Dr Jinx

De Zerbi could be a good shout. Tactically astute and his team are extremely comfortable on the ball. He’ll end up at one of the bigger clubs soon am guessing. I agree with others that Mourinho may not be a good fit compared to how we play currently.. although I still think he’s a top manager. He just suits some clubs more than others. He could well be very good here if it all clicked.. but a gamble. He’s the one attainable manager who I think has the confidence and qualities to get a club like ours to the next level. Conte would fit the same mold but I think Mourinho is a better manager. Anyone else who’s highly rated have seemed to have found new jobs recently so it’s not a massive pool of candidates out there.

Honestly think Eddie Howe has gotten a fairly easy ride this season. Manchester Utd are doing better than us and their manager gets asked about his future on a weekly basis. Risking injured players, spending our budget on players who have had no real impact on the first team, not changing things up when it became obvious the high intensity pressing plan wasn’t working anymore. I don’t think he has a plan B. Am sick of hearing how grateful we should be.. we have been grateful and we’ve lavished love and support to the players and management team, we’ve never properly boo’d the team after a stinking performance and there’s been quite a few this season. I believe a change is needed. If it’s going to happen I’d rather he went sooner than later before all the good is tarnished by what’s coming next. I just can’t see him turning it around without major investment this month.

Just to be clear, I’m not suggesting EH should be sacked, far from it at this point in time but I think it’s fair to ask questions over a larger sample pool of games.. we’ve had some good results during our “fatigued period”.. but the ones against lesser opposition where we’ve been bullied and out worked raise many doubts. First he needs to sort that back line out again. We’ve been shocking there recently. Going forward, if we’re still in roughly the same boat without any massive improvment, then what? Just continue as is? Yeah it’s still a far cry from the dark days but do we actually want to win something? If we do, then we need to make logical and possibly ruthless decisions.

The score line flattered us in that game.. we were ruthless with our chances though. So what about being knackered against a 10 man Liverpool? Or do we just accept that they are a better team with a better manager?

You would think we were playing like prime Real Madrid the way some people were going on. Eddie Howe’s style of play might seem like that compared to our immediate previous managers but it’s far from where it should be. We still can’t comfortably keep possession despite having one of the best back lines in the league last year. (They’ve been anything but this season but that’s a different point) Even early season we’ve shown signs of being tired. Liverpool at home was the prime example, for fuck sake.. we let 10 men completely overrun us. Now what about the other less memorable results.. A routine loss away to City.. Liverpool at home, see above. Not good enough. Brighton away.. toothless. Shambles of a performance. Conceded late on against West Ham.. tired second half. Conceded late on against Wolves. Tired again. Terrible performance against Bournemouth.. outplayed and out worked. Everton away, never in it.. easy win for them. Spurs away.. torn to shreds that day. Piss poor. Then Luton away and then Forest at home.. That’s half the league games we’ve played in this season where we’ve been absolutely shit. We can’t blame all of that on injuries and fatigue. I really like Eddie Howe and I’d love to see him succeed here but how long do you let a rot like that set in before you can start questioning it? He’s got a massive struggle on his hands to even get the team to where we were, let alone where we want to be.

I’ve been thinking more about our shortcomings this season and I’m veering more towards the root cause being our poor choice of pre season schedule. Our fitness levels just haven’t been anywhere near as good and that could well be the cause of some of the injuries we’ve had. Even going back to the game against Villa on day 1.. we tired in that game midway through second half and they finished stronger. Liverpool the same story but they turned us over. If you can’t put that on Eddie Howe, who do you put it on? He has to sign off on that for it to happen.

Do you believe him when he says he has no assurances of being backed in January?

I had been putting the whole fatigue thing down to the injuries we had but we were pretty much full strength when we played these and we got knackered at around 70 mins. They took full advantage. At the current state of the squad, we’ll be toast by the 35 minute mark.

Assuming Dan Ashworth stays (which is not certain) his role (assuming he’s doing the same thing as at previous clubs) is mainly to have a setup of total continuity, that means the club, not the manager, has a clear DNA of how it’s going to approach things tactically, and from a recruitment perspective. The problem he’ll be having now is that Eddie Howe has a certain way he wants to do things but they don’t always work, or perhaps they did work and now our opponents have adjusted. So the idea of a clear DNA can’t be nailed down when we don’t have the infrastructure to really test the idea. When Brighton changed managers the changes were minor adjustments and they have a setup now where no matter who leaves, there’s a replacement lined up. Whether that’s a manager or the players. I don’t see that in us yet but for whatever reason is unclear at the moment, he wasn’t at Brighton all that long after all.

