Was discussing this with Melchett. It was the first suggestion we've had that something is not right in the dressing room. However, heads went down fast after three unfortunate goals in rapid succession and Man City are the sort of team who destroy others when the heads fall, so it may just have been a case of our players feeling too sorry for themselves. I thought it was interesting that Rusty came out and quite pointedly implied that the dressing room was well behind Hughton, but I can't help but feel that doesn't sound right. Too many players are struggling for game time to be totally happy and there must be an undercurrent of loss of faith. It will be interesting to see who is picked against West Ham - I might be over analysing, but I think if we see the same team it implies, to me, that there are serious problems with some of the others.
I really wasn't sure which way to vote, but in the end I've gone for now because I think he's dead in the water anyway.
I honestly hope that you and I are both very wrong and it turns out to be a proper decoration job against West Ham. I think long term, CH is getting the right players in and building from the back. He needs to work out how to get the best out of each player and make them click as an offensive unit. But short term, we do need to survive as well. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for CH as I think he is the best thing to happen to us, even if no-one else realises it yet.
I was discussing our predicament with a couple of other fans over a beer last night and looked back over the prexious 4 games, where the team actually played quite well, but couldn't convert possession into goals. It's very difficult when the opposition 'park the bus' and then their gk has the 'game of his life', but CH and his staff need to focus on getting all of team to look and see if another player is in a better position to score (mind you, Suarez was guikty of that against Arsenal on Sat!!!). Interesting to see that it's still just over 25% of votes are in favour of him not being in charge on Sat!!!!
Interesting in as much as if you put Christmas and never together it is more or less four equal splits.
That's the major issue, if he gets us an 0-0 draw at West Ham I think I would still be in favour of him going. He just doesn't seem to be able to get the tactics right to create goal scoring, he's got the players to do that so there's no excuse. Fer and RVW are amazing players and if he can't get the best out of them something has to be wrong.
I've got to that point now where I think it would be reasonable to see how we fair in the games against wet sham, Newcastle and Palace. But my expectation of those games is so low that especially with the international break it would be better to just get rid imediately and give the new man time. Bah!
I think City have to win against West Ham if CH is to be given until the end of November (it's at Home not Away, Fenland). Even then, a good performance against Newcastle away with perhaps a draw and then a win against Palace is needed if he is to be given more time. By then we'll be one third of the way through the season and need at least 14 points from 13 matches to stay in contention. If that can be done, then I can see him being given until Christmas. I just hope that happens.
Will that make any difference though?, CH tactics don't seem to give him the goal scoring opportunities, can he change that for the Hammers game?
I know we'll cross each bridge when we get to them , but don't forget we're dealing with a virtual 34 game season during which to accumulate sufficient points. Our last four fixtures could well be a repeat of the four 'pastings' we've just had. Liverpool (h) ManUre (a) Chelsea (a) Arsenal (h) All four of these could well still be title contenders still, to add a bit more drama to the mix - as if any were needed
Think the City game was a bit of a watershed for CH. I think he will get till the end of November and has a chance to pull things round, but if not im sure replacements wil be sounded out now.
The thing is... I actually don't know what we should do. I just want it to all work out. Good job I'm not mcnally
Yeh I've actually been really disappointed with Hooper's movement, but he wasn't like that for Celtic so maybe that is down to how CH is playing him. Was it two up front for Celtic?
We really need to be getting better quality balls to RvW/Hooper/into the box and we're just not doing that at all. Looking back, it's been a failing of our team since CH took over - the exception being Swanea away. I'm discounting the WBA and Citeh results at the end of last season, as I'm not sure that either of our oppponents were really that interested in the results when we played them.
Very true, case in point being Holt, who went from 17 goals in the first Prem season under Lambert to 8 under Hughton. Nuff said.
Is he though? Is he really that good? And if so, what is that assessment based on - his fancy name or his price tag?
