This season has been a struggle, we all know it, I believe it goes back to the very start of the season when CH took his stack of DVDs on holiday. Those DVDs will have shown the team that scored something like the 7th or 8th most goals last season and a defense that would get caught too frequently. I doubt very much he watched every game from last season and a selection of extended highlight will have left him think that if we can fix the defense the it should be a good team. Thatâs what the stats said, its what the highlights would say, you needed to experience the season like we did to pick up that this wasnât true. The problem is, as we were saying, the attack was the product of a policy of balls out attack and several were saying we needed new strikers. Unfortunately the new system focused on more defending stifled our attack however all the changes that had been made to personnel, Snoddy excepted, were defensive. We know that come January we needed a striker and it is very much on record that we went after at least one. However the blockbuster deals fell through and we got Kei who was fun and Becchio at the expense of another striker. People have recently criticized the Van Wolfswinkle deal as being too late however we failed in the deal in January and if he had moved which it sounds like he very nearly did, it would have been to Fiorentina. If we stay up, this is a great bit of business, if we go down and sell him for a profit in some ways itâs a better piece of business. He will not stay at sporting they canât afford the pay us the £4m back. What Iâm sort of trying to say is that itâs hard to come into a team you donât understand and improve it this has been shown this season. If we stay up this will be a big summer as signaled by our already having broken our transfer record, I still think the future is bright for this club. This is not a full throated defense of Hughton mostly because Iâm not sure which side Iâm on, currently I think Iâm with the let him have the summer and we better be improved by October, Im more looking to warn against shaking things up to much because I think out struggles are in part at least due to the change of manager.
I think that this is an excellent assessment Bath and i agree with you in ALL regards. I have thought very much the same on most issues at some point but have never put them together coherently as you have. Sometimes you get slated for appearing to defend CH but as I have said previosuly, he was our choice and we were pleased with the original appointment. You have now summarised why it has not all clicked into place immediately but like you, the close season will be the test, culminating in an appraisal as to where we are at the end of October. IF WE STAY UP!
I have oscillated between get rid of CH and he needs more time, I'm coming down on the side of a manager needs more than a season to build a team and his building work has only just begun. It seems to me that getting rid of him now is a bit like getting rid of the builders when they haven't had a chance to put the roof on and the owners are complaining that the house leaks when it rains. If he can't finish the building work, then look for other options, but for now let him finish his plan and see what it looks like.
I think in the long term he's trying to model us on an Everton style of play, they don't play ugly (most of the time) and they don't play the game tika-taka style but it's effective! It's clear to see that the quality in the middle of the pitch is lacking as we do struggle to string passes together, and hopefully when he brings in his own forward thinking players we will be alot better next season.
Positives: 1) We can't start much worse again 2) We have an actual striker of proven quality coming (RvW)...who should take the scoring burden off our poor midfield's shoulders and free them to start creating chances again 3) We have a genuine PL quality GK who will be fit (we have suffered big time in Ruddy's absence this season, make no mistake about this) 4) CH will have to adopt a more attacking strategy or will face the sack (either points pressure or fans wrath) 5) Surely we can't go on such a barren post-xmas run again? (2 wins in 19...I doubt will be repeated) In summary, given a new batch of summer recruits, Ruddy and RvW, we will have solved our GK and Striker issues and start off from a clean slate.
I think McNally will have to have some stern conversations with Hughton as to where this team is developing and what Hughton sees as the ideal style of team for a team like Norwich. I personally think Hughton is going to be counter attacking next season. The trouble with the team it has firmly been moulded all season by physique and physical strength with no skillset development. We are at the very basic end of the footballing ladder, closer to Stoke and West Ham than the likes of Southampton, West Brom and Fulham. I've said it before, I think he's going to be buying a couple of tall rangy wingers, like Kamara but hopefully a lot better. It is the logical way to go because he doesn't have to change the present defensive set up to much. I don't think we'll be seeing any short player technical players coming our way (sadly), it will be the traditional over reliance on historic mindless Premiership style of power and pace and running in straight lines. Its a shame if we do, because I think a sea of change is coming to styles of play to these shores and it would be nice to contribute to that change. I just don't think you can beat as a spectacle 8 or 9 passes across the midfield and back again and working a chance off your own backs through decent movement and wanting the ball.
Bath, I can't disagree with most of what you've posted, a pretty good asessment. The problem I have with Hughton, and you mentioned it at the beginning, is that right at the start of the season, (the two high profile pre-season games) showed the ones of us who notice which path he was going down. In both those games we were so negative it was shocking, and quite honestly it hasn't improved! Personally I don't like this style of football, it's so boring and fruitless and seemingly un-progressive, yes he's signed RvW, but we still need to get the ball into the right positions to whoever plays up front. Just buying a striker doesn't guarantee that they will score goals, especially if we continue to play 8 accross the back.
