Hanshithispantz

Blatant red "Brilliant defending" ffs, he was absolutely miles away from Isak and the ball.

I sort of tongue in cheek said this before like, that in hindsight his best option was to throw a match or two (which absolutely would not be accepted by the "he MUST do better" crowd ). Honestly struggling see what other options there were, changing one or two players is negligible as something I haven't seen talked about much is that we've likely had to dial everything back, from application in training to our pressing on field to avoid further injuries. Trippiers individual errors cost us a few games, but it's a stretch to put that down as a major mark on Howe given how much he gives us on the ball, even during times like this.

We could have utilised Ritchie and Dummett more like, Hall too although Howe obviously will have lefitimate reasons for not. Give Gordon/Trippier etc a proper rest. The problem is we still would have been shite and the narrative would have been that we lost because he played Ritchie and Dummett.

This is the major criticism that I completely get, and it lines up with what @WillDanceForChocolate has said previously I think, basically that he struggles to change things. To anybody wanting to put pressure on though, it's madness. Things will get back to normal eventually, we're not going to get relegated, push for the top4 again next year.

Aye. The thing is he's overachieved due to the work ethic he instilled, I cannot grasp how people are not just willing to accept a write off given the circumstances, a packed month with a huge injury list was always goung to be devastating to a side that relies on pressing like we do. Even in his first season when we were more defensive, we relied on our off the ball work, we never played a traditional low block. We need fit players and at the start of the season we looked great with the potential to field 2 starting XIs. Klopp looks like he could win the league this season, Liverpool were a joke a few months ago, I never saw him at any point change his ethos and I doubt Howe will either.

"Bang average manager" Honestly we deserve fucking nowt.

It's that "high bar" shite, rather than just using VAR to help make the correct decisions like you would assume would be the point of it.

Absolutely outrageous penalty

He was being played on by 2 players

Need @Disco to come here and tell people to stop being tories or something. Footballers have a great job that allows them to do things like this, I wouldn't get worked up over it.

I don't think he's tactically inflexible tbf, he's just (arguably) made the wrong calls. 'Arguably' because, with the injuries and fixture buildup, it's hard to imagine any system would ultimately have been fruitful. His first season here we were very defensive, although not in a park the bus way, and ended with top 4 form. We've resorted to a low block a lot recently in the latter half of games and looked well drilled, just too shattered to make the ball stick up top. He changed it today with Isak and Wilson and we looked better etc.

Losing to Sunderland away wouldn't be even remotely embarrassing. It would be shite and the craic will be lifting, but the odds of it happening aren't exactly long. The season is a write off at this point, atleast from where we hoped we would be at the start.

I wonder what Emery and his unwavering high line would have done if he was here atm to have us in the top 4 apparently. Resort to witchcraft? Shamanism?

Emery has done brilliant, bit odd to say he's done better than Howe like given he objectively hasn't yet We've finished 4th and been to a cup final.

Yeah they were weren't bad at all imo.

If the opposition are fitter they can close down space more effectively making passing opportunities harder. We've done it ourselves brilliantly for 2 years. Hence why every team was always 'shite against us' according to their fans.

I mean in hindsight we maybe could have tried to implement a more passive playstyle but I doubt he's going to do it at Christmas. In spite of having about 15 fit players we've hardly 'disgraced' ourselves outside of a handful of games (Everton, Bournemouth, Tottenham). The Milan performance was mostly great and we were massively unlucky againat Chelsea and PSG despite being dead on our feet 2nd half. Today wasn't even that bad, Luton were good and have been for a little while now, we did enough to earn a point.

Do people seriously need a critical analysis of our current situation? Other than thriwing games (which in hindsight would have been a better option) there isn't much to say ither than "we're obviously going to be shite, we're knackered".

"We're a highly physical side who have a severely depleted squad, who have been playing in the most conjested point of the season in 2 extra competitions" Eddie Howe probably.

What exactly are people posting "pathetic performance" expecting? It's shite to see how bad we are but it's fairly apparent why teams playing less games are able to outperform us on their own patch consistently.

How many managers are going to correctly game manage 2 games a week with about 15 (arguably fit) first team players? In another universe we beat PSG, Milan, and Chelsea, even while fucked.

Villa are just better this season tbh, you pick results up when you're good. We should improve when our squad gets back on it's feet but, barring an absurd run (which we are capable of tbf) we're not finishing top 4. We've had no luck at all the oast couple 9f months and it's left us with too much to do. Our away performances started patchy last season fwiw, ironically we were also shite against Brighton and Wolves.

So we can assume, given nobody in the side could hang onto the ball for a second, that he wanted a dependible and experienced player to help shut up shop. Not an inexperienced player who can thread a ball through the eye of a neddle to their keeper on the halfway line.

Aye you're probably right, Howe isn't thinking tactically or anything here, he's just giving Ritchie minutes for a laugh. It will be a struggle to comprehend certain things given we aren't elite football managers, but we can atleast assume there is a reason for them.