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RvWs 4 year contract

Hughton is doing the best job with the squad at his disposal.

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There is a distinct lack of quality in our midfield and strikers when we attack and if you ask me Hughton has done bloody well to have us in with a big chance of staying up this year.

I''m sorry if there are a load of threads about this but I''ve just got back from Stoke and I cant be bothered to go reading numerous threads (as valued as the opinions are) as I am far too tired and just came here to post this. The pitchforks await I''m sure.. The likes of Kei and Holty upfront have been feeding off scraps this year. People go on about Snoddy''s quality but if we''re not in a set piece position his passing is awful- and that goes for the rest of midfield. Johnson and Tettey are battlers but going forward they just arent good enough. Hughton is the man for me next year I''m afraid. Let him at least improve midfield/strikers before judging- he has already improved defence with Bassong and Turner so I say give him a chance to improve the rest of the team- which he will do. The lack of quality going forward has been completely shown by our lack of goals. Give Hughton the summer to get in better midfielders/strikers and if we''re still bemoaning Hughton for similar things next year.. then by all means sack him.Until then though..

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I''m a bit annoyed that Howson was getting singled out today. I thought he was full of running today and one of the better ones.

For me, we lost the game because we had no idea how to attack. I lost count how many times Ryan Bennett hoofed the ball. We lost the game because we got ''out-stoked''

We looked a different unit with Bennett, Pilkington and Hoolahan on the pitch.

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We were woeful, not just Howson.

We''ve been woeful in front of goal all season.

Three goals away from home in 2013, and one in this year away from home in the prem.

Roll on Villa, and hopefully another three points at home

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[quote user="Grant Holts 3 year contract"]There is a distinct lack of quality in our midfield and strikers when we attack and if you ask me Hughton has done bloody well to have us in with a big chance of staying up this year.

I''m sorry if there are a load of threads about this but I''ve just got back from Stoke and I cant be bothered to go reading numerous threads (as valued as the opinions are) as I am far too tired and just came here to post this. The pitchforks await I''m sure.. The likes of Kei and Holty upfront have been feeding off scraps this year. People go on about Snoddy''s quality but if we''re not in a set piece position his passing is awful- and that goes for the rest of midfield. Johnson and Tettey are battlers but going forward they just arent good enough. Hughton is the man for me next year I''m afraid. Let him at least improve midfield/strikers before judging - he has already improved defence with Bassong and Turner so I say give him a chance to improve the rest of the team- which he will do. The lack of quality going forward has been completely shown by our lack of goals. Give Hughton the summer to get in better midfielders/strikers and if we''re still bemoaning Hughton for similar things next year.. then by all means sack him.Until then though..[/quote]Just back too… and pretty much agree with all you''ve said there.For me, the midfield is seriously one-paced (including Snodgrass) and simply very poor at either retaining the ball or successfully completing passes, even very short distance ones. I think his hands have been a bit tied with budget restraints (or whatever paying back the loans can be described as) and find it impossible to believe that he will take the style of football from this season into next. Personally, I think the fella has done a good job to get us to where we are at present and, with what could be a sizable budget next year, will make some signings in the close season that address what are quite glaring deficiencies in our squad. I can see the deficiencies so I''m pretty  sure a man with his footballing pedigree will have done too.He made a decision at the start of the season that our defence needed sorting (we all said it last season) and to a reasonable point he has achieved that. It was a pragmatic approach to a problem that needed addressing.Give him some decent dough and I think he''ll do the same for our midfield and attack.It''s only my opinion, so don''t lose your heads if you don''t agree… but I think the lad is worth sticking with.

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I''ve never heard more utter tripe in all my life! The very fact we finished a comfortable mid table side last season with pretty much the same or as some would preach worse squad then, we have taken an almighty step backwards. Hughton has taken a very good attacking team when he came in and turned it into a shambles. If we stay up this year it will be the luck of having three worse teams than us rather than Hughton masterminding it.

