Antipode23

Eddie's devotion to the 433 should be studied.

Welcome to the forum.

Good chat. Thanks.

Almost every one of your posts tries to defend Eddie or deny people the right to criticize. Come off it man.

Some of our players are definitely due some criticism, but man, they're getting bugger all help from their manager. If I was playing under a manager who refused to change play style and formation no matter how dire things got, I'd lose some motivation too. Honestly the sight of Eddie is pissing me off at this point.

Tbh it blows my mind that some are still going into our games with great optimism. Imo they're well into denial territory.

Get Wolt on, go 4231, put a rocket up their arses. You can do it Eddie. Big boy pants on.

I actually think Eddie might get desperate enough to make a half time sub after this.

Eerie unhappy tension in the ground.

Get this, this is going to blow your mind... I respect Eddie for what he's done well. What I don't respect him for is spending 700m (or whatever) and having us deservedly 14th, playing derisory football for the last 12+ months. 13 other teams and managers have his number on that evidence. ""

I'm loathe to delight in another's suffering, but man, what a class A drongo. Probably shouldn't surprise us that deifying young men with untold fame and fortune doesn't do wonders for their character.

I'm not sure what to make of Iraola. Can anyone make a strong case for him? I don't tend to follow other managers/clubs all that closely, and the biggest benefit that comes to my mind with Iraola is that he routinely does a number on Eddie. Trouble is you could say that about half the league, so it doesn't necessarily differentiate him.

Mourinho strikes me as an egotist who sulks when things don't go his way. Maybe that's unfair on him, but it's an impression I can't shake. And as much as I feel Eddie is extremely limited as a manager and needs to go, his character and Jose's are hard to compare.

With an astute transfer team/strategy in place capable of replacing players and improving the squad, I'd be quite happy selling Gordon. In other words, I would not sell Gordon.

This could be a bloodbath.

Eddie: "We need to be very selective in the transfer market. PSR really restricts us, and we can't take risks." Also Eddie: "Here's 55m for a 29 year old with an attitude problem."

One thing that concerns me in that extremely wordy Athletic article is talk of the ownership AND Eddie getting together to talk about things - including Eddie's future - at the end of the season. If you're truly committed to becoming an elite club (are you, ownership?), and your manager grossly underperforms, you should be deciding among yourselves, and yourselves only, whether the manager stays on - and applying a bloody high standard when making that decision. You don't ask the underperforming manager whose neck is on the line, whether he should be retained. How many turkeys vote for Christmas? Eddie needs to know he doesn't get a say in every decision. Maybe he knows that already, sure, but he has form for wanting his hand in many pies.

This is how I think I'd sum Eddie up based on his time here. Pros: he cares deeply about the players, the club, everything. He works like a madman. His passion and drive is infectious. I think thats largely why he's had success here. People have bought into it and ridden the wave. Even after only 4-5 years here, he's probably in most people's top 3 all-time NUFC managers, and that's probably quite deserved. Cons: I think deep down, he's actually quite stubborn and narrow minded. Tactically, it's the 433 high energy/high press approach, or as an absolute last resort, 5 at the back, give up the ball and hold on for dear life. I actually think he's afraid to try other approaches, so sticks incessantly to what he knows. Unpopular theory I'm sure. This then follows with his transfer approach. He seems to demand players who are virtually 100% ready to make an impact. If this means paying 40-70m a pop, so be it. I think his rationale is that this reduces risk. Ironically, you could say it's actually very high risk, in that when even one or two of these transfers don't come off, you're 100m+ in the poo. Then there's the extreme reluctance to play youth, the holding onto players too long, I could go on. For me, the risk-averse theory fits a lot of what we're seeing. Whether that's more due down to ignorance or outright fear on Eddie's part, I don't know. None of this changes my gratitude towards him however, and desire to see him leave on a good note. I think he deserves that.

At this point I'd take almost anyone who's proactive and flexible tactically and in the transfer market. With all due respect to Eddie I'm quite sick of his "it must be a high press 433" and "we must sign PL-ready!" approach. It's like he's actually quite risk averse deep down. I want someone in who's willing to take risks and has the ability to make change when things aren't working. If that doesn't work out, at least we know they tried.

Couple of random thoughts. First, there were fairly clear signs in the latter parts of last season that he had major character and fitness issues imo. He was just ambling around half heartedly being totally ineffective most games. Some of our fans made excuses for it and later acted like selling him was a disaster. Secondly, related to this... I don't actually think his transfer was bad for us, in and of itself. We got a massive fee for a player with major limitations. The fact we (well, probably Eddie mostly) spunked that money so egregiously, in a way that will probably hinder us for seasons to come, isn't a reflection on the Isak sale itself. It's its own issue, and a bloody massive one at that. All that said, in a world full of injustice, seeing Isak (and Liverpool) have such a diabolical season is rather satisfying. A welcome consolation in light of our own self-inflicted misery.

I think a lot of people made peace with the Saudis' moral vacuousness on the condition they were bold, brave and engaging owners that would take us on a consistent upward trajectory. They've kind of been a let down though, and the good will is now fading it seems.

He's flailing so badly he's now just outright lying. It's sad to see.

Fair, you need a unique skillset to succeed in the PL. I just think he's shown enough, along with Eddie likely misusing him, to justify at least a second season with a more tactically progressive manager.

I think this would be sensible. Eddie has really bottled things spectacularly this season, so do I think it's plausible to say he's misusing Woltemade? Absolutely. Then there's the fact he STARTS, up FRONT, for Germany. Weird thing to happen if he's just crap.