Where I think Howe needs to do better is that if you're going to fighting on multiple fronts and want to stay at the sharp end of the table - you cannot be a rock/paper/scissors manager. I'll come onto this in a bit, but here's my rationale.
Howe has excelled in countering teams, drilling players and creating a system to counter the opponents in seasons past. Yet when we're competing in Europe - we struggle.
For me this comes to Howe's approach in terms of 'Intensity is our Identity'. The surface-level criticism of this is that you cannot really compete on all fronts trying to out-run and out-muscle teams playing a lot less games than you are. But what never really gets said, is that a lot of being able to counter specific teams, tactics and players, comes down to drill-work and rehearsing patterns of play on the training pitch. This time on the pitch is vastly reduced when you're having to rest so much because of the quantity of games. We simply don't have enough time to develop and rehearse these tactics and systems catered to every opponent we face. The man hours alone in the scouting, forming plans for games every 3 days is insurmountable. Howe just can't give any more - he's given his health and all he has, every hour of the day.
Being a rock/paper/scissors manager, by tailoring your approach to counter the opponent, works when you have time to plan and have fitness on your side. These are things that tend to work well against teams at the top and we historically under Howe in non-European seasons have had great results in the 'mini-league' of top 8 vs top 8 teams. In European seasons, this more than previously, we are going to pieces almost literally. We used to be a team that was so good at countering the opponent's plan A that we complained about how we'd get to their box with the ball and sit there and we didn't know what to do. It might have been a throw-away quote by Longy, but it was damning to me when he mentioned the main difference he saw at Leeds was that they train with the ball a lot more than at Newcastle.
But this kind of approach as a manager is unsustainable if you want to regularly compete and win. The identity has to be different, it has to be about focusing on what we're strong at - what we're good at, creating a Plan A that's effective and relies on quality players to swap in as necessary and impose ourselves for scoring goals and keeping a tight defence against teams of lesser quality, regardless of the specific opposition setups.
Howe needs to create us a new identity in the summer. If it's more of the same, looking lost and beaten and the players not knowing what to do - it's time to move on.
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To be consigned to the reserves I take it like that poor Korean lad who looked excellent in pre-season
