Lotus

Was scared a couple of times when he came out but he got there!!

It’s a shame we can’t get back to him diving in the area to win pens. He’s been very effective for us doing that. His crossing and passing has never been that good. I did think he was ok against Villa tbh. He had a good chance at least.

I’ve genuinely no idea how involved EH was. I think there’s lots assuming going on (and they could be right tbf). if you think back a couple of year to our first top 4 finish, we just outrun everyone. We didn’t outplay many teams and we still don’t. Fulham probably play better football than us but that doesn’t make them more successful. EH needs players who will consistently outrun the opposition. As long as we clock more KMs than them we do well. Pure shithousery and stamina monsters = a successful EH team. We’ve moved away from that and we’re not as effective. We also need a striker who can kind make something out of nothing. Doesn’t have to be Isak, Demba Ba would’ve loved that 22/23 team. Wissa and Wolt don’t look like those kind of strikers, unfortunately.

One error that I can remember and Pope covered him for that. Think he just got a little unlucky with the bounce for that too. Very good otherwise.

I fear he might be a bit too much of a fast twitch kind of athlete. We really players with the work rate of Almiron out wide and an in form Longstaff in the middle.

I can’t see any benefit to getting rid of EH atm. He's not been given the players he needs to make his system work. And if we changed to a manager that was more tactical and coached a more penetrating type of football, I doubt we’d have the budget to buy them.

Our best attacking tactic is not having the ball and pressurising defenders/gk into bad/sloppy passes. We're not coached into a unit that can open teams up. That’s not what we’re best or even good at. High intensity, high aggressive press. Relentless running and leaving a foot in. We’ve got players who can play good possession football, they demonstrate that for their national teams but it’s not the DNA of our success under EH. We’ve got into the CL and won a pot by being utter c**ts to play against, underdog attitude, cover more distance than the opponents, Gordon diving (basically his assists) So, I don’t think our shape with the ball matters nearly as much as our shape and intention without it.

It sure he can press as consistently as we need. Murphy and Almiron could do that. Transformative for us if we can get on the toes of who ever has the ball half a second after they get it.

Loads reckon he couldn’t lace Eddie’s boots. I think it’s closer than that. Still happy with what we have, obvs.

Not nasty enough. Not yet. Getting there though. Needs a few yellows and scuffle or two. Throw himself about.

Could have bet your house JL would break down though. He’s played too much and Eddie’s not one for rotation to prevent that.

We got sucked in to a game of football, unfortunately. If we could’ve kept it nasty and physical and outrun them we might have nicked something. Very pissed off atm. Ups and downs though. I know plenty reckon Emery’s bang average and will be found out but I think he’s good and has coached his team into better players than they were. Once we got back to our relentless high intensity I think we’ll be formidable again. We missed Murphy today.

For EH’s tactics to work we need a midfield that outruns the opposition and kicks the shit out it. Ramsey doesn’t offer that. Tonali can outrun them and JL and Bruno have the nasty streak. The rest have talent, Miley especially but doesn’t really fit our blueprint of being more physical by every metric. Willock used to have a great engine but he looks a bit broken now.

Not 100% sure Watkins was Miley’s man tbh.

We wouldn’t play Buendia if he was on the squad, complete waste of time talking about it. We’re at our best when we’re forcing the opposition into errors. You don’t need creative players for that, you need stamina monsters with a chip on their shoulder.

Think we miss Burn from 2 years ago. Very solid as defender. Looks a bit easy to get at when playing FB now. Hall’s an excellent footballer but not an excellent defender. Can’t have everything at our level though.

Lamine Camara got any genuine suitors? As in, not just clickbait links from some no-mark on twitter.

Choose the forward line that’s most prepared to run full tilt and close them down as often as possible. Force a mistake from them. We’re more dangerous when teams try and play out from the back. We’re a danger to ourselves when we do it. Low possession stats are fine, we need to turn it over in between their box and the centre circle.

The most useful part (for us, not Italy) of Tonali’s game is his running.

They’re a better footballing side than us but the overall level of quality of the players is very close. Reckon Eddie will have the team snarling and ready to kick them all over, force fuck ups and nick some goals.

We haven’t looked as good in midfield since we SL lost form and was ultimately sold. EH’s best game plan revolves around out running the opposition.

I think you’re underestimating how influential a match fit Longstaff was to an Eddie Howe midfield. It’s all about outrunning the opposition and I think SL really brought a high stamina, relentless running and harrying that is more valued than first touch, vision and great passing. EH had us at our best version of his NUFC when our creativity was forcing oppo players into mistakes in dangerous positions. When EH has tried to move us away from that it has faltered, so far.

He’s got to leave all that ‘I’m a baller’ notion behind and just run around lots. Quickly. That’s his USP. He can get assists from diving. Does what he’s good at and he’s effective.

Lots of our players seemed to be struggling to understand the tactics atm so he’d have plenty of company.

Looks great on YT. Would be very surprised if we signed this profile of player. Think ballers are a bit of an anomaly in our set up. Bruno’s in there because of his competitive sprint rather than his skill set imo. Bidon does look like a throwback to the old skool Brazilian midfielders. Loads of nice touches and anticipation in place of mad athleticism. Nice to see