Eddie Howe

[The College Dropout]

Just now, STM said:

 

 

Here lies the problem. Again, I mean this in the most respectful way possible but if Howe takes your reccomended course and loses on the back of it, you are the first person to be critical post match. You won't make any mitigation for having players missing. 

 

You would hammer him for losing and so would plenty of others.

No i'm not. Like I said, i didn't think it was possible to successfully attack 4 competitions with our squad. I advocated resting players even against Chelsea at the QF stage. I didn't see how we could play our strongest team there, and then win the more winnable games in the league. And we didn't  

As you say - I can't have it both ways. You either rest some players, risk a bad result or two in the hopes you win many more matches down the line. Considering the small squad and injuries - that is the only sensible option to me. Obviously Howe thought otherwise.

 

I am the first to put my hands up if Howe's plan worked. I didn't criticise him after the Chelsea result.. because it almost worked and the draw would've been kind. It would've been worth losing the next couple in the league IMO which I think it almost guaranteed.

[STM]

1 minute ago, The College Dropout said:

No i'm not. Like I said, i didn't think it was possible to successfully attack 4 competitions with our squad. I advocated resting players even against Chelsea at the QF stage. I didn't see how we could play our strongest team there, and then win the more winnable games in the league. And we didn't  

As you say - I can't have it both ways. You either rest some players, risk a bad result or two in the hopes you win many more matches down the line. Considering the small squad and injuries - that is the only sensible option to me. Obviously Howe thought otherwise.

 

I am the first to put my hands up if Howe's plan worked. I didn't criticise him after the Chelsea result.. because it almost worked and the draw would've been kind. It would've been worth losing the next couple in the league IMO which I think it almost guaranteed.

 

Well OK, you've made your point, it's a fair one. Let's hope the injury situation improves, so that we don't need this discussion again.

[Holmesy]

1 hour ago, STM said:

 

Putting up with absolute weapons on message boards trying to tell him how to do a job which he knows much more about is a downside though. 

True, but small price to pay for financial freedom for the rest of your life.

 

And also, it's very easy to discount how much football fans know about the game of football. Just because we've never played it at professional level doesn't mean we know nothing. There are plenty of professional managers who have never played the game at senior level but have had successful careers. And some that have played at the highest level and know fuck all eg. Steve Bruce. 

Some lad got a professional manager job after doing well on Football Manager FFS! We’re not talking about rocket science here. 
 

Do we know how to set up a training session to best instil a style of play into a team? No.

Do we know how to coach individual players to improve certain aspects of their play? Probably not.

Eddie Howe 100% knows infinitely more about these things than us.

 

Can we spot certain things that consistently aren't working tactically and personnel that aren't performing? Yes, and they are valid observations. What we generally don't take into account is maybe the manager doesn't want to drop a player to keep his morale high, maybe he wants to play him into form etc. Maybe he just has an ultimate preference for a natural left footer in left sided defensive roles or maybe he just really likes certain players as people. These are the bits we fans generally don't take into consideration, but simply discounting how much we know about the game is generalist lazy bullshit - exactly the kind of crap you’d expect to be peddled by the likes of Ray ‘party’ Parlour and other ‘I played the game, therefore I know more than you’ morons. 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 9 by Holmesy

[The Prophet]

1 hour ago, STM said:

 

While this a perfectly sensible take... If its a game where we are drawing or winning and the result goes south because we've brought on some young kid... presumably everyone would give Howe loads of leeway?

 

There are quite a few disingenuous fans trying the old "I would have understood if we lost" patter. No they wouldn't, they would have destroyed him post match.

 

There's also an underlying assumption that sticking the kids in to rotate a few would have given them sufficient rest and recuperation and seen an uptick in results. 

[TRon]

22 minutes ago, The Prophet said:

 

There's also an underlying assumption that sticking the kids in to rotate a few would have given them sufficient rest and recuperation and seen an uptick in results. 

 

Well that was my argument, less about getting the result, more about protecting our actual match winners.

