Eddie Howe

[Dr Venkman]

7 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

I’m happy we won. That doesn’t make it a good performance. 
 

someone said they think our game plan this season is to nick a goal in the first half and defend deep and bravely in the second half. That is a Brucey game plan. I don’t for a second think that’s Howe’s plan for the season.

Whether or not you’re happy about the result has nothing to do with the quality of the performance. 
 

Today’s game plan was clear and obvious to anyone watching, and it worked. It was very intentional on the part of the head coach and the team carried it out, and won, I’d call that a good performance.

 

Bruce played the same in every game. Anyone suggesting Howe has done that in the past or is likely to do so based on one game (in which we achieved our objective) is just saying stuff for the sake of it or being disingenuous. 

 

 

Edited 4 hours ago by Dr Venkman

[The College Dropout]

8 minutes ago, nufc123 said:

I didnt say he was elite. All im saying is he should have little problem in possession. The guys on the podcast even called him rolls royce, so hes not bad on the ball.

If you look at his passing statistics for a CB or as a FB. It’s very average. He’s not a particularly accurate passer. Not a progressive passer. Not tremendous at carrying it. Eye test. He looks ok on the ball. 

[Dr Venkman]

2 minutes ago, Matt1892 said:

I don’t think being under that much pressure that you have to park the bus was a tactic that we went in to the game with, it is the default position for a club that is being outplayed and under a massive amount of pressure.

[Yorkie]

Personally think it's entirely plausible that we haven't found our groove by virtue of not being at our best physical levels (choose your reason), missing Schär and the negative noise around the team. We've also been playing competent teams, in a couple of cases away from home.

 

Will repeat it cos I don't think there's any harm in repeating the positives from what could be an absolutely massive win: we've given ourselves a brilliant foundation to iron out our issues and have a good first half of the season, in a very turbulent context. 

[nufc123]

3 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

If you look at his passing statistics for a CB or as a FB. It’s very average. He’s not a particularly accurate passer. Not a progressive passer. Not tremendous at carrying it. Eye test. He looks ok on the ball. 

Agree hes not spectacular or anything, but hes not bad.

[The College Dropout]

5 minutes ago, Abacus said:

 

I wondered, though, whether he could be trusted to be the person to do that as well, with the right support and advice. If you have to think outside the box, then perhaps he is the maverick to do it.

 

Somebody needs to be able to make the tough decisions, and he's probably the one who understands this team the best.

 

You don't get to be the best with decisions by committee all pulling in different directions.

 

Pep, I think, just to add to the other examples, is probably in complete control of who they buy and sell, whilst delegating the admin. Apologies if that sounds like word salad - I just don't know who else has the vision now. 

Manchester City have owners that most likely broke financial doping rules.
They have  multi club model with the aim of subverting FFP.

They have the best academy in the country and they sell academy players for millions every season.  

Man City hired all the Barca football people to run the Man City footballing operations. 
 

They do all of that so Pep Guardiola doesn’t have to worry about FFP or anything.  The football people bring him players and he can have pretty much whoever they decide to want. 

[Abacus]

Just now, Yorkie said:

Personally think it's entirely plausible that we haven't found our groove by virtue of not being at our best physical levels (choose your reason), missing Schär and the negative noise around the team. We've also been playing competent teams, in a couple of cases away from home.

 

Will repeat it cos I don't think there's any harm in repeating the positives from what could be an absolutely massive win: we've given ourselves a brilliant foundation to iron out our issues and have a good first half of the season, in a very turbulent context. 

I've been talking to other fans after the game and it's ridiculous how negatively some people are seeing our start to the season.

 

We're not firing on all cylinders yet, of course, but we've beaten Spurs with the only two bits of genuine quality in the game, and conceded one goal today by a mistake from our back up CB. Held our nerves in the penalties in the League Cup too.

 

We're going to channel that and steamroller some teams now.

[The College Dropout]

7 minutes ago, Yorkie said:

Personally think it's entirely plausible that we haven't found our groove by virtue of not being at our best physical levels (choose your reason), missing Schär and the negative noise around the team. We've also been playing competent teams, in a couple of cases away from home.

 

Will repeat it cos I don't think there's any harm in repeating the positives from what could be an absolutely massive win: we've given ourselves a brilliant foundation to iron out our issues and have a good first half of the season, in a very turbulent context. 

Agreed.  Fantastic results to the start the season. Performances have not been there but I trust that they will come. 
 

HTL.  

[Matt1892]

The performance wasn’t anything like the Spurs game last season, where we let them have a high level of possession but it was mainly passing it around without being a threat.

 

Today we were up against it for large parts, where we rode our luck and relied on their poor finishing for us to remain in the game.

 

The way we played today was no different from the other games this season, we seem to have lost all ability in retaining possession and the press has gone out of the window.

 

We can’t rely on poor finishing from the opposition forever.

 

[STM]

4 minutes ago, Matt1892 said:

The performance wasn’t anything like the Spurs game last season, where we let them have a high level of possession but it was mainly passing it around without being a threat.

 

Today we were up against it for large parts, where we rode our luck and relied on their poor finishing for us to remain in the game.

 

The way we played today was no different from the other games this season, we seem to have lost all ability in retaining possession and the press has gone out of the window.

 

We can’t rely on poor finishing from the opposition forever.

 

 

3 games. It's been 3 games.

 

Timely reminder that there were people bitching and moaning two seasons ago when we finished 4th.... right up until the point we actually finished 4th.

 

"We can't do it." "We won't do it." "These players are shite." And on and on.

 

We played well and won loads last season. We will again this season.

