Explaining my U-turn

At some point over the last few games - and especially after Cardiff and West Ham - I stopped looking at Hughton, and started looking at his personnel. Specifically, Van Wolfswinkel and Elmander; but even Hooper and Redmond too.

And yes, you can question his treatment of Becchio or Hoolahan: of course you can. But having spent much of the last 18 months assuming that it was his and Calderwood's approach which had turned us into such a cautious side, now I'm not so sure.

Because we were all over Cardiff in the last 20 minutes there; and we created great chances at West Ham, where Hughton did his nut on the sidelines at how wasteful we were. Then, for much of yesterday, we looked like we might blow it again: we might blow a tremendous performance in which everything was good except that endless, interminable Achilles heel.

Who's setting us up in a way able to counter Spurs or Man City, both of whom have massively better players than us? Hughton - and it's actually no mean feat. Who has overseen a clear, significant improvement in performances in recent weeks? Hughton. But what can he do when our attacking players can't hit a cow's backside with a banjo? Our wastefulness almost cost us yet again yesterday; we have Ruddy to thank for it not having done so.

More than that: we've all damned him with faint praise by saying how nice he is, but it's that very niceness - that perspicacity - that translates into the players wanting to play and win for him. With him a game from the sack on a number of occasions this season, it'd have been so, so easy for them to down tools: but they haven't. They still believe in him.

Earlier in the season - Cardiff (h) or Hull (h), for example - I wasn't at all sold that we'd been anything like as truly attacking as had been made out, or had produced any real teamplay. But we're starting to now. It'll never be THAT bold - but what does anyone expect? We have one of the lowest payrolls in the division. So it's bound to be a chess game to some extent: even more so when so many key players can't score goals.

So sod it. It really is only the final third of the pitch where things are wrong now - and I can't see how that's Hughton's fault. You might argue we've done really well to keep clear of the bottom 3 and accumulate 28 points given how hard we find to put the ball in the net; actually, the primary responsibility for our problems this season lies with the board. Specifically: their failure to strengthen in January.

Posted By: thebigfeller on February 24th 2014 at 14:22:10

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