Eddie Howe

[Ronaldo]

1 minute ago, Kid Icarus said:

 

Surely you can see that how specific your question is sort of points to what I mean about the reductionism? 

 

Their 2nd goal put the pin in us. With proper finishing from our supposed star players until that point, the game is completely different. Even after that, when they gained confidence and we lost ours, this is how the game looked overall.

 

I couldn't put it any better than these stats tbh. They scored 2 from 0 big chances and we scored 0 from 2 big chances.

 

 

 

 

It means very little to me that. We were abject in the second half. Our style of play is one dimensional and completely reliant on winning by attrition and taking advantage of winning the ball deep in the opponents area. We have a player on the bench that would start for the vast majority of CL teams but the manager can’t figure out a way to integrate him in our style. All of it just comes back to a lack of flexibility.

[Kid Icarus]

Just now, The College Dropout said:

Having nothing left to give 0-2 down at home to West Ham after 60 mins can’t be used in defence of the manager. 

Yes it can, cheers 

[Myleftboot]

4 minutes ago, Erikse said:

 

Allright, stay ignorant then. I'll leave the quote a second time, just in case.

 

“We pursued him for a long, long time, paid a big fee for him because I fell in love watching him play the game last year."

 I bet you believe your lass when she says your the biggest she’s ever had.

 

 

Edited 4 hours ago by Myleftboot

[Jonas]

Can't believe we persued Tonali for a long time. Probably would have been a non-starter had we not qualiied for the CL and he signed a couple month later.

 

[The College Dropout]

Tonali is 100% a Howe signing. He is a Howe player in style.  He just doesn’t fit the team at RCM. 

 

The more I see him the more I think Gordon isn’t well suited to the team either. He was just individually excellent.  I don’t think he has any good relationships with other players. 

[AyeDubbleYoo]

Howe's not immune to the kind of thinking that permeates football - 'we won more when playing Longstaff' and all that kind of shit. He's human. 

 

What I want him to do most is make a decision on a team for a few weeks (which IMO must include Tonali) and give it some time to breathe. 

 

There's no reason at all why Tonali can't play RCM or CM for us, he can do anything we ask him to do.

 

 

Edited 4 hours ago by AyeDubbleYoo

[Theregulars]

The following are valid questions based on this season:

 

1. why doesn’t he know the best eleven?

2. Why can’t he work out how to involve tonali?

3. Why can’t we cross?

4. What’s happened to our finishing?

5. Why are so many key players not performing?

6. What happened to intensity, given no Europe?

7. Why do we so frequently fail to pass it to our own players?

8. Why are our set pieces so predictably awful?

9. Why has it become so easy to score against us from set pieces?

10. Why has our transfer policy resulted in a squad of squad players?

 

I significantly and seriously want him to succeed but we’re not good enough this season and he doesn’t come across like he’s got the answer.

[The College Dropout]

2 minutes ago, Ronaldo said:

It means very little to me that. We were abject in the second half. Our style of play is one dimensional and completely reliant on winning by attrition and taking advantage of winning the ball deep in the opponents area. We have a player on the bench that would start for the vast majority of CL teams but the manager can’t figure out a way to integrate him in our style. All of it just comes back to a lack of flexibility.

Last year we weren’t great at the attritional attacking either. But the lads could always score. Isak and particularly Gordon are not as devastating. Wilson scored when he was fit too.  

[ExiledGeordie]

12 minutes ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

1 minute ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

Howe's not immune to the kind of thinking that permeates football - 'we won more when playing Longstaff' and all that kind of shit. He's human. 

 

What I want him to do most is make a decision on a team for a few weeks (which IMO must include Tonali) and give it some time to breathe. 

How definitely needs to get Tonali in the team now, no fucking about 

 

 

Edited 4 hours ago by ExiledGeordie

[AyeDubbleYoo]

Fair questions but I think a lot of them can be put down to confidence/momentum and the rest to trying to fix it. 

[The College Dropout]

1 minute ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

Howe's not immune to the kind of thinking that permeates football - 'we won more when playing Longstaff' and all that kind of shit. He's human. 

 

What I want him to do most is make a decision on a team for a few weeks (which IMO must include Tonali) and give it some time to breathe. 

 

There's no reason at all why Tonali can't play RCM or CM for us, he can do anything we ask him to do.

 

 

 

That RCM shit doesn’t work and I’m tired of seeing him there.  

