Yes, it's already the morning after in this part of the world. A lot of us (including me, perhaps especially me) said a lot of things in the heat of the moment last night. Cooler heads today, I hope. First, I don't think anyone (except for the Pink Un mob) is calling for Hughton's head. In a way he is a victim of his own success. If we had got to where we are (23 games 26 points) picking up points here and there, I think most of us would be nervous but very supportive. But when you go 7 games without a win, 10 without a defeat, 6 without a win, it feels very different. We all need to look at the league table and realise we are still in a very good position with over half the season gone. Second, this may be better than losing another game by the odd goal. At least we are under no illusions that we will effortlessly survive without needing to go into the transfer market during the window. On the other hand, we do look in a mess. We play the same way every week whatever the opposition, we play the same players every week so that they look totally shattered by now, we depend far too much on high balls into the box and set pieces, we are predictable, we are brittle at the back and toothless up front, and we don't seem to have any room for players who have real quality on the ball. Villa will pick up unpredictable points - it's the Lambert way. Newcastle will go into the market and start to turn things around, Wigan always turn things around once we get towards spring, Reading aren't whipping boys any more, QPR are proving hard to beat, and although Southampton may implode after their weird decision to sack Adkins, they have some very good players and they are potent going forward. I don't know where we can go after this. Stick with 4411 or 451, both of which seem to leave us completely feeble up front? Go to 442 and we become even more dodgy at the back? Revert to the diamond and get ripped to shreds in midfield? It's not looking good.
With a cool, calm and collected head (although it still hurts a bit) Until the Newcastle game we were pretty happy with our lot, following narrow defeats to two of the countries top clubs and two tricky away games (one helped out by a poor referee on the day). The loss at Liverpool, although was very poor, was not unexpected so I think we just need to sit back and ride out the storm and see what happens in February where we have QPR away and two home games against Fulham and Everton. If we manage to lose all three of those then we might have a problem.
Liverpool seem to be our boggy team. We probably need another 15 points to stay up. If you look at our remaining fixitures its easily achievable. Cheer up I'd rather be in our position than QPR's, Southampton's, Villa's, Wigan's, Readings. If you'd had said at the start of the season that at this point we'd be in the position that we're currently in. Most of you would have been happy.
