The old Chris Hughton discussion thread

[Cajun]

I am sure a few of the posts in this thread should have started with "Now lets just ignore reality and where we are for a moment..."

[mrmojorisin75]

Good to know that some supporters are going to be on the manager's back from the minute the season kicks off.

 

I can't believe the width of the pitch is now being used as a stick to beat him with. Has it ever been an issue before? I genuinely can't remember us huffing and puffing about it until now 

 

It's the type of stuff that makes you wonder whether there's a more sinister reason for the dislike.

 

[JH]

I am sure a few of the posts in this thread should have started with "Now lets just ignore reality and where we are for a moment..."

 

Howay Jon, it's simple really.

 

Bad - http://www.nufc.co.uk/articles/20030101/newcastle-1-liverpool-0_2241069_17789

 

Good - http://www.nufc.co.uk/articles/20021226/bolton-4-newcastle-3_2241069_17767

[TheGuv]

Remember both those games. Didn't we beat Bolton 4-3 the season before?

[OzzieMandias]

Stories in the paper such as "Hughton alters pitch size for PL return" suggests to me that he's really thinking about improving the odds of our survival bid from every single angle possible. How anyone can say it is a bad thing is beyond me.

 

He can only work with what he's got.

 

Exactly. He's looking at our squad and he's realised that next season, we aren't going to rattle in four and five at home - games are likely going to be won by the odd goal and rely upon us keeping a clean sheet or only conceding one, and he's adjusted the pitch size accordingly.

 

Those who are having a go at Hughton for setting up for negative football at home fail to realise that if we play pretty stuff and attack attack attack against quick counter-attacking sides like Man United, Chelsea, Villa and Man City, we'll be heading back down for another season in the fizzy pop league.

 

Perhaps against the dross teams at the bottom we can think about playing slightly more expansive football. As much as the points we get against the sides around us will matter, it's pleasing to see that Hughton wants to try and grind out some results against those in the top half.

 

At least, that's the way I see it.

 

Right.

 

 

[Skirge]

Its a great idea, restrict them room any way we can and give players like Nolan, Smith and Barton less ground to cover

[STM]

He's keeping things tight, i can't really blame him for that. It's an obvious method of slowing the game down, which suits our "qualities".

 

Doesn't suggest long ball either, we started to play some decent football toward the end of last season. I just think Hughton doesn't want us to get bum raped at home by the better teams.

[Super Duper Branko Strupar]

Its a great idea in terms of defending, but when you think that our best positions are down the wings and with Carroll in the middle for crosses, it'll work equally both before and against us.

Unless we get a CM and CF that can play football on the ground and move the ball and work with the ball in tighter spaces down the middle, It'll cut off some of our goal threat as well

[Guest malandro]

Stories in the paper such as "Hughton alters pitch size for PL return" suggests to me that he's really thinking about improving the odds of our survival bid from every single angle possible. How anyone can say it is a bad thing is beyond me.

 

He can only work with what he's got.

 

Exactly. He's looking at our squad and he's realised that next season, we aren't going to rattle in four and five at home - games are likely going to be won by the odd goal and rely upon us keeping a clean sheet or only conceding one, and he's adjusted the pitch size accordingly.

 

Those who are having a go at Hughton for setting up for negative football at home fail to realise that if we play pretty stuff and attack attack attack against quick counter-attacking sides like Man United, Chelsea, Villa and Man City, we'll be heading back down for another season in the fizzy pop league.

 

Perhaps against the dross teams at the bottom we can think about playing slightly more expansive football. As much as the points we get against the sides around us will matter, it's pleasing to see that Hughton wants to try and grind out some results against those in the top half.

 

At least, that's the way I see it.

Most the teams in the bottom half of the table play five in midfield away from home - try to keep it tight and hope to nick a goal. Narrowing the pitch is playing right into their hands. Yes, it might help us avoid getting hammered by Manchester United, but it’s just as likely to see us drop points at home to the kind of teams we’ll need to beat if we want to stay up.

 

Narrowing the pitch is just a very negative tactic that limits both sides attacking prowess, not just the away teams. I have no doubt many of those hailing it as great idea now will be moaning their tits off when we’re grinding out 0-0 draws at home against teams outside the top six.

 

[JH]

Is it bollocks 'playing right into their hands' - we play the long ball anyway, it's completely irrelevant how many they have in midfield when we bypass it altogether!

