The old Chris Hughton discussion thread

[Wullie]

Our attacking midfielders are HBA and Routledge.

 

No, they're the wingers, playing wide it's not their job to be arriving in the box to get on the end of stuff. Does Paul Scholes not arrive in the box and score goals? Frank Lampard?

 

Take a look at Kevin Nolan's Championship season in the centre behind Carroll and Lovenkrands even.

[Parky]

To support him with balls, not necessarily to be playing off of him.

 

Sorry but your attacking central midfielder should be arriving in the box to get on the end of stuff, unless you think only two players in the squad should be responsible for scoring goals.

 

Exactly. In my book both wide players should be looking to get goals as well so Routledge was also disappointing today. We had the ball in some fantastic areas today but the lack of players getting in the box beyond the static Nolan meant Stoke easily absorbed the threat.

 

Correct not enough players hitting the box in key moments. Stoke like Blackpool just held their shape and absorbed and then started to find the condidence to come out. You need to try and hurt these sides early AND keep the pressure on. These are games we simply must win at home.

[Guest MrBrown]

Here we go again.

[olliemort]

Some serious kneejerkers on here like..If he keeps us up he as done a great job.I just hope he will learn from his mistakes as he goes along

[Guest Pedro_de_geordieo]

He was given a tactical lesson today by a mediocre manager

[Neil]

Dunno if it's knee-jerking. He's done plenty of good things which he is rightly praised for, but today he got it wrong and hence, people are annoyed.

[Guest Pedro_de_geordieo]

His loyalty to his senior players like Nolan could be his undoing

[Mick]

Hughton was let down by the team today - it wasn't his tactics or subs which he got right with the players we have.

 

Ben Arfa wasn't as good today as he was vs Everton ... neither was Tiote.

 

When we were still drawing 1-1 he went for it rather than try to hold onto a draw. Statistically this was the right call. We played better than Stoke overall and in 2 out of three games we would have won this at 1-1 with the subs he made pushing forward. If you can win 2 of these types of games and lose one you're still doing the right thing. Toward the end he was even telling Colocini to run up playing a 3-4-3.

 

Hughton let the fans down today with his baffling substitutions, Ben Arfa may not have been as good as he was against Everton although in his defence, most of his passes found a player in black & white.  Tiote looked to be our best midfielder from where I was sitting. 

[Dokko]

Dunno if it's knee-jerking. He's done plenty of good things which he is rightly praised for, but today he got it wrong and hence, people are annoyed.

 

It's just easier to say 'knee-jerk' at everything than actually make any relevant points.

 

 

[Guest MrBrown]

Dunno if it's knee-jerking. He's done plenty of good things which he is rightly praised for, but today he got it wrong and hence, people are annoyed.

 

It's just easier to say 'knee-jerk' at everything than actually make any relevant points.

 

 

 

You'd know.

[Dokko]

Dunno if it's knee-jerking. He's done plenty of good things which he is rightly praised for, but today he got it wrong and hence, people are annoyed.

 

It's just easier to say 'knee-jerk' at everything than actually make any relevant points.

 

 

 

You'd know.

 

Sorry, never taken any notice of anything you've said. You are?

 

 

[Wullie]

Dunno if it's knee-jerking. He's done plenty of good things which he is rightly praised for, but today he got it wrong and hence, people are annoyed.

 

It's just easier to say 'knee-jerk' at everything than actually make any relevant points.

 

 

 

You'd know.

 

Sorry, never taken any notice of anything you've said. You are?

 

Verlaine being a dullard again.

[Dokko]

Dunno if it's knee-jerking. He's done plenty of good things which he is rightly praised for, but today he got it wrong and hence, people are annoyed.

 

It's just easier to say 'knee-jerk' at everything than actually make any relevant points.

 

 

 

You'd know.

 

Sorry, never taken any notice of anything you've said. You are?

 

Verlaine being a dullard again.

 

Pain in the backside 'musician' who fancied his own arse a bit?

[Guest guinness_fiend]

The over reactions in this thread are hilarious. The substitutions didn't cost us the game at all.

 

Ben Arfa was poor today / marked out of the game, and Jonas was much much more productive than him. I would go as far as saying that was a good substitution.

 

The Tiote one is debatable, but I know Nolan is more likely to grab a goal than him (and nearly did at the end).

