Well, simply put... we weren't very good, we took a undeserved lead, 3 of our best players this season (Lennon, Defoe, Dembele) go off, we got even worse and then they scored 2 goals in injury time. Quite a few things which normally point to the manager there, but it doesnt have to be his fault... only problem is that seems to be a very regular set of events this season.
The times when you sort of say "ok we lost but the manager couldnt have done a lot more" are the occasions where you play really well, have 20 shots on goal but just one of those days when nothing goes in. Even easier to say it if the team has been playing really well during most games.
I think we should not wear the old party hat when trying to analyse yesterday's game.
We still have Dempsey and Adebayor on the field despite taking off Lennon and Defoe. Lennon wasn't able to penetrate and his contribution for the game was mostly in other areas of the game. So, even you think it's undeserved, but if you look it from another angle, it could also be the result of the sub to put on Hudd has worked and gave us the lead plus what could be a game-ending second goal.
Dembele, I am not too sure, some said he was subbed cause he didn't look fit to continue. But that's might be the reason AVB subsequently took out an ineffective Defoe and replaced him with another midfielder to have more options in the midfield.
So, Lennon was subbed for tactical reason, whether the goal was a direct result or not, it didn't hurt us. Dembele's sub might be an enforced one, and we could have gone two up. Defoe was a calculated gamble since we were not as toothless as earlier in the season in that we still have Ade (who is supposedly the tall striker in our short-tall strike due) and Dempsey (who scored and also had a generally better game to Defoe, and had played most of the season as a second striker).
Well, it's not exactly AVB's fault that he could not utilise Dawson/Kaboul/BAE/Parker to consolidate a winning lead. At least I could see logics behind most of his team selection and subs, unlike a previous manager.
Had you argue about the style of play was not as entertaining, I would think you have a point. But I think a win or even a hard fought point can always be counted as a good result after a mid-week game (in fact, most of the team have played 7 club games in 3 weeks) regardless of how ugly it came.
Hudd himself ended up with shocking stats today. 58% passing success for a player brought on to keep possession.
The sample size is small, he only attempted 12 passes, and half of the time the team was defending deep. And to be fair, he also has one or two nice passes/throughballs, including the one in the build-up of our goal.
To keep possession, would be better to have someone to dribble and bring the ball up into the opponent's half. This may be a mentality change required but we also don't have players of such ability