Eddie Howe

[Optimistic Nut]

You can get away with being one-footed I think if you're a winger playing on the side of your strong foot.

[Super Duper Branko Strupar]

6 hours ago, joeyt said:

Murphy and Willock put in more dangerous balls yesterday than Almiron has for ages

 

He hasnt really put many dangerous balls in all season, he usually gives it back to Trippier for that. 

[Sean]

7 hours ago, joeyt said:

I'm trying to think if we've ever had such a one footed player

Lauren Robert. Although what a left foot he had man.

[huss9]

got a bit of a stubborn streak, has wor Eddie.

not always a good thing.

[Ronaldo]

39 minutes ago, Sean said:

Lauren Robert. Although what a left foot he had man.

Scored goals with his right too, so he shouldn’t be mentioned. Just his left foot was the best in history.

[Conjo]

15,000 corners hitting the first defender and 22,500 shots killing innocent birds while making their annual trek to warmer climates says he didn't have the best left foot in history.

 

When he hit the ball right though it was pure joy watching.

[Gallowgate Toon]

Hoping he might take some inspiration from Klopp about how to get goalscorers on the pitch together. Nunez as a fluid wide forward has been very effective recently.

[The Prophet]

7 minutes ago, Gallowgate Toon said:

Hoping he might take some inspiration from Klopp about how to get goalscorers on the pitch together. Nunez as a fluid wide forward has been very effective recently.

 

It does help when you have £150 million worth of forward on the pitch and £70 million worth of forward on the bench.

[The Prophet]

Granted Liverpool have far greater strength and depth that us, but Edward could learn from Klopp and how he's readjusted Liverpool's front three.

 

Gakpo, traditionally a wide man has dropped into a false nine position. This gives them another man in the middle of the park, whilst simultaneously giving opposition defenders a bit of a headache. As we saw against us, this can draw the centre backs out into areas of the pitch they shouldn't be, allowing Salah and the absolute unpredictable chaos that is Nunez to run beyond him into the gaps this creates.

 

I'm not asking Howe to replicate this system, as Gakpo and Nunez have bags of ability and will often interchange to utilise Nunez's physicality. I also appreciate that it's taken Klopp over six months and two transfer windows of spending circa £130 million on forwards to find this system. The point is that Klopp chopped and changed his front three and wasn't afraid to experiment with different attacking patterns until he stumbled across something that improved Liverpool's attacking numbers. 

 

Now obviously we're far more limited in the forward department, but we could try swapping ASM and Almiron, we could try Isak instead of Wilson, we could try Isak and Wilson, with the former on the left or in behind.  We could try Gordon or Murphy instead of Almiron. There are options. 

 

We are still creating chances and I do believe that variance dictates that the goal draught will end organically, but that doesn't mean that we can't add new weapons to our arsenal to increase the chances of that happening quickly, while making us less predictable going into the rest of the season. 

 

 

[AyeDubbleYoo]

I think the contribution of our midfield is currently very poor too, albeit with injuries, suspensions and hard fixtures. To get the most out of the forwards we need more precision and control in midfield. May need signings to achieve. 

[The College Dropout]

watching MNF yesterday. They mentioned how both Liverpool and Brighton outnumber opposition in midfield (a box midfield?) with strikers that drop deep.

 

Isak can do that i'm sure.

 

Apart from Bruno, i'm unsure that we have midfielders that can find him consistently though. 

[The College Dropout]

15 minutes ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

I think the contribution of our midfield is currently very poor too, albeit with injuries, suspensions and hard fixtures. To get the most out of the forwards we need more precision and control in midfield. May need signings to achieve. 

"JJ Bull" from Tifo makes a big deal about our midfield having ball carriers and runners rather than passers. I thin that's mostly Joe, Willock and a bit of Bruno

[TRon]

On 05/03/2023 at 21:32, huss9 said:

got a bit of a stubborn streak, has wor Eddie.

not always a good thing.

 

Or he just doesn't reckon swapping in players from our current bunch will make that much difference. And he's probably right. That said, it does look like he's prepared to haul off his first choices during a game if they aren't performing.

[The College Dropout]

Just now, TRon said:

 

Or he just doesn't reckon swapping in players from our current bunch will make that much difference. And he's probably right. That said, it does look like he's prepared to haul off his first choices during a game if they aren't performing.

We've been off form for 3 months and he's not changed anything. It's definitely stubborness.

[TRon]

2 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

We've been off form for 3 months and he's not changed anything. It's definitely stubborness.

