lharman7

I remember Hughton saying in one of his first interviews words to the effect of '' Paul done wonderful things with this club and I want to build from this and keep the momentum going''. The next question would be has he done this?

Lakey seems to be another one who can''t let go.... Christ sake, he''s not talking about a ''love'' of Lambert. He''s talking about ambition and hope. Players need managers to pass these traits on to them. Lambert was a master at giving his players hope that they could win every match. It may have been false hope especially if you think his squad were not up to premier league standard. But they did compete and deserve to be there and Lambert was first to acknowledge this. When Hughton gets interviewed he never puts any belief in his own players. He constantly praises the opposition and says it''s going to be a hard game. Where is that installing confidence and hope in your own players? Even after a win (narrow) vs Palace he didn''t say something like ''we got 3 points on Saturday so we are full of confidence and are going to give it a right go at Anfield''. Instead it was ''we are not performing well away from home and it needs to improve''. And this is the big difference between Lambert and Hughton!

He was playing against 2 of the leagues toughest and roughest centre halves so im pretty sure that any new striker playing his first few games in the premier league would struggle against them. Our final ball wasnt perfect again either and i dont doubt he would score from a towering header over those 2. Give the guy a break!

No doubting Fer has a bright future. Reminds me a bit of Patrick Viera or Yaya Toure. Total powerhouse box to box midfielder. Hopefully he can add himself to the scoresheet soon.

Happy for Tettey I said a while ago Fer and Tettey with Howson in front. I agree with the posts saying he doesn''t recieve enough credit. Bring on the Chelsea! Totally agree with this statement. I thought he was great for us when he first signed but then got injured. Way better than Johnson imo. Not so much of a ''bull in a china shop''/''headless chicken''! Tettey to sit more defensive, Fer more of a box to box and Howson to attack more.

Surely we are talking about 4-4-2 and not 4-2-4. With wingers keeping wide in their own halves they help to surrender the space in the centre of the midfield. Wingers who tuck in, in their own half, narrow the midfield and restrict the space available to the opposition. In the opposition half they give us width, in our half they help to compact the the midfield by making it narrower. Which ever way you look at it, its a matter of transition. While defending yes play wingers who will restrict the space available for the opposition but when we win the ball back they revert to there natural positions.

The problem with 4-4-2 isn''t attacking, it''s more to do with defending/ball retention. The Tottenham game, where Norwich played with Elmander in the hole, but he was more a striker than midfielder, showed that with only 2 central midfielders you will see very little of the ball when playing against a team who have a 3 man midfield. Fer and Johnson couldn''t get anywhere near the ball as Eriksen, Paulinho and Dembele could easily pass it around as there was always a man spare (compounded by Siggurdson coming central a lot as well). Games are won and lost in the fight for control of the area of the pitch just in front of the 18 yard box - by losing a midfielder it is incredibly hard to win this battle and it allows opposing teams to build constant pressure just in front of your defenders. It''s all well and good having 2 out-and-out wingers and 2 strikers, but if you team never have the ball they are merely spectators in the game. Norwich could beat Southampton because both teams tried 2 man midfields, and Norwich''s paring of Fer and Johnson was better than Wanyama and Schniderlin. I still think we can play the 4-4-1-1 even with two out and out wingers. Its just a matter of transition. When attacking down the flanks we go to 2 up front with possibly the other winger making that late run in to the box so making it at least 3 in the mix for the crosses. Then we revert back to 4-4-1-1 while defending and for ball retention.

[quote user="BroadstairsR"]I think it could be a good move giving Snodgrass that central role behind the striker. Worth a try in any case.[/quote] Oh dear god NO! Giving him such a crucial role would inflate his head even more that the winds would carry him back to Scotland!

Pretty much spot on! Snodgrass attempting 21 crosses to no avail is simply shocking!

[quote user="Yellow Wall"]It is not always necessary to get to the byline but what has been missing so often are crosses that are put in behind the defence and not straight at the defence from Snodgrass previously cutting inside. I fully agree that Beckham could put in early crosses to great effect but I can never remember him coming inside to change the angle of his delivery by putting the ball in with his left foot.[/quote] Yep totally agree. The OP''s thread i replied to implies that we need a change of personnel on the wings of which i also agree. Early balls played in by wingers who cross with there natural kicking foot can play those balls in behind the defence. I also think this is where we would see the best in either Wolfswinkle, Hooper or Elmander and even Becchio. They can all make intelligent runs and in my opinion would suite this type of service.

Yay, we won and scored goals away from home. So what? We were expected to win against a championship side. We just shouldn''t have cut it so fine. Great that we came from 2 goals down and showed character. Hopefully we can take it into the next game but I very much doubt we will especially when there will be different personnel in the starting 11. Believe me I hope I''m wrong. I also hope that Hughton will grow a pair and keep Murphy at least on the bench.

[quote user="Yellow Wall"]As long as we can try to hit the goal line to get crosses in - it may be. But to do that there will be no room for Snodgrass![/quote] Why would we need to get to the byline to cross? Why not early balls in? Becks never had the pace to beat a full back but his deliveries often took out all 4 defenders and landed straight on the head or foot of his strikers!

