Eddie Howe - Granted Freedom of Newcastle

[Whitley mag]

I like Howes philosophy and with the right players I think the football will be very good to watch.

 

What does concern me is the lack of any improvement in the defence. This has been laid at his door before as a weakness, the evidence so far suggests it’s not definitely not a strength.

 

Clearly the personnel has aged and regressed since Rafa had them drilled, however at times 3 centre half’s and protection in front of the back 4 have been required.

 

He’s got a free pass at the moment, but I think the pressure will ramp up if we still look a disorganised shambles at the back after January signings.

[MarkyMark]

Two things that worry me:

 

1) Howe needed suspensions and injuries to play his best back line - for precisely one game

2) there has been no ‘bounce’.  I’d put my house on Bruce getting pretty much precisely the same results (he was also drawing home games against shite teams - at some point, you’ll scrape a win doing that)

 

Longer term, I’d take Howe over Bruce every time of course.  But my expectations were low and they’ve been matched, so far.  The clangers dropped today are similar to the ones dropped for weeks on end - at some point, you question what’s happening in training.  And anyone selecting Clark - ever, under any circumstances - is open to questioning. 

[midds]

If he's going to continue to select players who are consistently letting him down every game then eventually he needs to have a word with himself and drop the fuckers. He's inherited a shitshow, we all know this, but he's picking the teams now, he's responsible for subs, formations and tactics etc as it's his job now. I'm still 100% behind him obviously but his starting XIs are not helping him at all. He either finds an immediate solution or he buys one in the next 3 weeks. 

[Thumbheed]

9 minutes ago, TRon said:

 

Which best defenders could he have selected today? Schar was the only option I'm guessing, and he's been making ricks as well if we are honest. 

 

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. 

 

 

Edited December 19, 2021 by Thumbheed

[Happinesstan]

1 hour ago, Fantail Breeze said:

Not sure how anyone could manage us for 7 games and still pick Clark.

 

Big Jow about the only player to improve under him so far, which is quite disappointing.

 

People can blame individual errors, but most of those are only happening because Howe keeps picking the players creating those problems.

 

A big few weeks coming up. I’m hopeful he’ll start to get it right, but it’s been pretty poor so far.

Because if he had picked Schar there was a big risk that Clark might play the next 2-3 games.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

I can understand why he decided to rest Schar like. This is basically an impossible game to win and he’s looked knackered for ages. He’s been going down with knocks every game. 

 

 

Edited December 19, 2021 by AyeDubbleYoo

[54]

2 minutes ago, Thumbheed said:

 

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. 

 

 

 

Not really given Schar was absolutely on his knees against Liverpool, and we barely had any recovery time. Can bet the various sports scientists we have where saying he needed resting.

 

Personally I'd rather Clark be played in this one game then Schar getting injured and Clark having to be played in our winnable games.

[Hhtoon]

Yeah, why would he have dropped Schar otherwise? Surely was down to medical advice not to play 90 mins.

[Thumbheed]

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. 

[54]

1 minute ago, Thumbheed said:

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. 

He's played Schar in every game since he came in like, and called him "his perfect centre-back" think it's pretty obvious which one it is.

[Hhtoon]

2 minutes ago, Thumbheed said:

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. 

 

Not sure why he'd suddenly replace Schar with Clark otherwise.

 

Wish he'd just tell us to be honest cos if it was tactical then my concern levels would be elevated 

[Thumbheed]

9 minutes ago, 54 said:

He's played Schar in every game since he came in like, and called him "his perfect centre-back" think it's pretty obvious which one it is.

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. 

 

 

 

Edited December 19, 2021 by Thumbheed

[Holloway]

Can't wait to see the back of some of these players. Despite the obvious limitations of their ability in a fair number of them, the application of their playing time has come up short,they've looked clueless in testing situarions

[nemtizz]

Unless someone in the coaching staff figures out how to organise a defense we're done for, regardless of who we sign in Jan.

[Happinesstan]

3 minutes ago, Thumbheed said:

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. 

 

 

 

 

And my point would have been proven if he had picked him and he gone down after 15 mins with an injury that put him out for the rest of the season. 

It's not fucking rocket surgery.

[Happinesstan]

There are 3 more games before we can rea;istically pick a new defender. £ games that are infinitely more winnable than today, and 2 which are vastly more important. Do you want Clark's mistakes to change a 0-3 to a 0-4 or three 1-0s to three 1-1s?

[Thumbheed]

5 minutes ago, Happinesstan said:

And my point would have been proven if he had picked him and he gone down after 15 mins with an injury that put him out for the rest of the season. 

It's not fucking rocket surgery.

 

 

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. 

 

 

[Happinesstan]

1 minute ago, Thumbheed said:

 

 

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. 

 

 

The fact he wasn't picked is enough indication for me.

Maybe I'm extrapolating something of Howe's thinking from his decision to rest Wilson against Liverpool.

 

 

Edited December 19, 2021 by Happinesstan

[Holmesy]

10 minutes ago, nemtizz said:

Unless someone in the coaching staff figures out how to organise a defense we're done for, regardless of who we sign in Jan.

You can’t organise a PL defence when it’s made up of Championship players. We could have Mourinho trying to organise them and it still wouldn’t fucking work

[Happinesstan]

10 minutes ago, Thumbheed said:

 

 

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. 

 

 

It's no more made up than your assertion that he picked him because he thinks he's better. What indication is there for your crap?

[Thumbheed]

6 minutes ago, Happinesstan said:

It's no more made up than your assertion that he picked him because he thinks he's better. What indication is there for your crap?

 

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

 

 

 

Edited December 19, 2021 by Thumbheed

[Kanj]

Not sure how he can organize a defense with the quality this bad and the injuries we have too. But go on. Tell me what he could do differently. Krafth and hurt Schar in? Same score line. 

[TRon]

We have some really shit players, first of all we need to acknowledge that. We only have to see how we struggle to keep the ball, especially against the better teams. The difference in quality is really stark. Even when Rafa was here we were only getting results by conceding possession and trying to catch teams on the break. He wanted better players as well. 

[cubaricho]

31 minutes ago, Thumbheed said:

 

 

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. 

 

 

He mentioned, at least once this week, that there would be squad rotation for this match. 

[Whitley mag]

1 minute ago, TRon said:

We have some really shit players, first of all we need to acknowledge that. We only have to see how we struggle to keep the ball, especially against the better teams. The difference in quality is really stark. Even when Rafa was here we were only getting results by conceding possession and trying to catch teams on the break. He wanted better players as well. 

Yeah, the inability to play simple passes and keep the ball has plagued us for years. The lack of intelligence and ability to play a killer pass in the final third is also crippling us. 
 

A couple of central midfielders are as crucial as defenders at this point.