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The old Chris Hughton discussion thread

Parky

by Parky
in Football

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BottledDog

BottledDog

Posted
Posted

He's an easy guy to root for, would be nice to see him make a good job of it after some of the tossers we've had in charge in recent years (has any other club ever had three bigger arseholes than Kinnear, Souness and Fat Sam manage them in the space of a few years?).

 

I'm still unconvinced he's got what it takes, but he's earned a fair crack at it with what he did last year.

 

I'm quite interested to see what sort of formation he's planning to use, the fact that we don't appear to be looking at any strikers at all combined with the fact that Ben Arfa seems to reckon Hughton wants to play him in a free role has me thinking he wants to go with a 4-2-3-1 like Germany and Holland used at the World Cup.

 

Good post.

 

I think his formation selection in the first 4 weeks will say a lot about how he's planning on setting about keeping us up.

 

Yes, although one thing I've been pretty impressed with by Hughton is that underneath what has appeared to be a pretty static front, he's shown he does think about revisions and is prepared to go with them as and when circumstances allow. For example making us more attacking at probably the right time, and moving Guthrie inside to his best position once he no longer served the overall club best on our extremely weak right flank following Routledge's arrival etc. Basically what I'm trying to say is if I see something weak in the way we're going about things in the early season, I'd give credit to the idea that he sees it too but has valid reasons for not having resolved the issue as yet.

 

See I'd say the opposite in that it took him until well after Christmas to realise how much better we were than all of the sides we were facing and go out and just try and beat them.

 

Unfair imo.

 

Bar the occassional poxy away game (Leicester comes to mind); i don't think he's ever had anything other than a 'go out and beat em' philosophy. That's just typically cynical really, but somewhat predictable given the fact he was a defender... also taking into account our recent track record of old-fashioned managers.

 

The problem in the early months was simply the lack of balance; but shoehorning Guthrie in was hardly Hughton's major plan. It was simply down to the fact we didn't replace Duff, and only had one winger in the squad come September. Hughton signed a right-winger even before the iffy Christmas period, so it wasn't as if he didn't recognise the side's major flaw. The fact he then signed Routledge after Pancrate only proves that he was desperate to get the balance and philsophy to the side absolutely right. (Pancrate having proved he was gash).

I can't say i'm convinced by the 'narrow the pitch' idea, but i think it's a bit cheap and easy to label him as cautious/defensive. We still won 16 matches before the turn of the year in our so called 'cautious' spell (you didn't coin it as such but i'll dub it so).

 

Hughton has denied this iirc.

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Cronky

Cronky

Posted
Posted

It does look like we've done our homework this time round. Hughton has a reputation as a hard worker and I think that's down to him.

 

With Gosling, Campbell and now (it seems) Ben Afra, we got in early with players who had a problem with their current club. It also seems that we've spread our net fairly wide, which is a good sign.

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hakka

hakka

Posted
Posted

Today I strayed, I showed disappointed/non-approval of you decisions Mr Hughton, for that I will be eternally shamed.

 

I beg your forgiveness.

 

Chris Hughton is Jesus.  He forgives you.

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Guest MrBrown

Guest MrBrown

Posted
Posted

And I do care how we play so we will have to agree to disagree.

 

By the way I'm not a lone voice, the increasing numbers of empty seats are and will be evidence of that.

 

96% of the people in the other thread would disagree with that.

He’s right though. The kind of football being advocatied (ugly, boring and negative) makes going to the match a fairly joyless experience. Winning provides a temporary respite from the drudgery but as it’s highly unlikely we’ll be winning many games next season what’s left is paying £20+ to be bored shitless for ninety minutes. While the ‘hardcore’ supporter might put up with it many will decide it’s a waste of money and find something enjoyable to do instead.

 

Far better to invest a bit of money in the product and play your way to safety than reduce the pitch size and cross your fingers.

 

 

I'm not  sure anyone is advocating ugly, boring, negative football. The debate appears to be between those who would be willing to be relegated playing pretty football rather than ugly football, and those who can deal with a season of consolidation, where the football won't always be the best, but which lays the foundations for success in the long term, allowing us to progress to a level where we are playing great football on a weekly basis.

 

I don't think anyone wants to see ugly football all the time, and given the choice between staying up playing attractively or negatively, it's really a no-brainer. That's not how this debate started, though. It started because a poster stated they'd rather be a yo-yo club playing nice football than stay up this year playing scrappy football.

 

For what it's worth, my personal opinion is that we'll be far from an ugly side this year. I believe Hughton showed enough last season to suggest that he would, in an ideal world, like to play reasonably attractive football where prudent to do so (ie, against the majority of sides). How else do you explain his sticking with Guthrie over Smith, and his aquisition of a genuine winger in January?

 

 

ahem.

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Parky

Parky

Posted
Posted

Can't fault him. The side look prepared and played short passes calmly in key areas (most of the time). He has also stuck by Carroll and has been rewarded in spades today. Make no mistake Villa are a good side, perhaps a little disorganised due to no MON, but still a very good side who will finish top 10.

 

Superb day.

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TRon

TRon

Posted
Posted

Can't fault him. The side look prepared and played short passes calmly in key areas (most of the time). He has also stuck by Carroll and has been rewarded in spades today. Make no mistake Villa are a good side, perhaps a little disorganised due to no MON, but still a very good side who will finish top 10.

 

Superb day.

 

I don't think the football we are playing is as good as he would like due to the players we have at the moment. Too many slow midfielders for pass and move, but he's utilising what we've got very effectively. We are a bit like a refined version of Stoke at the moment. I would love to see us with someone like Ben Arfa in there insitead of Nolan. I know he got two goals, but I think our general football would improve 100%.

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Guest guinness_fiend

Guest guinness_fiend

Posted
Posted

Only manager since SBR I've any time for, tbh.

 

In all seriousness, me too.  Yes, he's an easy guy to root for but he's slowly making the team his own and the spirit amongst the players seems immense.  If we stay up this season, I'm going to lobby for a knighthood on his behalf!

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Dokko

Dokko

Posted
Posted

I still really don't know what to make of him. Good man manager, seems intelligent and likeable. More importantly he seems to be the right man for the job and for the foreseeable. Still have niggling doubts though.

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JH

JH

Posted
Posted

Can't fault him. The side look prepared and played short passes calmly in key areas (most of the time). He has also stuck by Carroll and has been rewarded in spades today. Make no mistake Villa are a good side, perhaps a little disorganised due to no MON, but still a very good side who will finish top 10.

 

Superb day.

 

Only manager since SBR I've any time for, tbh.

 

This and this :thup:

 

Well done Chris, keep it up.

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Cajun

Cajun

Posted
Posted

One game so I don't expect the doubters to fully surrender their uber negative posts but those whinging like fuck before this game (as I did a bit) should really hold their hands up in here rather than waiting out for the next negative result to tell us "we told you so".

 

I expected a 6-0 win against Villa more than certain posters to give him praise though tbf.

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