Eddie Howe

[RS]

Foden was magnificent. Awesome performance. 

[r0cafella]

I don’t like @The College Dropoutbut sometimes he hasn’t half dour mind. 
 

They are simple much better than us compare the payroll and squad cost to get an idea of this. The whole tiredness from midweek was totally overplayed given it’s the second game of the season as well. 
 

Howe rightfully said we want to impose our own style on other teams which is basically the approach taken by most big clubs and I’m here for it. 

[Hanshithispantz]

We were shit scared in possession, tactically I'm not sure what is going to sort that out?

 

It happens now and then with us and our team and tactics get scrutinised. I remember thinking our season was fucked after Villa Park.

[gbandit]

7 hours ago, The College Dropout said:

There’s this pass between defence and midfield that is constantly on for smart opposition and good players. 
 

If we are to become a top side.  We need to deal with it better. 
 

 

Agreed on how easy it was for them to find Foden. I think we were more worried about Haaland and what they’d do to us from wide that we didn’t really set up to stifle their central midfield. If you look at how teams try to suffocate Bruno now,

we needed to do that but to Foden. However, Foden’s pretty much the best player in the league after De Bruyne and he’s not normally allowed a free role centrally so I completely understand why he was free to receive the ball so much yesterday 

[cubaricho]

2 minutes ago, gbandit said:

However, Foden’s pretty much the best player in the league after De Bruyne

Absolutely not. 

[gbandit]

3 minutes ago, cubaricho said:

Absolutely not. 

Fair play, just my opinion on Foden. I think if he’s fit all season he gets player of the season this year 

[BonesJones]

https://www.nufc.co.uk/nufc-tv/latest-videos/howe-theres-so-much-to-take-from-that-game/

[Hot Since 1882]

Loved when he was asked in his press conference something like "is there anything specific to take from the game?" and just responded dead-pan "yes, lots." 

[Thumbheed]

Just got so much faith in the fact that he'll really study and learn from every negative result. 

 

Just pure elite mentality. 

[Displayname]

A needed experience for him. Not quite at Peps level yet, but he is getting there.

[Ashley17]

3 hours ago, gbandit said:

Fair play, just my opinion on Foden. I think if he’s fit all season he gets player of the season this year 

Pep said some stuff about where he would play Foden this season as the assumption was he would replace Mahrez on the right. Basically said that wasn’t the intention, if he plays him in the role he had last night he will have an incredible season 

[Thumbheed]

The thing is I don't think he needs to change too much, it's just a case of getting better players into the system and the results will follow - I think he's got the mentality of the team in an incredibly strong place.

 

 

Edited August 20, 2023 by Thumbheed

[Barnes23]

3 minutes ago, Thumbheed said:

The thing is I don't think he needs to change too much, it's just a case of getting better players into the system and the results will follow - I think he's got the mentality of the team in an incredibly strong place.

 

 

 

I agree in a general sense, and there's real cause for optimism that we can continue to progress this season and silence some of the pessimists who believed our performance level would drop off substantially this year.

 

I would say though that a game which plays out in the manner that yesterday's did is not purely a question of personnel. That was systematic domination. 

 

They're the best team in the world for a reason, finding tactical solutions against them under Pep is just about the greatest challenge any coach can face right now. But if Howe is here for the long-term, as we all hope he will be, it is one metric (among many) against which he will be judged. 

[Hot Since 1882]

4 minutes ago, Ashley17 said:

Pep said some stuff about where he would play Foden this season as the assumption was he would replace Mahrez on the right. Basically said that wasn’t the intention, if he plays him in the role he had last night he will have an incredible season 

 

Wish Southgate could build England's side around Bellingham and Foden playing together in midfield. Obviously being played wide under Pep is totally different to being stuck out on the wing for Bruce et al, but always baffled me why Foden is always played wide. Remember watching probably one of his first games, and Pep played him LB away to someone like Kiev. 

 

If he played for any of the 19 other PL clubs - he'd be a stand out player. KDB being injured and no Gundogan, and last nights performance will increase his profile and attention he'll get.

[Displayname]

2 minutes ago, Barnes23 said:

I agree in a general sense, and there's real cause for optimism that we can continue to progress this season and silence some of the pessimists who believed our performance level would drop off substantially this year.

 

I would say though that a game which plays out in the manner that yesterday's did is not purely a question of personnel. That was systematic domination. 

 

They're the best team in the world for a reason, finding tactical solutions against them under Pep is just about the greatest challenge any coach can face right now. But if Howe is here for the long-term, as we all hope he will be, it is one metric (among many) against which he will be judged. 

I agree, yesterday was not all about the personnel available. But I dont blame Howe to much either. Was sort of like rock facing scissors.

[Ashley17]

7 minutes ago, Barnes23 said:

I agree in a general sense, and there's real cause for optimism that we can continue to progress this season and silence some of the pessimists who believed our performance level would drop off substantially this year.

 

I would say though that a game which plays out in the manner that yesterday's did is not purely a question of personnel. That was systematic domination. 

 

They're the best team in the world for a reason, finding tactical solutions against them under Pep is just about the greatest challenge any coach can face right now. But if Howe is here for the long-term, as we all hope he will be, it is one metric (among many) against which he will be judged. 

Whilst I agree with what you are saying, anybody who plays City has to do a lot of chasing but also have to be clinical when the opportunities arise. Our opportunity came when we managed to press Rodri into a mistake but Wilson couldn’t make the most of what should have been a one on one for Almiron. Better players would help with that aspect.

