Saint Pete

Best performance of the season, but still no points. Gutted. Giroud just too good for our defence. Anyone who blames Hughes for this result is a total numpty. Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

Yep really annoying as the shift to Sunday meant I could actually go, so was waiting for general sale to get tickets. As there were plenty left Sunday evening thought there wouldn't be any issue. Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

It is a bit baffling why successive managers have used Tadic on the right. Can we assume that this may be coming from Tadic himself if for some reason he thinks he is more effective cutting inside? To me, he always looks more comfortable when on the left and links up much better with the full back on that side.

I agree it was a smart move and a statement that we need to be more forward thinking and on the front foot from now on. That doesn't necessarily mean it's the formation we will go with in premier games or not with the same personnel. I could see us possibly trying it with Long instead of Carrillo, dropping back to help in the middle defensively when we lose the ball. This would also give more pace in the middle. I would also swap JWP in for either Tadic or Boufal for a bit more cover in the centre. Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

It’s us and the big boys then. Would rather avoid Spurs out of the 3, so we’ll probably get them.

Agreed. I didn’t feel there was a signal to the team to defend deeper and stop attacking, unlike under MP on the rare occasions we were able to get a lead. Yes we brought on Romeu for Gabbi but that was on 87 mins and seemed sensible to add a bit of muscle in midfield to slow them down when they tried to attack us, which he did with a couple of “good” fouls towards the end!

I think you are basing that at on how MP set up the team with a single isolated striker. It looks like Hughes is going to look to provide the striker with more support in a more positive formation, so in that context I think Long can have more impact potentially. He was pretty good as a starter for Koeman who didn’t defend deep, so maybe he can offer more in a more positive Hughes team? I would personally prefer him to Carrillo who in my opinion offers very little and didn’t link up well enough with Gabbi or the rest of the team today.

I agree about starting Long in the next game. Think he is at least more of a nuisance to the opposition defence.

Disagree on the point about dropping too deep after first goal, I felt that we were continuing to try to push forward and go for a second goal, which ultimately we got. Wigan were bound to try and attack us in last few minutes but I thought we coped alright in general and our approach after going in front was certainly better than what we saw with MP in charge! Of course, there are loads more areas for improvement, but sure Hughes is well aware of that!

I would give them to Bertrand as strikes a good ball and seems to have a bit more bottle than the others.

You ***** Boufal. Cross it. What a miss Gabbiadini.

I agree. Anyone expecting any miraculous improvement in our style and performance today was kidding themselves. The best we can hope for is finding a way to win and Hughes using it as learning more about the capabilities or lack of of the players he has, which he can hopefully use in the next couple of weeks before West Ham.

Well if Hughes was in any doubt about the size of his his task, he will be sure now!

Yep, agree he is not offering anything to us in this game. Would be tempted to to take him off for Long or Sims at half time and have Gabbiadini up top.

Great ball from Bertrand, more of that please.

Will be interested to see how we line up formation wise, but you can see that Hughes is going with the principal of putting our best players on the pitch, which is oddly refreshing given what we have become used to.

Expect to see Gabbiadini back in a starting role, assuming Austin still not fit.

Well said, brain dead whimpering a spot on description! These posts seem to conveniently ignore the 3 consecutive top 10 PL finishes Hughes achieved while at Stoke. Obviously doesn’t fit with the whimpering agenda.

Absolutely 100% this. For those moaning about this appointment, answer me this. How many realistic available candidates for the job have 3 top 10 premier league finishes on their cv, and at a similar size club to us? In our current position, that is surely as good as anyone could have expected. And if it’s true that it’s a short term contract to the end of the season, even better as we are not committing ourselves to him beyond this season. Also gives Hughes great incentive to pull this off, and as said above, he has a massive point to prove.

Was just about to post the same. Beggars can’t be choosers in this situation, it has to be someone available right now and who will accept what may be a short term appointment. The best we can hope for is someone with experience of managing in premier league and a decent competent record. Bearing this in mind I would be OK with either Silva or Hughes.

Maybe so, but they stuck in there, improved in the second half and could have grabbed a point but for an iffy refereeing decision. Also, Hodgson accepted the first half performance wasn’t good enough, so you suspect they will address that in games to come. Whereas Pellegrino has proved incapable of addressing an envelope with his “groundhog day” style of management.

It’s got to happen now, wait any longer and it’s all over. There are no guarantees making a change will save us, but that for me is not a good enough reason not to at least try when our premier league survival is on the line! Pellegrino has had ample opportunities to address our deficiencies and prove we are at least heading in the right direction, but the last couple of games have showed emphatically that he has failed to do this. So there is no valid reason for giving him any more chances and a win against Wigan would not change that. The fact that we don’t play our next league game for 3 weeks makes this the ideal time to do the deed tomorrow and get a replacement in this week so he has more time to work with the players to repair some of the damage done by MP and build up some spirit and confidence. Come on Les/Ralph/Gao - no more excuses and dithering, it has to be now!!

Yep, agree about Palace. Tough last couple of fixtures for them but they have competed well in both games which probably bodes well for them over the run in. Objectively they look more likely to get the points they need to survive than us currently, even though we are still marginally ahead in the table. Looking at this weekends fixtures overall, it was pretty likely that a number of the other teams at the bottom wouldn’t win, which makes it all the more annoying that we haven’t taken advantage of that. The boot will be on the other foot in the weeks when we face the likes of Chelsea and Arsenal, so things look pretty grim for us after getting just 1 point from the last 2 more favourable games.

The thing that strikes me about that MP interview is that the man just sounds so powerless to do anything about our situation. There just doesn't seem to be any acceptance on his part that he and the team need to do anything different to get over our problems of not scoring enough goals and not supporting the main striker enough. You would expect to hear something to reassure us that they are taking positive steps to address the clear deficiencies in our performances and results, but there is precious little of that. The plan seems to be that we continue the same approach because the stats say we are 3rd best at getting into the opposing third of the pitch and hope that the results and goals will just come naturally! I hope he is right and it all turns our way this afternoon but can't say I am confident! Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

There were some good players in that Poch team no doubt, but you have to credit Poch in part for developing some of them and coaching good performances out of them. Remember there's a number on that list who many on here have taken great delight in taking the **** out of for not looking so great since they moved on. Not saying we haven't regressed in terms of quality, but still think a decent manager could get way more out of our current players than what we are seeing now or for a significant part of last season. Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk