Eddie Howe

[AyeDubbleYoo]

Barnes has generally been fine apart from last night. Nothing to see here.

[vicente_14]

Think we need a reset/reboot in the summer. I know we have had a crazy amount of injuries but for weeks we have looked sluggish, slow, very very slow, lacking athleticism, lacking aggression, the press is fading, the shithousing has vanished, and we just seem so pedestrian and predictable, and as a result, confidence seems to have drained, we either need a new tactical plan, or to be absolutely ruthless and move players on (potentially Trippier, Longstaff, Murphy, Wilson, Lascelles, Ritchie, Dummett, Targett) to facilitate 5/6 new signings and get some needed pace and energy into the side. Ideally some decent free transfers to pad out the incomings and 2/3 big signings, and realistically think we need a Left Back, a Central Defender, a Central Midfielder and a Striker at an absolute minimum.

I dont want to hide behind injuries as it's part of the game and all teams have them, but the absence of Pope and Joelinton is huge. Think Pope really commands and leads at that back and brings a calming influence to those in front of him, and Joelinton's high energy and aggression really set the tone for others to follow. I'd also add, Batman looks way short of full fitness, Isak for all his quality constantly looks like a man rushed back too soon (this highlights a poorly assembled squad, we need options and sadly Wilson seems forever broken), and Barnes needs time, think he will be a big player next season. 

All that being said, Eddie has taken us a long way in a short space of time, and hopefully takes us a long way further.

[The College Dropout]

38 minutes ago, Theregulars said:

It’s so difficult to tell though, surely? If they knew about Tonali in advance then I agree; but otherwise there’s a very reasonable case for signing Tonali, Barnes and Tino. Less of a case for Hall IMO and much less of a case for not signing a striker, but I still think on balance our strategy was logical.

Tonali - can argue all day about if they should've known. Spending so much money on one player is always a massive risk. 

Barnes - think we should've got a creative RW.  Still expect to be a good signing.

Tino - great signing on paper.. needed more buy-in from the manager IMO

Hall - well..

 

There's lots of ways the window could've gone. Could've tried spreading funds more. 

 

30 minutes ago, Shearergol said:

 

You keep saying this. We have the 9th highest according to some sources and 10th according to others. Where's your data from?

Mine is Kieran Maguire. Look him up on X. I've shared the precise post elsewhere on the board.

 

He uses clubs latest public financial accounts. Most haven't been released for 2023.

 

What's your source?

 

 

Edited February 28, 2024 by The College Dropout

[McCormick]

Tempted to quote that to piss off the admins but I don’t want a ban on my squeaky clean record.

[Matt1892]

The biggest issue at the moment is that there are no signs of turning it around, even after a good display or result we have not been able to build any momentum off the back of it, which is the big worry.

 

Maybe the international break after the Chelsea game will give us a chance to reset, we are stumbling along at the moment and we play like a bottom half Premier League team with no tactics or ideas.

 

If you think back to last season the patterns we put together down the right between Trippier, Bruno and Almiron that pulled the opposition all over the place, these are long gone and instead we play like Man Utd under Ten Hag now, where we appear to have no real game plan on how we are going to open up the opposition.

 

I don’t know what the answer is and I don’t want us to make any rash decision. However, if these inconsistent performances go on until the end of the season then a decision is going to have to be made, as we don’t want to be changing manager midway through the following season.

 

The whole issue with Ashworth resigning complicates the situation even more.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

He gets all of next season no matter what. Making any decision based on having no players available would be absolutely crazy. 

 

Another transfer window, another pre-season and another season is the absolute minimum. 

[gbandit]

I agree, certainly until well into the second half of next season. As frustrating as this season has been there are still very few issues you can square back to Eddie. The only thing that I remain completely baffled by is the lack of minutes for Tino. Almost everything else can be excused based on injuries and a depleted squad 

[mighty__mag]

 

I watched this last week, it was interesting from about 3:15 into the interview, listening to Souness, and then Pardew Echo about how the local media up here behave, the agenda they have, and how they choose to go with pessimism, and stir up situations. I know these two aren't exactly everyone's choices to listen to or even agree with, however, they both did the job, and they each can only say their honest view on situations theyve experienced with local press. I've watched Eddie Howe recently in press conferences and he equally receives this pathetic pessimistic approach from mainly the likes of Edwards, Hope, occasionally the others, only last night, Howe has to remind Luke Edwards, firstly by laughing at him, and then saying that's putting quite a negative spin on it.

 

 

From 4:53 Edwards, being Edwards.

 

Local press here are total pricks!

 

 

Edited February 28, 2024 by mighty__mag

[Anderson]

3 minutes ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

He gets all of next season no matter what.

Still massively behind him, but that’s mental. This season was always going to be a gimme for him in my mind, was always going to be too much too soon, but he needs to start next season strongly or he’ll be in trouble.

