Eddie Howe

[Izakaya]

1 hour ago, Rod said:

Something new?

Big Joe on the left, Willock behind. 

[SUPERTOON]

Think last night highlighted what a lot of people have been saying, we can only play high press to have success. Really hope we see it weekly now, genuinely don’t think the squad we have can play any other way.

[black_n_white]

Big joe on the left and Gordon on the right might be the way to go now? Not sure Gordon is effective on that side but the balance of the team looked better. It’s also Joelinton’s natural position. I also liked Tonali in the middle with Bruno having the licence to move forward when he came on.
 

I think Kraft, Longstaff and Kelly have played into Howes thoughts for selection after last night too. Was quite refreshing having Kelly at the back with that extra pace, although I can’t see favourite Burn being dropped again.

 

I'm a little more confident than I was before the cup game, Arsenal are a very good side though and their pace on the wings may hurt us.

[Fak]

6 hours ago, Rod said:

Something new?

Scoring and keeping a clean sheet. 

[PauloGeordio]

It was good to see some tinkering to positive effect. It’s almost as if Eddie or Tinndall had been reading NO  Great result, hope it’s a platform for some consistency now and we can go on a run. Big test on Saturday, but the fans and the team will be buoyed by last night  

 

 

 

 

Edited 16 hours ago by PauloGeordio

[Lush Vlad]

9 hours ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

I'm not sure the two Joes down the left is the answer mind - they both missed good chances arriving at the back post. Saying that, we won so it's not that important this time. 

The first one Joelinton should score. But it is a bit awkward the way it bounces up right before getting to him. That could be as much him and his erratic finishing making it awkard, though. 
 

The Willock one. You on about the cross from Gordon right at the end of the first half? That’s barely a chance FFS  

 

He is quite a way outside the post, he has just sprinted at full tilt from the halfway line to keep up with Gordon and is still travelling at some speed when the cross comes in. Gordon has then smashed it across goal harder than when he has a shot, it’s waist high on the volley, on the stretch, on his weaker foot and with a defender right near him. 

[Lush Vlad]

1 hour ago, SUPERTOON said:

Think last night highlighted what a lot of people have been saying, we can only play high press to have success. Really hope we see it weekly now, genuinely don’t think the squad we have can play any other way.

Well we only really played it for 30-40 mins. We just managed to get in front, unlike Brighton. Where we did the same first half. 
 

I still think we need to pick and choose and I’m sure we do. Depending on opponent, situation, home or away, players in the team, different pressing triggers etc. 

 

Last night helped that they seemed fine with going out. But we sat pretty deep from the end of the first half onwards, changed personnel around, as well as the formation. We saw the game out fairly comfortably in the end. So it’s a bit disingenuous to say we can only play one way. We do look far better with that high press, mind. You’re just not going to sustain that over 90 minutes or a season. 

[The College Dropout]

6 minutes ago, Lush Vlad said:

Well we only really played it for 30-40 mins. We just managed to get in front, unlike Brighton. Where we did the same first half. 
 

I still think we need to pick and choose and I’m sure we do. Depending on opponent, situation, home or away, players in the team, different pressing triggers etc. 

 

Last night helped that they seemed fine with going out. But we sat pretty deep from the end of the first half onwards, changed personnel around, as well as the formation. We saw the game out fairly comfortably in the end. So it’s a bit disingenuous to say we can only play one way. We do look far better with that high press, mind. You’re just not going to sustain that over 90 minutes or a season. 

Why not? 
 

Liverpool did. We did. 
 

It doesn’t even have to be 90. 60 is great. 
 

 

That passive low block away from him isn’t going to work consistently. 

[TRon]

9 hours ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

I'm not sure the two Joes down the left is the answer mind - they both missed good chances arriving at the back post. Saying that, we won so it's not that important this time. 

 

They weren't exactly straightforward chances like, the ball was flying in at pace. I thought Joelinton's effort was pretty good in the circumstances, he hit the post and was inches away from a goal.

[TRon]

2 hours ago, SUPERTOON said:

Think last night highlighted what a lot of people have been saying, we can only play high press to have success. Really hope we see it weekly now, genuinely don’t think the squad we have can play any other way.

 

It also highlighted that pace through the centre is quite important if you are going to play the high press. I did suggest bringing in Kelly and Krafth to counter this, although as part of a back 5, in the event Howe stuck to his own formation and made it work. Also having Tonali in the centre instead of Bruno also reduced the lack of pace, and bringing Longstaff in on the right gave us more cover.

[Heron]

Always pretty much bang on in his comments about every single game or event at the club. Done with professionalism, consideration and dignity.

 

Changed up the formation at times, changed up the personnel, had the ball in the net 3 times and hit the post twice...we never looked in danger of losing.

 

Onto the next game, more tenacity, more intensity, get the ball rolling and defeat Brentford to force the doom mongering to dissipate please.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

FWIW he has been tweaking things over the last few games, it’s not that he suddenly realised he needs to change. 

