Eddie Howe

[500bhp]

We are missing the rat. Was obvious all pre season and has been since the Villa game. He frightened opposition defences and was a constant threat, well for the first 60 minutes anyway. He's not been replaced and our wingers look lost without him, except Murphy at times.

[El Prontonise]

We might be missing the rat but as I've said previously in this thread the away performances have been there all year.

[Guest]

1 minute ago, 500bhp said:

We are missing the rat. Was obvious all pre season and has been since the Villa game. He frightened opposition defences and was a constant threat, well for the first 60 minutes anyway. He's not been replaced and our wingers look lost without him, except Murphy at times.

I probably do underestimate the fear factor he brought, which helped the rest of the team, when he could be bothered that is.

 

I also can't help thinking Isak leaving left Elanga quite disappointed and has probably not helped him settle in. One of his best friends and countrymen leaving as I'm sure we all, and himself thought that chemistry would be a big factor in Elanga joining. Probably the club might have thought it could help Isak stay as well.

 

So many things that play a part in this mess, it's honestly hard to keep track of it all  

[SiLvOR]

What's really frustrating as a fan is seeing our press and intensity completely disappear away from home. (An issue from last year that's continued.) We're giving so much respect to shit teams and allowing them to get a real grip on the game. See today and West Ham. We invite pressure on ourselves and allow teams to target Burn by playing balls over the top without being pressed into the stands in these recent games, leading to obvious chances being created.

 

I get we have more games, but we also have a bigger squad now. We can rotate, and of course it's not like for like in certain positions, but keeping players fresh so we can keep our press up should be our aim every game.

 

We should at least be making things difficult for the home sides, but right now, we're making things so, so easy. It's really painful viewing. I hope with the enforced Burn change we'll at least see some better attacking plays and fluidity developing, but let's see. This break has come at a great time, really. Get on the training ground and get back to our best 

 

[Myleftboot]

4 minutes ago, 500bhp said:

We are missing the rat. Was obvious all pre season and has been since the Villa game. He frightened opposition defences and was a constant threat, well for the first 60 minutes anyway. He's not been replaced and our wingers look lost without him, except Murphy at times.

There was a lot of games last season where we weren’t getting the ball to him.

[Erikse]

10 minutes ago, Vinny Green Balls said:

it certainly has been, but we went into our worst run of form under him in December-January in the 23-24 season. It was 2-0's and 4-1's to relegation threatened teams. This is coming close to that, but it was fucking abysmal then.

 

 

 

 

Yeah, but that was different, 10-13 players out every game, crazy amounts of burnout and fatigue, and the fixtures were even more congested. We've had some key injuries, but only like 3 players out. I bet that period has put some scars in him, which could be some of the reason as to why we are a bit confused as to what we should be doing this time.

 

 

Edited November 9, 2025 by Erikse

[Vinny Green Balls]

Just now, El Prontonise said:

We might be missing the rat but as I've said previously in this thread the away performances have been there all year.

We went into our crazy run of from from early December to late January. From then, we beat Southampton, West Ham, Leicester and then looked shit on away days for the rest of the way. Our away form was decent until April. 

[Whitley mag]

2 minutes ago, Myleftboot said:

There was a lot of games last season where we weren’t getting the ball to him.

Service to Isak was shite a lot of the time and now Wolt is suffering the same.

[Ronaldo]

Bit of a red flag that he left Burn on for set piece threat. I get that’s there’s been a shift towards pragmatism throughout the league this season but fucking hell. We’ve spent far, far too much money for us to be banking on Dan Burn from set pieces at the expense of a balanced side able to progress the ball on the left and not be totally exposed as we were. It screams out of ideas.

 

 

Edited November 9, 2025 by Ronaldo

[Vinny Green Balls]

1 minute ago, Erikse said:

 

Yeah, but that was different, 10-13 players out every game, crazy amounts of burnout and fatigue, and the fixtures were even more congested. We've had some key injuries, but only like 3 players out.

 

 

 

the one guy who could get regular goals, and good fullbacks. It's been pretty bad who we've lost. Not excusing how we are now. And I do contend that this is his biggest challenge yet. But we've been through some really ugly patches under him, and so far have coming out better each time. I'm certainly not going to fall into the gambler's fallacy though, and just assume that he will get us out every time. But signs have been pretty good so far that he's managed to get us out of some dreadful form.

[John P]

5 minutes ago, SiLvOR said:

What's really frustrating as a fan is seeing our press and intensity completely disappear away from home. (An issue from last year that's continued.) We're giving so much respect to shit teams and allowing them to get a real grip on the game. See today and West Ham. We invite pressure on ourselves and allow teams to target Burn by playing balls over the top without being pressed into the stands in these recent games, leading to obvious chances being created.

 

I get we have more games, but we also have a bigger squad now. We can rotate, and of course it's not like for like in certain positions, but keeping players fresh so we can keep our press up should be our aim every game.

 

We should at least be making things difficult for the home sides, but right now, we're making things so, so easy. It's really painful viewing. I hope with the enforced Burn change we'll at least see some better attacking plays and fluidity developing, but let's see. This break has come at a great time, really. Get on the training ground and get back to our best 

 

100% agree with this, our high press has been pretty much non-existent this season other than the odd game here or there. Presumably it's a deliberate tactic to try and negotiate 3 games per week, but we're a much worse team when we sit back and don't play with high intensity. I thought the signings we made this summer to strengthen the squad would allow us to rotate more and employ the high press in most games, but that intensity is just completely lacking right now

[nufc123]

16 minutes ago, 500bhp said:

We are missing the rat. 

We are, but Brentford have lost their rats aswell.

