Eddie Howe

[Myleftboot]

In a way I can see our ‘train as we play’ and ‘intensity is our identity’ possibly catching up with us.

[Geordie Ahmed]

Just now, Zero said:

I would go further and say he should play youngsters like Alex Murphy or Sanusi, if he still prefers the team to play high intensity pressing football. You need fresh players to carry out your tactics.

 

Another approach is to change to plan B, if any

 

Sanusi is 16 years old and has pretty much just played youth football, he isn't going to just get chucked in and rightly so 

[madras]

8 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

He could definitely get back sharper than he does now. Or are you suggesting that he’s actually not fatigued?
 

And it keeps happening.  Why haven’t we changed our midfield setup? 

I'm not sure he can, often with fatigue it's the sharpness rather than the top speed. 

 

And why haven't we changed the midfield set up ? You're right, I'd put Willock and Tonali straight in.

[madras]

2 minutes ago, Geordie Ahmed said:

Sanusi is 16 years old and has pretty much just played youth football, he isn't going to just get chucked in and rightly so 

And only just seems to have come to terms with that level judging by the Euro games.

[Zero]

2 minutes ago, Geordie Ahmed said:

Sanusi is 16 years old and has pretty much just played youth football, he isn't going to just get chucked in and rightly so 

Then change the approach to plan B. I am fine with that. Just don’t continue the plan A when we don’t have the fresh players to carry it out anymore

[Geordie Ahmed]

1 minute ago, Zero said:

Then change the approach to plan B. I am fine with that. Just don’t continue the plan A when we don’t have the fresh players to carry it out anymore

 

I think that's a reasonable ask, I personally can understand why Howe is sticking with his primary way of playing and feel long term it's the best approach

 

I just don't think saying we should chuck kids that are clearly not ready just to give some players a rest is the right solution, it won't help the team and it will just damage any of these kids development

 

When these youngsters are ready, they'll be given their opportunity, just like Miley was (though he's no doubt ended up having to play way more than expected)

[Ketsbaia]

Gutted that this is all getting to Howe.

 

Questionable tactics, increasingly bizarre decision-making, blind loyalty..... there's obviously a big asterisk next to all this due to injuries but I thought he was more adaptable and competent than this.

[The College Dropout]

6 minutes ago, Yorkie said:

Gordon for a while looked like our only hope of getting something in the second half. He was the out-ball and he also provided a very good assist for the equaliser. If we had any hope of getting anything from the game then I think he had to play the full 90 again, sadly, such is the situation. 

In any game to game scenario - Gordon is our most dangerous winger. It’s always best in a single game situation to play him. 
 

Zoom out a bit. It’s best he gets enough rest to play close to his best for as long as he can. That means NOT playing every single game and taking a short term hit for long term performance. 
 

When I say naivety I’m including the transfer committee.  I look at Villa and think this is a club that wants to attack the league and Conference. So they prioritised squad. Zaniolo, Lenglet even Tielemans maybe. Not signed to necessarily start but signed with an intention of being important squad members in congested fixtures. We’ve been naive to attack all competitions, with a thin squad with our style of play.  The 2 mid 20s players great but Howe was reluctant to use the young boys. And left thin elsewhere. To do all that we needed 3 more bodies and a left back Howe would use. 

[The College Dropout]

7 minutes ago, madras said:

I'm not sure he can, often with fatigue it's the sharpness rather than the top speed. 

 

And why haven't we changed the midfield set up ? You're right, I'd put Willock and Tonali straight in.

Fatigue impacts top speed, mental sharpness and ability to maintain intensity/pace of running and limits the total running amount. 
 

Aye you’re right. There’s no way we could not have massive gaps in midfield without Willock and Tonali. There’s simply nothing Howe could do to stop that.  Foden brace and assist coming up. 

[madras]

31 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

Fatigue impacts top speed, mental sharpness and ability to maintain intensity/pace of running and limits the total running amount. 
 

Aye you’re right. There’s no way we could not have massive gaps in midfield without Willock and Tonali. There’s simply nothing Howe could do to stop that.  Foden brace and assist coming up. 

Longstaff and Joelinton both having to start when needing eased back, no Anderson and now the answer is putting Ritchie in for a game or two.

 

However, yesterday I'd have been tempted to go 442 given what we had, extra body in  midfield and some help for Isak whether it be Gordon or Joelinton up top, However (again) were talking top level sport and just flipping tactics with no notice is probably a tad different to football manager or saying what I'd do when we don't face the consequences.

[McDog]

1 hour ago, Wandy said:

 

Already conceded that point a few pages back bud. 

 

 

Ah, it was the highlighted part that threw me. Unless you backtracked later than I quoted and I missed it. Either way, sad times and we have to get better.

