Eddie Howe

[TheBrownBottle]

14 minutes ago, UncleBingo said:

I think the Bruce/Benitez signing argument is moot when you look at how much was spent by both. Benitez pretty much had a zero net spend and his average player price was circa £6M. Bruce spent £100M net and his players average player price was nearly three times that.

Obviously it's a lot easier to buy better players when you have more money to spend.

It is absolutely not something I'd argue re who is the better manager - but even the net argument is unfair; Bruce signed ASM too.

 

Rafa never had a perfect transfer market record at any club - or even a good one, necessarily.  But he's still one of the top managers of the 21st Century whereas Bruce is a chancer PFM wanker.

[TRon]

2 hours ago, TheBrownBottle said:

I'm tiring of reading that the squad is shite and that it is a miracle that Howe gets a tune out of them.

 

There are six players in the squad who have been capped by England in the last year or so.  We've two Brazilian internationals and an Italian international in midfield.  Isak is probably the second-best centre forward in the country.  And there is plenty of talent besides that.

 

Howe is a good manager - but the current squad has not been as good as the sum of its parts this season.  The idea that no-one could have done better is laughable tbh.

 

Howe has a lot of qualities, he feels like he belongs here, the fans generally love him, and when we get it right, the football is great to watch.

 

But he still looks like a one track manager, we play this way or bust. His formations stay mostly the same, his in game management is often missing, and the set pieces are really poor. At the moment we don't look like a brilliantly managed team, we look more like an inspirational one.

[dave s]

I still think Eddie is the man for the job. There’s players not hitting the form they were last season or previous seasons, Gordon and Bruno stand out as obvious examples (last night aside).. whether that’s down to player confidence, Eddies tactics or training, who knows .. but I’d like to see him have the chance to get it right and shut everyone up. 

[AyeDubbleYoo]

There's no possibility he leaves before the end of the season anyway, so no need to worry. See what the second part of the season brings. 

[TheBrownBottle]

11 minutes ago, TRon said:

 

Howe has a lot of qualities, he feels like he belongs here, the fans generally love him, and when we get it right, the football is great to watch.

 

But he still looks like a one track manager, we play this way or bust. His formations stay mostly the same, his in game management is often missing, and the set pieces are really poor. At the moment we don't look like a brilliantly managed team, we look more like an inspirational one.

Yeah, I think this is it.  I personally love Howe and want nothing more than for him to break our trophy duck.  In a sport that's went awry ethically and moved from its roots, he's like an intelligent tactically aware throwback (if that makes sense).

 

But ultimately I care more about NUFC than Howe's career.  So I'd have no compunction about the club sacking him if the results and performances don't reach an acceptable level before the end of the season.

 

As far as this gobshite's concerned, he still has credit in the bank.

[TRon]

3 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

Yeah, I think this is it.  I personally love Howe and want nothing more than for him to break our trophy duck.  In a sport that's went awry ethically and moved from its roots, he's like an intelligent tactically aware throwback (if that makes sense).

 

But ultimately I care more about NUFC than Howe's career.  So I'd have no compunction about the club sacking him if the results and performances don't reach an acceptable level before the end of the season.

 

As far as this gobshite's concerned, he still has credit in the bank.

 

Yeah this is why I am still on board hoping he'll finish the season strong. It's like Keegan. You can see the shortcomings in some games, but you fear for what will come after if he's gone. That's why Howe has such a loyal backing, most fans are still enjoying the ride and tbf, that's not often the case as a Newcastle fan.

[Erikse]

3 hours ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

Ironically those England players (and Joelinton) got their caps because Howe had them playing so well. 

 

No doubt Howe has transformed some players, but likewise I think Steve Bruce made some players look worse than what their real level was. Schär, Longstaff and even Almiron looked pretty good under Benitez. We just had the idea of them being Championship level due to them being Bruced.

 

 

Edited December 5 by Erikse

[The College Dropout]

New CL format is brutal imo.  and the minimum wage gap to Arsenal who were 6th in wages is £48m.  £64m to Spurs.  170m to Man U. 210m to Liverpool. 240m to Chelsea. £260m to City.  
 

the wage bill of City and Chelsea is literally more than double ours. 
 

The gap to the genuine top 6 is gigantic.  All of them bar Arsenal and Spurs should be able to handle European football with ease.  I think Arsenal new wages will be much higher now but you can see why tough European away games and a few injuries did them in. 
 

The combined wages of Brentford and us is less than the big 4 clubs. 

1 hour ago, JEToon said:

 

Aye sure, we might move up a place or so, but then you get to sides who are paying rumored of about 20,50,70 million a year more in wages than us.

 

I also don’t think the new European schedule is as punishing as it used to be personally, evidenced by what Villa are coming up against v what we did 

 

 

 

Edited December 5 by The College Dropout

[AyeDubbleYoo]

Who are the genuine top 6?

[Fak]

 

[TK-421]

Just listening to that, decent so far, about his early career. Not got to Jordans' 'difficult' questions yet.

[Smal]

think games like last night convince me more and more that individuals have been letting him down this season more than anything. Obviously it’s partly his responsibility to get players up for games, but performances like last night’s, Arsenal and Man City are night and day to most of our other performances this season.

 

The players are capable and the system works when the players do their jobs, and it can be great to watch. Consistency and determination has to be the players’ responsibility as much as the coaching staff.

[Roids]

3 minutes ago, Smal said:

think games like last night convince me more and more that individuals have been letting him down this season more than anything. Obviously it’s partly his responsibility to get players up for games, but performances like last night’s, Arsenal and Man City are night and day to most of our other performances this season.

