Eddie Howe

[dcmk]

1 minute ago, TheBrownBottle said:

Then as you’ve explained it’s less of an excuse and more something Howe needs to look at.  Howe drilling his players non stop and having a playing style which is so demanding that the players are burned out before the season is halfway finished.  Howe is not blameless and it isn’t bad luck that the players are running on embers. 

Howe said today they haven't properly trained for a month, this week will be the first time that they actually can.

 

So how exactly can he burn out the players in these kind of circumstances? He's managing the best he can, a game every 3 days constantly for 2 months has broken us.

[Disco]

4 minutes ago, Holmesy said:

I’m afraid it’s shit one-trick-pony management in that case. We can’t be at full tilt all the time and what we’ve seen is that when we’re not, we’re shit and we get beaten….badly. Zero ability to adapt. Plan B is something that has been mentioned time and time again, but even tweaks to plan A would be something. 

We tried a plan B at Chelsea and at whoever else we’ve sat back against to conserve energy and it’s not gone overly well tbf.

 

Given the schedule I’d imagine if the players have been doing little more than recovery and match planning stuff either. Hasn’t been time.

[TheBrownBottle]

1 minute ago, Jaqen said:

 

Do you think the fatigue issue has just dissapered by us having to play even more games in such a short space of time like?  

 

Mistakes were possibly made in lack of rotation and brining back players too soon earlier in the season but right now there's not a whole lot we can do. I'd love to hear what the solution is. It's Matt Ritchie and Paul Dummett on the bench FFS  

 

 

 

This is why Howe needs time - and to show that he’s learned from this.  If I was running the club, barring complete meltdown he’d have until next Xmas.  But this can’t keep happening - we need to adapt. 

[cubaricho]

1 hour ago, midds said:

It's also very noticeable that there's a complete lack of buzz or energy about the place any more. The whole squad looks so deflated and they all look shattered both mentally and physically, which is a worry as we're only halfway through the season. Those tough fixtures every few days have well and truly caught up with the players and they're playing like they're fucked

I’ve definitely noticed this too. This time last season there were articles weekly about the latest team-bonding exercise Eddie had come up, how the players are sharing their life stories with each other, etc. But I don’t see any of that this season, we’ve just been too damn busy for any of that. 
 

I was thinking we need another one of those two weeks in Saudi Arabia deals to get the team bonded and playing for each other again because right now it definitely doesn’t feel like they are. 
 

I think this will be a tale of two halves of a season if there ever was one. My fingers are crossed we get a break, regroup, and see a much improved team in the second half. 

[cubaricho]

1 hour ago, Jonas said:

It’s a lot easier to replace the Longstaff's , Almiron's and Dubravaka's of the world than Eddie Howe.

I’m convinced the powers that be think this way as well, which is reassuring. 

[TheBrownBottle]

Just now, dcmk said:

Howe said today they haven't properly trained for a month, this week will be the first time that they actually can.

 

So how exactly can he burn out the players in these kind of circumstances? He's managing the best he can, a game every 3 days constantly for 2 months has broken us.

They can’t train because they were already paggered.  Other clubs have similar fixture lists and their managers aren’t in the press complaining that they can’t train - and someone like Ten Hag would absolutely have used that excuse.

 

This will happen again and again and again under Howe unless he learns from it.  I’m more than happy for him to be given the time to learn, but he absolutely is not the victim of bad luck re injuries and fatigue. 

[dcmk]

1 minute ago, Disco said:

We tried a plan B at Chelsea and at whoever else we’ve sat back against to conserve energy and it’s not gone overly well tbf.

 

Given the schedule I’d imagine if the players have been doing little more than recovery and match planning stuff either. Hasn’t been time.

Exactly.  Any Plan A, B, or whatever needs players pressuring the ball when out of possession and winning their duels.  Some players couldn't even run in recent games. 

 

No tactical genius can overcome those shortcomings.  

[huss9]

Scrape past sunderland.

have a bit of a break.

really go for the fa cup even if it means finishing 17th and get us back into europe.

[Tiresias]

If we can't press like mad all season, we need a plan for when we can't. For now the squad is still being built fair enough, but to be honest there can be no excuse for shipping 3 goals to chris wood with arguably our first choice backline. The defense isn't working and should be. 

[madras]

4 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

Then as you’ve explained it’s less of an excuse and more something Howe needs to look at.  Howe drilling his players non stop and having a playing style which is so demanding that the players are burned out before the season is halfway finished.  Howe is not blameless and it isn’t bad luck that the players are running on embers. 

Look at last season, loads of in game rotation that we can't do this season through injury.

 

It's pretty basic.

 

 

[Holmesy]

3 minutes ago, Disco said:

We tried a plan B at Chelsea and at whoever else we’ve sat back against to conserve energy and it’s not gone overly well tbf.

 

Given the schedule I’d imagine if the players have been doing little more than recovery and match planning stuff either. Hasn’t been time.

Again, I pin that on the manager. This season has highlighted a glaring glitch in EH’s matrix. If he can’t execute plan A, there’s nothing. Yes, he’s been unlucky with injuries, really unlucky but I’d expect a top class manager to be able to chess game his way out of it, to a degree. 
Have we all just got to accept that because players are tired and we have an injury list, we aren’t winning games? 

[OpenC]

2 minutes ago, huss9 said:

Scrape past sunderland.

 

[TheBrownBottle]

Just now, madras said:

Look at last season, loads of in game rotation that we can't do this season through injury.

 

It's pretty basic.

 

 

It is basic.  And he didn’t do it when he had the full squad available to him.  He also had a WC break coming up mid-season.