[huss9]

no one knows if there's any truth to the story any way - no quotes even from the groundsman involved

 

 

[Guest malandro]

Is it bollocks 'playing right into their hands' - we play the long ball anyway, it's completely irrelevant how many they have in midfield when we bypass it altogether!

We did for the first half of last season and won a lot of games by the odd goal. If we try the same tactic with basically the same squad in the PL we’ll struggle to pick up points.

[Doctor Zaius]

I agree that one signing would keep us up. I'm just not sure whether Messi could be persuaded to sign this summer.

 

And even then I'm not sure Hughton would pick him ahead of Smith and Nolan.

 

This type of comment annoys me.

 

Hughtons showed a few occasions that he's ready to drop players if they're not performing. Our captain and obviously someone who Hughton liked was dropped during the course of the season. Smith, who started the season fairly well was dropped when he started underperforming and Routledge came in. Nolan was our top scorer throughout and didnt deserve to get dropped.

 

If people are going to have misconceptions about Hughton because other past managers such i.e Kinnear & Allardyce were too stubborn for their own good then we might as well give up.

 

 

 

Yes I will always 'harp' on about playing attractive football.

 

Will you be happy to see s*** negative football from Newcastle the season after and for the next 5 years or more as long as we stay up. Because that is whats going to happen because of Ashleys lack of investment. If we stay up this season we will be in exactly the same boat the following season.

 

A lot of people expect more than that from Newcastle and the increasing numbers of empty seats in the future will be evidence of that

 

also fuck the attractive football. Staying up > Playing attractive football. Yes, in an ideal world we'd all love to stay up playing entertaining football but how often does it happen? How often are their teams survive relegation scraps by playing attractive football? Norwich? WBA? Didnt fair them well. The reason we'll be in a relegation scrap is because we dont have the ability to play attractive football.

 

I know it's a massive cliche but Footballs a results business and success is determined on results and results only, no matter how they are acquired. Stay up, keep building then once we get a bit of stability and safety; then comes the efforts towards playing nice football. 

 

[Cajun]

I agree that one signing would keep us up. I'm just not sure whether Messi could be persuaded to sign this summer.

 

And even then I'm not sure Hughton would pick him ahead of Smith and Nolan.

 

This type of comment annoys me.

 

Hughtons showed a few occasions that he's ready to drop players if they're not performing. Our captain and obviously someone who Hughton liked was dropped during the course of the season. Smith, who started the season fairly well was dropped when he started underperforming and Routledge came in. Nolan was our top scorer throughout and didnt deserve to get dropped.

 

If people are going to have misconceptions about Hughton because other past managers such i.e Kinnear & Allardyce were too stubborn for their own good then we might as well give up.

 

 

 

Yes I will always 'harp' on about playing attractive football.

 

Will you be happy to see s*** negative football from Newcastle the season after and for the next 5 years or more as long as we stay up. Because that is whats going to happen because of Ashleys lack of investment. If we stay up this season we will be in exactly the same boat the following season.

 

A lot of people expect more than that from Newcastle and the increasing numbers of empty seats in the future will be evidence of that

 

also fuck the attractive football. Staying up > Playing attractive football. Yes, in an ideal world we'd all love to stay up playing entertaining football but how often does it happen? How often are their teams survive relegation scraps by playing attractive football? Norwich? WBA? Didnt fair them well. The reason we'll be in a relegation scrap is because we dont have the ability to play attractive football.

 

I know it's a massive cliche but Footballs a results business and success is determined on results and results only, no matter how they are acquired. Stay up, keep building then once we get a bit of stability and safety; then comes the efforts towards playing nice football.  

 

 

Well said, he will never drop Nicky Butt mind.

[Guest MrBrown]

no one knows if there's any truth to the story any way - no quotes even from the groundsman involved

 

 

 

Exactly what I was thinking, too. Positive news without quotes usually gets dismissed as nonsense, negative news without quotes and many people get all Chicken Little on us.

 

I'm not sure if it's true or not, but last season Hughton clearly demonstrated- with his signings- a desire for width, which seems to contradict the story somewhat. Once he had that width (with relative quality on both wings), he really did play positively at home, against even the better sides in the league- so I have no idea why the assumption is that he'll play negatively against the lesser of the Premier League's sides.

[Robster]

I'm sorry but seeing us play attractive football is important to me. Regardless of whether it sees us get relegated.

Call it personal pride or whatever you like but I would be more proud of the team if they went down trying to play football rather than just play kick and rush shite just to survive.

Ultimately, its the players that get you relegated and not the style of football you play. WBA et al went down because they werent good enough - not because of they style of football they played.

