Eddie Howe

[TRon]

16 minutes ago, Izakaya said:

Great post. 

 

Club are roundly fucking him. 

 

They messed up with the DOF shambles, but mostly the club has let Howe have his way, even to the tune of spending £55m on a 29 year old striker who will only depreciate. I think we are past the stage where we can blame the club for poor performances. 

[Lush Vlad]

3 minutes ago, Andy said:

 

It's always been like this to be honest, even going back to the SBR days and before. It's not an issue restricted to forums or social media, the same criticism (often worse) can be heard in the ground or in the pub. 

 

I don't think it's an entitlement thing personally or even a modern football thing, you'll see and hear this sort of stuff on every forum and in every ground, pub and office across the country, and that's been the case since I started following the sport. 

 

I sort of get it in the heat of the moment, at the ground, watching in the pub, straight after the game etc.  Especially when there is alcohol involved and it is still raw.

 

But to think people think what they're going to post, type it all out and then still post something shitty, even when it has calmed down a bit.  That's a bit much IMO.  

[Gallowgate Toon]

I'm glad he's said we can't just keep doing the same things over & over. It does feel like our problems are all over the place so it's hard to know where to start. Maybe in the league we have to treat this as a transitional season and building for the next iteration even if it comes at the cost of league progress this campaign, but that doesn't feel like it's Howe's MO. Either way, we need to be focusing more on our strengths than maybe trying to find theoretically perfect balances? I did find that Burn quote, if true, worrying in that it shows a fear-based approach. 

 

I think if you asked Howe what his ideal team is that he's working towards, it's something like peak Klopp's Liverpool. Pressing, lots of athleticism & direct play, but with a high enough technical ceiling to exercise more control to pick & choose when you ramp up. To achieve that, you need good footballers (which sounds really obvious) so, for example, when is he thinking we need to upgrade to a 'keeper that can kick a ball with some consistency? There must be some forward planning somewhere, we can't take absolutely everything game-by-game.

 

It's pretty easy when you have a bad run to think everything is wrong but it really does feel like there's nothing good right now bar maybe Thiaw  we're struggling to build attacks or hold the ball when pressed, pretty easy to get into & through, not having many shots or decent chances or even taking many risks, often losing second balls & duels, all while chucking away leads to pretty average teams through basic play.

 

Out of everything, I actually think midfield & how it connects between defence & attack is our biggest problem. We never have a solid platform to just control the game at the minute, either on and off the ball. That just isn't on the midfielders either, it's the positioning of multiple players meaning we don't have enough options - attackers dropping very deep & full backs not able to consistently support building play.

 

My worry is we revert and go 'back to basics' rather than try to figure out a path forward which would be a mistake. A lot of the old guard are just that, we won't be able to keep on repeating the same tricks forever. Interesting to see where we go next, I think he's going to go for a back 3 against City. We might see a cheeky 3-5-2 come out.

[The Prophet]

8 minutes ago, Andy said:

 

It's always been like this to be honest, even going back to the SBR days and before. It's not an issue restricted to forums or social media, the same criticism (often worse) can be heard in the ground or in the pub. 

 

I don't think it's an entitlement thing personally or even a modern football thing, you'll see and hear this sort of stuff on every forum and in every ground, pub and office across the country, and that's been the case since I started following the sport. 

 

Granted there's always been a minority like that, do you not think it's becoming more polarised? It feels like social media chat has bled into regular discourse. That's not exclusive football either.

[Colos Short and Curlies]

21 minutes ago, Chicken Dancer said:

When you spend £40m on a midfielder you were probably behind signing you surely start him in one of the 3 games in 7 days?

 

You build a squad to be able to rotate and manage the volume of games, yet Howe seems really reluctant to mix things up which is killing us. I really thought we’d see more rotation this season, especially after that Bournemouth game back in September. 

 

Moving Tonali central was the spark last season, I’ve no idea what we can do this season. Maybe Wissa coming back changes things, but it’ll be a long time before he’s up to match speed that’s for sure. 
 

Any talk of folk wanting him gone is frankly crackers, but I do wish he’d be a bit more bold with his team selection. As soon as Lewis Hall was fit he should be starting LB. If you’re dead against dropping Burn then stick him CB with Thiaw. 
 

Feels like a carbon copy of 23/24, except for the fact this season we can actually rotate our players but just don’t. 

 

It's the midfield shape again imho.

 

It's time for Miley to come in as a double pivot with Tonali, Bruno playing in front of them.

 

That sets you up for a 4-3-3 with Wissa or Wolt upfront and should get more from the wingers in having Bruno further up to dictate play or a 3-5-2 with Tino and Hall providing the width and Wolt & Wissa as a Henry/Bergkamp lite partnership.

 

Ramsey will get his time, either rotating in for Bruno or Miley or as the number 10  

[The Butcher]

He can stay as long as he likes imo.

 

I've doubted him twice before over a period of time, but I'll give him time.