 

The only worrying point from today was how lacklustre we were at the start of the second half. The subs were fine IMO.

 

This.  Thank god that someone on here has some common sense.

[Wullie]

Dunno if it's knee-jerking. He's done plenty of good things which he is rightly praised for, but today he got it wrong and hence, people are annoyed.

 

It's just easier to say 'knee-jerk' at everything than actually make any relevant points.

 

 

 

You'd know.

 

Sorry, never taken any notice of anything you've said. You are?

 

Verlaine being a dullard again.

 

Pain in the backside 'musician' who fancied his own arse a bit?

 

Bingo.

[The Prophet]

Some of his subs are absolutely baffling. Taking your most combative midfielder off when your under the cosh? Christ.

[midds]

Cost us the game today without a shadow of a doubt. Taking off your best players when they're playing well is mental. He's undoing all of his good work because he hasn't got the bollocks to bring off nolan. Spineless.

[themanupstairs]

Very strange substitutions today. Ben Arfa wasn't having much impact at that time but it was clear the game would open up. Tiote was playing really well and okay it was a striker for a defensive midfielder but I can't see the benefit of taking someone off who's doing the business, and against a team like this.

 

Hate to say it but Nolan should have been the one to give way, in both instances.

 

Exactly this. I'm not one for knee-jerk craziness but the subs were indeed baffling. Bar an injury to both HBA and Tiote, there isn't a single tactical excuse anyone could give. I'd have thought the same even if we had won or equalized.

[midds]

Pulis, to his credit, got his subs absolutely spot on. He changed the game in his teams favour with a full 40 mins left on the clock. Hughton brought ben arfa and tiote off and changed things unnecessarily trying to be fucking clever.

[joeyt]

Pulis, to his credit, got his subs absolutely spot on. He changed the game in his teams favour with a full 40 mins left on the clock. Hughton brought ben arfa and tiote off and changed things unnecessarily trying to be f***ing clever.

 

I thought the timing of Pulis' first two subs were very weird. Worked though

[Dave]

Pulis, to his credit, got his subs absolutely spot on. He changed the game in his teams favour with a full 40 mins left on the clock. Hughton brought ben arfa and tiote off and changed things unnecessarily trying to be f***ing clever.

 

I thought the timing of Pulis' first two subs were very weird. Worked though

 

Only thing I can suggest is that he wanted to make the changes but waited to see how we were set up for the second half before making them.

[Mr Logic]

I see quite a few people saying he'll learn from his mistakes but considering the length of time he's been in football he should already know some things without needing to learn them now.

 

Chucking high balls to Carroll was never going to be very effective against Stoke. Then there's the limited movement of Carroll and Nolan up front, so our creative passers had little to aim for, no space was created. You could argue he doesn't have the players to play up front but Ranger would have been more effctive than Carroll today. Subbing off Barfa and then Tiote was just bizarre, he played into Stokes hands.

 

There is a problem with Barfa coming inside in that it prevents Enrique bombing forward, but that wouldn't of course be a problem if Barfa was playing in Nolans position and Jonas was on the wing.

[Skirge]

He got it wrong today simple as that, wrong starting 11 wrong formation and wrong changes.

But I still very much have faith in the man.

[TRon]

I see quite a few people saying he'll learn from his mistakes but considering the length of time he's been in football he should already know some things without needing to learn them now.

 

Chucking high balls to Carroll was never going to be very effective against Stoke. Then there's the limited movement of Carroll and Nolan up front, so our creative passers had little to aim for, no space was created. You could argue he doesn't have the players to play up front but Ranger would have been more effctive than Carroll today. Subbing off Barfa and then Tiote was just bizarre, he played into Stokes hands.

 

There is a problem with Barfa coming inside in that it prevents Enrique bombing forward, but that wouldn't of course be a problem if Barfa was playing in Nolans position and Jonas was on the wing.

 

Couldn't agree more. We were never going to beat Stoke by getting in a battle with them. We should have hit their lumbering defenders with speed and skill, HBA had plenty of joy in the first half had anyone had the wit or movement to make the most of it. I like Hughton but he needs to show a bit more faith in his football principles instead of trying to shoehorn all his favourite characters into the team and playing safe.

[sparkzter]

Pace and skill would have won us the game today.

 

Keep Arfa on, Lovelyhands up front with Carol as he at least puts some runs in to thread balls 2.

 

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