Eddie Howe

[Roids]

1 minute ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

 

We are challenging top 6 TBF, in fact we're challenging for 3rd. 

Losing to a poor West Ham side at home negates that.

Top 3 will likely be from City, Arsenal & Liverpool. 

We're in the mix with the rest (Villa, Spurs, Brighton, Fulham, Man U etc) but have shown nothing (on performances alone) to warrant be bullish about 3rd place.

[Erikse]

19 minutes ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

 

Wanting to maximise performance and make improvements doesn't mean Eddie Howe drove our players into early graves by asking them to run.

 

No, but the timing of the appointment and his purpose wasn't a coincidence either. It was definetly a response to what happened last season.

[JEToon]

3 minutes ago, Roids said:

Losing to a poor West Ham side at home negates that.

Top 3 will likely be from City, Arsenal & Liverpool. 

We're in the mix with the rest (Villa, Spurs, Brighton, Fulham, Man U etc) but have shown nothing (on performances alone) to warrant be bullish about 3rd place.

 

The teams you have mentioned, their form and seasons they have been putting together is reason to have a bit of faith we can push for the top 5 

[Roids]

Just now, JEToon said:

 

The teams you have mentioned, their form and seasons they have been putting together is reason to have a bit of faith we can push for the top 5 

I said earlier, I believe we have the players to compete/push but the performances haven't been unconvincing.

I've seen what we look like when it's flowing but that just hasn't been there this season. 

[Erikse]

9 minutes ago, Kid Icarus said:

 

I think there are two possible answers. The first and most likely imo is that because it was a top-down decision made above Howe's head but Howe will nigh on always tow the line and take responsibility on these things (providing no one steps on his toes), regardless of his true feelings. The second is because there's a huge amount of difference between a few instances of the wrong decisions being made in a wider injury crisis of 41 seperate injuries and putting injury crisis in quotation marks and implying that it was all or largely self-inflicted. 

 

 

 

 

I agree that the crisis wasn't necessarily self inflicted, but when several of our players comes back for a week or two only for the same injury to reoccur (some of them twice or more), then I think Howes words means something when he talks about learning from the past on the topic of with being patient with players returning from injuries.

 

 

Edited 4 hours ago by Erikse

[JEToon]

1 minute ago, Roids said:

I said earlier, I believe we have the players to compete/push but the performances haven't been unconvincing.

I've seen what we look like when it's flowing but that just hasn't been there this season. 

 

I reckon you could go on the forum of any of those teams you mention and read the exact same assessment, we are pretty much in what is that chasing group form, evidenced by the table really. 

[Roids]

8 minutes ago, JEToon said:

 

I reckon you could go on the forum of any of those teams you mention and read the exact same assessment, we are pretty much in what is that chasing group form, evidenced by the table really. 

imo just Villa, they've been below par for the most part. I've seen convincing Spurs (they're always up & down with Ange) , Fulham & Brighton performances multiple times this season. 

 

 

Edited 3 hours ago by Roids

[Lush Vlad]

9 minutes ago, Roids said:

imo just Villa, they've been below par for the most part. I've seen convincing Spurs (they're always up & down with Ange) , Fulham & Brighton performances multiple times this season. 

 

 

 

 

Fulham have just been beaten 4-1 at home by Wolves.  Brighton have put in some good performances and beat the likes of us and City and just won at Bournemouth which is a tough place to go.  All by the odd goal and had large spells of those games where they were lucky to stay level or ahead.  Our game in particular.   

 

The mighty Man City lost 5 in a row before last night and then blew a 3 goal lead to go 6 without a win.  Even Chelsea who are much improved, have been a bit up and down with their performances and some of their results.  

 

I get consistency is an issue with Howe and it is a concern that we seem to be repeating some of the same mistakes as previous seasons.  But you're making out like we're the only team in the chasing pack behind the usual top 3 with performance and consistency issues.  I'd imagine there is a reason the league is so tight this year.   

 

 

 

 

Edited 3 hours ago by Lush Vlad

[JEToon]

9 minutes ago, Roids said:

imo just Villa, they've been below par for the most part. I've seen convincing Spurs (they're always up & down with Ange) , Fulham & Brighton performances multiple times this season. 

 

 

 

 

If you are watching much of Fulham and Brighton you would have also seen them be pretty poor, I mean Fulham weren't convincing in their last game were they? 

