To Those Who Incessantly Berate Hughton For Being Incompetent

Bloody Spanish, what do they know about football.

 

Tippy tappy rubbish!

 

A manager ought to be able to stop his team freezing and fluffing things at home - CH's potential for this worries me!

 

Pellegrini has ruled out any departures unfortunately.

 

No, we are definitely playing better football, Canary Rob said so

 

Glad you came round eventually.

Now all we need are the players results to click and we will be enjoyable to watch again.

 

There is no such thing as a "dead cert to start" anymore, apart from goalkeepers and Luis Suarez everybody gets rotated these days. However from our squad Howson, Pilkington, Tettey, RVW and very probably Elliott Bennett would have started the vast majority of our games this season but for injuries - Howson would possibly have started every game. Snodgrass, Bassong, Hooper and Turner have also had spells on the treatment table already this term and it was generally accepted that Ruddy wasn't 100% for the first month or so of the season. All vital players for us, the very heart of our squad - nine who have missed games and our keeper playing catch up for a few weeks, I'd say that was pretty relevant.

I'm not saying it's the only reason behind some of the poor performances we've seen this season, and I'm not saying we're the only club to have suffered injuries to key players at key times, but to dismiss the injuries we have suffered to our key players at key times - such as those indisputable names I've mentioned - and not to recognise that they really have hindered our progress is somewhat short-sighted if you ask me.

Re: Redmond, of course he is good enough to play, however not for a second do I think Hootun would have wanted him to be playing every week. He's been forced to due to injuries to Bennett, Pilks and Snodgrass as at least two of them have been out of action at the same time pretty much all season, so whilst it's not necessarily a player out of position, it's a young, inexperienced player in his first season of top flight football being thrust in and playing a lot more games than I'm certain our manager would have wanted him to.

And now that we have Fer, Tettey and Howson unavailable this weekend, who is going start in centre-midfield against Fulham that won't be playing out of position?

 

Some very good points. I would point out, though, that the stats are pretty clear that there are certain clubs where it has NOT been an issue - Southampton, Stoke, Hull, Cardiff.

So you are right that we are bang average by the injury league table, and should expect this sort of level of injuries every season (and in consequence Hughton/ the club should bear responsibility for not preparing for this possibility better). However, if people are then going to compare our performances to these clubs specifically, the injury question is a factor.

As for players out who are first teamers - actually Bassong was not fit when he started the season due to pre-season injury and the same goes for Snodgrass, who was also injurd recently. Both of them are first names on the team sheet. As for Pilkington, whenever he has been fully fit, he has always started under Hughton, so he is a first teamer to me, though I accept the regularity of his injuries means that this should already be accounted for. Howson is not dead certain, true, but a combination of Tettey, Howson and an unfit Johnson means that we have always had a potential first teamer out. We have also always had a first choice striker out. I agree that combo is not particularly unusual, but it is still pretty bad when you look at other teams. Arsenal's injury list, for example, is tempered by the quality of their replacements and the fact that their long term injured are generally not first teamers.

 

Snap!

I think Fox has to be given a chance.

His loan spell wasn't successful at Barnsley, but IMO that was because Flitcroft was sacked and the style changed. Up until then he'd played regularly, and decently.

 

At the start of the season the most optimistic of us on here (not including me incidentally) said that success would be a top half position at the end of the season. We are currently three points worse off than the team in 10th place (Hull) at the half way point, despite our injuries. Is anyone seriously suggesting that we would be no better off, or have played no better football, if we had been injury free? The injuries are not an excuse for anything; they are a reason why things have been more difficult than the more optimistic of us expected. Those of us who had lower expectations, e.g. a finish somewhere between 12th and 17th, are seeing their expectations fulfilled even with all the injuries. Our squad and manager have proved pretty resilient in the circumstances. Well done to them.

 

I don't think many people on here are calling him incompetent. A lot of us, however, are saying that we find him extremely limited, inflexible and incapable of learning from experience, and that we believe that ugly survival is the best we can hope for from him.

And now I've broken my promise to myself not to get involved in any more of these Hughton in/Hughton out discussions.

 

Being so weak-willed Vietnam, you must surely admire CH for not sharing that failing!

 

McNally had a long term plan that included relegation, if we keep our current squad we would smash the Championship under Hughton ,if we stay up it will be by the skin of our teeth so i would take that at this stage.
The horrible thing is i have stopped expecting us to win .

 

Horrible? Not at all. You've just seen sense at last! The outcome of any game of football is no better than a 50:50 call so no rational person EXPECTS their team to win. Hope, yes; expect, no.

 

I work in the gaming industry and it is customery to gamble on a win for example a midfield comprising of Howson Fer Hoolahan Redmond and Snodgrass with Wolfswinkie and Hooper.
Yes it would seem foolhardy but against equal teams it is worth the risk.

 

What are you talking about Robbie, tossing a coin is 50:50. Football matches are far easier to expect a certain result.

 

Really? I didn't have to look very hard to find these from the past day or so - sounds like he's being called "incompetent" to me

 

OK, some of those come close to incompetent, I admit. Although I would say that 'out of his depth' means not up to decent Prem standard. Lower Prem/upper Champ is his natural limit, I think.

 

I'm sure I could go back a few more days and find stronger terms that you - and plenty of others - have used that make him sound more than incompetent, go back a few weeks and I reckon I'd find loads.

Not that there's anything wrong with that of course, it's your opinion, your prerogative and you can call him what you want. Just don't then move the goalposts and claim to have been misquoted when it's all there in black and white, it does tend to dilute the credibility of your arguments somewhat