The old Chris Hughton discussion thread

[Colos Curls]

Keeping Tiote on the pitch would have helped.

 

+1, deserved to stay on and the back looked visibly shaken once he was subbed, probably because Nolan was somewhere back there

[Guest BlacknWhiteArmy]

What was stopping Hughton selling Smith, Nolan, Shola and Lovenkrands, and using those funds to buy a decent striker and midfielder to replace them?

 

Oh yeah, because we'd have hundreds of offers for them coming in wouldn't we?

[Ronaldo]

Championship clubs would have taken them all. A few prem clubs might have been stupid enough to pay money for Nolan.

[Dave]

I don't believe for one second we couldn't have gotten rid of all of them. And for prices above their value to us on the pitch.

 

There's nothing to say the club was willing to sanction contracts for new players, even if we could have offloaded the ones you mention. I know Smith is supposedly on high wages (I doubt the others are) but they may not have wanted to commit to new deals.

 

We were never, ever going to sell Nolan. Kinda silly to even suggest it really.

[Hughesy]

Keeping Tiote on the pitch would have helped.

 

Exactly that.  Absolute madness taking Tiote off.

[Greg]

Championship clubs would have taken them all. A few prem clubs might have been stupid enough to pay money for Nolan.

 

Far too simplistic view, most Championship clubs wouldn't meet their wage demands.

[Ronaldo]

Lovenkrands will be on about 10k. Shola perhaps a bit more.

[Guest palnese]

Lovenkrands will be on about 10k. Shola perhaps a bit more.

 

Based on?

[Dave]

Lovenkrands will be on about 10k. Shola perhaps a bit more.

 

a. Those wages would probably put them beyond most Championship clubs.

b. Replacements would demand much more.

c. We're both guessing.

 

I'd imagine that's why we kept them.

[Ronaldo]

I hope it's why we're keeping them. We got rid of Geremi, we can get rid of those 4.

[TRon]

I agree almost completely with bobyule's last few posts. That's not something I thought I'd ever type. Unfortunately it will probably go over most people's heads and just get lost in amongst the "Nolan's shit but he'll never drop him" rubbish. It's nowhere near as cut and dried as people are making out that putting Ben Arfa in as a the 2nd striker or free-role-linking-midfielder, or whatever will be the answer to all our problems.

 

I'm quite happy that Hughton isn't the sort of manager that people on here seem to want him to be, and will chop and change a team which won a difficult away game the previous week just to try out players in new positions on a whim in important games because it looks like it might work in theory. It may well end up that Ben Arfa takes Nolan's position, but if he does I'm sure it will be after it has been tried, tested and practised in training.

 

The problem in the second half on Saturday had nothing to do with who our 2nd striker was, it was that Stoke instead of allowing us to dominate possession, soaking up pressure and hitting us on the break like they tried in the first half knew they had to come at us a bit more. It's disappointing that they found it so easy to do so, but not really surprising. That's not really Hughton's fault though, it's down to the quality of the players he has in the squad. How should he have changed the midfield to stop that happening? When Ben Arfa was on the pitch he didn't stop it happening, and when Gutierrez came on neither did he, so where's the thinking that having both of them on the pitch at the same time would have suddenly stopped Stoke come from?

 

I think the problem in your thinking is reflected in your language and probably also mirrors Hughton's thought processes. We had by far the better players in the first half and weren't concerned about"stopping" Stoke at home. Once we switched to negative mode far too early in the second half, Stoke sniffed the fear and accepted the invitation to dominate us on our own turf. If we had the defenders available to soak up pressure from the aerial bombardment then it might have made sense, but are Perch, Colo and Enrique's best qualities likely to be show-cased in an aerial battle against Stoke?

 

 

[Ronaldo]

The defenders did ok with the aerial ball, in fairness. The free headers were mainly occuring in the 6 yard box, which is Krul's territory.

[Mowen]

The defenders did ok with the aerial ball, in fairness. The free headers were mainly occuring in the 6 yard box, which is Krul's territory.

