My view FWIW

Nobody could ever replace / emulate Lambert. He got us to where we are with exciting football but he was pushing his luck to the extreme by the end. It wasn't going to be sustainable long term to rely on Holt's goals and to keep faith in a back 4 which regularly included Tierney, Ward and Whitbread and hope to muddle through with the odd win whilst accepting slightly too regular hammerings. I reckon if we'd lost Ruddy for most of 11/12 we would have really been up against it.

Hughton had to completely change the style last season to address the defensive issues and it took 8 games for it to gel. Once he'd cracked it we were good, although like many other mid table clubs we faded badly after Christmas.

That's one of the reasons why this season he's trying to change the style again to be more progressive and doing so takes time. Once again, 5 games in we're not quite there yet but I thought there were positive signs against Villa. The change in style will take time but in the long run will (I pray to god) make us more watchable as I agree it's been desperate at times this calendar year.

This season our only real stinker has been against Spurs who are joint top. Otherwise we've lost 1-0 twice having had the better of the games, drawn against the only unbeaten side in the league and beated the team who've then gone on to win comfortably at Anfield. It's way too early to press the panic button.

Posted By: Linighans wake, Sep 23, 15:28:16