[Dr Jinx]

You can't read too much into a game when the opposing team changed their entire 11.

 

But, a good win and a 1/4 final, not complaining and if we manage to get through maybe we'll be coming to the boil this time as opposed to the previous years.

[timeEd32]

Best I can tell this is the first time we’ve made the quarterfinals of the League Cup three seasons in a row. 
 

And we’ve only done it once in our FA Cup history: 1998-00 (Final, Final, Semi)

[Miercoles]

Was really, really nice to watch us comfortably see out a game.

[SteV]

Full post-match presser:

 

https://youtu.be/Olr8U2un0xY?si=9-Cr4SAHP9qUpcfR

[SEMTEX]

2 hours ago, Dr Jinx said:

You can't read too much into a game when the opposing team changed their entire 11.

 

But, a good win and a 1/4 final, not complaining and if we manage to get through maybe we'll be coming to the boil this time as opposed to the previous years.

 

FWIW they played an almost identical XI last week and smashed Panathinaikos in Greece. So it's not like it was a completely cobbled together team of Sunday leaguers. They're set up for this rotation.

 

But obviously they didn't look like scoring in a month of Sundays. Bottled it cos of SJP iyam.

[Lotus]

5 hours ago, The College Dropout said:

Why not? 
 

Liverpool did. We did. 
 

It doesn’t even have to be 90. 60 is great. 
 

 

That passive low block away from him isn’t going to work consistently. 

Didn’t Liverpool move away from the gengerpress though? They were all over teams I remember one season but then I felt in the following seasons they weren’t so intense about it. 

[Lotus]

Could be wrong though….

[toon25]

My fucking manager.

 

 

[DiddyLevine]

6 hours ago, Lush Vlad said:

The first one Joelinton should score. But it is a bit awkward the way it bounces up right before getting to him. That could be as much him and his erratic finishing making it awkard, though. 
 

The Willock one. You on about the cross from Gordon right at the end of the first half? That’s barely a chance FFS  

 

He is quite a way outside the post, he has just sprinted at full tilt from the halfway line to keep up with Gordon and is still travelling at some speed when the cross comes in. Gordon has then smashed it across goal harder than when he has a shot, it’s waist high on the volley, on the stretch, on his weaker foot and with a defender right near him. 

Called for a diving header that one

[Dr Venkman]

2 hours ago, toon25 said:

My fucking manager.

 

 

Head Coach 

[Chris_R]

8 hours ago, The College Dropout said:

Why not? 
 

Liverpool did.

 

 

8 hours ago, The College Dropout said:

We did. 

 

And ended up with the worst injury crisis any of us have ever seen.

[The College Dropout]

1 hour ago, Chris_R said:

 

 

 

And ended up with the worst injury crisis any of us have ever seen.

Also finished 4th. And we’ve brought in someone to help with injury prevention. 
 

this place is funny. Last year everyone swore the injuries were bad luck and nothing at all to do with Howe’s methods.  Be that coaching, selection or style of play.  

5 hours ago, Lotus said:

Didn’t Liverpool move away from the gengerpress though? They were all over teams I remember one season but then I felt in the following seasons they weren’t so intense about it. 

Not really. They added Thiago and teams sat back so there were less opportunity to press. But he never abandoned the rocknroll high press style. And he pretty much stuck to 433. Liverpool also suffered when they had injury crisis.  And if their press was just a little off performances and results would plummet (finishing 5th and the season Allisons header secured the CL spot). 
 

He should’ve switched it up mind.  Slot has joined and added an element of control and reaping rewards. Klopp was married to a defensive line on halfway and high pressing.  

[PopeandGlory]

14 hours ago, PauloGeordio said:

It was good to see some tinkering to positive effect. It’s almost as if Eddie or Tinndall had been reading NO  Great result, hope it’s a platform for some consistency now and we can go on a run. Big test on Saturday, but the fans and the team will be buoyed by last night  

 

 

 

 

 

 

From my point of view it just cements more that Howe is a motivator rather than immense tactician. 

 

It’s no surprises our best performances this season have been against the better teams, particularly at home. Backs to the walls mentality. Worked a treat when he first came in, all the way to the CL.

 

But put us in a game we are favourites where we expect to do well and we often don’t. Started to happen towards the end of the 4th place season, we started games as favourites and stuttered at times, carried on into last season and this.

 

Obviously not an exact science and there are anomalies along the way, that’s sport.

 

I think he’s tried to transform us to a more possession based team to ensure we have other ways of playing but that loses the above mentality and puts pressure on rather than taking it off. More pressure, more misplaced passes, more mistakes. 

Similar at Bournemouth, multiple promotions as the underdog and it all fell apart when they were more established and went into games expecting to do well.

 

High press, counter attacking at pace will see us do well. We must find a solution when we face ogre teams like Everton though, or every good result will be cancelled out by a bad.