Eddie Howe

[The College Dropout]

4 hours ago, dcmk said:

Hall didn’t have a pre-season even for Chelsea.

 

Livra didn’t have much of one either.  You’re really reaching here, can only assume to fit a narrative which puts Howe in a bad light.

Livra had a pre-season. 
 

Hall isn’t fancied in December.  It’s more than missing pre-season that has him out the team. 

[Ghandis Flip-Flop]

2 minutes ago, Holmesy said:

I’m not a football manager mate. What a ridiculous thing to say.

I am held accountable for the team members I lead in my line of work, and if I go into a board meeting and say campaign A didn’t work because the team isn’t equipped, so we’re going to carry on running campaign A with the same team but expect different results, I would be fired. 

Well let’s play this little hypothetical out shall we, if the majority of your workforce weren’t available for a significant period and you had to work your remaining team members like dogs to cover, would it be fair for your boss to chastise you for not being a fucking miracle worker? if those were your circumstances and you were threatened by the sack, I think any decent union rep would have your boss worried for his job personally.

 

 

[Fezzle]

25 minutes ago, Yorkie said:

 "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. 

Reminds me of

 

 

[The College Dropout]

Overall I think Howe is a better manager than Rafa in 2023. 
 

But Rafa rotates this team much more than Howe has from GW1. He’d start Krafth or Hall if he felt the normal starter wasn’t fit enough to start. Rafa prioritised player fitness and sharpness more than immediate fixtures. 
 

Howe is the opposite. He prioritises the next game over absolutely everything. 

[The Prophet]

Ah yes, acknowledging fatigue is playing a huge part in our form is equating Howe an untouchable Messiah. Tedious.

[Yorkie]

20 minutes ago, Erikse said:

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.

 

From this point forward we'll be adjusting from a game every 4.8 days to a game every 7.3 days. That's an immense gain.

 

(5.6 if we go all the way to the FA Cup Final)

 

With returning players and backing in the January market, we'll finally have capacity to correct things. We haven't had that luxury recently; in fact we've had increasingly less capacity to repair things. 

[Holmesy]

5 minutes ago, Ghandis Flip-Flop said:

Well let’s play this little hypothetical out shall we, if the majority of your workforce weren’t available for a significant period and you had to work your remaining team members like dogs to cover, would it be fair for your boss to chastise you for not being a fucking miracle worker? if those were your circumstances and you were threatened by the sack, I think any decent union rep would have your boss worried for his job personally.

 

 

I would try and find a way to deliver the best results I could with the team members I had available. Sit with them, discuss impactful strategies we could deliver with reduced numbers. In other words, create a plan B. Rather than make excuses - they tend to fall on deaf ears

 

 

Edited December 26, 2023 by Holmesy

[dcmk]

1 minute ago, The College Dropout said:

Livra had a pre-season. 
 

Hall isn’t fancied in December.  It’s more than missing pre-season that has him out the team. 

Howe has commented on Hall about why he's not getting much playing time.  That there are areas he needs to work on.  Which are fair enough but him missing all of pre-season, with us and Chelsea, wouldn't have helped him at all.

 

Gordon is a perfect example about what a pre-season can do for a player.  

 

Livra didn't have a pre-season with us.  

[cubaricho]

8 minutes ago, Holmesy said:

As always I’m happy to be corrected 

You have been, multiple times, and yet here we are.  

 

 

Edited December 26, 2023 by cubaricho

[The College Dropout]

1 minute ago, dcmk said:

Howe has commented on Hall about why he's not getting much playing time.  That there are areas he needs to work on.  Which are fair enough but him missing all of pre-season, with us and Chelsea, wouldn't have helped him at all.

 

Gordon is a perfect example about what a pre-season can do for a player.  

 

Livra didn't have a pre-season with us.  

It’s just a weak excuse.  
 

The coach seems to like a small squad or at least only trusts a small amount of his squad and wants to play a high intensity game and attack 4 competitions. That’s probably an unsustainable combo. 

[Holmesy]

3 minutes ago, cubaricho said:

You have been, multiple times, and yet here we are.  

 

 

 

I really haven’t mate. Not once. Some people have offered different opinions but that’s not the same thing.

 

 

 

Edited December 26, 2023 by Holmesy

[dcmk]

4 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

It’s just a weak excuse.  
 

The coach seems to like a small squad or at least only trusts a small amount of his squad and wants to play a high intensity game and attack 4 competitions. That’s probably an unsustainable combo. 

I do somewhat agree.

 

But none of us are privvy to what's happening in training.  So to not use them when desperately needed has been confusing.  Can only assume there is a good reason, and weren't ready / fit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 26, 2023 by dcmk

[Interpolic]

52 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

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. 

 

This is an incredible thing to say like. We've had like 11 players out, most with serious injuries like broken bones. Of course it's bad luck and of course it has stretched his ability to manage the squad to beyond breaking point. 

 

All these posts saying Howe has fucked up the management of the squad and this can't go on in future seasons - he presumably won't have to contend with a whole team out in future seasons and will have a deeper squad. It won't be an issue. 

 

It's got nowt to do with how he's managed the squad and everything to do with a lot of people not being able to handle the downturn in form and wanting to make this into something it isn't. And the way Howe has performed before having to navigate these ridiculous circumstances, you'd expect a bit more leeway tbh. 

 

 

Edited December 26, 2023 by Interpolic

[Jaqen]

9 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

Overall I think Howe is a better manager than Rafa in 2023. 
 