 

Given that one defender headed one into his own net from outside the six yard box I'd question whether this is entirely true.

[Mowen]

It's a tough decision with Nolan vs. Jonas if we're to keep this formation. One has literally no end product and the other one has nothing but end product. If we could somehow magically combine their best bits we might have one decent player there.

[Ronaldo]

The defenders did ok with the aerial ball, in fairness. The free headers were mainly occuring in the 6 yard box, which is Krul's territory.

 

Given that one defender headed one into his own net from outside the six yard box I'd question whether this is entirely true.

 

If Krul had come off his line we could point a bigger finger.

[Mowen]

The defenders did ok with the aerial ball, in fairness. The free headers were mainly occuring in the 6 yard box, which is Krul's territory.

 

Given that one defender headed one into his own net from outside the six yard box I'd question whether this is entirely true.

 

If Krul had come off his line we could point a bigger finger.

 

For that corner? Krul didn't have a great game by any means but it's stretching it massively to blame that one on him. There's no way that header should have gone in.

[Mick]

It's a tough decision with Nolan vs. Jonas if we're to keep this formation. One has literally no end product and the other one has nothing but end product. If we could somehow magically combine their best bits we might have one decent player there.

 

If you were to combine the best of both you would only use Nolans goals and shots, other than that he's behind Jonas at everything except when it comes to giving away free kicks.

[Mowen]

It's a tough decision with Nolan vs. Jonas if we're to keep this formation. One has literally no end product and the other one has nothing but end product. If we could somehow magically combine their best bits we might have one decent player there.

 

If you were to combine the best of both you would only use Nolans goals and shots, other than that he's behind Jonas at everything except when it comes to giving away free kicks.

 

True, but Jonas is properly wank at shooting. He really should practice it at some point, it's embarrassing.

 

edit: not quite true, Nolan is also much better at finding space in and around the area which is pretty much crucial when it comes to scoring.

[Mick]

 

True, but Jonas is properly w*** at shooting. He really should practice it at some point, it's embarrassing.

 

Jonas seems to lack any power when he shoots, I'm not sure practice will do anything with that problem.

[Mick]

 

 

edit: not quite true, Nolan is also much better at finding space in and around the area which is pretty much crucial when it comes to scoring.

 

Nolan is bound to, he's playing centrally.

[Mowen]

 

 

edit: not quite true, Nolan is also much better at finding space in and around the area which is pretty much crucial when it comes to scoring.

 

Nolan is bound to, he's playing centrally.

 

Come off it, Nolan is pretty good at finding space in and around the area, I'm not sure I can remember Jonas doing it once in his two and a bit years. He must have cut inside once or twice!

[Mick]

 

Come off it, Nolan is pretty good at finding space in and around the area, I'm not sure I can remember Jonas doing it once in his two and a bit years. He must have cut inside once or twice!

 

Do you think Nolan would find that space in and around the area if he was playing on the wing?

[midds]

Agree, though I don't rate Nolan either. Talk of it costing him his job is laughable at this stage.

 

If he's so blinkered that he refuses to acknowledge the problem, let alone deal with it, then we're going to drop points and fall down the league as a result. I don't think Ashley is the most patient bloke in the world and if we're in the shit in February then I'm expecting him to pull the trigger.

 

It may be a bit premature to talk of his loyalty to Nolan costing Hughton his job but he's got more chance of being sacked if he continues to pick him as opposed to dropping him.

[Mowen]

 

Come off it, Nolan is pretty good at finding space in and around the area, I'm not sure I can remember Jonas doing it once in his two and a bit years. He must have cut inside once or twice!

 

Do you think Nolan would find that space in and around the area if he was playing on the wing?

 

Probably, he'd be fucking knackered so he'd tuck inside and find a bit of cheeky space despite his massive girth.

[Ronaldo]

I don't think it's premature at all, it shows that he's not cut out to be boss.