[The Prophet]

6 minutes ago, TRon said:

 

Well that was my argument, less about getting the result, more about protecting our actual match winners.

 

It's an alternative worthy of debate, but there's absolutely no guarantee it's a successful one or that things would pan out much differently to how they have.

[catlover24]

About the press conference l, just want to say that there’s a difference between being “the biggest fan of Tino” to having the biggest erection for Dan Burn.

[TRon]

3 minutes ago, The Prophet said:

 

It's an alternative worthy of debate, but there's absolutely no guarantee it's a successful one or that things would pan out much differently to how they have.

 

It's just an opinion, but I always prefer resting players and losing the odd game than risking a player breaking down for a longer period. Or making the subs a bit earlier for the same reason. As TCD already pointed out, we ended up losing most of those games anyway.

[Weezertron]

2 hours ago, STM said:

 

Putting up with absolute weapons on message boards trying to tell him how to do a job which he knows much more about is a downside though. 

Not sure he's a member. 

[timeEd32]

17 minutes ago, TRon said:

 

It's just an opinion, but I always prefer resting players and losing the odd game than risking a player breaking down for a longer period. Or making the subs a bit earlier for the same reason. As TCD already pointed out, we ended up losing most of those games anyway.

 

I've said this before, but this is the other problem with a lot of this. The margins are so fine.

 

The week we ran ourselves into the ground we were literally three minutes away from one of our most famous wins ever and we'd almost certainly still be in Europe had we won that game. Someone will respond saying they should have scored 3 or 4, but I don't really care. By hook or by crook we had three points until an awfully questionable penalty.

 

Then we were 30 minutes away from staying in the Champions League anyway, with 20 minutes left prevented from re-taking the lead by a spectacular save that still needed help from the crossbar, and then less than 10 minutes from the Europa League. Maybe that goes differently had we rested against Man United, Everton, or Spurs but we have no idea. And we almost did it anyway.

 

And then @The College Dropout thinks we should have rested in the LC and I'm pretty sure said this without the benefit of hindsight. It's a perfectly reasonable stance. But again we were two minutes from another LC semifinal before an individual error. Very possible we'd be planning another trip to Wembley had that not happened.

 

The fact that all of this went the wrong way makes everything else - Everton, Spurs, Luton, Forest - seem far worse. While not ideal, disappointing league performances would be a lot easier to take with Wembley and/or European knockouts on the horizon.

[TRon]

18 hours ago, timeEd32 said:

 

I've said this before, but this is the other problem with a lot of this. The margins are so fine.

 

The week we ran ourselves into the ground we were literally three minutes away from one of our most famous wins ever and we'd almost certainly still be in Europe had we won that game. Someone will respond saying they should have scored 3 or 4, but I don't really care. By hook or by crook we had three points until an awfully questionable penalty.

 

Then we were 30 minutes away from staying in the Champions League anyway, with 20 minutes left prevented from re-taking the lead by a spectacular save that still needed help from the crossbar, and then less than 10 minutes from the Europa League. Maybe that goes differently had we rested against Man United, Everton, or Spurs but we have no idea. And we almost did it anyway.

 

And then @The College Dropout thinks we should have rested in the LC and I'm pretty sure said this without the benefit of hindsight. It's a perfectly reasonable stance. But again we were two minutes from another LC semifinal before an individual error. Very possible we'd be planning another trip to Wembley had that not happened.

 

The fact that all of this went the wrong way makes everything else - Everton, Spurs, Luton, Forest - seem far worse. While not ideal, disappointing league performances would be a lot easier to take with Wembley and/or European knockouts on the horizon.

 

My recollection in those games was that we performed pretty well for about 75 mins then we started flagging visibly. I can understand that we would be reluctant to change from a winning position, but sometimes you can see some players are out on their feet and that's when you have to make some tough decisions. The PSG game, I agree we were robbed but in some of the others I just think we ran out of legs. Having two keepers on the bench isn't  going to solve that.