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As with pretty much all passionate opinions the truth lies somewhere in the middle.He does seem overly concerned with the defence and if i''m honest i don''t like our style of play.  Yesterdays game was yet another example of how not to play football.  Again we took on a side in a terrible run of form and made them look decent.  Stokes defence was visibly nervous yet we gave them almost nothing to worry about...the most trouble Begovic saw was his own defenders putting him under pressure.I also do wonder about his take on the midfield.  To play Johnson and Tettey means we have literally no invention or ball retention whatsoever.  I remember an article a while back written by a Spanish midfielder.  Think it was Alonso after leaving Liverpool for Madrid.  He said he was amazed by the idea that tackling was seen as a skill in this country and i have to agree.  What Fox needs to do to get a game is beyond me.  We don''t just need a midfield that gets in peoples'' faces, we need a midfield that can maintain some form of shape yet use the ball.  If we are going to play one battler then we need one user in there.  Whether that is Fox deeper or Hoolahan further forward (id play both), at least we will not constantly just give the ball back after winning it!  The lack of movement from midfield is also a massive problem.   As many people have stated on here, the man in possession has precious little outlet.  If our full backs pushed up then there is instantly an extra out ball.  I lost count of the number of times yesterday that we manage d to play three five yard sideways passes, one back to defence and then an aimless hoof.  Unless he overhauls the entire midfield in the summer (not likely with our budget) then something else needs to change.  Rather than forcing his own tactics on a group of players that aren''t suited to it (bar perhaps Tettey and Johnson) it would make far more sense to concentrate on what we were good at.  A defensive set up would be fine if we were playing in a league that gave two points for a win, but in all honesty our lack of adventure is leaving us dangerously close to the relegation zone.  Fortunately there are at least three teams worse than us and i can''t see us going down with the gap we have to them.  However it is not really a successful season to be not quite as bad as three other sides.

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I don''t think Hughton is doing the best job with the squad at his disposal.- Elliott Bennett is available and yet he plays Kei as a winger.- Holt isn''t very good at playing as a lone striker.- Howson has been awful yet still gets selected.The answer is to play Holt and Kei up front together, drop Howson, and play Elliott Bennett.

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I guess my expectation was to keep pace with Swansea. Last season we produced the same style and quality of play; finishing one position behind them.We both lost our managersNow the two teams are light years apart and the reason has little, if anything to do with money spent.So what''s the difference? Laudrup''s style is not the same as Hughton''s and it shows.

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I would not say our style was anything like swanseas last year.

they played a short, quick and frequent passing game.

we played, long ball up the pitch, hope it latched on to one of our forward players.

laudrup could take over from where rodgers left them off.

we could not.

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By and large the defence looks more solid and his signings have been pretty good. That said i cannot stand the negative mindset of the team and this must change next season. I trust him to bring in better quality and hopefully be more positive. There is the old saying careful what we wish for for the ones that want him out. If we are playing this style at christmas and being less than successful then i am sure people like me who still support himwill be having second thoughts

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Couldn''t disagree more with the OP''s opinion on this one.We have taken the same core of players who did so well last season, added to these with more quality at the back and then thrown almost everything that was good about our attacking play in the bin, in exchange for a couple of clean sheets but a massively more defensive mindset overall.Holt doesn''t suit playing the lone role and is often forced wide as well giving us nothing in the middle. Crosses have dried up, and the ones we do send in are often poor anyway.The midfield is all about defensive ball winners, but they can then do NOTHING creative with it after winning the ball, and our most creative midfielder has been left rot outside of the team all season (Fox).Our fullbacks who offered great attacking support to the wingers, have been shackled and now often look very average because their game is about more than pure defending.When we are struggling in a game and changes are badly needed, Hughton either can''t see it or takes far too long to do it, which by then is usually too late anyway.Frankly it''s all very depressing in comparison to last season.I''ll give full credit to CH for keeping us up (assuming he does), but beyond this I want a manager in charge who knows how to properly use the players at his disposal, will make changes in-game sooner rather than later if it''s not working, and who wants us to play good football rather than simply trying not to concede...

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For me, they look shorn of all confidence. They are more than capable of passing well and attacking as they do sometimes manage it (eg in patches against Reading) but as soon as the slightest thing goes wrong they all seem to go back into their shells.

The most worrrying thing for me is CH seems unable to do anything about it.

 

Mark .Y.

