Eddie Howe

[Mattoon]

We're only ever a win away from going on a strong run, Howe has shown us to be a slow burner at times and there's a lot of mitigating factors to the start of this season. Isak's pathetic behaviour rattled our pre-season and the cartel hoovering up all our targets prevented the early influx of players Howe wanted so we've had no real pre-season to gel. Couple that with injuries to Wissa and Ramsey and its clear to see why we are toothless but we've been resilient at the back.

 

It will all come good, but it always feels like we're waiting for the next international break to catch a breath. This was always going to be a bit of a tough season with the usual suspects getting to spend unfettered amounts of cash and losing our best player, but Howe will make us better than the sum of our parts again, Woltemade will get up to speed and prove why we put so much faith in him and Wissa will come back and provide the goals that will elevate us up the league. We're just finding our feet in extenuating circumstances and I trust Howe to get it right, like he always does.

 

 

Edited September 29, 2025 by Mattoon

[r0cafella]

I was just dreaming about how good we'd be if we played say 4231 with a double pivot of Sandro and Elliot Anderson. Would free us up to have an absolute maverick like eze as a 10. It wont happen but it's the kind of change needed for us to take the next step imo. 

[KingArthur]

I think our back five means we give up the possession totally. It's never 3-5-2 or 3-4-2-1. Its always 5-4-1  and very defensive. Or 5-3-2 but we drop so deep and offer so little counter attacking threat.

[Hanshithispantz]

We've played that back 5 and been fine in possession before though, we were the same with a back 4 too. Sometimes we're just sloppy and our press is off, Arsenal were on it too.

 

One of those games where we usually reflect on and come out of it a better side for a couple of months, so hopefully that's the case here.

[Coffee_Johnny]

12 hours ago, Jordan said:

Please stop playing 5 at the back. 

We didn’t.

[kingxlnc]

could miley and tonali be double pivot and bruno at 10? hes the most technical player we have? 

[Lush Vlad]

I get we have to sit in and soak up pressure at times. But we pressed with varying degrees of success in the first half and even at times in the second. But we seemed to abandon that quite early. 
 

The possession thing was a combination of things. I think our build up from the back was non-existent and even worse than usual. It’s been a consistent gripe of mine under Howe.
 

Pope was getting pressured more than usual or they were cutting off his easy out ball to one of the defenders. No Trippier or Hall at full back to try and progress us up the pitch with their passing. Compounded by the fact Burn is so uncomfortable receiving the ball at left back. He was getting pressured the minute it came to him, as well. He got a fair few hospital passes. It’s never really been Tino’s game. 
 

Thiaw and Botman are both great on the ball and had top games. But I do also think we missed Schar in possession, too. They were trying to look for the passes between the lines to the midfield. But they rarely stuck or weren’t always on. 

 

Speaking of the midfield. It also didn’t help that it was mostly non-existent and  sloppy all game. Joelinton and Bruno were miles off their usual levels against Arsenal. The wide men didn’t get much of a look in, either. But they were also a bit wasteful when they did get it. 
 

I actually think Arsenal played really well on and off the ball. They knew who to press and harry and what to try and cut off. They also mixed up their own passing and would go long. But also had some slick patterns that cut us apart in 4-5 passes. 
 

Bad time for us to underperform and them to click and play a more positive game for a change. 
 

[Heron]

6 hours ago, TheBrownBottle said:

I don’t think the performances have been there, and nor have the results.  We look absolutely toothless upfront, shaky at the back and the midfield disappears with frightening regularity.

 

But we’ve seen this before with Howe’s teams and it is early days yet - more than 90% of the season is still to go.  We should be a long way away from questioning Howe at this point. 

I think the toothless up front is accurate but to me that's somewhat understandable given the last minute changes and lack of pre season for those involved to gel.

 

For me the midfield is an over reaction and even moreso is the defence. Prior to yesterday's game we had the lowest number of shots conceded against us and lowest xG against us. Our defence is our strongest part of our squad and that's why we're gearing up the way we are.

[KingArthur]

25 minutes ago, Hanshithispantz said:

We've played that back 5 and been fine in possession before though, we were the same with a back 4 too. Sometimes we're just sloppy and our press is off, Arsenal were on it too.

 

One of those games where we usually reflect on and come out of it a better side for a couple of months, so hopefully that's the case here.

Some times yes, but mostly it seems we just back up too much. At start when there is energy it may work when WBs can press. Burn as LB cannot run up and press, so these decisions affect the way we can play. 

I think Howe is trying to grind out results while still bedding in some key players.

[Hanshithispantz]

Burn was only LB in a 4 though wasn't he? I agree it looked like we were trying to grind it out yesterday but I just think it seems that way when we're off, against Liverpool and Villa we looked aggressive, we just lacked a striker. Even against Barcelona we started on fire and never looked totally out of our depth even with their style of play.

 

[AyeDubbleYoo]

I think the only main negative of our setup is that we can’t retain the ball well. So against teams like Arsenal we will always be fighting an uphill battle if we don’t kill them off at the right moment (with a second goal from a blatant pen for example). 
 

Give elite teams so much ball and it’s quite likely they will eventually find a goal. Arsenal are just worse because they also score from corners. 
 

I’m not sure what we can do about it though, because we don’t have the style or maybe even the players to kill games by keeping the ball. 
 

Perhaps take out Pope, Murphy and Joelinton (and maybe Gordon if he can’t stop losing the ball) and it could look different in these games.

 

Otherwise we will only win when the elite team is destroyed by our intensity and can’t come back. 

[KingArthur]

45 minutes ago, Hanshithispantz said:

Burn was only LB in a 4 though wasn't he? I agree it looked like we were trying to grind it out yesterday but I just think it seems that way when we're off, against Liverpool and Villa we looked aggressive, we just lacked a striker. Even against Barcelona we started on fire and never looked totally out of our depth even with their style of play.