[The College Dropout]

19 minutes ago, Erikse said:

 

Naturally the amount of money spent will increase the expectations, especially when the manager seems to have had a large influence on who we buy. In this PSR world it has a huge impact on the growth of the club, as in PSR terms we are paying a good chunk for these players every year, so it does impact what we can do going forward. Hopefully the club acknowledge that we might need to think a little differently in the windows. Or maybe Elanga and Ramsey eventually makes me eat my words, but I'm very sceptical of that.

 

 

 

 

It's the clubs fault that we spent £55m on Elanga. It looked sceptical at the time and looks worse now. But he's here, so what now?

I'm not going to blame Howe for the transfer window, he filled a vacuum that shouldn't have existed.

 

At one point we were just going down a list of PL strikers that had scored 10+ goals. It was amateur hour. Has Strand Larson even scored this season in the league?

[Froggy]

1 minute ago, The College Dropout said:

Has Strand Larson even scored this season in the league?

 

He's scored more than Isak,.

[El Prontonise]

1 pen. 

[mayubeproud]

I think our major problem is that we don't really have an identity about our style of play for the last 24 months.

 

Are we good at high pressing? We were excellent at it during the first 24 months under EH, but we are average at it now. 

 

So are we good at build-up play, possession based style of football? Certainly no. Adding Woltemade do make us look more fluid in possession, but still nowhere near as good as the top guns.

 

Then are we good at counter-attacking? No, we don't really score a lot from fast breaks.

 

Then at least, are we good at set pieces? No, we are rather average on it despite the personnel we have.

 

We have to find a way to dominate our opponents week in, week out. IMO if you give EH a month to prepare for a single important match like we did against Liverpool or Arsenal in the League Cup last year, he can always find ways to exploit their weaknesses. But currently we don't have a tactic that every opponent in every week would fear about us.

[Optimistic Nut]

4 hours ago, r0cafella said:

I think this is apart of the worry honestly. We replaced a lower midtable steady player with someone who is top class. We don't have that luxury this tike around, Wissa might help albeit it is an unknown in black and white and Tino will help but none of these guys solve some of the fundamental issues we have. 

 

We aren't getting relegated or anything like that but I wouldn't be surprised to see us finish lower midtabke which would be a bit of disaster as we really needed to consolidate European football. 

 

Hall for Burn at LB is a massive upgrade and will help the way we play. 

[r0cafella]

2 minutes ago, Optimistic Nut said:

 

Hall for Burn at LB is a massive upgrade and will help the way we play. 

It should do aye, providing he can keep fit. 

[Menace]

1 hour ago, Minhosa said:

I'm a huge fan of Howe. With that said, I think his in game management for the last two matches has been really poor.

 

There's huge context needed, more widely, for the start to this season though;

 

- The Isak stuff, none of it of Eddie's choosing.

- The 'replacement' mess. Felt like we were bidding on every decent european striker under the age of 24 at one point.

- The signing of Woltemade. He's completely different to any forward we've ever had. Eddie's ever had. We'll have to fundamentally change the way we approach games and the final third functions to accomodate him.

- Eddie's had barely any time on the grass with him, Ramsey or Elanga. It's literally, league game, CL game, league game Carabao game, league game, CL game. AND, when we get a decent break (international) everyone fucks off around the world. Coming back either injured or knackered.

- Injuries. Particularly to Wissa, Hall and Tino.

- Director of Football/lack of a coherent strategy. Missing out on Trafford, Pedro and the various others has almost certainly hamstrung him to some extent too. How many of these guys were his actual first choice? Not Ramsdale (Trafford), Elanga (Mbeumo), Wolte (Ekitike) afaik.

 

When you think of his overall time at NUFC, it's been nothing but pressure;

 

- Saves us from relegation. Massive pressure along the way.

- Can we make CL football?

- Can our squad cope with CL football?

- Tonali stuff

- Ashworth leaving

- Staveley and Ghoudossi leaving.

- Mitchell coming in

- Eales leaving

- Fucking Pneumonia!

- Back to work early to help us push for the CL again

- Isak 

- Two new bosses now in the CEO and DOF

 

All the while winning us our first cup and achieving the CL twice.

 

The guy has been nothing short of a miracle worker so any short term issues need to be viewed through the prism of nobody else being able to achieve what he's done with us. 

 

And I say that thinking he's made more errors this season than in any other.

 

If ever there was a time for patience, context and trust.......

 

You really should post more again - great poster.

[Fak]

4 minutes ago, Optimistic Nut said:

 

Hall for Burn at LB is a massive upgrade and will help the way we play. 

 

100%. Hall was only on the pitch 10 mins before he skipped past one defender and lashed one across the box which Rico Henry did incredibly well to keep out.

[TRon]

7 minutes ago, Optimistic Nut said:

 

Hall for Burn at LB is a massive upgrade and will help the way we play. 

 

I never thought we'd have an issue at full back but Burn and Tripps ageing has really caught us short. We should have had a young prospect ready as back up for Hall. 

