take 17th for two or three more years while we get that foundation firmly in place. Those expecting us to bag Hooper and Graham and immediately ''push on'' are forgetting how quickly we got here and how...maybe, just maybe, it''s starting to show. Chris Hughton will turn us into Premier League stalwarts, though it may not be pretty- and when we are as complete a project as Swansea are looking, then we can turn on the style and take the game to the top half of the Prem as we did under Lambert. (but with a defence) We''ve had the glamour, now here''s the catch.  

I didn''t say we couldn''t spend £10m etc. I''m saying we won''t. Not in January. Hughton''s no mug and blowing a sizeable proportion of our budget at a time when prices are inflated and most clubs have no desire to sell would just be a bad move. He''s better than that, and we can be frugal and unearth a Michu esque player of our own, because I trust in Ewan Chester''s scouting network

I think he''s off. Which is a shame, because he''s been exactly what we need at times this season. Certainly a better option at DM than Howson, who for the last time is NOT A BLOODY DEFENSIVE MIDFIELDER (and breathe). Fox however can put his foot in well and his passing range is excellent. Would give Pilkington and Snodgrass so much more to feed off and in turn create chances for the necessarily isolated Holt. Taking nothing away from Hughton''s gameplan, because it''s made us the best team we''ve ever been (sepia-toned Bayern Goss volley lovers will disagree, but players weren''t as fit then) but sometimes I fear a little more intuition and nous from the depths of midfield that the Tettey-Johnson dynamic doesn''t quite provide (they''re good passers, but no Foxy) Ah well, trusting in Hughton

I think he''s a good striker unfairly slated by sections of our support who don''t really understand football HE ENT SCORUN THE GOOLS NAEL But i want us to sell him just because the Morison baiting I hear behind me from the animated corpses in the City Stand (yes, I''m obviously a member of the prawn sandwich brigade) is too much to take

[quote user="Highland Canary"]Maybe it''s Fraser and Hooper - that would represent improvement to the squad and give us a fighting chance...[/quote] ....because we''ve obviously got the £10m+ that would cost to spend, on a goalkeeper who''s not as good as Ruddy or Bunn and a striker who''s playing in Europe for a bigger club than us?

Precisely YC. Rudd and to a greater extent Steer are still very young in footballing terms and throwing them in at the deep end obviously doesn''t do their development that much good otherwise Watson would''ve advocated it. Mark Bunn is an excellent goalkeeper. He''s not as commanding as John Ruddy but his agility and handling are probably better. We do need a keeper like Ruddy because his agility and handling are still good and he stands up to be counted when balls are flying into the box. If we do lose Ruddy in the summer for x million pounds...it will be the cause and effect of being a relatively small fish in a big pond...but it''s not the end of the world- Bunn can cope. Look what Watson did for Ruddy''s game, when he was making similar errors to the ones Bunn is making now.

(where of course, by Hooter i refer not to Chrissy boy but David''s nose) I apologise if this has been discussed elsewhere, I don''t have the time to look through every thread and if it has I''m sure you''ll swiftly tell me. As much as I respect everything Mr McNally has done for us, tweeting about player performances and confirming/denying transfer rumours is in my eyes completely unprofessional. Last I checked he was our CEO, not Director of Football. We''re all aware that towards the end (and possibly previously) of the Judas tenure that the relationship between McNally and Lambert had frayed to say the least. Hughton''s a nice guy, famed for it...but if McNally sticks his Hooter in Hoot''s business, expect fireworks. I doubt he''s the yes man some posters like to profess. As an aside, I''m not in the business of starting multiple threads, but we''re nothing without Holty. No disrespect to our squad, we have some very talented players- but Grant is the glue- and in spite of our valiant performance against Man City our ball retention is that good with GH in the side that we probably wouldn''t have been carved open as often as we were- we''re just tighter with Holty, and may have snatched a point or more. Also, Steve Morison.

[quote user="NCFC_Number_7"]which area of the Barclay is the nosiest? [/quote] that pesky Barclay....always prying into other people''s affairs

On the Howson thing, I would say he is an Attacking midfielder, Hughton''s insistence that he isn''t led to that shocking attempt at 4-4-2 against Villa. He could have just put Howson in for Wes, flicked Fox into the 2 DMs and kept the formation that''s seen us unbeaten. However, on the Wes thing- while he is seen as playing ''in the hole'', the frequency with which he drops deep to start attacks surely deems him to be seen as more box to box or even a free role? To pigeon hole him as an AM is ridiculous, he doesn''t just stand behind Holt