OK, it's like a guilty secret, but a couple of months ago I started looking at the messageboard on the Pink Un (I don't post - honest!). When I started the board was more or less like ours. Hughton in, Hughton out - roughly balanced. I've noticed there's been a massive swing since, though, and the mood has gone against him big time. I'm not saying this to prove myself right; just to point out that Hughton is treading on very thin ice and I'm not even sure he can win people back short of another 10-match unbeaten run. If they are representative of the fans in general, it almost means the atmosphere is going to get poisonous in home games if we are losing/not playing well.
I listen to Canary Call every week, and noticeably last night, quite a number of people who had said they were supportive of CH were now beginning to question the appointment. It has certainly been a bit of a snowball effect over recent months.
Certainly the opening game of the season (Everton) seems a thousand years ago now. I was genuinely hopeful after that game. And now about 75% of me thinks we are going to get relegated and lose Fer, RvW, Olsson, Ruddy, and the best chance we have had in two decades to establish ourselves again as a top tier club. What's worse, I can feel myself starting to feel the irrational hatred of CH that I read on a few of the awful comments on the Pink Un site. It's not good.
I know people intepretation things differently but it is too late to do anything now. The time for change has passed and we need to just hang on in in there now. I tend to read the pink un more than here and some interesting posts are coming through. The one that struck me the mist today is where one poster said that Satrurdays has become like a work day. You get up feeling you do not want to go. What a sad state of affairs things are becoming if that is the case. It's no wonder the atmosphere is poor compared to what it was like over the promotion years. I just look at the stats under Hughton and you just have to wonder how he has kept his job. The opportunity for change ( after Man City and Liverpool) has passed. We just now have to try and put whatever our feelings are behind our team. Let's hope we can get in some players ( experienced CB, a boost to the midfield, possible injury cover winger ( sorry Carrabuh!) to freshen things up if the manager does not change. That might galvanise things to get us across the line, but who would want to come here at the moment? The Italian did not want to.
Yes, the quote about feeling like a work day hit home to me, too. Here in Vietnam watching the game means staying up late and, if it's not on Viet TV, having to struggle with a dodgy thread. It's almost got to the stage now where I am glad when we're NOT one of the games on Viet TV because I just don't want to watch it any more. It's like going to the dentist.
I have a feeling that when Tettey and Bennett come back from injury along with Howson we will pull ourselves round and out of trouble. It's more of a hope though rather than expectation. I went to see the cup game and got Into a few conversations with people in the N & P and almost all of them were "outers" and they said that the performances they have seen are the worse since Roeder and Grant, especially away from home. One guy there had been following city away for 20 years and he has decided to stop as we do not go out to win games anymore. There were others that were not going to renew their season tickets. There is a lot of division, not just on forums but on the terraces also.
I think whether people like it or not CH is here until the end of the season at least, people will change their tune once we get some key players back from injury, IMO we have been very unlucky with injuries this season. I'm of the opinion that our poor form of late is all down to injuries, some are saying we should able to play well despite this, who's right?
Yes, Surgeryman and Fenland, almost certainly he is here until the end of the season. Let's just hope there are three teams so bad that they finish below us. But the minute the season ends I want him out.
Ditto! To the extent that I wont even bother watching the cup replay this week, something that not helped by both sides putting out "unusual" teams. I just don't have the will to wake up in the early hours, for what is quite a meaningless game.
I'm not sure there is ever a set of premier league fans (with the exception of 1st season teams) outside of the top 8 who are all content with their club. Basically football is about winning, and if a team is not winning fans are not happy. I'm sure people will say they would be if we played an exciting style but for the most part I just don't buy it. People want to win, simple as that.
I think it's about expectations as well, people think that because we have spent our massive bundle of cash we should be doing better, but the amount we have spent is a pittance in PL terms.
Will those key players returning make a difference, maybe, but that better be quick and they will take a few games to get back to match fitness, which is time we do not have. You could say our poor form has been there since January last year, so it's not just down to injury. It's tactics, management, lack of quality especially in the final third which have not been addressed for me.