[Kanj]

A season of tremendous learning experiences for Howe, his staff, and the club. At this point he’s just got to do the best he can with the injured squad to maximize the league position and attack the FA cup. Come end of season, I imagine a massive deep dive review will occur and hopefully, reflection and lessons learned will lead to change and growth in how we approach next season and the fixture congestion. 
 

I’ll back the brilliant coach we have 100%, even if hindsight and personal opinion differ from what he’s doing. 

[The College Dropout]

55 minutes ago, TRon said:

 

My recollection in those games was that we performed pretty well for about 75 mins then we started flagging visibly. I can understand that we would be reluctant to change from a winning position, but sometimes you can see some players are out on their feet and that's when you have to make some tough decisions. The PSG game, I agree we were robbed but in some of the others I just think we ran out of legs. Having two keepers on the bench isn't  going to solve that.

We were robbed by a bad decision. But the second half we were battered. We could have had no complaints if we conceded 4 or 5.  Pope was magnificent and PSG were awful in front of goal.  But we had no control, defence was committed but porous. Chelsea was the same. 
 

Howe just sits on his hands and hopes for the best. It’s infuriating to watch I’ll be honest.  Wolves was the same for 20-25 minutes. Burn just on toast. Trippier on toast.  Livra sitting in the bench. Time and again he does nothing until we concede.  
 

I wish he was just a little more proactive 

[Gawalls]

23 hours ago, STM said:

 

While this a perfectly sensible take... If its a game where we are drawing or winning and the result goes south because we've brought on some young kid... presumably everyone would give Howe loads of leeway?

 

There are quite a few disingenuous fans trying the old "I would have understood if we lost" patter. No they wouldn't, they would have destroyed him post match.

And games like the sheff Utd game? He waited until we were 6-0 up to take off trippier, Bruno and Wilson with Bruno not coming off until the 81st minute (and we were actually 7-0 up at that point).  They had 4 yellow cards so weren’t holding back either.

[Monters]

1 hour ago, The College Dropout said:

We were robbed by a bad decision. But the second half we were battered. We could have had no complaints if we conceded 4 or 5.  Pope was magnificent and PSG were awful in front of goal.  But we had no control, defence was committed but porous. Chelsea was the same. 
 

Howe just sits on his hands and hopes for the best. It’s infuriating to watch I’ll be honest.  Wolves was the same for 20-25 minutes. Burn just on toast. Trippier on toast.  Livra sitting in the bench. Time and again he does nothing until we concede.  
 

I wish he was just a little more proactive 

The principle is fine but who comes on? 
 

Like a lot of people I don’t understand the Hall situation but at times this season there was no one else. 
 

If I’m missing an academy / U23 product then please let me know but their results don’t suggest good sides filled with prospects. 

[madras]

6 minutes ago, Monters said:

The principle is fine but who comes on? 
 

Like a lot of people I don’t understand the Hall situation but at times this season there was no one else. 
 

If I’m missing an academy / U23 product then please let me know but their results don’t suggest good sides filled with prospects. 

Re Hall, I think they see him as a very good prospect but not sure as to where. From what I've seen of him so far he looks more of a midfielder than defender.

[STM]

My gaffer 

[David Edgar]

Howe, you're a fucking idiot.

[Vinny Green Balls]

2 minutes ago, David Edgar said:

Howe, you're a fucking idiot.

says the resident dipshit

[Newcastle Fan]

Its almost like he wants to be off at the end of the season.

[Ikon]

Poor from Howe again unfortunately. Overall we have looked good at times. 

[Pilko]

Admire his loyalty to Burn but it's costing us too much. He's not learning from what's happened in past games and it's a worry.

 

Livramento must wonder what the fuck he has to do to start a game.

[thomas]

On 09/02/2024 at 10:04, mofo said:

 

[catlover24]

Is he auditioning for the England job?

[Beren]

I'd not be devastated if he replaced Southgate if I'm honest. Last season was a 9/10 performance. This year is closer to 5/10.