The bright light at the end of the tunnel

[greendoor 16]

This has been said before but i feel with all this hysteria on here at the moment that it is time to be brought up again. When Chris Hughton first came to the club he inherited Paul Lambert''s squad of arguably over performing championship players, who finished the season in 12th place (and what an achievement that was!!).

As we all know last season we were about as water tight as a sieve, this was clearly our weakness. It was also clear what our strengths were, attacking football and a win at all costs mentality. This year Chris has vastly improved us defensively although this seems to be at the expense of our forward play. But as we look at the table we are currently 13th, ( I know that this will most likely change by the end of the day) so not too far of where Lambert left us.

So where am I going with this?... Well this year we are undoubtedly draw specialists, due to our more solid defence. We have the most draws in the league, 14. We have already know that Hughton plans to improve our forward play next year, with the signing of RVW and the speculation about possible transfer targets, most of whom are very much attacking players. So with this improved attack we would, hopefully, score more goals and hence turn some of our many draws this season into wins next.

To summarize, if we stay up this year we will be a much stronger outfit next year so there are many positive thing to look forward to. (In my opinion we are by no means safe yet but I think, as in the wise words of Mark Lawrenson, we will limp over the line)

[Mr Brownstone 0]

[quote user="greendoor"]

But as we look at the table we are currently 13th, ( I know that this will most likely change by the end of the day) so not too far of where Lambert left us.

[/quote]

 

McVeigh tried to make this point on Canary Call last night. What that stat doesn''t tell you is that 12th place last year saw us 11 points clear of Blackburn in 18th. At present we are only 1 place lower in the table, but more importantly we''re just 5 points above 18th, and that could be less by the end of today. This comparison doesn''t really work for me, we were never even close to being in trouble last year.

 

[Stig 0]

[quote user="greendoor"]This has been said before but i feel with all this hysteria on here at the moment that it is time to be brought up again. When Chris Hughton first came to the club he inherited Paul Lambert''s squad of arguably over performing championship players, who finished the season in 12th place (and what an achievement that was!!).

As we all know last season we were about as water tight as a sieve, this was clearly our weakness. It was also clear what our strengths were, attacking football and a win at all costs mentality. This year Chris has vastly improved us defensively although this seems to be at the expense of our forward play. But as we look at the table we are currently 13th, ( I know that this will most likely change by the end of the day) so not too far of where Lambert left us.

So where am I going with this?... Well this year we are undoubtedly draw specialists, due to our more solid defence. We have the most draws in the league, 14. We have already know that Hughton plans to improve our forward play next year, with the signing of RVW and the speculation about possible transfer targets, most of whom are very much attacking players. So with this improved attack we would, hopefully, score more goals and hence turn some of our many draws this season into wins next.

To summarize, if we stay up this year we will be a much stronger outfit next year so there are many positive thing to look forward to. (In my opinion we are by no means safe yet but I think, as in the wise words of Mark Lawrenson, we will limp over the line)[/quote]

Stoke, Sunderland, Wigan etc. etc. They''ve all stayed up numerous times and seem to be going backwards or not moving forwards at all. How can we be certain we''ll move forwards when our second season has been so hit and miss?

[kingsway 94]

Your right!

 

For all the moaning about Hughtons style of play, he knows this as much as anyone else and soon worked this seasons squads limitations and has adopted a style maximising their potential!

 

I maintain under Lambert this season we''d likely be worse of than we are now and he probably knew this as well!

 

I also think that Hughton plans to work on the attack next season and has already started!

 

It hasn''t always been about us being too defensive cause we have got into good attacking positions this season but poor end product in terms of crosses, passing, stopping a run, bad shooting heading has hindered us!

[Mr Brownstone 0]

[quote user="Stig"]

 

Stoke, Sunderland, Wigan etc. etc. They''ve all stayed up numerous times and seem to be going backwards or not moving forwards at all. How can we be certain we''ll move forwards when our second season has been so hit and miss?

 

[/quote]

 

You have to keep in mind that we''ve been hamstrung by the debt repayments over the last 2 seasons, after that we''ll be debt free and with an excellent wage structure I see no reason why we won''t be able to improve the squad considerably over the summer.

 

That is of course, if we stay up.

 

[Salopian 1]

To achieve anything as good as last year was always going to be difficult, because many other teams will have learned last year where we are vulnerable and what our strengths are. Many of them are good enough to nullify our strengths and exploit our weaknesses.

 

I wouldn''t get carried away with the tightness of our defence. Both of the goals we conceded yesterday were bemoaned by CH as defesnive frailty. Our defenders lost the players they were supposed to be marking, and were too slow to close them down. Other defences would have struggled also, as Swansea are a very quick attacking unit, but we are vulnerable against quick moving attackers because our defenders are rather lacking in pace. We have kept clean sheets, and it is very pleasing, but we have a goal difference of -19, not much better than the worst in the division.

 

If we are relaxed and feel that this summer our signings need be in the midfield and upfront, I would agree, but we have also to do something with the defence who are likely to struggle against quick wingers and strikers.