Thumbheed

To be fair, there's a significant portion of people born in this country that can barely speak the language.

Sorry, re read what I put, but yeh that's been horrifically worded. I just meant the defence only, as in you surely you can't blame the quality of player for the reason a defence is performing poorly for one manager but not the other. I think it's fair to criticise - or at discuss as a going concern- our defensive performances. We can see the impact of Howe's coaching and management on our attacking play which has improved 10 fold under him, but as of yet, I've not seen much in terms of progress for our defence. I think that's literally been my only point, that and some of his selection choice are questionable.

Does he train them with his eyes closed like? What's he seeing that we've not seen the last 3 years?! Anyway, leaving it at that now.

Tbf I meant his selections throughout his time as manager but, but yeh thats fair enough. Just hoping for a massive January, nervous as fuck about it already.

The coaching side of things can take a backseat for now, I agree it can take time for methods to bed in (time we don't have), and I'm happy to see how we get on in time but I don't think his judgement gets the same pass, because at the end of the day its his judgement which has lead him to play Ritchie over Lewis, Clark over any other defender and even Murphy ahead of Manquillo, all whilst failing to pick our best defender. These aren't minority opinions, they're observations the entire fanbase has been making for the past 3 years. Of course I'm desperate for him to succeed, but he does not have the time or scope to make mistakes, let alone repeat them.

Aye thats fair. I seem to remember the same thing happening with Rafa before things clicked. No idea how he managed it but defo rings a bell. Willing to wait and see how we get in with new signings but there's nowt wrong with making the observations beforehand.

Think I prefer being called a mackem tbh

This guy looks shot of confidence. Seems to be playing like he's 5'3".

You can absolutely coach a defence beyond the sum of its parts. We've seen that over and over and over again in football. As for the lack of quality, well, doesn't that same argument stand up for Bruce? It shouldn't, but if you're saying the defenders have never been good enough, that these kind of performances are to be expected and that there's nothing Howe can do about it, then why did Bruce get such a hammering for our shit defence and what was Howe's plan when it came to addressing our biggest weakness? Wait till January? All I'm looking for is signs of cohesion and coordination and I haven't seen that so far. Couple that with some strange selections and I think it's a worthy point of discussion.

My indicators are watching him pick Ritchie over Lewis, Murphy over Manquillo and Clarke and Lascelles over Fernández in the past.

Is there even any indication he wasn't selected because of fitness, and if it was a fitness issue then what's to stop him getting a season ending injury the next game in your totally made up scenario? Apparently it is for some.

You'd hope so, but he's said similar with Fernández no? But either way, it's probably proven to be the wrong decision, which was my point.

Well, it was either medical advice or because he wanted to play Clarke. Not sure how much more wiggle room we can give Howe on that.

Really good again today. Probably one of the stranger career turnarounds I've seen.

Tbf, when I made my original post I talking generically, not just today. But to answer your question, yes, Schär should have started today instead of Clarke. Which kind of reaffirms my view that Howe is making mistakes with his selections, because as you say, it was literally the only decision he could possibly make for today's defence and still got that wrong imo.

Tbf, that stat was in response to a point made about mistakes being the reason we're conceding where as I was taking the wider view that Howe has selected poorly and not seemingly improved our organisation.

I suppose it boils down to what degree you class a mistake as a mistake, and yeh I suppose there has been a few more clear errors BUT ultimately, the vast majority of goals are as a result of a mistake, no? I'd select my best defenders, I'd put more thought into which CM are going to provide the best protection for our frail defence and I'd take a leaf out the books of managers who are all able to coach a well drilled defence and make it greater than the sum of it's part.

We're definitely more intense but again, I think some of our closing down can be quite disjointed and uncoordinated. Agree with everything else tbf, I've said in another thread that I'd actually love to defend like we did under Keegan; with better attacking players who know how to manage the ball and therefore don't give opposition the oppurtunity to build chances against us.

Yeh agree with the point about fitness, but to counter that, fitness levels are now up and we're still defensively disorganised and uncoordinated. I haven't made my mind up in Howe and was actually excited by his appointment, but I'm judging him on things that are in his gift to change and so far, he doesn't seem to be making the impact I'd hoped.

We've conceded 11 games in 3 games. How many individual errors are you seeing that I'm not?

My concerns with Howe were and have always been he doesn't have a record of improving defences, which funnily enough is our weakest area and exactly what we need. So far, I've not seen anything to suggest I am wrong. As for team selection, he put Lewis in because Ritchie was suspended, Ritchie was 1st choice in all his games prior to suspension. (For someone who's analysed us for his interview, being unable to spot that Ritchie is poor and should not have been 1st choice is not a good sign) Clarke was suspended, after Norwich and again should not have been selected in the first place. (We all know this) Burn out? What burnout? We're not even half way through the season. Fernández has played one game for us, inspite of clearly being our best defender. (Again, something which everyone should agree on) Shelvey and Willock have played the most games together, again, inspite of them both being defensively poor leaving massive gaps through the centre. None of what I've said is new to any us. I'm not saying anything which isn't a shared opinion for the majority of us, which, which makes it more frustrating that after a year off to reflect on his own weaknesses - and ours - he's still seemingly not addressed our defence in any meaningful manner and keeps making the most basic of mistakes. Ultimately though, whatever defence you have of Howe is applicable to Bruce, so blaming the quality of the players just won't cut it.

His management of the defence, in terms of selection and organisation, has been appaling and I don't see how anyone can say otherwise.

Maybe a bit left field, bit I actually think our midfield and attack need more of an overhaul than our defence. If we're moving to a possesion based game then we need better players on the ball who can hold onto the ball better, play the right passes and make the right runs. Right now we have legs in midfield but we concede possession so easily with mindless play which immediately puts us back under pressure.

All these last few pages have taught me is that we need to bring back Carr.

Tbf, Varane wouldnt have been Varane if he was being coached by Pardew, same for all the good players we were linked with.