[The College Dropout]

6 minutes ago, Matt1892 said:

The biggest issue at the moment is that there are no signs of turning it around, even after a good display or result we have not been able to build any momentum off the back of it, which is the big worry.

 

Maybe the international break after the Chelsea game will give us a chance to reset, we are stumbling along at the moment and we play like a bottom half Premier League team with no tactics or ideas.

 

If you think back to last season the patterns we put together down the right between Trippier, Bruno and Almiron that pulled the opposition all over the place, these are long gone and instead we play like Man Utd under Ten Hag now, where we appear to have no real game plan on how we are going to open up the opposition.

 

I don’t know what the answer is and I don’t want us to make any rash decision. However, if these inconsistent performances go on until the end of the season then a decision is going to have to be made, as we don’t want to be changing manager midway through the following season.

 

The whole issue with Ashworth resigning complicates the situation even more.

I think the players came up with that by themselves. I've heard Neville & Keane say they didn't practice those in training, the players learnt each others game and developed it themselves. Obviously Ferguson had a style he wanted to play but he wasn't instructive the way Guardiola or even a Rafa seems to have been. Think Howe might be similarish in that regard.

 

I look at Spurs or Brighton and I think their managers practice that a lot. When players are missing - the patterns are still v. similar (and both have had bad injuries). Ours is a bit more dependent on personnel. Give it Bruno, run forward.

[Dokko]

3 minutes ago, Anderson said:

Still massively behind him, but that’s mental. This season was always going to be a gimme for him in my mind, was always going to be too much too soon, but he needs to start next season strongly or he’ll be in trouble.

 

If we repeat this seasons performances and we're halfway through then he'll be rightly jettisoned, especially if we're highly active in the transfer market.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if the PIF side are already putting pressure on to source options. 

[mouldy_uk]

If our injuries are under control and he’s fully backed in the summer window, then I’m pretty sure the pressure will be fully on for a Champions League slot next season. If we are off the pace early doors and there isn’t a good reason, then I can’t imagine the Saudi’s not being ruthless and looking for a new manager. 
 

I love the guy and cant think of a better person to have success with, however, like many, I have those niggling doubts whether  he really has what it takes to transform us into a consistent top of the table team. 

[Hanshithispantz]

Dan Burn let slip the 'phase of play' they practiced a while back, said something along the lines of "was that routine 3?" before Howe cut him off. It looked like a standard pass and move to the untrained eye, which we all have.

 

My guess would be that we spend a significant ammount of time working on patterns of play, hence our ease of making it into the opponents box when on form (our 'touches in opponents box' was always really high, along with our xG).

 

 

Edited February 28, 2024 by Hanshithispantz

[The College Dropout]

What does the start of next season mean?

[The College Dropout]

6 minutes ago, Hanshithispantz said:

Dan Burn let slip the 'phase of play' they practiced a while back, said something along the lines of "was that routine 3?" before Howe cut him off.

 

My guess would be that we spend a significant ammount of time working on patterns of play, hence our ease of making it into the opponents box when on form (our 'touches in opponents box' was always really high, along with our xG).

Sounds like he was asking should we setup 3-2 in build-up. That's high-level stuff that's obvious to the untrained eye. If we have been coached defined patterns of play in possession - we would recognise them no matter who is playing. And some of them we do see e.g. the 8's pushing right up and supporting the striker. Our out of possession approach and patterns are obvious too.

 

 

Edited February 28, 2024 by The College Dropout

[Erikse]

59 minutes ago, Yorkie said:

 

I think it's absolute nonsense saying there's no in-between. I think the majority take the view that he's doing an admirable job under difficult circumstances but isn't without errors (that being the very definition of 'in-between'), then a small minority taking the obscene view that the team is a disgrace and he needs sacking. I routinely defend Howe but I don't see it as making excuses at all. 

 

"You can't criticise Howe round 'ere fnar fnar" is being leveled at people calling out those chatting shit comparing him to Bruce and/or saying his time's up.

 

Fair enough, sometimes it's taken too far. I think both ends of the spectrum is represented here though. Some will also make exuses for everything and pretty much never concede that he has made a mistake.

[Guest]

Big problem we've had is we've got players coming back needing time to regain sharpness (Isak, Willock, Barnes, Murphy etc), being added to players who've been flogged because there's been no alternatives for so long (Bruno, Longstaff, Gordon, Almiron, etc).

 

You're still having to play the knackered batch more than you want, because the first batch aren't 100%, but you're having to bring the first lot in sooner than what's ideal because the knackered batch need a bit help around them.

 

Think we just need to limp home as best we can, get as high up the league/far in the cup as physically possible, then regroup ready for August fully fresh. 