[Vaj]

Keeping Burn on to defend set pieces really frustrated me. By having better players in a better system giving us more control would result in less set pieces to defend, the way we were set up was putting us under so much pressure.

 

However, it is a balancing act and of course set pieces have to be kept in mind, so I was happy enough to see him start but as soon as he got booked he should have gone off and at a bare minimum should have gone off when he got away with the first penalty decision.

 

I have personally doubted Howe once before (this time last year), so I am praying he can turn it around again. He gets this whole season for me because he has earned that.

 

Next few fixtures in the league are a worry, winnable ones but also very losable. 

[The College Dropout]

1 minute ago, TRon said:

 

I never thought we'd have an issue at full back but Burn and Tripps ageing has really caught us short. We should have had a young prospect ready as back up for Hall. 

Did you think 3 fullbacks was going to be enough?

 

It required Tino to be fit all season to have chance. And pretty much play every minute too.

[TRon]

1 minute ago, The College Dropout said:

Did you think 3 fullbacks was going to be enough?

 

It required Tino to be fit all season to have chance. And pretty much play every minute too.

 

 

Well it all seems quite shortsighted now. Howe was probably thinking Burn did very well there last season, but he's a year older. Also it doesn't look like we have the same engine as last season either, some of the parts look like they've seen better days. 

[nufcjmc]

29 minutes ago, TRon said:

 

 

Well it all seems quite shortsighted now. Howe was probably thinking Burn did very well there last season, but he's a year older. Also it doesn't look like we have the same engine as last season either, some of the parts look like they've seen better days. 

Agree with you here no one misses targett but was another body and Alex Murphy clearly hasn't kicked on or been fancied.

 

Issue with older players like trips and BDB the issue is magnified by having to play week in week out if they were both our rotation options getting minutes for tired legs or some starts it wouldnt be as bad.

 

Up until halls return it's been burn over and over regardless of how hes performed due to lack of options. Feels like on the other side kraft only fancied as a last resort.

 

Having aging players at the back has been a ticking time bomb which does need sorting. Lack of goals are a greater concern right now unless wissa is transformational (no pressure) 

 

 

Edited November 10, 2025 by nufcjmc

[The College Dropout]

27 minutes ago, TRon said:

 

 

Well it all seems quite shortsighted now. Howe was probably thinking Burn did very well there last season, but he's a year older. Also it doesn't look like we have the same engine as last season either, some of the parts look like they've seen better days. 

Burn didn't play LB last season though.

 

Howe would prefer Burn to Targett at left-back anyway. I'm not sure Howe even has Hall over Burn at LB.

 

 

Edited November 10, 2025 by The College Dropout

[JT24]

 

https://archive.ph/ZL1Gk
 

Howe PR in overdrive. Good to see. 

[Sibierski]

Of all our issues, the ball retention is one I find the hardest and that always correlates to training ground. We aren’t looking to get better at it, if anything getting worse.

 

Having Hall back and Miley starting may change it, but so often we have seen over the years, last 10 in games our composure go and we can’t string 2 passes together; which has cost us. This season, it’s from early on our issues. Players are static, quality of passes are slow. Pressing hasn’t been bad, it’s when we get the ball it’s bad and has been all season.

[Decky]

I think having Tino, Hall and Wissa back improves us immensely. Wissa up with Wolt should really be goals for us. It's shite that we have two weeks off because we really need a good win to inject some positivity back in.

[The Prophet]

Putting aside the transfer window and subsequent injuries. There's absolutely no excuse for the likes of Trippier, Tonali and Bruno to be playing like they haven't seen a football before.

[Pilko]

I think he's doubled down on physical, pace, power etc type players and a few things have now happened all at once to exacerbate that as an issue:

 

Other sides have gone more in that direction too, meaning we can't just run over sides like we used to, particularly the poorer sides in the division.

 

There's too much dependency on a core of players who aren't good enough with the ball (Joelinton, Burn, Murphy, Gordon, Pope). That doesn't make those guys bad players overnight but when we then need to pull the quality lever in favour of the physical/pace one more frequently, it leaves us wanting. Spending £55m on Elanga adds to that issue.

 

Joelinton is being picked for his 2023 form and 3 starts in 8 days is clearly beyond him, when we've got Miley and Ramsey sat on the bench. When you're forced into Burn at LB due to injuries and have a horribly out of form Gordon on that flank too, it makes the entire left side a waste of time in terms of using the ball. 

 

There's lots of small problems all adding up at the minute IMO, some are out of Eddie's control (PSR, the way the window played out, injuries to first choice full backs & Wissa) but others are well in his control (signing/selecting too many anti-footballers, in-game subs, running out of form Joelinton into the ground, picking Gordon all the time, Pope v Ramsdale etc). We need to hope he can start to rectify the ones that are in his control whilst the injured players get back and he can start to put one of his trademark winning runs together.

 

There's no doubt he should be given time to turn it around and history tells us he will. It just feels like we need that classic Howe turning point game like Leeds (a) Shelvey, Liverpool at home 3-3 last season etc where it starts to go our way. When it comes, we'll know.