 

Spurs being up and down kind of is the point, they are, so are we, it's why all the sides being mentioned are only separated by 4 points, it is why our season wouldn't have been massively better based of one win, it is looking like Liverpool aside it is going to be a tight league where a lot of sides can beat each other, I don't see any of those other sides ever going on a massive run of form and leaving us behind personally. 

 

We haven't been great this season by any means but some seem to want to lean on a narrative the season is a bust, and it is far from that at the moment 

 

 

Edited 3 hours ago by JEToon

[Yorkie]

1 minute ago, Lush Vlad said:

I get consistency is an issue with Howe and it is a concern that we seem to be repeating some of the same mistakes as previous seasons.  But you're making out like we're the only team in the chasing pack behind the usual top 3 with performance and consistency issues.  I'd imagine there is a reason the league is so tight this year.   

 

Yep, spot on. In some cases it just reads like choosing anxiety over reality. See also 'West Ham were absolutely shit.' It's just not real. Bad result, yes. Embarrassing result against some lesser beings, no.

[Lush Vlad]

Just now, Yorkie said:

 

Yep, spot on. In some cases it just reads like choosing anxiety over reality. See also 'West Ham were absolutely shit.' It's just not real. Bad result, yes. Embarrassing result against some lesser beings, no.

 

I'm still fuming about West Ham, mind   

 

That second half performance is up there with the worst half we've seen under Howe at SJP, I reckon and we can't be repeating that again when chasing a game.  The first half was actually very good in lots of ways.  Now I can look at it a bit more objectively.   

[Yorkie]

Just now, Lush Vlad said:

2 minutes ago, Yorkie said:

 

Yep, spot on. In some cases it just reads like choosing anxiety over reality. See also 'West Ham were absolutely shit.' It's just not real. Bad result, yes. Embarrassing result against some lesser beings, no.

 

I'm still fuming about West Ham, mind   

 

That second half performance is up there with the worst half we've seen under Howe at SJP, I reckon and we can't be repeating that again when chasing a game.  The first half was actually very good in lots of ways.  Now I can look at it a bit more objectively.   

 

I couldn't agree more but that's not my point. 

[AyeDubbleYoo]

34 minutes ago, Erikse said:

 

No, but the timing of the appointment and his purpose wasn't a coincidence either. It was definetly a response to what happened last season.

Agreed, we didn’t have a fully developed football staff anyway, for obvious reasons. I’m not saying we can’t improve, I just don’t go so far in saying Howe made loads of mistakes. 

[Ben]

Poor Eddie, I quite liked him as our manager, never mind off to the next one eh ?

[Lotus]

We were unlucky. That’s it. Isak should’ve scored, Gordon should’ve scored. Willock should’ve hit the target.

I’ve been wanting to see Kelly in at CB instead of Burn but WHam’s 1st goal shows why he hasn’t been I guess.

Got ragged in the last 1/4 of the game but it goes like that sometimes. 
Even understood Murphy coming on as he can sometimes cross well. He sometimes doesn’t. Monday was one of those days. 
Can’t blame Howe for trying something different given our usual stuff just wasn’t working out. Oh well. 
We’ve had some good results lately. Let’s see how the next 3 or 4 games go before questioning the coaching and selections (again).

 

[ExiledGeordie]

12 minutes ago, Lotus said:

We were unlucky. That’s it. Isak should’ve scored, Gordon should’ve scored. Willock should’ve hit the target.

I’ve been wanting to see Kelly in at CB instead of Burn but WHam’s 1st goal shows why he hasn’t been I guess.

Got ragged in the last 1/4 of the game but it goes like that sometimes. 
Even understood Murphy coming on as he can sometimes cross well. He sometimes doesn’t. Monday was one of those days. 
Can’t blame Howe for trying something different given our usual stuff just wasn’t working out. Oh well. 
We’ve had some good results lately. Let’s see how the next 3 or 4 games go before questioning the coaching and selections (again).

 

I think Howe lost his way second half with all the changes but fully agree the players let him down with mistakes and poor finishing before that. We are creating chances albeit less than last season but are awful at finishing them.

 

 

Edited 3 hours ago by ExiledGeordie

[timeEd32]

1 hour ago, Matt1892 said:

When was the last time we won 3 league games in a row? There hasn’t been any sort of consistency in our league performances for well over a year now.

 

European football should be the minimum expected of him to remain as manager here, but if there are doubts about his long term suitability for the role then he shouldn’t have any say on transfers in January.

EDIT - Brentford(H) Sheffield United(A) and Burnley(H) in September 2023.

 

 

 

 

 

Arsenal haven't won three in a row this season.

 

Tottenham haven't won three in a row since December. 