But Rafa rotates this team much more than Howe has from GW1. He’d start Krafth or Hall if he felt the normal starter wasn’t fit enough to start. Rafa prioritised player fitness and sharpness more than immediate fixtures. 
 

Howe is the opposite. He prioritises the next game over absolutely everything. 

 

He was rotating Isak/Wilson, Miggy/Murphy and Longstaff/Tonali a fair bit. Barnes/Gordon rotation had just started when Barnes got injured after 8 minutes in his second start. Played weakened sides in the league cup other than the Chelsea game too. It's not like he's purposely played the same 11 each week recently he's just favoured a kanckered Gordon or Miggy over Ritchie etc which is fair enough really. 

[Sandro Tonali]

58 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. 

Yeah and Howe has to adapt, he has to learn and I'm sure he is. Total different to what he has experienced before but in management you have to fail to improve over and over again. I have faith that he has the mentality to do this

[The College Dropout]

3 minutes ago, dcmk said:

I do somewhat agree.

 

But none of us are privvy to what's happening in training.  So to not use them when desperately needed has been confusing.  Can only assume there is a good reason, and weren't ready / fit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also agree with that. The transfer approach in the summer has to be questioned. I felt we were 2-3 players light of being able to challenge on all fronts. Another CM, RW and RCB. And a starting LB. The emergence of Miley and Anderson kicking on maybe negates CM but the others were needed. 
 

 

Our wingers aren’t top 4 wingers. Our 4 CBs aren’t top 4 quality. Our 3 LBs there’s not a single top 4 LB among them. 

[Kid Icarus]

2 minutes ago, Interpolic said:

 

This is an incredible thing to say like. We've had like 11 players out, most with serious injuries like broken bones. Of course it's bad luck and of course it has stretched his ability to manage the squad to beyond breaking point. 

 

All these posts saying Howe has fucked up the management of the squad and this can't go on in future seasons - he presumably won't have to contend with a whole team out in future seasons and will have a deeper squad. It won't be an issue. 

 

It's got nowt to do with how he's managed the squad and everything to do with a lot of people not being able to handle the downturn in form and wanting to make this into something it isn't. And the way Howe has performed before having to navigate these ridiculous circumstances, you'd expect a bit more leeway tbh. 

 

 

 

14 at one point IIRC. It's without question the worst injury crisis I've seen while supporting the club and the next one on the list (06/07 under Roeder) pales in comparison 

[TRon]

8 minutes ago, dcmk said:

I do somewhat agree.

 

But none of us are privvy to what's happening in training.  So to not use them when desperately needed has been confusing.  Can only assume there is a good reason, and weren't ready / fit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

True, we don't really know what Howe is seeing behind closed doors, so we can only really comment on what's there in front of us. No one here is pretending to be an expert, it's just some amateur opinions being exchanged.

[The College Dropout]

2 minutes ago, Jaqen said:

 

He was rotating Isak/Wilson, Miggy/Murphy and Longstaff/Tonali a fair bit. Barnes/Gordon rotation had just started when Barnes got injured after 8 minutes in his second start. Played weakened sides in the league cup other than the Chelsea game too. It's not like he's purposely played the same 11 each week recently he's just favoured a kanckered Gordon or Miggy over Ritchie etc which is fair enough really. 

That’s 3/4 positions. 
 

What was the plan with Trippier and Bruno? league cup R3 we started Pope and brought on all our best players. Haaland sat on the bench for 90 minutes.  

[sushimonster85]

22 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

 

Howe is the opposite. He prioritises the next game over absolutely everything

 

To be fair to Howe, it's way easier to rotate when the only aim is to not get relegated. Rafa seasons we never really looked in any danger of relegation in the second half of seasons. 

[huss9]

take them away to saudi for a few days in january.

get away from the cold and the negativity.

[Jonas]

`100% behind him.

 

Just thought it worth reiterating

[St. Maximin]

On the subject of Rafa, it might seem negative but I wonder if he could have experimented with the 3 CBs and WBs the odd match like Rafa did. Not his fault we had an injury crisis, but the same midfielders wasn’t working. Meanwhile we still had a few defensive options on the bench - sure Dummett/Krafth/Burn/Manquillo/Ritchie could have slotted in here and there…

[The College Dropout]

5 minutes ago, sushimonster85 said:

 

To be fair to Howe, it's way easier to rotate when the only aim is to not get relegated. Rafa seasons we never really looked in any danger of relegation in the second half of seasons. 

Agreed. But I think he did that at Liverpool in his prime too. He was a horses for courses manager. 
 

https://syndication.bleacherreport.com/amp/66639-is-rafael-benitezs-rotation-policy-still-hurting-liverpool.amp.html

 

Howe is the same horses for all courses typically.  
 

Like I said. Howe is a better manager at this time. I don’t want Rafa back. But Howe has contributed to this predicament. 

 

 

Edited December 26, 2023 by The College Dropout

[Yorkie]

7 minutes ago, Kid Icarus said:

14 at one point IIRC. It's without question the worst injury crisis I've seen while supporting the club and the next one on the list (06/07 under Roeder) pales in comparison 

 

Trying to find the peak issue then. I think it's:

 

Given, Babayaro, Moore, Emre, N'Zogbia, Luque, Owen, Ameobi

 

... in late Jan '07. We still had Solano, Dyer and Martins to see us through. Likes of Milner and Parker too.