Eddie Howe

[Erikse]

23 minutes ago, Geogaddi said:

It's such fine margins , Gordon scores that penalty against Everton and Isak scores that chance to put us 1 up on Saturday and we are sat joint 3rd with Arsenal and Villa . 

 

We were by far the team that overperformed our points tally the most before those games. According to xPTS we should have 9 by now, which on the current table would put us at 13th behind Brentford. So far this season we are high than we should be, thanks to margins (as you call it).

 

 

Edited October 21 by Erikse

[r0cafella]

4 minutes ago, TRon said:

 

We have played a fair chunk of the season and are not scoring goals whichever way you want to look at it. That's after a fairly easy start as well, so I don't think we should avoid any inclination to sugarcoat it. There's been some sloppy points dropped against lesser teams, we'll now have to beat better teams to make that up.

Kinda makes sense too when you look at our side as well. 

 

We are reliant on our left winger be it Gordon or Barnes and our forward for goals. Murphy likes to stay wide so will always struggle for goals. We have nothing from central midfield for goals either. 

 

Tino and Hall aren't going to get more than 5 goals between them In a season and we are useless from set pieces. 

 

Considering all of these factors a lack of goals make sense and it's largely a tactical issue. 

[Dr.Spaceman]

So we need a right inside forward who has a wicked free kick on him. I maintain this would be absolutely transformational if we were to bring in someone like Raphina (not him though, that ship has sailed)

[r0cafella]

3 minutes ago, Dr.Spaceman said:

So we need a right inside forward who has a wicked free kick on him. I maintain this would be absolutely transformational if we were to bring in someone like Raphina (not him though, that ship has sailed)

Would help aye,as well as someone who can create from the middle of pitch (a wirtz) type ie someone who can carry the ball as well as pass and obviously some proper competition for Isak. 

 

We would then have a fictional attack. 

[Heron]

24 minutes ago, Geogaddi said:

It's such fine margins , Gordon scores that penalty against Everton and Isak scores that chance to put us 1 up on Saturday and we are sat joint 3rd with Arsenal and Villa . 

Exactly this.

 

Seems to me it's a case of whether folk choose to be glass half full or glass half empty. I'm happy being the former.

 

We haven't been playing well but we did against Man City, Everton and Brighton and could have conceivably won these games by taking our chances. Longstaff, Gordon and Isaks in particular. Against Southampton we played against 10men for most of the game.

 

It hasn't clicked and there are issues to address for sure. There are in every team and every team should aim to continuously improve, but I find some of the criticism to be overtly negative tbh.

 

 

Edited October 21 by Heron

[KaKa]

19 minutes ago, Geogaddi said:

It's such fine margins , Gordon scores that penalty against Everton and Isak scores that chance to put us 1 up on Saturday and we are sat joint 3rd with Arsenal and Villa . 

 

Wilson probably comes through for us in both those situations, as an alternative option. But he's injured yet again.

 

Towards the back end of last season, it cost us Europe under similar circumstances where we needed more firepower.

 

Yet here we are again, already. No one to blame but ourselves.

[Erikse]

If all luck had gone our way, and no bad luck had happened to us at all, we'd be 1st! But if all luck had gone against us we'd be bottom 3.

 

 

Edited October 21 by Erikse

[KaKa]

5 minutes ago, r0cafella said:

Would help aye,as well as someone who can create from the middle of pitch (a wirtz) type ie someone who can carry the ball as well as pass and obviously some proper competition for Isak. 

 

We would then have a fictional attack. 

 

Would be nice if we showed a bit more tactical flexibility at times in the meantime.

 

Bruno is our most likely player to open up teams that are sitting deeper.

 

He got more goals and assists earlier on with us when Shelvey sat in that deeper midfield position.

 

I'm not sure why we don't put him in one of the number 8 positions at times to change things up.

 

It's just the same thing over and over again.

[Ronson333]

46 minutes ago, r0cafella said:

Would help aye,as well as someone who can create from the middle of pitch (a wirtz) type ie someone who can carry the ball as well as pass and obviously some proper competition for Isak. 

 

We would then have a fictional attack. 

Edon Zhegrova May be a good fit.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

We saw how the midfield is supposed to work when Tonali and Bruno combined to put Isak through on goal. Hopefully they will be able to do that regularly enough and Isak will finish his chances. 
 

