Eddie Howe

[Hovagod]

It’s difficult to articulate but it does sometimes feel like Howe has, not hijacked…but used our takeover to his own advantage. Meaning that he acted as though the upward momentum was because of him and that he and his good (if not spectacular) management was not, as it actually was, a symptom of the cub’s changing direction instead of a driving force. Put another way: Where would he be if we still had Ashley but Howe as well? Probably about where we were. 

[andycap]

If we extend Longstaffs contract he'll most likely be on higher wages than he is now. 

So that's burn with an extention,miggy extention Wilson extension just waiting for Murphy now and we will never get rid of them. Time to blood the bairns in and discard these goodlads. 

Mitchell has already talked about moving players on and bringing through two to three youth players every year into the first team squad. 

We cannot keep dishing out contracts to players who are average at best. 

[TheBrownBottle]

3 minutes ago, Hovagod said:

It’s difficult to articulate but it does sometimes feel like Howe has, not hijacked…but used our takeover to his own advantage. Meaning that he acted as though the upward momentum was because of him and that he and his good (if not spectacular) management was not, as it actually was, a symptom of the cub’s changing direction instead of a driving force. Put another way: Where would he be if we still had Ashley but Howe as well? Probably about where we were. 

I think if Staveley had managed to spend a short time not briefing the press re Emery we’d much further ahead than we are.  I agree generally re momentum, but I still think Howe has done a good job.  

[KetsbaiaIsBald]

2 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

Emery we’d much further ahead than we are

If Emery had come in we might have gone down. Everything clicked perfectly for Howe in the first 18 months.  What Howe did after Christmas in his first reason was superb.  Emery is doing an outstanding job and I’d take him over Howe right now. But I don’t think it’s a given that we’d have stayed up with him.  

[Whitley mag]

Feel the next 2 games tell us a lot about where this is heading, I still don’t see there being any appetite to remove him, but go out of the cup and tumble further down the league and even his most ardent supporters will be having doubts.

 

 

[timeEd32]

32 minutes ago, DiddyLevine said:

This ...

4 3 3 is athletics not football 

 

 

You keep saying this and I know what you mean, but one of the best teams in the history of the league played this way.

[BoSelecta]

We could have prime beckham raking our corners in but with big dan on the end they’ll still end up in row zed. Who else are they aiming at? We’re missing botman.
 

Also triggering automatic contract extensions does not mean pay rises. 

[SUPERTOON]

6 minutes ago, Whitley mag said:

Feel the next 2 games tell us a lot about where this is heading, I still don’t see there being any appetite to remove him, but go out of the cup and tumble further down the league and even his most ardent supporters will be having doubts.

 

 

The forest game is becomes pretty big if we lose the next two (I actually fancy us to win the next two).

[timeEd32]

18 minutes ago, andycap said:

If we extend Longstaffs contract he'll most likely be on higher wages than he is now. 

So that's burn with an extention,miggy extention Wilson extension just waiting for Murphy now and we will never get rid of them. Time to blood the bairns in and discard these goodlads. 

Mitchell has already talked about moving players on and bringing through two to three youth players every year into the first team squad. 

We cannot keep dishing out contracts to players who are average at best. 

 

The way it's being reported we're activating a one year extension. I would assume that carries very similar wages to what he's on. Burn's was similar. Both of those make a lot of sense to reduce the number of players we have to replace next summer. Ideally they won't play nearly as much as they are now, but they can plug in and help keep our amortisation number lower.

[duo]

7 hours ago, Yorkie said:

I can live with him doubling down and trying to make it work at this point. Obviously it's not working right now, but there's such an abundance and variety of attributes across those three individuals that it should work given the right instructions. It's early in the season and it's not like we've been beaten by some mugs; Chelsea are annoyingly good with arguably the best attacking midfielder in the division. 

 

If we're sat here in a month's time and it's still as dysfunctional then you really will have to doubt his judgement. 

We played well in the 1st half against Brighton,  if Isak and Gordon had taken their chances the outlook would be different 

[Danh1]

4 hours ago, janpawel said:

The thing with Howe imo is that he seems exactly the type of manager to review, tweak and improve his systems and playstyle, he seems very intelligent, thoughtful and intentional, imagine having a chat with him, asking him about if he'd consider something different as evidence is showing something not working 

 

And him just saying 'no'. Just doesn't add up

This is what impressed me most about Howe in his earlier days. Loved the way he used his time out of a job to learn and improve.

 

Find it disappointing that he hasn’t done anything to reflect this in terms of our identity and playing style. 

[andycap]

30 minutes ago, BoSelecta said:

We could have prime beckham raking our corners in but with big dan on the end they’ll still end up in row zed. Who else are they aiming at? We’re missing botman.
 

Also triggering automatic contract extensions does not mean pay rises. 

We aren't a team full of midgets lad. 

Schar joelinton isak Gordon are all at a decent height to be aimed at. 

Use osula he's a unit if he thinks we are missing height in the box. 

[Sibierski]

There’s no doubting that what worked in the first 18 months got the most out of the limited players we had. Those players peaks we’re not going to see again, so can the coaching set up get the best out of better players who may need different messaging? There’s question marks but hopefully they do. But wouldn’t be the first manager and wouldn’t be the last, that’s struggled with better players.

[Pata]

1 hour ago, andycap said:

Why Do the press let him get away with answers like that man? 

Tonali is our specialist setpiece taker in the squad yet howe has Gordon Trippier Longstaff taking them. 

Before we bought tonali fair enough but now he should be our mainstay on them. 

It's like having beckham in your team and letting Luke chadwick and Gary neville take them. 

 

Has Longstaff ever taken a set piece if Tonali was on the pitch? 

