And how he managed to get the best out of Dusan, he was a huge miss for Hughes after he left for Ajax.
Exactly. Apparently 51.9% of 72.2% of eligible people is enough of a majority to lead us to Armageddon.
Hughes was put in an unenviable position when he took us on. He had a stroke of luck at Swansea which effectively kept us up. His trouble was though in my opinion he was not backed in his decision making process. I think Reed had too much control and too much influence on him and the players. Whereas imo Ralph was given a more free Reign. Something clearly wasn’t going right for the partnership between Reed, Hughes and the players. There just didn’t seem to be the commitment from the players. Just my opinion no inside info to back that up though.
This seems relevant in so far as Bednarek barely got on the pitch for Hughes despite looking good when he got a sniff, Under Ralph he is one of the best defenders in the league - statistically. https://www.premierleague.com/news/1162792
Also note that Vestergaard rates highly for clearances and Yoshida for interceptions. Can this be that our CBs are kept rather busy
I'd say it's 50/50 between Hassenhuttl being legit good and Hughes absolutely sucking. Never thought that highly of Hughes, and suspected he was no improvement over Pelligrino. But I was still surprised at how ridiculously bad he was. By the same token, I figured we would improve under Hassenhuttl because I liked what I read about him and anyone would be better than Hughes. But we are playing way better than I thought. The strange stretch right in Feb. where we were bad against three easily beatable opponents is the only thing that makes me a little nervous. But if we play the rest of the season the way we've played the last three games, I think we could pick up 9-10 points. Which would be amazing, and cement my love for this dude forever.
The defence was undoubtedly bad under Hughes (especially Hoedt and Cedric), but the football his team played was an improvement on what Pellegrino's team served up IMO.
Dude won three games in twenty-two matches. Three. 17 points in 22 matches for Hughes. 28 points in 30 matches for Pellegrino. And Hughes had a better team this year than Pellegrino had last year.
I sat through all those dismal and boring games when Pellegrino was managing at SMS and the entertainment under Hughes was much better but was always waiting for a defensive cock up to scupper any chance of a good result...stats don't always tell the full story. Pellegrino also took a relatively successful team to the relegation zone.
Yep, that's my feeling as well. The thing about MP2's time here, it wasn't just the defeats that were thoroughly depressing, some of the wins were truly dreadful as well. Remember Palace, where we went from one of the best 45 mins of football to a complete and utter collapse.....but amazingly didn't concede. He is the most despised saints manager since Branfoot for me. Awful. And to think we were told he came with a high intensity energetic press style.
