Hughton Facing Sack?

Hughton staring down the barrel?

Under Pressure Chris Hughton
source: edp24

Norwich City are now 24 games into the season and hovering a mere two points above the relegation zone. Compared to this time last season, Norwich had played three more games, yet had picked up eight more points. When you think that over the summer Hughton was gifted over £20million pounds worth of investment in his squad, it doesn't appear to be an adequate return.

From the fans perspective, this season has not seen the transition to a free-flowing attacking side which they expected following the signings of Nathan Redmond, Gary Hooper and marquee signing Ricky van Wolfswinkel. The atmosphere around the club has perceptively gone into freefall; long serving players seem intent on ousting themselves from a club where they are revered by the fans and this January transfer window has seen only two loan signings, both of whom weren't able to get a first team game from their parent clubs.

Today has seen a further setback in Hughton's bid for survival, a 2-0 defeat in what was a spirited effort, albeit a failed one. Once again Norwich have been the victims of their own shortcomings, failing to score more than one goal for the 21st time this season. Many factors have attributed to this. mis-firing strikers, negative approach and on occasions a lack of desire in the final third.

One wonders however, whether there are any suitable candidates that could replace Hughton and do a better job with the 14 games that are left. Roberto Di Matteo perhaps? the man that guided Chelsea to that infamous champions league triumph, or one of the premier league managers that have been added to the scrapheap over the course of this unforgiving campaign. 

Malky Mackay appears to be one of the names on the fans lips, however just as the case is with Hughton he was all too often accused of a defensive approach and not utilising the attacking strengths of his team in order to win football matches.

What can be seen is that Hughton has attempted to change his perception of a one dimensional approach by adopting the 4-4-2 formation as opposed to his much slated 4-5-1 formation that he appeared to religiously abide by earlier on in the season. This however, has not seen an improvement in the teams state of affairs and so you may have to look beyond the formation to see where the attacking mindset has been lost. The midfield, for one has been changed from the Lambert "gung-ho" approach to a set of four/five players that will play in shape and move the ball across the pitch to create crossing opportunities to the wing players. My personal take on this is that the players aren't being coached to look for the spaces to attack and be creative, instead to have a conservative approach to attack which seems to only result in a goal on average under one a game.

It remains to be seen whether Mcnally is looking to give Hughton the sack, however I sadly have to admit that I feel his time is up and that his conservative approach is damaging the fantastic position the club has created for itself over the past four years. I would personally like to see an innovative thinking strategist who is not afraid to take a risk where possible and someone who really wants to succeed in the premier league.