FWIW I thought the first half yesterday was a complete overhaul of how we’ve been playing. Joelinton and Hall were combining with Gordon down the left to great effect. We were trying to do the same on the right but sadly we had Murphy and he messed up a lot of moments. 
 

I really don’t think the criticism of Howe for not trying things is fair. He hasn’t changed his formation or whatever, but he’s clearly working on the patterns of play. 

 

 

Edited October 21 by AyeDubbleYoo

[Dr.Spaceman]

48 minutes ago, r0cafella said:

Would help aye,as well as someone who can create from the middle of pitch (a wirtz) type ie someone who can carry the ball as well as pass and obviously some proper competition for Isak. 

 

We would then have a fictional attack. 

 

Just need Joe Willock back up to speed 

 

 

Edited October 21 by Dr.Spaceman

[Shays Given Tim Flowers]

That isak chance was seriously sexy football.

[TRon]

44 minutes ago, KaKa said:

 

Wilson probably comes through for us in both those situations, as an alternative option. But he's injured yet again.

 

Towards the back end of last season, it cost us Europe under similar circumstances where we needed more firepower.

 

Yet here we are again, already. No one to blame but ourselves.

 

It cost us last season, and is already costing us this season. Not sure there's much we could do about it under current PSR rules other than sell players more aggressively and then hope to replace them like Brighton do, but there's no guarantees the replacement players will be as good as the ones who leave.

[Lush Vlad]

11 hours ago, brummie said:

 

We've made tons of money by selling academy products in recent years.

 

Grealish 100 everyone knows about but then also Chukwuemeka 20, Kellyman 19, Iroegbunam 9, Archer 19 (and then again the year after), Aaron Ramsey 15m.

 

Just read we have the 4th most proftable academy in England, and the 19th in the world. It makes a massive difference - even Man City who seem immune to financial concerns understand how important it is, and do it.

You obviously have a good setup. I know one of your scouts, ex-Ipswich. Said you got a lad from Luton recently who is already playing 2 years up. Think he even played in the CL youth game against Bayern the other week and in the paint trophy for the 23’s. Whatever that is called these days.  

[SUPERTOON]

2 hours ago, Dr.Spaceman said:

 

Just need Joe Willock back up to speed 

 

 

 

Not sure that’s going to happen unfortunately.

[80]

10 minutes ago, SUPERTOON said:

Not sure that’s going to happen unfortunately.

Definitely starting to feel more like an 'if' than a 'when'. Hope he gets over whatever it is because he can be huge for us.

 

And I hate to say it, but we can do without another player's transfer value going up in smoke also. On or off the pitch, he's really important.

[Dr Venkman]

On 20/10/2024 at 10:55, Ronaldo said:

If we finish 7th again the ‘project’ has failed hasn’t it? We’ll see players leave and will basically require a rebuild.

Thankfully I don’t think PIF work as short term as this. Players will leave, aye, the money will be reinvested.

[Yorkie]

On 20/10/2024 at 10:55, Ronaldo said:

If we finish 7th again the ‘project’ has failed hasn’t it? We’ll see players leave and will basically require a rebuild.

 

Is 'the project' 3.5 seasons long? What is the target after 3.5 years? Champions League qualification? We already did that so the project has surely already succeeded in that case? Consistent/guaranteed Champions League qualification? That's basically impossible in the context. 

 

'Project' chat is total waffle if you're putting arbitrary deadlines and extremely narrow definitions on it (i.e. league positions); I doubt the owners will appraise the 'project' in pass or fail terms at a single point in time. The whole thing is presumably viewed holistically: to be a sustainable and lucrative venture that is consistently growing in all metrics, and aids Saudi Arabia in achieving whatever its geopolitical aims are (yey). 

 

We're definitely post the post-takeover era now though. Initial wave ridden, Staveley and Ashworth are gone and Eales will obviously leave soon too. We're into a fresh chapter and Howe's position is as vulnerable as it ever has been, but I doubt it'll be measured in such a binary way as us finishing 7th as opposed to 6th. (6th being a brilliant result for any sane observer).