[Stifler]

1 hour ago, Geordie Ahmed said:

Sanusi is 16 years old and has pretty much just played youth football, he isn't going to just get chucked in and rightly so 

What, you mean like Miley 2 months ago?

[Geordie Ahmed]

3 minutes ago, Stifler said:

What, you mean like Miley 2 months ago?

Miley played PL2 football last season and stood out, as a result he was training with the first team and didn't look out of place (this follows the season before where he played over 20 times for the U18's, at the age of 15)

 

Hence, he was given his debut last season away to Chelsea and then taken to the US where he got decent minutes and then Howe told everyone he isn't going out on loan as he's very much part of the first team squad 

 

So, no not like Miley 2 months ago 

[Kanji]

Needs to fix the counter attacking vulnerability ASAP. Needs to sign a 6 and he needs to give minutes to Krafth and Hall. 

[Stottie]

1 hour ago, Myleftboot said:

In a way I can see our ‘train as we play’ and ‘intensity is our identity’ possibly catching up with us.

 

Have any of the players been injured in training? Murphy was a freak fall in a match, Pope was an innocent dive for a blocked shot, Barnes was a toe injury when not fatigued, ....

 

It is key to manage injury prone players like Wilson, but I don't think that applies to most of the lads.

[HaydnNUFC]

13 minutes ago, Kanji said:

Needs to fix the counter attacking vulnerability ASAP. Needs to sign a 6 and he needs to give minutes to Krafth and Hall. 

 

Need a RW as well. Needed one for years now tbh.

[timeEd32]

2 hours ago, Wullie said:

Liverpool brought on Jota, Gakpo, Gravenberch and Mac Allister. Harvey Elliott didn't get on. They have injuries too, Matip, Robertson, Tsimikas, Thiago. Both their quality left backs are fucked and they still have Joe Gomez to play there.

 

That's what rotation is meant to look like when you play a CL campaign, two elite XIs plus cover even for them. We're squabbling over whether Lewis Hall and Matt Ritchie should have been given an extra 20 minutes, it's deckchairs on the Titanic stuff.

 

The problem for any club that qualifies out of the blue like we did is that all the other clubs in it, especially in England, have built CL capable squads up over a decade. FFP stops us doing that in one go or even several.

 

Amen. I know this is not new information, but I feel like people have lost some perspective on where we sit largely due to how quickly we closed the gap in the table last season and our very rich owners.

• Our wages are the 9th highest in the Premier League, behind the six you'd expect plus Villa and West Ham.
  • We are as close to Everton in 10th as we are to West Ham.
  • Our wages are about £50m higher than Sheffield United's (19th), which is roughly the same gap from us to Liverpool. Chelsea's are another £16m higher from there and then Arsenal takes it another £16m higher. The Manchester clubs are another £35m+ above them.
• Our last officially reported revenue was less than the wages paid by the Manchester clubs. Even with the increases over the last couple years Manchester United's and Manchester City's wages are still closer to our revenue than our wages. The gap is astronomical.
• There are ~42 players in the Premier League on higher wages than Bruno, our highest paid player.
  • There are another ~23 before our next highest paid (Isak)
  • That means you can create almost six starting XI's of the highest paid players and we'd only have one player included.
• We have gotten 450 or less league minutes from Tonali, Targett (despite Burn being injured), Willock, Murphy, and Anderson. Just those players account for 21% of our wages and as everyone knows that is far from the end of our injury problems.

 

All of the above is not to absolve Eddie of any blame. He's made some mistakes and I think he'd be the first to recognize that. But so much of the angst in this thread and elsewhere seems driven by ballooning expectations. We overachieved last season based on our revenue, wages, talent, and depth, plus a very good injury record. We are now (currently) underachieving in the midst of a horrific injury record and compounding fatigue problems (and we were still moments from the CL knockout round and a second straight LC semifinal). It's frustrating and the derby is huge, but some patience is in order.

[Ronaldo]

Great post timeEd and quite right. I’ve said it before but we’re too emotional as a fanbase and, particularly, those of us who grew up, like I did, in the Keegan years are predisposed to idealism. We don’t want to buy superstar-inspired success; we want a team of uniquely talented relatable characters that functions under a likeable, forward-thinking idiosyncratic manger who grows with us. A lot of us thought we were already there and evidently (though we have many of the raw ingredients) we are not, and we’re frustrated.

 

5 points from 10 games away from home is very difficult to defend. As abysmal as we’ve been on the road, results and performances, I’d find it a lot easier to brush it off as part of the journey etc if I had confidence that the ownership will give this time. It’s a great irony that for well over a decade we all longed for a regime that wouldn’t tolerate managerial failure / mediocrity and now a lot of us fear impatience or impulsiveness from the top.