[Kid Icarus]

1 minute ago, Ronaldo said:

It means very little to me that. We were abject in the second half. Our style of play is one dimensional and completely reliant on winning by attrition and taking advantage of winning the ball deep in the opponents area. We have a player on the bench that would start for the vast majority of CL teams but the manager can’t figure out a way to integrate him in our style. All of it just comes back to a lack of flexibility.

FWIW, Pep has just been making the same point about their poor finishing vs Spurs. Now I'm not saying I'm Pep, but...

 

Agree to disagree, we were poor from 2-0 but I still put that situation even being a reality mainly because of shocking finishing.

 

 

[The College Dropout]

Just now, AyeDubbleYoo said:

Fair questions but I think a lot of them can be put down to confidence/momentum and the rest to trying to fix it. 

Agree with this. Howe ball requires a lot of confidence, momentum and motivation far more than tactics or setup. 

[AyeDubbleYoo]

Just now, The College Dropout said:

Agree with this. Howe ball requires a lot of confidence, momentum and motivation far more than tactics or setup. 

 

Football in general does, look at what Man City are going through. 

[Erikse]

Just the idea that we would have the board sign a £55m player that Howe didn't want himself, and to then think that Howe would still start him nearly every game right after, even when he was from a different league, when he wasn't even a Howe signing. All of that while having a fully fit squad. Howe himself saying that we signed him because he himself loved the way he plays comes on top of all of that, but that doesn't mean anything either. That's some next level brain gymnastics, I'm kind of impressed.

 

 

Edited 3 hours ago by Erikse

[toon25]

11 minutes ago, Ronaldo said:

Your opinion is always valid. It’s just usually wrong with admirable intentions.

 

[Heron]

"Eddie Howe's Black and White Army!"

 

 

Fucking loved that last 20mins in the corner.

[80]

4 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

I get this. But that’s the intensity and such.  But from a pass and move view, how do we plan on breaking down that low block? I see Tino get into positions high and wide and I just know an awful cross is coming. Do we expect to score from those? He keeps moving wide forwards around - are there particular things they are meant to do in each position?

Oh I agree. It was disturbing how quickly we regressed post-Willock into Horseshoe siege, Isak alone in the middle, followed by our lines being broken and us opting for chaotic progression, fast up the pitch into no man's land, again. Quick diagonal cross, hope for the best, expect the worst and start the cycle again after they get the ball back into our half.

[Kid Icarus]

1 minute ago, Heron said:

"Eddie Howe's Black and White Army!"

 

 

Fucking loved that last 20mins in the corner.

Glad to hear it.

[KaKa]

5 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

That RCM shit doesn’t work and I’m tired of seeing him there.  

 

Even not fully convinced of this yet as we haven't played him there in that team we started with today.

 

Can we at least see him in that side whether at CM or RCM?!

 

It's ridiculous.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

I don't see how anyone can be sick of Tonali playing anywhere, he's had nowhere near enough games in any position. 

[Sima]

The squad is laughably imbalanced mind.

 

Arguably Howe’s greatest success story’s best position is LCM and what do we do? Buy an Italian international midfielder who’s best position is LCM.

 

We spend £40m on a very promising LW in the January transfer window and what happens? We have one of the key elements of the second half of the season being the dovetailing of 2 CMs on the left side of the pitch.  That’s without mentioning that our £63m striker is fond of drifting off to the left.

 

While we have all of this we go out and spend another £40m on a LW.

 

It’s like a lot of problems could be solved by selling two of the best players in our squad to rebalance it on the right hand side.

[The College Dropout]

4 minutes ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

 

Football in general does, look at what Man City are going through. 

But with City you know they aim to control games. And they have several ways to break a low block.  
 

I agree that it’s key for any team - you are right. But I think at this level, it shouldn’t be the primary path a team wins games. Or not to the extent we do. I think Pardews management style was 98% that and most clogger managers. Even with Pep it’s 90% but I dunno. I hope you get what I mean.  

[The College Dropout]

3 minutes ago, KaKa said:

 

Even not fully convinced of this yet as we haven't played him there in that team we started with today.

 

Can we at least see him in that side whether at CM or RCM?!

 

It's ridiculous.

Tino Tonali + whoever at RW - I don’t want to see it. Put Bruno there - he can at least find an interesting pass or switch play quickly. 

[et tu brute]

47 minutes ago, ExiledGeordie said:

I think there are some valid concerns with Howe but equally his players let him down tonight with piss poor passing, awful final balls and woeful finishing. Simply not good enough by too many. For example Gordon has to bury that chance ffs

 

Ot's not a one off though, that exact type of performance has been quite frequent. That second half though was terrible in terms of game management. Just was a case of switching layers to different positions to see if something would come off