 

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If what you say is true then he should have got the players in he needed. He has had 2 transfer windows to bring in the players he needs but January was a joke, a center forward from america that tries but is not the answer and a forward who although he signed him, he wont give him a chance. Then we have the signing of Butterfield, a midfielder in the mould that we all agree we need, again frozen out and not given a chance. He has wasted up to 4 million this season on these 2 players if you take into account tha value of Morrison in the swap deal. Im sorry but i dont buy into it, he had the oppotunity to strenthen where needed and failed to do so.

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Mark Y - the lack of confidence is the inevitable conclusion of the mindset of ''play for the draw'' - a mantra we appeared to have followed certainly post-Christmas. Only against Arsenal, which may well prove to have been too late, did we see some positivity but Stoke again was genuinely poor. Poor (lack of) buying decisions coupled with poor tactics I''m afraid.

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Rubbish is he!

At the start of the season I''m sure plenty of managers would have been happy being handed our squad, CH then strengthened the defence with Bassong and Whittaker, he also strengthened midfield with snoddy.

So he toolk a half decent squad on a high from the last three seasons and has managed to make us go backwards stifling the likes of howson who last season showed us his attacking ability but had now been made to hold the ball up and defend, a midfield that can''t pass or fine service to our strikers and on top of all that make us a "defensive" side and concede more goals and get a hammering from more teams than last season.

His tactical ability is non existent with no plan b, and not using substations to help the lads push on.

I realise this board has about a 50/50 split by the looks of things for Hughton to go, but I think some people are just so in love with this team that they can''t bring themselves to realise how Shocking we really have been this season, I haven''t missed a game this season and I haven''t enjoyed any of it which is a massive shame as I too love this football club and don''t want to see it slip down and decay again

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BB - Well done for not missing a game - I missed Soton and Swansea away - those who watch the away games as well will appreciate how poor we''ve been in most of those matches, especially against many of the bottom half teams.

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[quote user="Hannibal II"]I''ve never heard more utter tripe in all my life! The very fact we finished a comfortable mid table side last season with pretty much the same or as some would preach worse squad then, we have taken an almighty step backwards. Hughton has taken a very good attacking team when he came in and turned it into a shambles. If we stay up this year it will be the luck of having three worse teams than us rather than Hughton masterminding it.[/quote] couldn''t agree more!

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Following our run in the first half of last season where Morison scored the goals to move us in a good position we went on a free fall and only guaranteed safety very late on. Yes holt and Morison scored 10 goals a piece but we relied on the momentum from two promotions.

Last season wolves and Blackburn were going to go down, the off field problems led them to relegation and Bolton just never turned up. This season when strife hit a club Soton, Sunderland the clubs picked up and actually rose on trouble. Very different to last season.

That all changed this summer, holty had his spat, lambert moved out and Hughton took over a squad that needed improving with our best centre half white read moving to Leicester and naughton returning to spurs.

Hughton bought in defence first believing that our attack was in a good place for one more season, then Fulham away, then Liverpool and he came out and said if we play this way we will go down.

He realised that our attacking players were not going to carry this team for another season. Teams had worked our players out and had improved themselves. He then took us on a great run, the players playing their part without really showing the way of last season but with set piece goals and drive from the back through bassong a change was in the air. Then we hit a slump and we matched teams. We are known as a tough team to breakdown, with set pieces as our main goal threat. Our attack has been nullified IBM out games even a port reading never made us look good.

Hughton has brought in rvw a huge upgrade on our strikers, and I expect him to bring in three new starters in midfield. We need to as the players we have in those current positions are found out and inep. No problem with that the majority have come up from league 1. We are playing in a league where youth teams have 8million pound players, we are in a division where players have been brought up under great academies etc.

Hughton has and is doing a good job, it is terrible to watch... But if we can stay up when there has not been teams collapse as a Blackburn or wolves then we have done it.

Any fan must realise that we will be bringing in quality upfront this coming summer. Our midfield needs it as does rvw as back up. I trust Hughton to do that, I trust our players to get us over the line, but I do I think may of them will have starting places next season. No they are not good enough.

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I question the selection choice. The midfield which thrived last season and containted what is still arguably our most gifted players barely features at all, or get an occasional twenty minute run out.

Pilks wes bennett.

Obviously theres been injuries etc but...