 

Howe shouldn’t be under pressure for his job at the moment, but that doesn’t mean he’s beyond criticism. 

[Gallowgate Toon]

There's absolutely no way sitting back at 1-1 against Forest would've been acceptable at home to 'conserve energy'. We went for it to try to kill the game early and we had the lion's share of possession to manage tempo and energy, as we have done in lots of matches recently. We should've resigned it in a bit but it's the right idea and served us very well at home for years.

 

Regardless of whatever tactical approach is taken, it's going to need a level of energy to win duels, territory, battles. There's no successful team around that doesn't do this, this isn't walking football.

[madras]

1 minute ago, Tiresias said:

If we can't press like mad all season, we need a plan for when we can't. For now the squad is still being built fair enough, but to be honest there can be no excuse for shipping 3 goals to chris wood with arguably our first choice backline. The defense isn't working and should be. 

It's not the defence, it's the defending and the entire team does that. Schar wouldn't be playing if Lascalles was able to start, Botman should be on the bench to be played back in but we have a small squad which we knew would take time to build. We probably started 5 or 6 players today who shouldn't have started or even played at all.

[madras]

1 minute ago, TheBrownBottle said:

It is basic.  And he didn’t do it when he had the full squad available to him.  He also had a WC break coming up mid-season.

 

Howe shouldn’t be under pressure for his job at the moment, but that doesn’t mean he’s beyond criticism. 

When was that ? Fucks sake look at our squads since the start of October ? We even started the season playing Tonali well before he was ready due to Willock and Longstaff being out.

[huss9]

save us Joe Willock. You're our last hope.

[dcmk]

1 minute ago, TheBrownBottle said:

They can’t train because they were already paggered.  Other clubs have similar fixture lists and their managers aren’t in the press complaining that they can’t train - and someone like Ten Hag would absolutely have used that excuse.

 

This will happen again and again and again under Howe unless he learns from it.  I’m more than happy for him to be given the time to learn, but he absolutely is not the victim of bad luck re injuries and fatigue. 

 

We obviously need a bigger squad but even then it doesn't prevent injury crises. Who could have possibly foreseen a crisis like ours?

 

It's been unreal, and came about in the very worst period of the season,  and I'm sure you have seen some of our benches in recent weeks, right? 

 

So I can't comprehend how it can't be a legitimate excuse? Immediately throwing players into the first 11 when they are just back from injury because we have no one else.

 

Surprised anyone would expect it's all on the manager.  

 

It seems Howe's failing for some on here is wanting to win every game in every competition.

[Tiresias]

2 minutes ago, madras said:

It's not the defence, it's the defending and the entire team does that. Schar wouldn't be playing if Lascalles was able to start, Botman should be on the bench to be played back in but we have a small squad which we knew would take time to build. We probably started 5 or 6 players today who shouldn't have started or even played at all.

 

Fair, and i agree, but my point is we can't press we need to be more compact, no matter what I don't think conceding 3 at home to Forest is good enough. I am not pissed off, still very much team Howe lol, and think we were always going to have a tougher season, but think this is embarassing even with dummett and lascelles starting shouldnt be happening

[TheBrownBottle]

Just now, madras said:

When was that ? Fucks sake look at our squads since the start of October ? We even started the season playing Tonali well before he was ready due to Willock and Longstaff being out.

I don’t think Howe has a choice but to do what he’s doing now - and yes, I’m well aware of how long this has been going on.  Just saying that he overplayed players when he had a choice - even in October we had multiple options at FB, for example, and he wouldn’t drop / rest Trippier or Burn until they were completely fucked.  Don’t take it as me saying that Howe is 100% to blame or responsible for an injury crisis; I do though think he isn’t blameless 

[Yorkie]

 "The fatigue excuse has to stop now." Now. It was a fine excuse before. But now they're even more exhausted I don't want to hear it any more. Some logic, that. Get Ritchie on, Eddie, do some fucking managing. And that gadgie from the academy, whichever one. Anyone. 

[Erikse]

This was pretty much the last game of the insane fixture congestion.. I know the next games in the league are difficult, but atleast there will be several days between each fixture. This might help us to not look awful atleast.

[Amir_9]

Problem is we don't have the personnel (injuries/enough top class players to pick from generally) to get away with playing the same exact style week in week out expecting it to go our way and we put them all to the sword. As by this point with all the injuries we have, we done it with more or less the same exact players it has become rather predictable. I feel teams have sussed out these passes to Almiron and Gordon. All of this is now starting to show but also is a huge testament to how long they were able to pull it off with the calibre of opposition and frequency of games along the way, so fair play to them.

 

When you have the likes of Almiron, Longstaff and Burn etc you have to expect limitations or downright bad performances without consistent quality in depth to pick from just yet. Then you have the back line which has regressed unfortunately with the Botman injury and Pope injury not have helped and Trippier's recent problems. This is probably why it wouldn't hurt Howe to adopt a pragmatic and a more balanced approach to rely on in certain games or when certain players are missing until we have much less injuries.

 

 

Edited December 26, 2023 by Amir_9

[Collage]

5 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

It is basic.  And he didn’t do it when he had the full squad available to him.  He also had a WC break coming up mid-season.

 

Howe shouldn’t be under pressure for his job at the moment, but that doesn’t mean he’s beyond criticism. 

This, pretty much. I love EH, he’s the man for the job, hopefully for years to come. But there’s no doubt he has a weakness when it comes to rotating the squad and making subs in time.

[SUPERTOON]

For the people saying it’s Howe’s fault they are burned out, what would you have done differently ? Genuine question, because other than swapping a fullback what other options has he had ?