 

 

Edited February 28, 2024 by Optimistic Nut

[Dokko]

1 minute ago, mouldy_uk said:

If our injuries are under control and he’s fully backed in the summer window, then I’m pretty sure the pressure will be fully on for a Champions League slot next season. If we are off the pace early doors and there isn’t a good reason, then I can’t imagine the Saudi’s not being ruthless and looking for a new manager. 
 

I love the guy and cant think of a better person to have success with, however, like many, I have those niggling doubts whether  he really has what it takes to transform us into a consistent top of the table team. 

 

It's performances rather than position. It breeds confidence and feel good. All that's out the window atm. If we're performing well with an optimistic future, then that'll be enough. We've seen he can ride a wave, this is the test of coming back from the crash. He couldn't turn it around at Bournemouth and looked spent. He's not there with us, he's still fighting, but his team doesn't look interested, with zero organisation.

 

Also, sometimes a manager just stops working for a team, leaves and goes on to do well somewhere else. Sometimes clubs and them need a change as do the players.

 

I don't know what the answer is, no one can really say why everything has fell apart so quickly, and no one can safely say he can turn it around or when he'll get it all back on track. We have to remember this is the highest he's been. 1 season of Europe, no trophies. It's all new territory with him, but I expected him to learn on the job, but it's just getting worse.

 

I'm glad we beat the mackems. I said it's the only thing I wanted this season and he can do what he wants and I'm still there, it's just sad now this is still going on and I'm still seeing fatigue from 6 games being used as an excuse.  

[RS]

The constant huge gap between midfield and defence not being addressed is a massive concern. We look visibly slower at closing down than we were at the beginning of the season as well. 
I wonder  if Howe drops Barnes (or even livramento) in to close the gap that encourages the opposition to run straight through midfield at us. He needs to do something to resolve this obvious issue

[Shadow Puppets]

13 hours ago, The College Dropout said:

We don’t look a well coached side. 

You single-handedly make me dislike Obama.

[The College Dropout]

5 minutes ago, Shadow Puppets said:

You single-handedly make me dislike Obama.

I despise him.

 

But my point is valid. I don't think the players have the physicality or mentality atm to carry out what they have been coached to do. Again, that is partly down to Howe to achieve,.

 

 

Edited February 28, 2024 by The College Dropout

[AyeDubbleYoo]

1 minute ago, The College Dropout said:

I despise him.

Another weird opinion

[Shadow Puppets]

5 minutes ago, Dokko said:

 

It's performances rather than position. It breeds confidence and feel good. All that's out the window atm. If we're performing well with an optimistic future, then that'll be enough. We've seen he can ride a wave, this is the test of coming back from the crash. He couldn't turn it around at Bournemouth and looked spent. He's not there with us, he's still fighting, but his team doesn't look interested, with zero organisation.

 

Also, sometimes a manager just stops working for a team, leaves and goes on to do well somewhere else. Sometimes clubs and them need a change as do the players.

 

I don't know what the answer is, no one can really say why everything has fell apart so quickly, and no one can safely say he can turn it around or when he'll get it all back on track. We have to remember this is the highest he's been. 1 season of Europe, no trophies. It's all new territory with him, but I expected him to learn on the job, but it's just getting worse.

 

I'm glad we beat the mackems. I said it's the only thing I wanted this season and he can do what he wants and I'm still there, it's just sad now this is still going on and I'm still seeing fatigue from 6 games being used as an excuse.  

 

Fatigue from 10 games in 30 days over December played a huge part in our form at that time, absolutely.

 

What we're seeing now, in my opinion is a lack of confidence. The fatigue led to more injuries. The midfield has been paperlight for most of January / February. The paperlight midfield leads to goals being conceded for fun. Which breeds a lack of confidence.

 

I think, now that Willock, Isak, Barnes and Anderson are properly back in the picture, we'll see much improved performances within a couple of weeks. A win on Saturday, and all of a sudden we have a lot to play for.

 

Confidence is a huge factor in football... last year we rode that confidence all the way to the Champions League. This year it has been eroded and the glaring weaknesses in our squad have been exposed, and Eddie hasn't found a solution (though I'd argue that if he can't find a solution, then who can).

 

Win at home on Saturday and everything changes, IMO. 

 

[RS]

5 minutes ago, Shadow Puppets said:

You single-handedly make me dislike Obama.

Perhaps he never watched a Bruce side. (Last night was similar at times mind)

[KaKa]

12 hours ago, Dr Jinx said:

He’s got enough credit built up so that recent performances will be met with a general apathy.. there’s no genuine anger yet but there will be.

 

If we’d played like that with Steve Bruce as manager, there’d be multiple posts of cabbages and die in a house fire type rants.

 

But that’s how bad we’ve been playing lately.

 

If we'd played like that under Bruce it would have been one of our best performances of his tenure.