[Displayname]

Just now, Ashley17 said:

Whilst I agree with what you are saying, anybody who plays City has to do a lot of chasing but also have to be clinical when the opportunities arise. Our opportunity came when we managed to press Rodri into a mistake but Wilson couldn’t make the most of what should have been a one on one for Almiron. Better players would help with that aspect.

City probably had 5-6 chances were they could have scored with better finishing aswell. 

Wilson is probably the best backup striker in the Premier League atm(if you count Alvarez as a first team player).

[Cronky]

6 minutes ago, Barnes23 said:

I agree in a general sense, and there's real cause for optimism that we can continue to progress this season and silence some of the pessimists who believed our performance level would drop off substantially this year.

 

I would say though that a game which plays out in the manner that yesterday's did is not purely a question of personnel. That was systematic domination. 

 

They're the best team in the world for a reason, finding tactical solutions against them under Pep is just about the greatest challenge any coach can face right now. But if Howe is here for the long-term, as we all hope he will be, it is one metric (among many) against which he will be judged. 

 

I think the difference in personnel is the primary issue though. Not one of our players would get in their first team. Right from the start, City's plan has been to achieve world domination, and it seems they have been prepared to cheat financially in order to get there. There is that elephant in the room.

 

I'm not sure what the opposition can do now, because they are technically good enough to beat the most aggressive press, and they are physically strong enough to retrieve the ball quickly on the rare occasions that they lose it. They are able to do this against much better players than we have at the moment. Against the best, they can turn games into a drawn out contest of attack v defence.

 

Eddie has managed to over-achieve massively with the players at his disposal. With all due respect to Pep, the manager of Barca, Bayern and Man City, he has not faced that challenge. He has produced a major tactical change in how the game is played at the top level, but he has the players to make his system work better than anyone else can achieve.

[Ashley17]

Just now, Displayname said:

City probably had 5-6 chances were they could have scored with better finishing aswell. 

Wilson is probably the best backup striker in the Premier League atm(if you count Alvarez as a first team player).

I didn’t mean it as a dig at either player but if we were in City’s position we would have better players available than quite a few of our first team squad. 
 

The fact we didn’t even get a shot off in that situation was very disappointing 

[NUFC_Chris]

I still view it as a progression. Loads of teams will go there and get pumped.
Personnel is still the key factor, their quality playing it out from the back is outstanding. Defensively we were excellent but you can see a gulf in quality when our back line is pressed high up the pitch as opposed to theirs. In my opinion. 

 

 

Edited August 20, 2023 by NUFC_Chris

[Barnes23]

13 minutes ago, Ashley17 said:

Whilst I agree with what you are saying, anybody who plays City has to do a lot of chasing but also have to be clinical when the opportunities arise. Our opportunity came when we managed to press Rodri into a mistake but Wilson couldn’t make the most of what should have been a one on one for Almiron. Better players would help with that aspect.

 

I agree, the crux of the difficulty is that so much of our success is built upon the quality of our pressing game and our physical qualities more broadly. The way that City play under Pep, which is only able to be implemented to such ruthless effect with a legitimately elite group of players, is almost uniquely placed to highlight the technical deficiencies within our team. So the two things very much go together

 

 

Edited August 20, 2023 by Barnes23

[Displayname]

Got to be said though, if they didnt have Foden mimicking ASMs performance from last year the game would have looked alot different. Thought most of their threat came through him.

 

 

Edited August 20, 2023 by Displayname

[Ashtton]

4 minutes ago, Displayname said:

Got to be said though, if they didnt have Foden mimicking ASMs performance from last year the game would have looked alot different. Thought most of their threat came through him.

 

 

 

 

I think pretty much all of their threat did. Grealish was ordinary. Alvarez pretty quiet other than his great strike. Haaland got little change from our centre-backs. Foden was the only one where you felt something could happen every time he got on the ball.

[Barnes23]

10 minutes ago, Cronky said:

 

I think the difference in personnel is the primary issue though. Not one of our players would get in their first team. Right from the start, City's plan has been to achieve world domination, and it seems they have been prepared to cheat financially in order to get there. There is that elephant in the room.

 

I'm not sure what the opposition can do now, because they are technically good enough to beat the most aggressive press, and they are physically strong enough to retrieve the ball quickly on the rare occasions that they lose it. They are able to do this against much better players than we have at the moment. Against the best, they can turn games into a drawn out contest of attack v defence.

 

Eddie has managed to over-achieve massively with the players at his disposal. With all due respect to Pep, the manager of Barca, Bayern and Man City, he has not faced that challenge. He has produced a major tactical change in how the game is played at the top level, but he has the players to make his system work better than anyone else can achieve.

 

I think Pep has built a team which is very much hand-selected and purpose-built, so it's not straightforward to judge. But Schar, Botman, Trippier, Bruno and Isak wouldn't look out of place in the City squad IMO. Too early to call on Tonali and the other new arrivals. It's true that the rest wouldn't make the grade technically. 

 

I do agree with your general point, that our personnel isn't at the level where we can truly compete with City yet, it's very difficult not to. But the hope would be that we will find ways to hurt them, and that we can impose ourselves on the game in an attacking sense more than we did last night. I think that's going to require an evolution of both tactics and personnel. It's a quandary that's going to be on the lips of every coach in Europe looking to go to the very top. 

 

 

[ianovthetoon]

Man City’s squad has been years in the making. This is Eddie’s 4th transfer window and we’re a little hamstrung by FFP. 
 

What he’s achieved so far builds him a lot of credit and patience. 
 

No shame in losing by a single goal at Man City away, and it’s a goal less than last year so arguably some progress