[Erikse]

8 minutes ago, Vinny Green Balls said:

the one guy who could get regular goals, and good fullbacks. It's been pretty bad who we've lost. Not excusing how we are now. And I do contend that this is his biggest challenge yet. But we've been through some really ugly patches under him, and so far have coming out better each time. I'm certainly not going to fall into the gambler's fallacy though, and just assume that he will get us out every time. But signs have been pretty good so far that he's managed to get us out of some dreadful form.

 

Yeah, but still nothing compared to playing a 17 year old Miley in midfield alongside Longstaff 90x2 every week, a Trippier who was engulfed in personal problems and consequently gifted away goals east and west, and an Isak who couldn't even jog anymore, with a bench full of random academy players. We've been playing Burn at LB through long runs before this season. Our current lineup is better than most teams player by players, it's just not working.

 

I wouldn't be concerned if we just came out of a rough patch of fixtures and they were about to ease up, but we have several tough fixtures coming up in the next 7 league games.

 

 

Edited November 9, 2025 by Erikse

[Erikse]

6 minutes ago, nufc123 said:

We are, but Brentford have lost their rats aswell.

 

[Optimistic Nut]

23 minutes ago, El Prontonise said:

We might be missing the rat but as I've said previously in this thread the away performances have been there all year.

 

Only lost away at City, Liverpool, Villa & Arsenal after Xmas last season, like. We were ticking along against the sort clubs who've just beaten us in the last 3 aways.

[Vinny Green Balls]

18 minutes ago, Erikse said:

 

Yeah, but still nothing compared to playing a 17 year old Miley in midfield alongside Longstaff 90x2 every week, a Trippier who was engulfed in personal problems and consequently gifted away goals east and west, and an Isak who couldn't even jog anymore, with a bench full of random academy players. We've been playing Burn at LB through long runs before this season. Our current lineup is better than most teams player by players, it's just not working.

 

I wouldn't be concerned if we just came out of a rough patch of fixtures and they were about to ease up, but we have several tough fixtures coming up in the next 7 league games.

 

 

 

Given how he loves to play, those injuries have been very problematic. Tuchel lived and died by his fullbacks, and their form went to utter shit when James and Chilwell got injured. Trippier only has it once every few games. He's not much better than 23-24, and is clearly in major decline. Last year we looked inifinitely better when we had Hall and Livramento as fullbacks, and still significantly better when Livra moved to the left. Right now we just don't have a striker we know how to use yet, and we have virtually no attacking support from fullbacks.

 

Anyway, you're right though.  the two seasons are not apples to apples. Very different circumstances. My larger point is that Howe got us clicking after that terrible run of form, both that season and last season. We looked doomed in 21-22 until late January, then we went on a run. I don't know why it's a feature of Howe ball, but so far it has seemed to be. Once again, I don't want to fall into the gambler's fallacy, but I think there is a pretty decent chance that we'll go on another big unbeaten run soon. Would be way better if we didn't have to play catch up every season though.

 

But I feel we are going to struggle with Burn as the fullback, and that's on Howe, or at least will be with fully fit actual fullbacks.

 

 

Edited November 9, 2025 by Vinny Green Balls

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Pilko said:

 

That's only partially true. He could have rotated the goalkeeper, the midfielders and the wingers and yet he's picking the same ones and leaving the same ones on the bench every week.

 

The last time we literally had 11 fit outfield players. It was Krafth on the bench with sub keepers and a creche. He's got way more options but doesn't fancy any of them, including two of the biggest spends this summer.

 

From what i remember he had hall he refused to play even when we were 4-1 up in games. We had the option to switch formation and use players less i,e going to 5 at the back, something we did well last year but never did. Even when fit we saw players like Anderson be given 10 minutes whilst bruno toiled.

[Mountain]

Might have to change my profile pic one day at this rate.

 

 

 

 

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Vinny Green Balls said:

jumping the gun a little? Or are you going by the broken clock apprach every season?

 

We were awful march - may. I think the cup and the celebrations took a lot out of us but we certainly lucked in at the end.

 

There hasnt really been an uptick except in Europe where we look far more prepared this year which is encouraging

[TRon]

It's weird because I love having Howe as our manager, but most of this year the football on the pitch has been pretty crap. If that garbage was served up by Bruce I'd be roasting him. 

[Vinny Green Balls]

Just now, Tonalis Bookie said:

 

We were awful march - may. I think the cup and the celebrations took a lot out of us but we certainly lucked in at the end.

 

There hasnt really been an uptick except in Europe where we look far more prepared this year which is encouraging

we weren't awful March-April. Everyone was expecting us to be and were pulling off solid wins that we should have won, not lucky results.

 

We were piss poor starting with the Villa away game, and that was April 19th.

[Ronaldo]

Just now, Tonalis Bookie said:

 

We were awful march - may. I think the cup and the celebrations took a lot out of us but we certainly lucked in at the end.

 

There hasnt really been an uptick except in Europe where we look far more prepared this year which is encouraging

We’ve beaten two sides in Europe who woudn’t survive in the PL and another (at home) who are currently below Betis and Espanol. I’m not encouraged by it when we then play average to poor PL sides and can’t threaten.

[Vinny Green Balls]

3 minutes ago, TRon said:

It's weird because I love having Howe as our manager, but most of this year the football on the pitch has been pretty crap. If that garbage was served up by Bruce I'd be roasting him. 

was it? We slaughtered a few teams, including Man United and Palace after the cup final.

[Fak]

1 minute ago, Vinny Green Balls said:

was it? We slaughtered a few teams, including Man United and Palace after the cup final.

 

No coincidence Howe was in hospital when Mad Dog delivered those performances. 

 

[Vinny Green Balls]

Just now, Fak said:

 

No coincidence Howe was in hospital when Mad Dog delivered those performances. 

 

and for Villa away