[Pata]

1 hour ago, Hovagod said:

It’s difficult to articulate but it does sometimes feel like Howe has, not hijacked…but used our takeover to his own advantage. Meaning that he acted as though the upward momentum was because of him and that he and his good (if not spectacular) management was not, as it actually was, a symptom of the cub’s changing direction instead of a driving force. Put another way: Where would he be if we still had Ashley but Howe as well? Probably about where we were. 

 

 

[AyeDubbleYoo]

1 hour ago, Hovagod said:

It’s difficult to articulate but it does sometimes feel like Howe has, not hijacked…but used our takeover to his own advantage. Meaning that he acted as though the upward momentum was because of him and that he and his good (if not spectacular) management was not, as it actually was, a symptom of the cub’s changing direction instead of a driving force. Put another way: Where would he be if we still had Ashley but Howe as well? Probably about where we were. 

Auto ban IMO. 

[andycap]

26 minutes ago, Pata said:

 

Has Longstaff ever taken a set piece if Tonali was on the pitch? 

He seems to be used a hell of a lot more than tonali on deadball. 

Don't you watch us? 

[TheBrownBottle]

1 hour ago, KetsbaiaIsBald said:

If Emery had come in we might have gone down. Everything clicked perfectly for Howe in the first 18 months.  What Howe did after Christmas in his first reason was superb.  Emery is doing an outstanding job and I’d take him over Howe right now. But I don’t think it’s a given that we’d have stayed up with him.  

Honestly, you might be right.  I still think Howe’s done a cracking job all things considered - but I am more than a bit concerned atm.  We don’t seem to play in a co-ordinated fashion. 

[KaKa]

3 hours ago, The College Dropout said:

The average/mean quality of coaching in the PL has increased exponentially over the last 5 years.  
 

The division doesn’t have many Steve Bruce’s anymore.  
 

Removing the promoted sides - who are the worst 3 managers? I’d argue someone that managed Real Madrid and Spain in the last 10 years, maybe Dyche, O’Neil, Glasner, Maresca perhaps. It’s a far cry from yesteryear. These are all decent coaches and fairly tactically astute. 
 

I always thought Eddie’s strengths was motivating players, giving them confidence, and putting them in positions to succeed. We don’t look a super motivated team either. 

 

I think it's a good point about how much things have moved forward regarding coaching and I think it's the same with recruitment too.

 

Its going to be interesting to see where we end up as the season progresses, as I think the last year we haven't evolved enough in either area, and have been caught lacking.

 

Me personally, I'm pretty much prepared for an inevitable rebuild. Possibly taking significant steps backwards before trying again by doing things much differently next time around.

 

[KaKa]

5 hours ago, Nine said:

 

I wonder if Howe starting coaching the side in pre season with this possession based style expecting to have a Guehi in by the end of window, so he’d have two platforms to play off of (Guehi/Bruno).. and then obviously it didn’t happen but he’s stuck to his guns and not reverted system. If so it’s even more of a fuck up than it seemed at first. 

 

I do recall Howe touching on becoming more of a possession based side at one point. Or am I imagining that?

 

It's probably what has led to these sloppy, less dynamic and lower energy performances we have been seeing.

 

Which is down to a combination of not having enough players suited to maintaining possession, as well as Howe trying to coach and implement a style he's not really utilised before.

 

We were so well suited to the aggressive, high tempo and dynamic style in so many ways. The players are well suited, and Howe had mastered that style.

 

I really wish we'd just go back to that and work towards continuing to perfect that approach.

[joeyt]

I think the amount of injuries last year has made everyone at the club nervous about the high press

 

We're an Isak hamstring away from being pretty fucked

[dcmk]

The last three games we have created many greats chances and just haven't scored them. Arguably our best player, Isak being guilty of many of them spurned unfortunately.

 

Don't really see how Howe could be personally blamed for those results.  One could easily argue should have won the last 3 games based on our chances. That would have left us in 3rd and sitting pretty.

[Memphis]

What's very strange to me has been the dropoff in home performances. Though we have 7 points from 12, we have not been able to consistently play well or control opponents the way we did in the last two seasons. One interesting stat I've dug up - we are last in the league by a decent margin in home OPPDA (opponent passes per defensive action), meaning that we do not maintain any control of the ball before opponent pressing or tackling disrupts our play. That number has dropped by 35 percent in the last two seasons. It's a sign of the lack of control we show these days - and the poor state of our passing in general.

 

The same is true of our non-penalty xG numbers - 19th at home (4.54 NPxG over 4 matches). We're sort of OKish away and quite rotten at home. 

 

League NPxG at Home:

 

2022-23: 1st 

2023-24: 2nd

2024-25: 19th (through 9 league matches)

 

League NPxG differential at home:

 

2022-23: 1st

2023-24: 2nd (by .05 to Liverpool)

2024-25: 15th

 

So while we can talk about strikers not performing, missing chances, etc - the reality is that we're not creating anything at home. Not like we used to. I don't know specifically what to point to but the dropoff in these figures should be setting alarm bells off in Howe's office. 

 

 

 

 

[The College Dropout]

Howe’s not the man to make us a possession based side imo.  

[Holmesy]

24 minutes ago, dcmk said:

The last three games we have created many greats chances and just haven't scored them. Arguably our best player, Isak being guilty of many of them spurned unfortunately.

 

Don't really see how Howe could be personally blamed for those results.  One could easily argue should have won the last 3 games based on our chances. That would have left us in 3rd and sitting pretty.

Chelsea  could have put the game out of sight in the first half with the chances we allowed them due to our ridiculously high line and inability to keep possession though.

I don’t think anyone doubts our ability to create chances, it’s the fact we gift the opposition so many and allow them to run through us at will that’s so troubling.