Eddie Howe - Granted Freedom of Newcastle

[Conjo]

44 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

 

He signed a fortnight ago FFS  - can we at least give the lad a month before we write him off?

 

I said it's not too late, but compare him to Gordon who is the same age as an example. Straight into the first team picture. This guy has not even made the bench. If he can't get ahead of the likes of Lewis and Ritchie from the start, there must be some glaring holes in his game.

[Zero]

I expect him to make some changes to our attacking form. It’s really too predictable and every team knows how to deal with us.

 

[soyt]

1 minute ago, Zero said:

I expect him to make some changes to our attacking form. It’s really too predictable and every team knows how to deal with us.

 

Yes, i think he has been against of too much changes because of the final on the horizon. Everyone has seen that something different is needed to freshen things up. But i can understand that he has been a bit worried to upset the apple cart because that formation and set of players got us to the final. Now that the final is done and dusted and our form is still bad, Eddie is justified to make more changes. In in any case, that is what i hope for.

 

 

[AyeDubbleYoo]

6 hours ago, Conjo said:

I said it's not too late, but compare him to Gordon who is the same age as an example. Straight into the first team picture. This guy has not even made the bench. If he can't get ahead of the likes of Lewis and Ritchie from the start, there must be some glaring holes in his game.

 

Are we talking about Ashby here? Ridiculous if so

 

Glaring holes in his game FFS, we just tracked the lad for a wile and got a deal done, a matter of days before our most important game in decades. Doesn't mean anything at all about his game. 

 

 

Edited February 27, 2023 by AyeDubbleYoo

[Gawalls]

2 minutes ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

 

Are we talking about Ashby here? Ridiculous if so

 

Glaring holes in his game FFS, we just tracked the lad for a wile and got a deal done, a matter of days before our most important game in decades. Doesn't mean anything at all about his game. 

 

 

 

Agreed, it’s a pathetic statement. These will be the same people that expected kuol to rip up the Scottish league.

 

 

Edited February 27, 2023 by Gawalls

[The College Dropout]

The Ashby thing is genuinely weird.

 

He's 21 and made 7 senior appearances by the looks of things. That's an incredibly low amount for a player so highly rated. At the same age, Trippier played a full season in the Championship. Longstaff a season and a half of mens football.

 

 

[The College Dropout]

44 minutes ago, Gawalls said:

Agreed, it’s a pathetic statement. These will be the same people that expected kuol to rip up the Scottish league.

 

 

 

Tbf Kuol is 18. Ashby is 21. That's a massive difference. 

[The Prophet]

Howe has already said that Ashby isn't match fit yet. 

[AyeDubbleYoo]

Just don’t see why we’re already doubting someone we just signed and haven’t even seen. It’s a little odd. 

[gbandit]

I don’t think Ashby not playing is indicative of too much about him, just really odd that Moyes didn’t ever play him given how highly rated he is and how much they wanted to hold onto him

[The Prophet]

Also quite harsh to talk about defensive set pieces on this particular occasion, granted we conceded two soft  goals v West Ham and Bournemouth. It's a quality ball in from Shaw and we've held our line pretty well. 

[number37]

I remember a previous West Ham United manager thinking Marlon Harewood and Hayden Mullins were better than Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano so maybe it's just one of those clubs. Ashby will be fine with us. 

[jack j]

Hope Eddie isn't a victim of his earlier success this season. Even if we completely drop off the end of this season he deserves full support which am sure the board will give him

[PauloGeordio]

He’s already won for me. A cup final, safety and belief restored. The only way is up! The futures bright, the futures black and white 

[jonny1403]

12 hours ago, Away Toon said:

Nobody is ripping up the defense just replacing Burn with Targett, which more people on here are advocating. Now if Eddie doesn't think Targett is a better LB than Dan Burn you have to wonder who sanctioned buying him.

Eh? Target doesn’t become a bad signing just because his competition is having a blinding season.

[Gallowgate Toon]

It's time to evolve... not revolve.

 

I think he'll be really relieved that this weekend is done now. I feel like we've been walking a tightrope the last few weeks in terms of team selection & squad management.

 

This is a big test for Howe now, a bit of a sticky patch and we'll see how ready he is to be ruthless - this is bigger club management decision-making time. I'm a bit worried for him with Wilson, feels like he's been trying to back him in spite of form which is against his entire managerial ethos of playing based on merit, competition in the squad etc. You can carry a striker in crap form for a while when you're vying for midtable but not when you want to be towards the top, especially when there aren't plenty of goals elsewhere.

