Was listening to Darren Eadie on canary call on the way home from the match yesterday and heard him talking about young Josh Murphy. In an interview earlier this season Eadie picked up on something Hughton had said to the lad. Josh was talking about how CH had told him to work on his defensive duties before he could expect to break into the first team. Eadie straight away highlighted that for a 19 year old pacey attacking player all he should be concentrating on was just that. When Eadie broke into Walkers team he stated MW never asked him to defend just to do what he did best. Just highlighted to me how Hughton choked the life out of the players he'd bought and I do really think this has been why we've scored so few goals this season if he's been instilling these duties on our strikers. Hotly clearly last season didn't like the system he'd been asked to play & I feel sure this is why RVW & Hooper have struggled for goals. I'm so glad we're rid of him I just wish it had been much sooner.
Thought it was a great point he made. If a young exciting talent is coming through, telling them to focus on their defensive work is just stifling their attacking flair and preventing them from developing the qualities they need. Eadie also said you wouldn't say to your defenders "Don't forget your attacking responsibilities". Also, if the whole time you are being told "Keep your defensive duties in mind" then clearly you aren't going to be fully committed to your attacks. There is playing defensive football and then there is taking away all attacking intent in the name of defensive football. Hughton was doing the latter. Cant have been too helpful for the mind set either. It's almost as if he never trusted the players to play the attacking game and so they never trusted themselves.
He choked every last vestige of creativity and flair out of the entire squad I bet (actually, I know) that Hooper and RvW didn't achieve their previous seasons goal tallies by having to spend prolonged periods in the centre circle just to get a touch of the ball (I also realise that the SPL and Portuguese leagues are not choc full of world class defenders, just to balance the above statement ) Congrats to Neil Adams for managing to at least restore some of that in his very short - and tricky, spell at the helm
I feel extremely sorry for the next club that will inherit him and his style of football. On another note does anyone think that we can hold onto Dave Watson the GK coach? I sit right in front of where the keepers warm up(Jarrolds)in the warm up a ball smacked a paramedic right in the side of the chops, after straightening his glasses he rolled the ball back to the on rushing Watson, he had a face like thunder, never even said sorry to this guy or anything just signalled for the ball. People all around me could be heard commenting about how pissed off he looked and the fact that a sorry or hand guesture wouldn't have gone a miss. I personally think he's just taking the wage until the summer then he'll be off.
Isn't it just an english thing though, we stifle young talented exciting players all the while, don't get me wrong hughton took it to the extreme, but why can't we just let young players loose and play with freedom and excitement. Yet we when young foreign kids come over and it is supposed natural for them just to out and play. We as a country should have more faith in our kids.
I agree saying this to a 19 year old attacking winger may not be the most helpful thing, assuming it was true. But I think CH was correct in trying to improve our defensive abilities and get players to work hard for the team and not just concentrate on an attacking role and nothing else. However I feel his defensive style is a bit old fashioned. The best defensive manager in the last few years imo is Pep Guardiola. That may seem a strange choice for a coach who gets his team scoring so many goals and creating loads of chances, yet his teams do have good defensive records. He has a different approach where, when out of possession the team press the opposition straight away to win the ball back as quickly as possible. No sitting back waiting for a mistake, they force it. A hard way to play but this is the best way to defend in the modern game, press high up the pitch and win the ball back as fast as you can.
Defence was our issue in the lambert season and Hughton clearly identified this and tried to improve the defence think the goal scoring was going to take care of itself. In the end we vastly over compensated be getting nearly every player on the pitch to defend at times which massively hamstrung us. At times the ability to just get everyone working on keeping the ball out is a good one but really you need a lead first then you can sit back and try to lock it down. That's what both WBA and Fulham did to us.
Said it all when against fulham at home in the cup we played '4-3-3' but murphy and redmond spent most of their time defending. After the game hughton said he'd played 3 forwards. Couldn't even allow them to express themselves against fulham in the cup....
Oh great another anti-Hughton thread, the guy isn't even our manager anymore FFS. I've not seen the exact quote but I find it very hard to believe it would have word for word that Murphy had no chance of playing in the first team without working on his defending. Of course this doesn't stop the majority of posters seizing on this, misinterpreting it and using it as a stick to beat our departed manager. I remember Steve Morison got slated non-stop for being lazy. So why is it different for Josh Murphy? Is he lazy or was Steve Morison just 'expressing himself?' The nature of being a club like ours in the Premier League means we cannot afford to have more than one player standing on the half-way line out of the game; therefore it is hardly unreasonable to expect a defensive contribution from a winger?
Shackling creativity is a very English trait, self expression is something that is feared in our country and sadly this board..
