RANT time. Might be TL;DR for most so don't say you haven't been warned...

Hughton has killed off our attacking flair from last season in order to "tighten up the ship" because we conceded 66 last season, but this season we have conceded 56 so far (with 2 games left including Citeh away) and gained just 38 points. Last season we finished up with 47 points, despite last season's squad apparently being far worse and full of journeymen s**te (touch on that in a minute).

As for man management? Fox was one of our best players last season but has had just two sub appearances in the league this season. With him in the side we could control games with his passing, he was also the most successful crosser in EUROPE, not just the EPL. Tierney was our best player at the start of last season before suffering a long term injury, he came back for the opening day 5-0 against Fulham and hasn't played in the league again, he had no chance with Mr Freeze in charge. Meanwhile, Garrido, our other left back. has been s**t for months. Houghton didn't give Elliot Bennett a chance for months despite great sub cameos, then when he finally played him it was on the left wing...he's a right sider...when he was given 4 starts on the right recently he got us 3 assists and 1 goal, but then he was dropped for the last two games which we lost. The same dropping method happened to Wes at the start of the season.

Tactics? Sit deep and try for the 0-0, if we're lucky maybe stealing a win from a set piece? I'd like to go on, but that's all he has got as far as "game plans" go. His use of subs is pathetic, often waiting for the first change at the 85th minute when we really needed a proactive piece of thinking on the hour. He always changes like for like, never changes the system during games (like Lambert used to!) when things aren't working. Right footed Bennett on the left and left footed Snoddy on the right produced zero goals against Liverpool, QPR and Fulham because our forwards thrive on out swinging crosses from the by line. Genius move! Playing Garrido, an attacking left back who's s**te at defending one on ones, and putting him in a system where he has to stay in his half and defend deep. Why? Also playing Holt up front as a lone striker for most of the season was shocking when the fans knew that he couldn't play that role long ago, it took Lambert just four games to work that out last season! Moro played that role last season to great effect scoring 9 goals, but Hughton gave him just four starts before bombing him out to Leeds in a swap deal for Becchio! But worst of all, Hughton negated the movement and freedom within a squad full of attacking players in order to produce a s**te rigid system which has produced worse results.

His record in the transfer market has been good (Snodgrass, Tettey, Whittaker, Bassong, Turner), it's his one saving grace, but that only adds to the questions. Adding five or six good players to a side that finished 12th last season shouldn't leave us in a position like this.

The thing that pisses me off is that some patronising c**ts on motd will say that he has done a good job if we stay up, but he really won't have. We had 25 points in December, we should have never been in a relegation battle. Playing for draws is unacceptable, 13 points from 19 is woeful. I'd rather us go to win every game and win 5 and lose 14, we'd end up with 15 points that way at least.

We will have a huge budget next season if we're still up, RVW has already signed for a fair wedge, so Hughton might be useful in regards to signing a few decent players. None the less, if this form continues into next season then he will have no excuses then.

Posted By: Common Sense Police on May 4th 2013 at 18:40:46

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