robbie, i'm glad i'm not the only one who has noticed that we are trying to play the game differently to last season and far more closely matched to how carrabuh and probably a lot of people would like to see. it just hasn't quite all come together... yet. too many players are off form and making the wrong decisions. it just needs something to click - maybe a little bit of luck is all it will need. you do need it sometimes
Bloody hell, well done, I started to explain this, but then thought what is the fecking point- it will just fall on deaf ears
As more often than not (i.e. except when we are discussing Arsenal!), we are on much the same wavelength Superman. Your suggested lineup is exactly what I think we should do. If we had had Tettey sitting there on Saturday, Villa would not have scored the goal they did. But just imagine the uproar that would have ensued if that lineup had been announced on Saturday afternoon. CH would have been crucified for caution and negativity.
and herein lies the major problem and what i have been banging on about for god knows how long - a complete lack of both understanding of what is being done and a lack of patience. he can't win whatever he does. we aren't going to play well every game and we certainly aren't going to win every game. give the poor sod the time to do his job! there is no quick fix
Don't be ludicrous; everyone knows that a good manager can create a wonderful team that plays fantasy football in a week! There is no such thing as a work in progress.
A neutral view - Hughton is a good manager. You have bought some pretty good attacking talent in the summer, but so far have been unable to utilise that. It's too early to say if this is down to tactics or simply that the team has not fully gelled. My advice would be patience.
My reference to carrabuh was actually to his long post on the other thread, not to anything he has or hasn't said about Saturday. As for what has been said about Saturday on here, there are some classic examples of my oft repeated comment that people see only what their pre-conceptions allow them to see. What they should do is get themselves full access to Opta stats, buy themselves the Idiots Guide to Understanding Football Analytics, and spend the evening after every match finding out what actually took place on the pitch. That way Sunday mornings on here might actually provide some sensible discussion.
I haven't commented on the Villa game as yet but I did watch it on the telebox (apologies if I cover ground that has already been addressed). Some people seem to be making a lot of how we are struggling to create chances - I don't think that is true of the Villa game. I can recall quite a few times when we provided excellent through balls to the wide areas, allowing us to put in a delivery (which on a couple of occasions were great), but we just weren't able to put the resulting chance away (RvW & Hooper fluffed a couple, Guzan palming away a hard cross and making a great stop etc.). Granted, you could argue that none of the chances were 'clear cut', but still. I find calls for Snodgrass to be dropped a bit strange. Apart from the penalty miss, I thought he was good - always looked a threat, worked hard (as usual) and was one of the few midfielders who tracked back effectively. This I felt was the main problem when Villa created chances early on, on the break - our midfield weren't doing a good enough job of tracking back. This allowed both Weimann and Benteke in particular, too much space to maraud into. For the goal, after Ruddy made the initial save, it's extremely disappointing to see Turner and Bassong the only ones trying to stop Agbonlahor and Kozak, with Agbonlahor having all the time he needs to get his head up, get his bearings and pull it back for Kozak who was STILL completely unaccounted for as our fullbacks and midfielders were nowhere to be seen. It must be said though, that the defensive positioning from Turner and Bassong for the through ball to Kozak was atrocious - not totally sure what happened there.
Originally Posted by Superman wears Grant Holt pyjamas in bed well i think that will be answered in the coming weeks. we will need to score more goals so if he wants to survive he'll have to come up with the formula. i think the formula is already there to a degree, its just a case of a) getting the midfield personnel correct - which i think was close on saturday) and b) the players delivering better quality. i couldn't care less if we ping the ball out wide more often than not - its a great way of stretching teams. just make sure if you do you put decent delivery in the box. hughton can't deliver the crosses! i still maintain that by getting the midfield balanced correctly we'll create more through the middle. our passing was much crisper in the centre of the park and the combination of fer and howson linked well but because they had nobody behind them they didn't push forward s much as i'd like to see. its not an easy thing to get right - none of us are able to pick a side and think 'yeah, that'll deliver everything we need'. there's always an area of weakness but that's why these players are at norwich and not man city! i'd be tempted to go for stoke if all available, maybe give rvw a break as he's clearly getting frustrated. i'd let tettey do nothing but sit, no license to get forward at all - let fer and howson break with an emphasis on using both wide men AND finding through balls for hooper. i don't think we need a link man in this formation as long as both howson and fer can support. both full backs can continue to support and overlap allowing both wingers to cut inside, giving them two options in forward positions: ruddy martin bassong bennett olsson tettey snodgrass fer howson pilkington hooper edit. robbie has basically said what i was about the wingers/full backs As more often than not (i.e. except when we are discussing Arsenal!), we are on much the same wavelength Superman. Your suggested lineup is exactly what I think we should do. If we had had Tettey sitting there on Saturday, Villa would not have scored the goal they did. But just imagine the uproar that would have ensued if that lineup had been announced on Saturday afternoon. CH would have been crucified for caution and negativity. I agree with both of you in respect of line up. That said dropping an already clearly frustraited RvW might tip the poor lad over the edge, he's not done alot wrong. The thing is do you think this switching to 2 up front has been counter productive? Last season CH pinned his 1 up top preference to the mast for all to see. Having now bought 2 good strikers do you think that has shapped his tactics unduly or is it a longer term master plan? It was absolutely the wrong thing to do at spurs, possibly wrong at home too. We all know that 4-5-1 played as you describe is not a negative formation. But can we perform well enough soon enough for him to keep his job? Bah!
So you want CH to get the sack, that is the your sole aim this season and you don't care who replaces him?, you must have an opinion on the available managers out there!
you never seem to come up with any ideas of either how to play with our current players or who should even be picking them. who would be your ideal manager? for example, mine would be jurgen klopp. you?
yes i do. i don't think two up front works very often. that's not to be completely dismissive of it, there is a time and a place for it, but i don't like it. i don't think he intends using both hooper and rvw together all that often but that would probably lead to yet more abuse from some fans - "why did we sign hooper/rvw if they aren't going to play?" - and nonsense like that
I think Carrabuh is all mouth and no trousers, seems to pick apart the team we have but does not suggest how he would fix the current problems we are experiencing.