Agreed Plus many teams who may not of spent as much the summer just gone have spent lots season on season have have much larger wage budgets.
It's interesting the debate about the away games, I've been to most of it hasn't been pretty, and it got me thinking about the away games under Lambert that I went to, Wigan, first game back in PL we were ****e and lucky to get a point. Bolton first away win, barely deserved and certainly not entertaining Man utd, sat very very deep, had a couple of break away chances Liverpool got a point, great Holt header, but it could have easily been massacre Villa, we lost 3-2 donlt really remember the game Man City - got hammered and looked ****e Wolves- we played some decent football but a draw was a fair result against a to be relegated team Qpr -victory against 10 men WBA second trip in quick succession and a win, match could have gone either way Everton- didn't deserve a point but good Holt good after initial poor control (just my bug bear about how fecking great that goal was) Then didn't go to anymore games but on those games alone we were generally poor and not entertaining, but was entertained because of being in the PL. We could easily have not got results in several of those games and in my reckoning could have easily been 10-12 points worse off over the course of our first season back and would have been relegated Thank feck we weren't and the same applies to last season and it looks like it will be same again this season. I guess my point is we are in a static position, our development is always relative to the teams around us and it will take a long time before (if ever) we become an established PL team
Interesting post. Basically you seem to be saying that we were lucky in that first season. But Lambert is always lucky. Last season with Villa, they were the pits. But every crunch game they got the victory they needed and they stayed up. This is not a Lambert = Messiah post. Nor is it meant to be a bash Hughton post. But why? Why is Lambert constantly lucky and Hughton never gets the rub of the green?
But In most of those games we got points away from teams around us, with the bonus of a point at Anfield. There's probably more away points there than CH has had since he's been in charge? It was for me the fact we still tried to win away under PL, under CH it's just plain painfull to watch! There's still time IMO to sack the chump by the time these injured players come back get match, we will be into the month of death !!
For me, attacking football increases the amount of luck involved in a result. If you're having 20 shots a game rather than 10, you've got twice the chance of a deflection giving you a fluke goal, or a keeper error, or a handball. It's why the top teams always seem to get more penalties, etc. Lambert's very direct style means that there's a lot happening in the final third, even if it's not all perfectly planned. He also gives players the confidence to try their luck from range, etc, which creates more of this type of opportunity. From memory we've scored two goals from outside of the box all season. With that comes the risk of being caught out when overcommitted, and not having the players on the pitch to battle against patient build-up, so you in theory concede more. Another factor is that Villa clearly have a couple of players far too good for the bottom of the league. Agbonlahor for example is capable of that moment of magic that sways a game Villa have no right to win. We've got nobody like that. Under Hughton our build-up is more patient, so we've got more of the ball in the middle of the park not the final third. When deflected passes or errors, etc occur they lead to a promising position, but not necessarily a goalscoring one. Whilst we should be more solid at the back, form (and injuries) of individuals, combined with the types of errors that suggest low confidence, are counter-productive.
I can count the times I've watched match of the day this season, on one hand... At best a severe downer to a Saturday evening. I suppose someone will chime in to tell me in not a real supporter or to lower my expectations - because by saying you want more than to be in bottom three, is apparently saying you think we should be knocking on the door for europe... It isn't. Other managers would absolutely get more out the players at our disposal than Hughton can or seemingly ever will... Imagine watching a bloke slowly take your team down over the course of 2 seasons, playing awful football for the vast majority, and you sit there with a grin plastered over your face, clapping like a seal!?! Some even saying give him a crack at it next year...He'll get it right next week, or when he has his first XI fit...And at least he's a nice bloke. Oh, and he got a ridiculously strong Newcastle team promoted at the first time if asking, so it's all going to be fine. Stuck with him now.
Because Lambert has what is known as a 'winning mentality', he instills confidence in them to make them believe, thats how players can 'box' above their weight, this doesnt work with a tactical approach of course, you need better quality players for this method and we are stuck in the middle somewhere.
