My take on Hughton was that he was able to setup a team defensively, but had no real idea about the attacking side of the game.
in his first season, he was fortunate to have the 5-0 opening drubbing at Fulham which made everyone (players included) aware that defensively the team wasn't up to scratch, despite having been mid-table the previous season. So he was able to bring in some upgraded defensive signings and get things organized. up front, he was lucky to have Grant Holt who was able to score a decent amount and setup chances for others, despite having pretty poor service all season. We've seen this season that even decent strikers like Jerome struggle with similar level of service. Hughton's first season was dull but effective and a couple of pretty fortunate wins at the end (I was there for both) gave us a 6 point boost and a final position that was pretty flattering (that's the way the Prem works - a couple of wins and it suddenly looks very different).
The following season, Hughton had the challenge of rebuilding the attacking side of the squad after GH left. And that didn't work out so well. Also he came under pressure not to be so negative. Which left us with a style of play that wasn't very effective in attack, with players unsuited to the system Hughton used... but also it wasn't very effective in defence, especially after Christmas when things nosedived. Nor was it good to watch. So pretty much the worst of all possible worlds, in football terms. He would have been saved, at least until the end of the season, if the results had been good enough to keep us up. But because they weren't, his management style had absolutely no redeeming features and it was just a case of when he would be sacked, not if.
Compare AN - his inexperience in the Prem has been shown up. After a bright start we had the drubbing at Newcastle when he made tactical mistakes. He reacted by trying to steady the ship defensively, which worked well - although he was let down by some key players making some uncharacteristic errors, such as Tettey at Watford, or Ruddy giving away goals. In tight games decided by a single goal, a stupid mistake by a normally reliable player which costs a goal, can and did turn wins into draws and draws into defeats. Then with some changes in defence, things steadied up and we had some wins with clean sheets, winning at Old Trafford, and things were looking bright at Christmas. But come the new year, it's all gone horribly wrong. The defence has gone to pieces, we've thrown away winning positions at home, new signings have come in but not shown any improvement, now we're on a massive losing run. I don't understand why our team which looked comfortably in control of Villa at home, in a few games turned into a team that looked well out of its depth at Villa away. AN is clearly struggling too, trying different ideas, he's not getting the breaks. We've spent a lot of money on Naismith but I'm not convinced he fits in well into the team, for all his quality as a player.
So I guess the difference for me is that you can see the manager and the team are trying to find solutions to competing in a Prem league which is tougher than when we were relegated in Hughton's 2nd season, whereas in that year I just felt the manager had no idea what to do, and many of the team were just not bothered enough.
It's demoralising but it's pretty clear the board are sticking with him and, for all his faults, yes it is better than under Hughton.