 

He has to turn this disappointment around for the rest of the season and start building our next phase. For me, the rest of this campaign should be about getting our attacking mojo in order and preparing for next year. It'll likely lead to more losses than the first half of the season but it's something we have to go through. That, or we revert to more of a counter attacking team and re-style next campaign.

 

Options are to go for it with Isak and Wilson, but that may mean sacrificing ASM for Willock or Gordon to try and preserve defensive stability. Or he tries ASM off Isak and Gordon on the left. Maybe put Isak, Wilson & ASM together as a 3 somehow if we want to keep 4-3-3. I don't buy that we don't have goals in the squad, we can have a decent attack to see us through with some tinkering and perseverance.

[Conjo]

1 hour ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

 

Are we talking about Ashby here? Ridiculous if so

 

Glaring holes in his game FFS, we just tracked the lad for a wile and got a deal done, a matter of days before our most important game in decades. Doesn't mean anything at all about his game. 

 

Of course it does. He hasn't been on the bench for any game since he joined us. Difficult to track him properly when all he can be evaluated against is development team football. Maybe he just wasn't as promising as he looked against opponents in Premier League 2? If there's no issues and he looks good, why in the world has he not been an option from the bench?

 

57 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

The Ashby thing is genuinely weird.

 

He's 21 and made 7 senior appearances by the looks of things. That's an incredibly low amount for a player so highly rated. At the same age, Trippier played a full season in the Championship. Longstaff a season and a half of mens football.

 

That's part of my point though - if he isn't fit to play at this level now, time is running out quickly because 21 just isn't very young for a top flight footballer. Most of the top flight players that turn good start to get eased into the side around 18-19 or loaned out to be regular first team starters, and some are even established top flight first team players by 21. We got Kuol in January and he is now playing regularly first team football (albeit from the bench most of the times) at the age of 18. If he in 3 years is in our squad but not even getting picked to be on the bench, I'll be worried he may not be good enough to play for us either - with the same caveat that it isn't too late, but that something needs to happen fairly quickly.

[The College Dropout]

I was mosty agreeing with your point.

 

I can understand people not being concerned - it's early days - but the whole thing is genuinely weird. I'm a little assured by the fact that West Ham & NUFC hierarchy seem to rate him highly. But the lack of appearances for West Ham and yes even us, is a genuine amber/red flag.

 

We don't have a stacked bench. A lot of deadwood get 5-10 minutes a game, why doesn't he get that? 

 

 

Edited February 27, 2023 by The College Dropout

[AyeDubbleYoo]

Just completely unnecessary concern at this point in time. 

[Sempiternal]

I’d give Ashby a chance to you know, play a game in the PL for us before we start saying he’s not going to make it.

[Away Toon]

57 minutes ago, jonny1403 said:

Eh? Target doesn’t become a bad signing just because his competition is having a blinding season.

You think Burn "is having a blinding season". He's a reasonable left sided CH but is an extremely limited LB who offers nothing going forward. Targett is not a particularly good LB either but somebody gave the ok to buy him and presumably not to be back up to Dan Burn.

[Sempiternal]

Targett is a good left back like, defensively he’s very good 

 

 

Edited February 27, 2023 by Sempiternal

[Conjo]

3 minutes ago, Sempiternal said:

I’d give Ashby a chance to you know, play a game in the PL for us before we start saying he’s not going to make it.

 

Good that nobody is saying he's not going to make it then.

 

I'm happy for him to get a lot of playing time, same as I am for Anderson. I'd love it if Howe gave Ashby the chance to start f.ex against Wolves and Forest after the Man City game. Give Trippier a rest, ready on the bench to step in if Ashby is struggling. Ashby and Anderson need to get the chance now to show if they can cut it. Training and 5-10 minutes every other week isn't enough. If Howe don't think he can offer them more they need to be loaned out or moved on. I was optimistic by Howes statement after pre-season thinking Anderson would get more chances but sadly he hasn't had the opportunity to settle into the side.

[Sempiternal]

10 hours ago, Conjo said:

 

21 (or 22 as he'll soon be) is young in life, but not that young for a PL footballer. He hasn't even made our bench which is pretty damning considering how it's looked the last month, and has hardly played first team football at any point in his career so far. It's not too late of course, but if he isn't even in contention by this age he's most likely not going to make it at this level.

I mean you’ve literally said it’s most likely he’s not going to make it at this level? 

[Away Toon]

Shaw (Malacia), Chilwell (Cucarella), Robertson (Tsimikas), Zinchenko (Tierney), Ake, Davies (Sessegnon). I think we are lagging behind a bit in the LB position. Targett is a reasonable LB defensively but offers little going forward. We need an elite level LB for where we are hoping to go.