I disagree about last year's style of play. I don't think we were always balls out attack. I think the philosophy was more that the opposition has less chance of hurting you if the ball is at the other end of the pitch. At times we criticised the team for playing long balls, which have chosen to ignore. Everything wasn't utopian under Lambert. But the difference was, he didn't go out to defend apart from one game early on, Chelsea away as nd that backfired so obvioyly that it had changed before half time. I accept the appointment of CH. I was all for it myself. But I can't accept that 9 months into the job, he isn't totally acclimatised to NCFC, the board and equally importantly, the supporters. If we stay up, then it's a financial success but I feel we have gone backwards on the field, and the bond between the manager and supporters has been broken somewhat. It is probably fair to give him more games next season but if that fails and we don't get the response like this season's autumn run, then we could be heading in the wrong direction. I feel so much despair at times from our recent performances that I want to scream at CH as he stands on the touchline hands in pockets appearing to be looking for divine intervention. But I am totally fed up with the constant managerial changes, not only at NCFC but all football clubs. So I want success for my club and success for Chris Hughton. But I do want my team to play the brand of football we are famous and renowned for.
Totally agree with ILD. I also think there has been nothing in this seasons performances to suggest CH knows what he is doing. We have been negative from the start of the season, in comments about the squad, team selection and play. Why give CH until October, he has just had 19 games to show he is totally clueless, why let it continue? I believe there is now too much evidence to show CH is not up to the job, 38 games should be enough time for someone's talent to shine through, it hasn't. Changing the manager after 1 season is not ideal but why would you continue down this road only to change in October, that would be worse.
Totally agree with ILD. I also think there has been nothing in this seasons performances to suggest CH knows what he is doing. We have been negative from the start of the season, in comments about the squad, team selection and play. Why give CH until October, he has just had 19 games to show he is totally clueless, why let it continue? I believe there is now too much evidence to show CH is not up to the job, 38 games should be enough time for someone's talent to shine through, it hasn't. Changing the manager after 1 season is not ideal but why would you continue down this road only to change in October, that would be worse.
20 years ago, we came close to winning the first ever premiership title. That won't happen again in 120 years. But success for me would be good, progressive football, a full stadium and the chance of winning a cup.I would like that to be with the current management team and maybe documentary in 20 years time about how our club set a benchmarkfor all the right and good things in football.
I would like to do it too but it's never going to happen with CH and his team. There is nothing right or good about Hughton!
Tbh I agree '"balls out attack" was probably the wrong way to phrase that, lambert has a philosophy that every players has a responsibility in attack, Hughton seems to feel every player has a responsibility in defense. I'm not saying that Hughton isn't settled into the job yet I'm say. That a misinterpretation of the team dynamic at that start of the season put us on a path that Hughtons style would struggle to get us out of. I think he's clever enough to change things and build a balanced team that plays in his style successfully. I hope.
I don't think CH is a bad manager, but he is a very limited one. Sorry to bang an old drum, but the thing that worries me about keeping him is the way he has failed to react to events over the last half season. He has seemed clueless, just putting out the same players with the same system again and again in the hope that something eventually might go right. So why is everyone so sanguine that he'll change next season once we have bought a few more players? He has no given us no proof whatsoever that he is capable of learning or developing as a manager. My second problem is his man-management and his failure to use the whole squad. Some players seem to be guaranteed a game no matter how poorly they play, while others seem to be frozen out without being given a real opportunity to prove themselves. This has been fatal because a) the players who do play have less incentive to perform well b) the players who do play get very tired and leggy c) the players who don't play aren't ready to perform when they are called upon because of injury d) it destroys the kind of squad mentality that PL very astutely built up over the last three seasons. I don't think CH can ever fix these shortcomings. From all the evidence I've seen this season, he is incapable of personal change. I'm not saying we should exchange him for one of the other limited managers on the merry-go-round. If there is no strong alternative candidate, we may as well keep CH and cross our fingers. But if someone like Solskjaer or Poyet or Zola should become available and the board decided to take a risk on one of these guys, I would support them. Otherwise, better the devil we know, although I would not be looking forward at all to next season.
I'm not convinced it comes down to getting new players in and tinkering over the summer. I think we actually have reasonable talent. I'm more concerned about CH's tactics and "in-game" flexibility. I'm concerned that with better players he will still approach games in the same way and ignore required changes during the game. We cannot afford to start next season late and gift the teams around us a head start. We need to have the right team in place and points on the board from August to get us over the line. I really hope McNally understands what CH's masterplan is going to be over the summer, and if it's anything close to more of the same, then we go to plan B.
Statements such as he doesn't know what he is doing, or there is nothing in the performances which illustrate he knows what he's doing. Of course he knows what he is doing, he is chosing a specific game plan (lots of people might not like it) and squad building strategy he has amassed nealry enough points for survival and maybe soon will. Style of play will improve, and I think the Everton analogy re style of play is probably accurate
the crucial thing for me is if we keep CH can he change and adapt to the new situation required. This is the crucial question - as has been noted in the context of some games he is slow to react and slow to assess situations relying far too much on hope than strategy. can he change because whatever happens change is required. This is the set of crucial questions!