 

The players are capable and the system works when the players do their jobs, and it can be great to watch. Consistency and determination has to be the players’ responsibility as much as the coaching staff.

You credit him for the good performances while laying fault for the poor ones on the players, come on. 

He's either responsible for everything (good & bad) or nothing at all.

 

 

Edited December 5 by Roids

[TRon]

4 minutes ago, Smal said:

think games like last night convince me more and more that individuals have been letting him down this season more than anything. Obviously it’s partly his responsibility to get players up for games, but performances like last night’s, Arsenal and Man City are night and day to most of our other performances this season.

 

The players are capable and the system works when the players do their jobs, and it can be great to watch. Consistency and determination has to be the players’ responsibility as much as the coaching staff.

 

I think some teams are easier for our style of play as well though. Liverpool come at you so there is more space for our attacking players. Will we be as effective with teams who come and sit back? This is where I would like to see a bit more flexibility in our game plan, maybe don't push forward quite so aggressively when players are just running into a wall of players and losing the ball too easily.

[JEToon]

I thought we were comfortably better against Brighton than we were against Man City like, I don’t even think its that close.  

[wormy]

18 minutes ago, TK-421 said:

Just listening to that, decent so far, about his early career. Not got to Jordans' 'difficult' questions yet.

 

I'm only half an hour in (never seen his podcast so really didn't expect it to be a full hour plus). While the idea that the questions are 'hard-hitting' seems a bit of guff unless it massively picks up, credit where it's due he seems to be letting Eddie do most of the talking. It's nice to see him talking fairly candidly, even while nothing groundbreaking so far.

[gdm]

10 minutes ago, wormy said:

 

I'm only half an hour in (never seen his podcast so really didn't expect it to be a full hour plus). While the idea that the questions are 'hard-hitting' seems a bit of guff unless it massively picks up, credit where it's due he seems to be letting Eddie do most of the talking. It's nice to see him talking fairly candidly, even while nothing groundbreaking so far.

It gets a bit more difficult. Eddie bats then away well 

[80]

5 hours ago, TheBrownBottle said:

I think the problems are far greater than simply missing a few chances.  The performances have been poor generally.  I'm not counting Liverpool - the players self-motivate for games like that.  Every club in the PL ups their game for games like this - and the vast majority don't have the talent we have at our disposal.

 

Next four games will be far more instructive as to whether or not a corner is turned.  We've been average to dogshit in far more games this season than we've been good.  Having watched pretty much all of our games I can't go with a narrative that we've been unlucky - we haven't.

Yeah, agreed. Talking about our missed chances forgets all the goals our opponents cudda shudda scored as well. 

 

Games like Brentford are going to be a lot more informative about the rest of our season, to be honest.

[Astroblack]

Very interesting interview. Certainly better than the one with Neville. Humble, intelligent, self aware, everything you'd want in a manager. 

[Erikse]

4 hours ago, JEToon said:

 

I think it’s a good squad, I just think some have a slight tendency to overlook how good other squads are.

 

It gets said we have international players like it is some exclusive to us thing, its not, loads of teams in the league have good international players. 

 

But what other squads are we talking? I mean we were getting mid table finishes with Bruce and the squad he had. Imo mid table teams are miles away from our squad, so a mid table outcome like 10th would be pretty bad. The problem is just the gap between the heavy hitters and the rest. Can't compare ourselves with them, obviously.

 

 

Edited December 5 by Erikse

[The College Dropout]

1 hour ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

Who are the genuine top 6?

The teams with significantly more ability to invest in their squads than the rest of the division.   It’s almost impossible to compete long-term with them. 

[Astroblack]

3 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

The teams with significantly more ability to invest in their squads than the rest of the division.   It’s almost impossible to compete long-term with them. 

 

I think we can displace Spurs. Levy has made some strange decisions. We did bid 70 mil for Guehi this summer, just got rejected. 

 

 

Edited December 5 by Astroblack

[Joe1984]

49 minutes ago, Smal said:

think games like last night convince me more and more that individuals have been letting him down this season more than anything. Obviously it’s partly his responsibility to get players up for games, but performances like last night’s, Arsenal and Man City are night and day to most of our other performances this season.

 

The players are capable and the system works when the players do their jobs, and it can be great to watch. Consistency and determination has to be the players’ responsibility as much as the coaching staff.

Nah just sack him.and move on to the next.

 

I mean it worked for Man U, Chelsea, Tottenham etc.

 

Right? 😅

 

[Erikse]

Lets look Palace for instance. A squad expected to be around mid table

 

 

I'm no expert on Palace, admittedly. And yes, the have a couple of good ones. But isn't this a real gap in quality overall? And I don't believe in things like Bruno and Gordon not actually being good players, because that stuff is just short term memory like we had with Isak recently.

 

 

Edited December 5 by Erikse

[JEToon]

4 minutes ago, Erikse said:

 

But what other squads are we talking? I mean we were pretty near mid table with Bruce. Imo mid table teams are miles away from our squad, so a mid table outcome like 10th would be pretty bad. The problem is just the gap between the heavy hitters and the rest. Can't compare ourselves with them, obviously.

 

 

 

 

It seems a bit redundant asking a question you are answering yourself really.

 

There are squads a lot better than ours, that are obvious, and squads that aren’t, that are obvious, just about every salary table you can find for the league sort of shows where squads are.

 

I would doubt we will finish 10th personally, its December, as I said I expect us to finish about 7th or 8th, which is about what most logical thinking fans would expect from the squad

 

Given we currently sit 2 points of that place in the league it just makes me think a lot of what is being said about this season is just reactionary nonsense, i.e talk of the possibility of the manager being sacked, it is just a lot of online white noise.