 

On Howe specifically, it does feel a bit ominous because of the fact we are into that next chapter, and evidence so far indicates stagnation moreso than progress. What's frustrating - from a purely analytical, unemotional, point of view - is that there's still significant mitigation, like there was last season, because we didn't back him this summer. Personally I think that obstructs a fair judgement of his performance at this stage of his NUFC career. 

 

Gut instinct is that he won't be in the dugout next September. I just hope he gets a crack at the cups.

[nufcjmc]

Unless massive context like manu taking our European spot due to FA cup and injury ridden  season the aim at least from the snippets the club tell you is to get Europe some form of European football year on year means top 7 finish? Outside of this for teams who rely on this income is bad enough for us it's double barrelled it gives the ambitious players another reason to stick around and drives income up through extra games and brand presitege.

 

Failure to get into Europe would need massive mitigation right now other than our second choice striker and botman in defence this is us full strength. If we end up finishing 8th/12th I don't think the manager survives the season review. 

 

 

Edited October 21 by nufcjmc

[Strawberry]

Howe should be given until end of the season and we should replace him. He said one or two players can only improve the team.

 

It says a lot for a team who is carrying Murphy, Longstaff, Wilson, Krafth, Almiron. He really close the window for improvements that alone is a sackable offense.

[Erikse]

3 hours ago, Dr.Spaceman said:

 

Just need Joe Willock back up to speed 

 

 

 

 

Feels like he needs some time unfortunately. Which is understandable. Hasn't played much since the start of last season, and is probably not mentally there yet either.

[Kid Icarus]

4 hours ago, Erikse said:

If all luck had gone our way, and no bad luck had happened to us at all, we'd be 1st! But if all luck had gone against us we'd be bottom 3.

 

 

 

I hate this forum sometimes. So deliberately obtuse.

[HaydnNUFC]

25 minutes ago, Yorkie said:

 

Is 'the project' 3.5 seasons long? What is the target after 3.5 years? Champions League qualification? We already did that so the project has surely already succeeded in that case? Consistent/guaranteed Champions League qualification? That's basically impossible in the context. 

 

'Project' chat is total waffle if you're putting arbitrary deadlines and extremely narrow definitions on it (i.e. league positions); I doubt the owners will appraise the 'project' in pass or fail terms at a single point in time. The whole thing is presumably viewed holistically: to be a sustainable and lucrative venture that is consistently growing in all metrics, and aids Saudi Arabia in achieving whatever its geopolitical aims are (yey). 

 

We're definitely post the post-takeover era now though. Initial wave ridden, Staveley and Ashworth are gone and Eales will obviously leave soon too. We're into a fresh chapter and it's crunch time for Howe, but I doubt it'll be measured in such a binary way as us finishing 7th as opposed to 6th. (6th being a brilliant result for any sane observer).

 

On Howe specifically, it does feel a bit ominous because of the fact we are into that next chapter, and evidence so far indicates stagnation moreso than progress. What's frustrating - from a purely analytical, unemotional, point of view - is that there's still significant mitigation, like there was last season, because we didn't back him this summer. Personally I think that obstructs a fair judgement of his performance at this stage of his NUFC career. 

 

Gut instinct is that he won't be in the dugout next September. I just hope he gets a crack at the cups.

 

A very fair post, but from what's been out there across the summer up to now I don't think Howe is totally blameless for the summer. And it's looking increasingly like summer 2023 wasn't a great window either. Mainly in regard to not signing what we needed and regarding Barnes: I don't think Howe knows what do with Barnes particularly with getting him and Gordon in the same side and playing well together. Starting him or bringing him off the bench. He's a good finisher, but it's looking increasingly like an opportunistic buy imo. Made all the more odd by our galling situation at RW.

[Smal]

we haven’t given Barnes-Isak-Gordon enough time to work imo. If we’re not doing it because Gordon wants to play left wing in order to keep him happy then…

[sushimonster85]

24 minutes ago, Strawberry said:

Howe should be given until end of the season and we should replace him. He said one or two players can only improve the team.

 

It says a lot for a team who is carrying Murphy, Longstaff, Wilson, Krafth, Almiron. He really close the window for improvements that alone is a sackable offense.

 

Pretty sure he is just being diplomatic. He isn't going to ruin his relationship with players by calling them all shite and demanding they're all sent to Siberia.