Same, as someone who almost got into a bad gambling spot in my younger days I have a lot of sympathy, he needs a chance to put things right. Money and lots of time to kill can make terrible bedfellows.. let’s hope the club/teammates can keep him involved in things away from training. I’m hoping this was more stupidity as opposed to a massive addiction problem like they claimed it was. It might just be a case of something blowing up in his face and he just won’t ever go back to doing that.

I think it’s fair enough to include that question for disclosure when signing a contract, if they lie about it, contract cancelled and insurance can pay out on the value of the transfer fee (if any insurer would do so, presumably they would)

Liverpool are going to tear us apart on New Years Day. We’ll be overrun.

We’re so easy to play against at the moment. All an opposing manager had to say to his players is “keep it tight for 40 minutes and they’ll run out of gas” Now I understand the excuses that we have regarding injuries and tired players etc, but for example, Luton away, why couldn’t he have played a bunch of kids. Or in fact, against Liverpool, play the fucking kids.. we’re going to lose anyway. Play the long game. Give our “1st team” a meaningful break. Continuing to play the same line up and expecting something different to happen is not insanity, it’s poor management. My biggest worry is that Eddie Howe is just as burnt out as the players.

The injuries? Yeah sure but what we had yesterday was more than enough to get points. It's not an isolated blip. We’ve had several very under par performances. I’m not wetting the bed just yet but it’s a concern. I really want to see him step it up a few gears and start to assert over his rival managers. I’ve yet to really see that from him.

We were pretty much bullied all over the park yesterday by mediocre players. There’s no way of dressing it up as anything but a massive fuck up in preparation. I noticed Howe at the press conference (on Friday) deflected responsibility for playing not 100% fit players “they’ll play if the medical team says they can” I think for the first time here really he’s in a rut at present, not all his fault and we’ve been fucked over by some awful decisions along the way but you can tell it’s affected the team, he hasn’t been able to pick them up from those disappointments. If he’s good enough he’ll find a way out of it but they were very cheap points to give away yesterday. I think rightly so he’ll be under scrutiny now.

We do need a new striker but where I’m also concerned with is the midfield, we need someone to come in who makes us tick better, Bruno can only do so much. We work too hard to keep hold of the ball.. I suspect that’s a mash up of the way we’re set up to play but also limited by the personnel we have. There isn’t much outright pace in that midfield, if you could give Bruno an extra step he’d be the worlds best midfielder but he’s maxed out. I don’t know if that means we sign an outright dm or if we should go for a playmaker ?‍♂️

What’s he actually done since he came in?

What were the personal reasons he mentioned as to why he had to leave? He’s not really been the same since. Tired yes but something else on his mind too perhaps. That confrontation with the fan was odd as well, he should know better than to engage with idiots. He’s earned any number of chances before we should start calling for him to be dropped. As a club, support for the players should come right the way through from the coaching staff and from the supporters. We need to get behind him.

I feel the club have been overplaying the whole “doing it the right way” and not taking shortcuts like they are financially capable of doing. Its going to be a long process and I wonder if it’s becoming clearer that the gap is even bigger than first thought.. taking longer to catch up and having the knock on effect of causing doubt among key employees. There’s no way the club should be losing someone of that reputation to a rival.

Careful about the use of the word plastic. I’m Irish and I’ve supported Newcastle since 1993/4 It’s been every much a part of my life as being a local would. Now a supporter who just wants to follow a winning team.. yeah thats fair enough.. but not being local doesn’t cover the whole spectrum. Globally Real Madrid and Man Utd are the most (not best) supported clubs in the world and their revenues support this. They are still a huge draw and will continue to be. Whether Dan Ashworth is interested is doubtful, he’s only here a season pretty much. We haven’t really started the build yet.. can’t see why he’d jump before we get to do that.

Fantastic news

If Mehrdad and Amanda retain the same influence, then Eddie Howe will be here for the long term. If PIF get more involved and decide they want “a name” then there could be some changes in the future. I think the effort last season took its toll and there’s definitely been an element of burnout. The people we’ve signed haven’t really challenged the “starting 11” as such. It’s all medium to long term planning which is fine but for January I think we need a spark akin to Bruno arriving. The team really needs a lift.

We totally bossed it and you could tell when the battery was nearing empty.. it invited them on and encouraged them. It was nothing to do with tactics. I’ve no doubt we’re a better side than Milan. But fuck, we need a rest. We need some more players back. For our domestic season this will be a blessing.

So predictable, our midfield look like they’re running through treacle when trying to get back.

We’re blowing out our arses ?