 

Yes he was, and I thought it was because of the set piece threat and that is why Lascelles came on. I think we were just parking the bus too early. But Arsenal was a lot better than Liverpool for example.

Wissa's situation is sad because we really have no quality option up top other than Woltemade. Hall was sick? 
 

[Lotus]

We’re not a very press resistant team atm. Bit of an issue I think. 
 

We also seemed happy to make sure the ball spent as much time in the air as on the ground.

[TRon]

1 minute ago, Lotus said:

We’re not a very press resistant team atm. Bit of an issue I think. 
 

We also seemed happy to make sure the ball spent as much time in the air as on the ground.

 

 

We do seem to be in transition with styles at the moment, no idea if this is down to having a different type of striker up front now. We looked far more like our normal football playing selves against Bradford, but that might just be down to playing easier opponents. 

 

I think the Wissa injury has really knocked our season for a six, might have to temper our expectations this season as a result. 

[Myleftboot]

3 hours ago, kingxlnc said:

could miley and tonali be double pivot and bruno at 10? hes the most technical player we have? 

I’ve always thought that but not miley yet. I think we should have looked to have gone that way in the summer and brought in a top defensive midfielder to play alongside Tonali so Bruno can play the 10 in a 4-2-3-1.

[Gallowgate Toon]

We need a run of games where we can get on the ball more with a decently settled side so we can find some consistent rhythm + combinations. We don't have much training time to work on things so it's very much learning as we go, unfortunately.

 

 

[Curva Sud Milano]

15 hours ago, JoeyBartoon said:

Personally, I think our recruitment has been a bit of a disaster. Most of the signings (prior to Big Wolts) seem to have been made with the expectation that they’d fit into the system that brought us success recently.

 

The Isak situation has really hurt us, in my opinion. We never brought in a like-for-like style replacement , which has forced us to change our style of play — and it shows, because we look disjointed, and players not able to play to their strengths. Nothing against Woltemade, I actually rate him, but there’s no chance Howe had him in mind as a key signing months ago

 

 

I couldn't agree more... the handling of the Isaak case, the timing of the Thiaw purchase, the expensive acquisition of Elanga ( I know very little about him but clearly he doesn't have Howe's trust), and the purchase of Wolt (who I like a lot) the last day and  who has nothing to do with your 4-3-3... that's why I also believe your recruitment was a disaster. I don't know if Wissa will be used as a winger or a striker but in both cases Howe will have a problem if he doesn't change his setup. I think the best solution might be a 4-4-1-1 with Wolt behind Wissa.The midfield suffered a lot yesterday, with  Bruno and Joe in form you would have no problems but both (especially Bruno) have been awful since the start of the season... perhaps a 4-man midfield would help them and the team.

 

 

 

Edited September 29, 2025 by Curva Sud Milano

[AyeDubbleYoo]

No offence but you don’t know what you’re talking about. 

[Curva Sud Milano]

3 minutes ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

No offence but you don’t know what you’re talking about. 

 

 

Me ? It's just an outsider opinion, no need to get upset.

 

 

Edited September 29, 2025 by Curva Sud Milano

[The College Dropout]

10 hours ago, TheBrownBottle said:

I don’t think the performances have been there, and nor have the results.  We look absolutely toothless upfront, shaky at the back and the midfield disappears with frightening regularity.

 

But we’ve seen this before with Howe’s teams and it is early days yet - more than 90% of the season is still to go.  We should be a long way away from questioning Howe at this point. 

Think we’ve looked supreme at the back mostly. 

[The College Dropout]

58 minutes ago, Lotus said:

We’re not a very press resistant team atm. Bit of an issue I think. 
 

We also seemed happy to make sure the ball spent as much time in the air as on the ground.

Never have been. But with Isak or prime Wilson up top we have a direct, vertical threat. 

[Froggy]

11 minutes ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

No offence but you don’t know what you’re talking about. 

 

What did he say that was so wrong that warranted this response? Genuine question. 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 29, 2025 by Froggy

[r0cafella]

4 minutes ago, Froggy said:

 

What did he say that was so wrong that warranted this response? Genuine question. 

 

 

 

 

 

Im also wondering

[Erikse]

8 minutes ago, Froggy said:

 

What did he say that was so wrong that warranted this response? Genuine question. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm not sure what was wrong with the timing of the Thiaw transfer? Elanga is getting the same treatment as Isak, Bruno, Tonali, Gordon, Hall, Livra etcetc. Actually he has shown Elanga more trust early on than many of those. We are rotating him with a Murphy who has done really well for us in the last year. Saying that the recruitment was a disaster, I mean, Thiaw and Wolte has looked fine? The other 2 got injured, which was unlucky. Also, Wissa as winger? What? I also don't think the Isak situation could have been handled that much better, other than that maybe we should have expected it to happen and acted earlier. It seems like it took the club by surprise, and we were probably leaving it too late with the replacements, causing us to overpay a little for Wissa.

 

 

Edited September 29, 2025 by Erikse

[The College Dropout]

1 minute ago, Erikse said:

 

I'm not sure what was wrong with the timing of the Thiaw transfer? Elanga is getting the same treatment as Isak, Bruno, Tonali, Gordon, Hall, Livra etcetc. Actually he has shown Elanga more trust early on than many of those. Saying that the recruitment was a disaster, I mean, Thiaw and Wolte has looked fine? The other 2 got injured, which was unlucky. Also, Wissa as winger? What? I also don't think the Isak situation could have been handled that much better, other than that maybe we should have expected it to happen and acted earlier. It seems like it took the club by surprise.

 

 

 

 Isak went straight into the team and played until he got injured.