 

I think injuries and suspensions have had a lot to do with it. But yes I agree, Howe is not one who likes to switch styles much, he's very much invested in his formation and playing style. I would have liked us to be a bit more cagey in the Carabao cup final and try to hit on the counter more, but he's not going to go backwards if he thinks we are moving in a new direction.

[Lush Vlad]

Could be that he is a bit stubborn and/or loyal to certain players he trusts. But also that he has faith in his system and feels that with minor tweaks, he can get us back to winning ways. 
 

It can be frustrating to watch at times. But I think I’d rather that than knee jerk reactions from managers week to week. Which we saw from the likes of Bruce, Pardew, Allardyce etc over the years. 
 

My biggest concern is how stale it has all gone. I know basically every team at this level will have rehearsed passages of play. But we have just become so predictable with what we try and do. There never seems to be any fluidity or flexibility with how we play or what we try and do.
 

Hard to argue against it, when it has served us so well for a year or more. But it does feel like something needs to be changed. As I’m not sure we can just keep playing out of form players and saying ‘goals will come.’ 

[Gallowgate Toon]

The stubborn accusation is a bit early imo but there are a couple of recent signs. There've been a few niggly injuries between Bruno, Isak, Wilson, Willock, and then suspensions, over the last couple of months which has limited options and stopped us being able to build momentum trying new things. ASM has actually had a decent run of starts over the last month so it hasn't been same old.

 

The last 2 games there have definitely been some poor/safe choices but it does feel like there's a clearer run for the squad going into the business end and he pretty clearly said in his post-match presser that he feels like he has options to tactically rotate now (midfield aside while Jo's out).

 

I actually think we have some really interesting options to play going forward that can be tweaked nicely in-game as well. Not prolific but quick, decently technical players who can play a couple of different ways and happily swap into other positions. I have a feeling he's trying to mould Gordon into his next Fraser but with more physicality. 

[The Prophet]

I wouldn't say things have gotten "stale" as such, we're still opening teams up quite regularly. Most recently we created three decent chances against Man City and four v Liverpool. At the same time it never hurts to experiment with different attacking patterns so you have more options moving forward, particularly against low blocks which we've struggled against all season. 

 

Rotating personnel might also see a player who wasn't previously in the side hit a hot streak or strike up a good understanding with a couple of team mates, that's what happened with Willock and Joelinton when we moved the latter out to the left before the World Cup. We're not talking wholesale changes, just tweaks that give the opposition something different to think about. 

[The College Dropout]

I don't agree with "we're still opening teams up quite regularly" at all.

 

We're predictable in attack.

 

We rarely change shape or approach. That's obviously limited by the personnel.

[The Prophet]

1 minute ago, The College Dropout said:

I don't agree with "we're still opening teams up quite regularly" at all.

 

We're predictable in attack.

 

We rarely change shape or approach. That's obviously limited by the personnel.

 

It might be predictable but its's obviously effective. That's not to say we shouldn't try and mix it up though. 

[The College Dropout]

Just now, The Prophet said:

 

It might be predictable but its's obviously effective. That's not to say we shouldn't try and mix it up though. 

It's not effective because we are not scoring goals.

 

Our big chances from open play are not among the best in the league in the last 6-8 games. 

[maze]

Need to shake things up. We have lost momentum. Agree with The College Dropout.

[The Prophet]

1 minute ago, The College Dropout said:

It's not effective because we are not scoring goals.

 

Our big chances from open play are not among the best in the league in the last 6-8 games. 

 

That's conflating chance creation with chance conversion though. Before the weekend we were third in the league for big chances created post-World Cup. We then created three clear chances v City, though I'm not sure if they were considered "big chances".

[54]

3 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

It's not effective because we are not scoring goals.

 

Our big chances from open play are not among the best in the league in the last 6-8 games. 

Our creative stats this season:

 

Big Chances created: 47 (7th out of 20)

Big Chances missed: 44 (3rd out of 20)

XG Created: 38.5 (6th out of 20)

Shots on Target per Match: 4.9 (7th out of 20)

Goals per Match: 1.5 (9th out of 20)

 

 

[SUPERTOON]

Just now, 54 said:

Our creative stats this season:

 

Big Chances created: 47 (7th out of 20)

Big Chances missed: 44 (3rd out of 20)

XG Created: 38.5 (6th out of 20)

Shots on Target per Match: 4.9 (7th out of 20)

Goals per Match: 1.5 (9th out of 20)

 

 

He said the last 6-8 games though, can’t see them being that high over that period.