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Agree largely with the op.    Hughton is not a defensive manager.  I repeat.   Hughton is not a defensive manager.    Those that keep harping on about how attacking we were last season are just wrong.    Towards the end of last season we were struggling and the complaints were flying in about how poor we were - anyone remember Blackburn away?    To me that was a worse performance than yesterday.    The holes in the Lambert approach were there for all to see - some games the team didn''t know what formation they were, let alone the rest of us.   

I repeat again. Hughton is not a defensive manager.  He is a manager who insists on teams  being organised.    He gets them organised then relies on the players'' ability to do the rest.   It is down to the players ability, not the manager''s tactics.   We''ve seen time and time again how the defence has stood up well this season and looked a lot less panicky than last season.  That is good.      We''ve seen really good performances too from the whole team - Sunderland Arsenal away,  good at home - wins against Everton and Reading in recent weeks and solid if unspectacular against other teams.  Things are not that bad.

Yesterday we were away at a notoriously difficult club.   Frustrating to lose, but not the end of the world.  So for goodness sake get off Hughton''s case and appreciate that he is still trying to build a side capable of  competing at the very top level and has had less than a season to do it.   The job is nearly done this season with prospect of new players coming in to boost the squad.  

So yes, Hughton is doing the best with what he has available.  At our best we can compete with the best - MU, Arsnl, Tott, Evton - points off four of the top six teams this season - and competed well against MC and Chlsi.   The rest of the time we are solid at the back, except for three matches - L''pool x 2, Fulhm away.    There is room for improvement - we can all see that.    Just get a grip.    Hughton is an almost universally popular figure in football as a player and manager, wherever he has been.  What is it with some of you?

And as for "Tom Cavendish" - I think Hughton is better qualified to judge things than you are.

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yesterday for the first time worried me. Passing from central midfield has been woeful but yest the most aimless I have seen - with that and holts repeat fouling we seemed intent on giving the ball to stoke.

The formation was not an attacking success against arsenal although defensively solid but did mean two of our best attacking players were compromised - Kei is better as a front man and snodgrass significantly better on the right.

Tactically we got it wrong - we resorted to long balls but again did not get players forward. If you play a long ball game you have to win the second ball - the stoke goal showed how to play it. Yet BJ, Tettey, Howson & snodgrass failed completely in this - witha a too negative mindset sitting them too deep. It would not have mattered that Holt did not win a competed header all day as we could have picked up possession.

There is also a fear factor into the midfield. The centre backs were forced to hit long balls because none of the centre midfield wanted the ball - rather than finding space and demanding it off the cbs they seem to get themselves self marked by getting closer to a stoke player. that is players not wanting the ball, being negative and scared.

Where were the bursts forward from the centre. It changed after the second sub and wes comes for the ball - and is why he is so important for the team, he makes us tick as an attacking force like no other city midfielder.

But what staggered me was the first sub. Our most defensively effective midfielder and the only player looking to keep possession was removed. How poorly do the other two have to play to be taken off? As a partnership their loss ratio is appalling and appalling for a reason.

The only good element of the sub was bringing on wes. But to put wes on the left flank - hiding him in no mans land was atrocious - pilks came on he was a peripheral figure and a wasted talent not getting the ball as we continued the seasons plan of going down the right flank.

The squad is much better than yesterdays performance.

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And I do not want to see three deep sitting central midfielders again. Its simply not a match winning strategy