 

Brighton haven't won three in a row since 2018 from what I can tell.

 

Man United haven't won two in a row this season.

 

Chelsea have drawn at home to Palace, Tottenham lost to Ipswich and Palace (each of those club's only wins), and Villa have drawn with Palace, Ipswich, and Bournemouth.

 

I get your point, but I think there's this feeling like we're the only team with frustrating results. It's really only title challengers that win most of the games they should. Almost everyone is inconsistent, which is why five points separate 2nd through 10th and four points separate 6th through 15th.

 

[AyeDubbleYoo]

I was going to say, it's quite rare to win 3 in a row. 

[SUPERTOON]

20 minutes ago, Lotus said:

We were unlucky. That’s it. Isak should’ve scored, Gordon should’ve scored. Willock should’ve hit the target.

I’ve been wanting to see Kelly in at CB instead of Burn but WHam’s 1st goal shows why he hasn’t been I guess.

Got ragged in the last 1/4 of the game but it goes like that sometimes. 
Even understood Murphy coming on as he can sometimes cross well. He sometimes doesn’t. Monday was one of those days. 
Can’t blame Howe for trying something different given our usual stuff just wasn’t working out. Oh well. 
We’ve had some good results lately. Let’s see how the next 3 or 4 games go before questioning the coaching and selections (again).

 

His biggest mistake Monday was bringing Barnes on for Willock and putting Joelinton back in the middle. Should have bought Tonali on and kept Joelinton wide.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

Just now, SUPERTOON said:

His biggest mistake Monday was bringing Barnes on for Willock and putting Joelinton back in the middle. Should have bought Tonali on and kept Joelinton wide.

 

Tend to agree in hindsight but at the time I thought we didn't need Joelinton's defending out wide and he wasn't offering anything going forward. TBH I just expected Barnes to come on and us to score a couple of goals fairly easily.

[Rod]

23 minutes ago, Lotus said:

We were unlucky. That’s it. Isak should’ve scored, Gordon should’ve scored. Willock should’ve hit the target.

I’ve been wanting to see Kelly in at CB instead of Burn but WHam’s 1st goal shows why he hasn’t been I guess.

Got ragged in the last 1/4 of the game but it goes like that sometimes. 
Even understood Murphy coming on as he can sometimes cross well. He sometimes doesn’t. Monday was one of those days. 
Can’t blame Howe for trying something different given our usual stuff just wasn’t working out. Oh well. 
We’ve had some good results lately. Let’s see how the next 3 or 4 games go before questioning the coaching and selections (again).

 

Spot on!

[andycap]

He's not learning at all which is my worry same problems are still evident. 

We can't break down a low block for well over a year other teams are working us out and sitting in. And blitzing us on the counter. 

We will never be consistent enough for another top four push as long as he doesn't learn and change things for each match. 

[Wolfcastle]

1 hour ago, Roids said:

Losing to a poor West Ham side at home negates that.

Top 3 will likely be from City, Arsenal & Liverpool. 

We're in the mix with the rest (Villa, Spurs, Brighton, Fulham, Man U etc) but have shown nothing (on performances alone) to warrant be bullish about 3rd place.

I don't think we'll finish any higher than 7th but look at every achievement by any side any season and there'll be results that should have negated what they achieved in the end.

[TRC]

You can say we were unlucky, if Isak is a yard further back for his goal etc, but the fact is we got smacked in the mouth and ran out of ideas. Not a single shot on target in the second half, there was a lack of belief.

[TRon]

3 hours ago, Geogaddi said:

Using last season as a stick to beat Eddie with is desperate stuff mind , we had an unprecedented injury crisis and on top of that ended up with some of the maddest cup draws I have ever seen a club get in the same season, then you have that last minute joke penalty in Paris and the Tripper head loss that cost us against Chelsea, literally everything that could go wrong literally went wrong.

 

Saying that I do think we look a worse team than we did two years ago and that's not a good sign ,he will be lucky to survive if we don't get Europe this season and although I am still fully behind him I don't think he could complain if he got sacked should that happen .

 

 

 

 

It is harsh to judge on last season like, despite all the issues with injuries and gaping holes in the squad, we were a whisker from qualifying for Europe. Obviously it was a disappointment following the success of the season before, but kind of predictable.

 

But I do agree we aren't playing anywhere near as good football as we were a couple of years ago which is odd considering the money we've spent. I think Howe will be judged on this season, and we need Europe. Still well within our grasp, but he needs to get the shape of the team sorted. It's not working for too many games this season.