 

 

[Cajun]

But if we go down again I don't our better players will stick around, we will lose more money and each season will get shitter and shitter until we drop like a stone.

 

Fuck that.

[mrmojorisin75]

I'm sorry but seeing us play attractive football is important to me. Regardless of whether it sees us get relegated.

Call it personal pride or whatever you like but I would be more proud of the team if they went down trying to play football rather than just play kick and rush shite just to survive.

Ultimately, its the players that get you relegated and not the style of football you play. WBA et al went down because they werent good enough - not because of they style of football they played.

 

 

i must agree on all points 

[Guest MrBrown]

I'm sorry but seeing us play attractive football is important to me. Regardless of whether it sees us get relegated.

Call it personal pride or whatever you like but I would be more proud of the team if they went down trying to play football rather than just play kick and rush s**** just to survive.

Ultimately, its the players that get you relegated and not the style of football you play. WBA et al went down because they werent good enough - not because of they style of football they played.

 

 

 

a) Until we establish ourselves in the Premiership and consolidate our position, we won't be able to sign the kind of players you want. If that means a season of not playing like Barcelona, then so be it.

 

b) I would personally rather stay up this season.

 

c) The WBA side that went down had better ball-playing footballers than we do right now- so surely you see the problem with your last point?

 

It's short-sighted and unrealistic to expect us to be brilliant right away with the resources we have. Look at the start of last season- it wasn't pretty, but it was effective. Only after January were we able to really start to play more attractively. Without the more pragmatic approach earlier on in the season, though, we wouldn't have had the foundation to get promoted playing reasonably decent football.

[Robster]

But if we go down again I don't our better players will stick around, we will lose more money and each season will get shitter and shitter until we drop like a stone.

Fuck that.

Not necessarily. We just turn into an archetypal yo-yo club.

[David Icke - Son of God]

I'm sorry but seeing us play attractive football is important to me. Regardless of whether it sees us get relegated.

Call it personal pride or whatever you like but I would be more proud of the team if they went down trying to play football rather than just play kick and rush shite just to survive.

Ultimately, its the players that get you relegated and not the style of football you play. WBA et al went down because they werent good enough - not because of they style of football they played.

 

 

 

Do you actually pay to go to the games or have you thought up that romantic if not completely blinkered view in your Solihull bedsit? I personally want to see us stay up because another relegation would be disasterous. We'd lose the quality players who stuck around to right the wrongs last season and have to fight an even bigger uphill battle.

 

Some of you lot need reminding that managers don't get paid to set a team away playing good football and lose, they get paid to win. If reducing the width of the pitch helps us then that's fantastic. I don't know why everyone thinks that it is going to instantly negate the threat we pose from the wings. Gutierrez and Routledge aren't your typical get the ball to the byline wingers, they're more than capable of cutting inside and using their pace to cause havoc. Anyway, reducing the width of the pitch typically has more of an effect in the centre of the park where space is limited which could well work in our favour given the type of players we have in that area. It also means there's much less space for teams to get the ball down and play it behind our back two which was a major problem we had when we went down.

[Robster]

Do you actually pay to go to the games or have you thought up that romantic if not completely blinkered view in your Solihull bedsit? I personally want to see us stay up because another relegation would be disasterous. We'd lose the quality players who stuck around to right the wrongs last season and have to fight an even bigger uphill battle.

Stalker 

[Doctor Zaius]

I'd love to see weather those wanting attractive football over survival would still be saying the same if we were relegated. Somehow,  I think not.

[David Icke - Son of God]

Do you actually pay to go to the games or have you thought up that romantic if not completely blinkered view in your Solihull bedsit? I personally want to see us stay up because another relegation would be disasterous. We'd lose the quality players who stuck around to right the wrongs last season and have to fight an even bigger uphill battle.

Stalker 

 

It's relatively simple to click your username and see where you're based.

 

Until you're shelling out hundreds of pounds a season to watch this team I'll struggle to take your opinion on whether we should lose in style or win dirty seriously. Sorry.

[Cajun]

But if we go down again I don't our better players will stick around, we will lose more money and each season will get shitter and shitter until we drop like a stone.

Fuck that.

Not necessarily. We just turn into an archetypal yo-yo club.

 

I don't see the pride in becoming a yo-yo club. Also as I said we we inevitably get worse each season as we lose the few decent players we have.

 

I would rather scrape and stay up then hope either Mike Ashley gets to the point where he decides he can start investing, we are sold or some of the more promising youth start coming through.

 

Going back down won't help at all.