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[quote user="lake district canary"]I repeat again. Hughton is not a defensive manager.  He is a manager who insists on teams  being organised.    He gets them organised then relies on the players'' ability to do the rest.   It is down to the players ability, not the manager''s tactics.[/quote]What a complete load of shash.If the tactics set out by the manager are conservative and set out to be more solid than attacking, then all of the attacking players will have been shackled to some degree by this choice.No-one is complaining about our back line being poor, we''re complaining about a attacking line that has gone from free scoring, to hardly scoring in the space of a season, and if you honestly think that''s purely down to the players, there''s little point even having this debate because you just won''t get it.[quote]Yesterday we were away at a notoriously difficult club.[/quote]And we played like utter crap.We looked like a CCC team who struggled to even pass a ball against Premiership opposition.I don''t like losing games, none of us do, but it''s the manner of defeats like this game which grate and cause anger and frustration. Stoke were there for the taking, and the sort of attacking form we saw under PL would have seen us walk away with 3 points and likely a 3 or 4 nil victory. Instead we cowered in our own half for large parts of the game, gave our strikers NOTHING to work with, and let''s not mention the turgid mess in midfield that couldn''t pick a pass out if their lives depended on it.[quote]So yes, Hughton is doing the best with what he has available.[/quote]That''s why we''re scored almost half of what we did last season, not conceded that many less, play football of a much poorer standard than before, and our best players from the last 2 years look either terrible, or can''t even get a game...Absolute tosh.[quote]Hughton is an almost universally popular figure in football as a player and manager, wherever he has been.[/quote]So is Bryan Gunn, so are many managers and former players.I don''t care how popular he is, I want to see results on the pitch, and not be forced to watch shocking football like we played yesterday, and Hughtons'' personality and likeability have very little to do with that.

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I don''t buy this line that our midfield lacks quality. We''ve got excellent midfielders in Wes, Pilks , Snodds, Benno, and Johnson and Tettey to despite Tettey not yet reaching the heights of early in the season. On our unbeaten run it was our midfield that was winning us games. The worry for me now is that the midfield is not adding up to the sum of its parts and that, I''m afraid, is a management failure.

Why has the management abandoned the team that did so well for us previously, and more specifically, Wes? It''s almost as if they gave in to pressure from fans/media surrounding our lack of goals and shoe horned a couple of untested strikers in to the squad at the expense of a team that was getting us results. Injuries had previously prevented us from playing that team but not any more so why haven''t we reverted to what we know is an effective side?

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We have a midfielder who likes to get on the ball and pass it, we have a midfielder who always wants the ball, we have have a midfielder who can pick out a killer pass, a midfielder who''s delivery is consisntently excellent, a midfielder who can control a game and maintain possession, a midfielder who was voted our third best player by our own supporters in our highest placed finish for nearly 20 years.

We have a midfielder who has all the attributes that our midfield has lacked this season.

Has Chris Hughton got the best out o David Fox this season?

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[quote user="Mr Brownstone"]We have a midfielder who likes to get on the ball and pass it, we have a midfielder who always wants the ball, we have have a midfielder who can pick out a killer pass, a midfielder who''s delivery is consisntently excellent, a midfielder who can control a game and maintain possession, a midfielder who was voted our third best player by our own supporters in our highest placed finish for nearly 20 years.

We have a midfielder who has all the attributes that our midfield has lacked this season.

Has Chris Hughton got the best out o David Fox this season?[/quote]
He hasn''t got the best from any of our players this season.

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[quote user="smooth"]Following our run in the first half of last season where Morison scored the goals to move us in a good position we went on a free fall and only guaranteed safety very late on.[/quote]This just is not true.  Yes the last third of the season was poor compared to the first and second periods.  But is was still staying up form, and this was from a position of safety. We were very safe before the Leicester cup game and never in the relegation fight.  We passed the 37 that stayed up that season on match 30 - 8 games to play.1st 13  W4 D4 L52nd 13 W5 D4 L4Last 12 W3 D3 L6 The Last 12 could easily be put down to being on the beach already, and Lambert trying out different things. Over the course of the season even that would have given us 38 points, enough to stay up.

This season....1st 13 W3 D6 L42nd 13 W3 D5 L5Last 12 W2 D3 L4  --> 3 to play

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Yesterday I found myself groaning out loud every time Tettey got the ball in midfield. He''s a fantastic DM but has no passing ability whatsoever.

The one thing that was really annoying me, and I noticed on more than one occasion, was that we had the ball on the wing or sometimes Johnson would have it on the left of midfield, and Tettey was the furthest forward of the midfield three and Howson (the best passer of the three and best going forward) was holding in front of the back line. Ball would come to Tettey who would immediately make a 10 yard pass either backwards or sideways. Groan....

That for me was a great example of our Manager not using his squad effectively. You want someone to hold back and break up play in front of the back four if we lose the ball thats Tettey, you want one of those picked midfield three to receive the ball, turn look for a pass or dribble at opponents thats Howson. So why were they on role reversal?

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