Spot on. A fundamental problem that we all need to come to terms with is that our squad is not that great. Lambert was brilliant because he got double out of a player, but he was unique. It will take time in this division before we will have a squad where the players are middle of the table. At the moment, I look at our squad compared with even the likes of Sunderland and it doesn't do all that well.
I do agree, that our squad is no better than bottom third in value/quality and this is why Hughton must go. With lesser players they need to really fight and the manager needs to use them wisely to get the best out or them. Seriously can that be said of Hughton? I'm seriously struggling to think of a player in the squad who has shown great improvements under his stewardship? Bah!
People have such short memories, the first half against Cardiff - less than four hours ago in football time - was as good as I've seen us play under Hootun, and possibly the best since we've been back in the top flight. Tettey and Howson have definitely improved under Hootun, as has Turner if you ask me - remember his calamitous debut?
Sorry, General, but that is garbage. Lambert (see post prior to yours) was a magician, in that he signed players like Pilks, E Bennett, Morison, etc and got them to play out of their skins - which worked for his first season in the Prem. Hughton has been able to spend money that Lambert (at that time) could only dream about, yet despite signing players of a decent calibre, has yet to get them performing as a well drilled unit. I have no doubt that this squad of players has the ability to keep us up - the question mark hangs over whether the coaching set up is shrewd enough to get them to do so. This is where our problems lie. (I'm not 'hankering' for the Lambert days, I'm merely highlighting the difference between that aspect of his and Hughton's management style. They'd run through walls for PL - on yesterday's showing, they wouldn't run through tissue paper for CH)
Also I know it's not short term, but he has improved the youngsters. Josh murphy made his premier league debut on sat. Although we spent 25mil, I agree we are still in the bottom 4or5 in terms of overall quality, as IMO, we are stil playing a bit of catch up from our promotion squad which had zero pl experience, despite the improvement made I do wonder if we will see a bit of shift back to more defensive mind-ness, not quite the dame as last season, but a bit of firming up. This was mentioned on motd 2 heard on the radio earlier
Jesus Munky! How many beers did you have that day. ? We were ok against Cardiff, & if you think that's the best we've played under CH then that proves how bad we are ! That game was a shadow of the Man U & Arsenal victories from last season.
Well if we can agree that the squad is in the bottom third then presumably you'll also be agreeing that it was quite an achievement to finish 11th with a poorer squad last year? As you have said, for a poor squad to achieve that kind of level the players would have had to fight and the manager must have used them wisely. So when you say "Seriously can that be said of Hughton?"... well yes, evidently it can because he already did it.
Cromer Are you sure about that spending, hughton only spent marginally more than lambert did Only the last window did he spend a lot more
Just for the record, Hughton spent less money last season than Lambert did the season before. Hughton has had a lot this time around. There is a particular breed of manager (Hughes being the most obvious) who manage to do quite well with limited funds, but with larger sums seem to lose the plot. Not necessarily spend badly per se, but then don't get the team functioning. I'm beginning to wonder whether Hughton is one of those managers.
I think he meant it in terms of result or the heart the players showed, more in terms of the technical football. There was some really good movement and passing against Cardiff and I would agree with Munky that it was getting on for the best to watch that we've shown under Hughton. It was helped by Cardiff putting ten men behind the ball, but it was still very nice, just unfortunate that it wasn't quick enough to pull them out of position. I agree that as a performance, it was a long way from the best. Became fairly headless towards the end.
I disagree, we did a job on United and Arsenal for sure, we stifled and frustrated them, didn't let them play and somehow managed to bag the points. Effective? Yes, but it certainly wasn't pretty to watch. The first half against Cardiff we tore them to shreds and cut through their defence time and time again and did everything but score. The movement was as good as I've seen it under Hootun for sure, and the atmosphere in the ground at half-time was buzzing with everyone I spoke to clueless as to how we weren't out of sight. Ok the second half was a different story and was mostly pretty pants, however this was largely down to Cardiff shutting up shop and stifling us, much like we did to United and Arsenal last season, though thankfully without the goal. And in answer to your question, I had two pints of Wherry before kick-off, hardly enough to impair my judgement too much
