Exactly! If people think the players are generally good enough the luck aspect evens itself out over the season. No team has been relegated because of bad luck.
I think this is a tricky one. It's very difficult to determine whose fault it is that players are playing badly, so while I think there is evidence to suggest that Hughton struggles to get the best out of players, without having a better idea of what's going on in the club, I don't think that we can be certain this is correct. What we do know, however, is how a game panned out. Evidence from the last three games shows that our squad is more than capable of staying in this league, and the players are good enough to do so comfortably. We have outplayed our opposition who are around our level and matched the opposition above us. What is clear, though, is that other managers had a better grip on what was needed to change the game, or Hughton has not understood what impact his own substitutions will have. That is where Hughton undeniably falls short for me. It's not the only thing, but it's the most telling - he can set a team up to play, but he can't react properly
I don't think that's true at all. Luck definitely does not even itself out. However, managers and players should be more than capable of coping despite bad luck.
On balance, I'd say most teams relegated in 17th place will have been unlucky. Off the top of my head, the best example is Sheffield United, but there are plenty of others. That's not really the bit I was disagreeing with, though - I was disagreeing with luck "evening itself out". I don't think it does. I think it's completely random! But I accept that you can play a part in making your own luck and you can also accustomise your team to make up for bad luck.
So does everyone think our loss last night was down to excellent goal keeping?, personally I think it was down to poor finishing a lot of the time, some of the saves were pretty soft.
Combo of the two - Snodders' one on one was a soft finish, but equally Adrian reacted incredibly fast, given that the rest of his defence were surprised by the ball, so it was a mix. The save from Hooper was top drawer though, while Tettey should have done a bit more because although it was a good save it was a comfortable height.
Yeah, not watertight without the evidence, but I'd argue that we were extremely unlucky to be relegated in 1995
Football is now about squads - games now involve 18 people, 11 who start 7 on the bench - the 3 from 7 on the bench can have as much influence on the game if used correctly when subs are needed as the 11 who start. This is what CH has failed to grasp - he fails to make full use of the resource at his disposal and does not have the gumption/guts or vision to make the right change at the right time. Personally I'd like to see Becchio given more of a chance - at least he used to know where the barn door was before someone took his banjo away - he can do no worse than Elmander and may give us a bit of physical presence both up front and to help the defence at set-pieces.
Indeed, Gunny breaking and dislocating his ankle against Florist doing nothing more than controlling the ball, that has to be bad luck and ultimately that's what cost us our place at the top table for the best part of a decade.
We were relegated because we didn't win enough games. Simple as that. No use relying on other teams losing to keep us up.
I think the ray of light in all this is that we have managed to clear our debts and we are stable. Let's hope that the wages are not to bad. We will lose few of our top players no doubt if we go down but at least we are in a good position going forward.
I wish someone could explain to me, how it is, that players who time and time again get through into good goal scoring positions, make good attempts on goal, which are subsequently saved by a keeper who uneeringly guesses the correct way every time, is apparently Hughton´s fault. He can inspire and encourage as much as he likes, but if a keeper plays a blinder or the players don´t quite choose the best option when under pressure, that´s hardly his fault. Actually, I thought last night, that with all the efforts on goal, they did choose the right option, just one more keeper who played out of his skin. I´m surprised Hughton hasn´t been blamed for the flooding Ãn the south of the country, I mean he gets blamed for everything else.
imo the finishing wasn't the best on a lot of occasions, the manager is preparing the players for the match so who else is to blame?, the facts are undeniable, we have a top scorer from the SPL, a top scorer from the Championship, a top scorer from Liga and none of them can find the net. The result on the day is all about tactics and preparation.
He's largely responsible for the county of Norfolk ending up in floods of tears almost every time the referee blows that final whistle!
Nothing to do with the opposition and how well their goalkeeper plays then? And I think we've all accepted scoring goals in Scotland, Portugal and the Championship is a million miles from regularly scoring goals in the Permiership against top, top goalies and defenders so it's hardly comparable. I'm sorry, for anyone lays all the blame for our strikers not being able to hit the back of the net solely at the feet of our manager shows either a distinct lack of knowledge of football or an absolute dislike of and determination to condemn Chris Hootun, whatever he does.
