Hughton hit back last week as the media questioned his strange 4-5-1 formation against "poorer Premiership opposition" at home, that brought defeats to Blackpool and Stoke City ... two of the sides favourite for the drop.
Andy Carroll has struggled with the formation of being used as a battering ram against two or three central defenders, and he missed out on the England squad yesterday because of "poor form in recent weeks".
He was tipped to break into Fabio Capello's England squad, that has not happened.
Hughton told the Daily Mirror: "What I have to do is pick players who are going to win a game for Newcastle United. Andy had a touch of a virus last week and if you look at his last performance, he had perhaps lost that edge.
"Shola Ameobi had done well at Chelsea and is pushing him hard. That's the competition we have and Shola started against Manchester City.
"Andy is a massive part of this club, but we have to have competition in all areas.
"These are the things we see week-in, week-out."