[Taylor Swift]

Liverpool had a lot of injuries last year and couldn’t make up the gap when their players got back. Even with Klopp, they finished outside the CL spots. Then, they spent heavily and are now top. 
 

I hope Howe gets the same chance. Let’s see if we can get on a run when everyone’s fit, even if we finish outside the CL spots. 

[Groundhog63]

8 hours ago, Wullie said:

Liverpool brought on Jota, Gakpo, Gravenberch and Mac Allister. Harvey Elliott didn't get on. They have injuries too, Matip, Robertson, Tsimikas, Thiago. Both their quality left backs are fucked and they still have Joe Gomez to play there.

 

That's what rotation is meant to look like when you play a CL campaign, two elite XIs plus cover even for them. We're squabbling over whether Lewis Hall and Matt Ritchie should have been given an extra 20 minutes, it's deckchairs on the Titanic stuff.

 

The problem for any club that qualifies out of the blue like we did is that all the other clubs in it, especially in England, have built CL capable squads up over a decade. FFP stops us doing that in one go or even several.

 

4 hours ago, timeEd32 said:

 

Amen. I know this is not new information, but I feel like people have lost some perspective on where we sit largely due to how quickly we closed the gap in the table last season and our very rich owners.

• Our wages are the 9th highest in the Premier League, behind the six you'd expect plus Villa and West Ham.
  • We are as close to Everton in 10th as we are to West Ham.
  • Our wages are about £50m higher than Sheffield United's (19th), which is roughly the same gap from us to Liverpool. Chelsea's are another £16m higher from there and then Arsenal takes it another £16m higher. The Manchester clubs are another £35m+ above them.
• Our last officially reported revenue was less than the wages paid by the Manchester clubs. Even with the increases over the last couple years Manchester United's and Manchester City's wages are still closer to our revenue than our wages. The gap is astronomical.
• There are ~42 players in the Premier League on higher wages than Bruno, our highest paid player.
  • There are another ~23 before our next highest paid (Isak)
  • That means you can create almost six starting XI's of the highest paid players and we'd only have one player included.
• We have gotten 450 or less league minutes from Tonali, Targett (despite Burn being injured), Willock, Murphy, and Anderson. Just those players account for 21% of our wages and as everyone knows that is far from the end of our injury problems.

 

All of the above is not to absolve Eddie of any blame. He's made some mistakes and I think he'd be the first to recognize that. But so much of the angst in this thread and elsewhere seems driven by ballooning expectations. We overachieved last season based on our revenue, wages, talent, and depth, plus a very good injury record. We are now (currently) underachieving in the midst of a horrific injury record and compounding fatigue problems (and we were still moments from the CL knockout round and a second straight LC semifinal). It's frustrating and the derby is huge, but some patience is in order.

 

What these guys said ???

[Orphanage]

5 hours ago, Stottie said:

 

Have any of the players been injured in training? Murphy was a freak fall in a match, Pope was an innocent dive for a blocked shot, Barnes was a toe injury when not fatigued, ....

 

It is key to manage injury prone players like Wilson, but I don't think that applies to most of the lads.

Head physios just left

[TheBrownBottle]

23 minutes ago, Orphanage said:

Head physios just left

Yeah, just saw that.  An Ashworth appointment.

 

There is something very wrong in that dept at the moment.  Hopefully this is the beginning of getting it fixed. 

[Guest reefatoon]

9 hours ago, The Prophet said:

 

1) Other than Sheffield United, when has he had the opportunity to do this and not taken it?

2) With Tonali banned, Willock, Longstaff and Joelinton in and out of the side due to injury, along with general fatigue in thr ranks. I'm not really sure how a midfield four helps.

He thinks he knows it all but he’s fucking clueless  I wouldn’t even waste your time trying to talk sense to the moron.

[Guest reefatoon]

9 hours ago, Matt1892 said:

It seems like he has lost the support of the players in terms of them having discipline in following his tactics, which could be due to him having no plan B and continuing to run people in to the ground despite the small group of players fit.

 

7 losses in 8 could easily be 10 losses in 11 come the end of the month, I don’t see how he survives that if it does happen.

[Wallsendmag]

My main issue, other than the obvious results and performances is that we don't appear to have any style of play or game plan anymore apart from let the opposition have the ball and hope they've left their shooting boots at home.

 

Everything that defined our team last season has gone. The high press, high intensity, shithousing, the super organised defence, the never say die attitude. We seem to have lost everything.

 

We're 2nd bottom of the league on away form. 19th out of 20! It's pitiful.