IMO i think we should keep Hughton until December at least, give him the full summer to make the forward signings the team needs, and see if things change. I havn't been too suprised about the way we have played this season, it was always going to be a season of caution, to try to avoid second season syndrome. Hughtons requisite was to keep the team up this year, hence he built a good defence, which i dont think anyone can disagree was massively lacking last year. Then hopefully his plan is to kick on climbing the table in the coming season (providing we stay up) by making attacking signings and bolstering the rest of the squad. Changes dont happen over night, he couldnt have made all the defensive and attacking signings all at the start of his reign for squad harmony and budgetry reasons.
I think if i look at the teams around us adn their striking options (i know i will get some abuse for this) but in my opinion(!) most teams have better attacking options, both in midfield and actual strikers.
QPR - Remy, Taarabt, Holiett. Dont really rate anyone else in their team (in my defence). (I am trying hard to be objective, as I despise Koo-pee-ah).
Reading - Pogrebnyak, Le Fondre (Not neccesarily better but Le Fondre seems to always pop in the right place at the right time) Pog looked good last season not really done it this season but still a good player.
Aston Villa - Benteke, Weimann, Agbonlahor - Pains me to say they would all probably get a place in our team.
Wigan - Kone, Di Santo - Kone has pace to burn, Not overly convinced by either of them though, but would be better than the back up we had for Holt at the start of the season. Mcarthy and Gomez are both good players going forward.
Sunderland - Fletcher, Graham, Sessegnon, Johnson, Gardner. All good goal scorers, but the team is not doing so well this year - I would be more frustrated if we had these guys and couldnt score.
Newcastle - Cisse, Cabaye, Ben Arfa. Each of which would walk into our team. And they had Ba for the first half of the season.
Southampton - Lambert, Rodrguez, Puncheon, Ramirez, Lallana. Lambert and Holt are on a par IMO but Rodriguez is a good back up. Puncheon probably over performed this year. Ramirez is quality! Same goes for Lallana.
Now
purely objectively can many of you say that our options going forward are better than those around us, and for that reason shouldn't we be satisfied that we are above them despite not scoring much. Barring Snodgrass and in some cases above, Holt, they do have better options going forward. Reading and Wigan are the only teams comparable to us and thats only because Wigan are the only ones whom had a comparable budget to ours and Reading had only just been promoted so struggled to make the signings they could probably have afforded. If you look at our attacking options all have come from championship level or lower.
Well thats my reality check over, I await the impending abuse, but before you do just know that I am a true fan, I do love our club and all its players! But can also appreciate the strengths of other squads!
On a side (sneakily trying to divert attention from the rest of my post

) I think next season Hughton will shift to playing more like a 4-2-3-1 formation rather than 4-4-1-1, Not too much of a system change but allows greater attacking fluency and can easily be dropped back into the 4-4-1-1 when defending a lead or taking on the top 4.