[The College Dropout]

6 minutes ago, Matt1892 said:

The performance wasn’t anything like the Spurs game last season, where we let them have a high level of possession but it was mainly passing it around without being a threat.

 

Today we were up against it for large parts, where we rode our luck and relied on their poor finishing for us to remain in the game.

 

The way we played today was no different from the other games this season, we seem to have lost all ability in retaining possession and the press has gone out of the window.

 

We can’t rely on poor finishing from the opposition forever.

 

I agree with everything except I don’t think it’s poor finishing from the opposition.  In the box we defend well last ditch and have one of the best shot stoppers in the league. We get our blocks in and make the final ball difficult.   We make it hard for teams to finish us off like we did in the 4th season. 
 

 

[Matt1892]

1 minute ago, STM said:

 

3 games. It's been 3 games.

 

Timely reminder that there were people bitching and moaning two seasons ago when we finished 4th.... right up until the point we actually finished 4th.

 

"We can't do it." "We won't do it." "These players are shite." And on and on.

 

We played well and won loads last season. We will again this season.

Yes. We are reviewing our performances after 3 games. That’s how it works.

 

If it improves then credit will be given for those performances and improvements.

 

No need to piss your pants about it.

[KingArthur]

Howe again instructed Joelinton to follow Odobert when out of position so it formed a back 5. Same as with Andersson last year.  

[Scoot]

We definitely need to work on performances over the international break. The first 20 minutes of the game today was the NUFC of 2 seasons ago, but the stoppage for the linesman seemed to completely derail us.

 

I think it's a combination of certain platers not really having a full pre season, some players just generally not playing well (yet) and I've said this a few times, the fact we have Burn and Krafth playing centre half. The pair of them can't play out from the back and add to that Pope is shite at kicking. As soon as any of those 3 pick it up, teams press knowing fine well we're probably going to panic and go long or down the wing and 9 times out of 10 we lose the ball and are under pressure again. Which is why we always seem to be sitting back and defending.

 

That last point is the main 1 for me. Can't wait to see Schar back against Wolves.

 

 

Edited 3 hours ago by Scoot

[Vinny Green Balls]

5 minutes ago, STM said:

 

3 games. It's been 3 games.

 

Timely reminder that there were people bitching and moaning two seasons ago when we finished 4th.... right up until the point we actually finished 4th.

 

"We can't do it." "We won't do it." "These players are shite." And on and on.

 

We played well and won loads last season. We will again this season.

the first ten games of that season was an epic bitch fest. Howe has been found out and all. 

[STM]

16 minutes ago, Matt1892 said:

Yes. We are reviewing our performances after 3 games. That’s how it works.

 

If it improves then credit will be given for those performances and improvements.

 

No need to piss your pants about it.

"Reviewing" 

[gbandit]

We clearly didn’t park the bus, we just don’t seem to be able to pass the ball with control. Our midfield lacks quality passing other than Bruno and obviously Tonali who came on late. Those two in the middle will transform our midfield. Our defence isn’t great at passing either, Tino’s strength is carrying, Krafth is obviously not a strong passer, Burn is not going to make many passes that aren’t very safe and Kelly is not a great passer. Pope kicks the ball onto opposition players heads with alarming accuracy. So moving from defence into midfield and then attack is very difficult unless we break fast. If we build slowly under a press we lose the ball so much with our current 11. It’s different with Schar and Botman thankfully

[Matt1892]

Just now, STM said:

"Reviewing" 

[STM]

3 minutes ago, Matt1892 said:

 

You should get a new pair of pants for that.

[The Prophet]

My biggest grumble is still about how poor we are at keeping the ball. We've never been brilliant at it, but it's been noticeable bad so far. Obviously, taking account of today's game plan too.

[RodneyCisse]

[hakka]

It could be Eddie looks at our defence and thinks it's best we protect it in numbers, hence the sitting back. Go for counter attacking football. It's hard to watch us pinned back for large spells and it feels like we are riding our luck a lot given the size of chances and possession we are giving away. That said we often manage to limit the opposition so they don't get a lot of real clean chances, so maybe plan is working, despite it being nervous for a fan to watch. It doesn't feel sustainable, but it is working and buying us time.  Schar and Botman return can't come quick enough. I also think losing them both (and failing to bring Ghuei) coupled with less Trippier at right back, that's a lot of great passing out of the back of quality. Especially Trippier. He dictated so many games from right back with his exceptional passing. I love Tino, but Trippier was very unique in that sense. Isak is a goal scoring monster but he needs the supply, and we are sacrificing that a lot to him and it's frustrating to watch. Hopefully Tonali brings that. 

 

The results are great so far, so credit where it's due.

[splinter]

2 wins and a draw is excellent but performances haven't been.given the utter shit transfer window can't expect much more IMO

[cubaricho]

42 minutes ago, STM said:

"Reviewing" 

It’s always telling when you see who likes a post.  

[STM]

1 minute ago, cubaricho said:

It’s always telling when you see who likes a post.  

 

Always the same man. 

 

We've got one of the best sides we've had in 20 years, a manager who is incredibly competent (as well as being a fantastic bloke), we've got an ownership who are ultra ambitious and have hired who they think are the best of the best to move us forward.

 

Sure I want us to keep moving forward and sure there are moments of frustration and even strategic mistakes... but it blows my mind how some can still delve into hysteria over a few hiccups and not take a step back and see what they have in front of them.

 

The club is in a great place. Plenty of work to do, sure. A few things to think about r.e transfers going forward but otherwise an absolute joy compared to what we'd been served up the previous 15 years (and before that under Shepherd).