[quote user="JC"]For the above comment, there is very little a manager can do from 50 yards away when a player snatches the ball to take a pen. So to try to apportion blame to Hughton for not running on the pitch and laying down the law is ridiculous With regard to the retake, it should have been, the keeper has to keep contact with the line until the ball is kicked, he is allowed to take one foot off the line as long as the other stays in contact. In the world of goal line technology, the linesperson (PC) has one job, to ensure the GK keeps contact with the line until the ball is kicked. There is no reason else for them to come closer to play. Secondly, there were about 4/5 players encroaching, this is the job of the referee to police, when one of these players is able to get the rebound (attacker or defender) it should be a retake The issue with penalties now is that they are not policed in the correct way and no effort is made to stop a keeper from coming off the line, by coming off the line and diving at an angle out from the goal the wide covered by the keeper will take them to almost the corners of the goal[/quote] This is just making excuses for both the manager and the missed penalty. You can hear Hughtons voice a mile away so to say he can''t intervene from the sideline is stupid. If anything he would have called a senior player over and made him intervene.

[quote user="norfolkngood"]what worries me more than anything is hoots stood and watched all this happen ! one why didn''t he tell snoddy he isn''t the taker leave it to rvw 2 why didn''t he sub him straight after for disobeying club orders ? that''s what I dislike about CH tells the media after I thought / wanted RVW to take it .......fergie wouldn''t have answered that as he would still have been tearing strips off the player ! [/quote] Very much this! Shows ill discipline in players right through to management IMO!

No. I will stand by what i said in pre season of giving CH 10 games. Although its getting harder not to change my mind earlier. Nice guy though!

[quote user="morty"]No.[/quote] What no abuse towards the OP for his poll morty? Or does it require a PM to receive abuse?

He is not "THE" problem but is a very "BIG" problem. If you play as a winger and can''t pick a player out (or even hit decent areas) with crosses then what are you doing playing in the starting 11. Even with all his endeavour and work rate!

I definitely would have liked Snodgrass to have been subbed for Pilkington and Redmond moved to the right. Snodgrass has been very poor for a while now. He either over hits his crosses or cant beat the first man. Crossing is his bread and butter and he has been ineffective with it. He constantly moans and throws his arms up. Pretty sure i saw him tell Turner to ''F off'' after Turner had a go for Snodgrass not delivering the ball into the box late in the game. Snodgrass is getting too big for his boots and needs a big kick up his arse. I will praise him though for his endeavour and trying not to let the penalty miss get to him. I even saw him put in a good challenge in our own box in the first half. The reason i would have kept Redmond on is the fact he is a player who is not out of form. He is still young and learning yes but its these players imo that are capable of doing something different and unexpected. Im pretty sure Lambert would of seen how he''s much of a threat and told his players to get in hard on him which i think was evident to see. Thats exactly why i would have moved him to the right and let Villa try to adjust to it. There was a lot of space down the right and with Redmonds pace i think we could have done something.

I think Wes has had his time unfortunately. Dont get me wrong, i still think he can play a part but it would be a bit part. As an AM, your main job is to create. You need to be creating probably at least 3-5 goal scoring chances per game. Out of these chances i would expect the striker to score 1. Not only creating chances is the AM game. He also needs to pop up and score a few himself. Making late runs into the box after playing in a winger instead of playing the striker in after missing his run. This was evident vs Spurs with Erikson. Goal scoring is where i think Hoolahan is starting to lack more and more. He would need to score between 7-12 per season to justify his selection imo. Im not usually a stat man (thats for Yanks) but if you see what other teams AM are bringing then i think you would agree. Oscar has 2 in 4. Sigurdsson has 2 in 2. Ben Arfa has 2 in 5. Ramsey has 2 in 4.

Fer was excellent. The role he played IMO suites him much better than the CAM role. He is more of a ''presence'' there and an all rounded midfielder who is box to box, can win balls (tackles or headers) and can pick/spray passes. I''m looking forward to seeing him get better with every game.

Yes or no answers only on this thread please!

This is not a doom and gloom question. Nor is it a Hughton in/out question. It does not require an informative response or an abusive response. You do not have to respond if you like. If you choose not to respond please just move on. If you do choose to respond please do so with a simple yes or no. Have you enjoyed the general style of play over the past 12 months? If you think this thread is debatable, please open up a new thread and debate there.

Draw written all over it. 1-1! But hoping for a win!

Cant see Elmander being thrown straight in. Think Hughton see''s Bassong as a must and Snodgrass will start due to Bennets injury. Ruddy Whittiker-Martin-Bassong-Garrido Snodgrass-Johnson-Fer-Howson-Redmond RvW This is the side i reckon Hughton will be thinking although we are away and could play a more defence minded LM in Olsson. Will also be interesting to see who he deploys where in central midfield. Am thinking Howson behind RvW due to Fer being more of a box to box midfielder and more of a big presence in that central area.

After what Hughton has said about Martin being an adequate CB fill in, don''t you all maybe think we may not be in the market now for a CB? I reckon Hughton may reassess the CB position in the January window.