Eddie Howe

[The College Dropout]

Eddie shouldn't be in total control of signing players. It's not his fault he had free rein because of a power vacuum.

[Decky]

In fairness the signings he targeted early on are good players but we couldn't compete with the top six coming in for them. Where would we be now if we got the likes of Ekitike and Mbeumo in as planned?

[TaylorJ_01]

It feels like he's desperate to have a 'first 11' which is fine. 

 

However, the reality is we need 2 first-teamers for each position with the amount of games we have.

 

We shouldn't be scared of dropping Burn to accomodate Thiaw/Botman and playing e.g. Schar/Burn the following game.

 

If we try to do well in all campaigns relying, primarily, on 11  specific players playing together we'll just do shit at both.

[Pilko]

8 minutes ago, TaylorJ_01 said:

It feels like he's desperate to have a 'first 11' which is fine. 

 

However, the reality is we need 2 first-teamers for each position with the amount of games we have.

 

We shouldn't be scared of dropping Burn to accomodate Thiaw/Botman and playing e.g. Schar/Burn the following game.

 

If we try to do well in all campaigns relying, primarily, on 11  specific players playing together we'll just do shit at both.

 

I think all teams will have players that are undroppable for most fixtures, cup games against lower division sides apart. I'd like to see a bit more horses for courses thinking though now that we do have some alternative options that are mostly the manager's own pick of signing. Joelinton for the third time in 8 days when he's out of form is ridiculous when you've two senior centre midfielders sat on the bench that are very much the managers choice rather than players he's inherited. Three if you stretch to include Willock.

[Guest]

Find it quite funny people saying, give him the season, give him 2 seasons or whatever. As if they are so generous and better than anyone who is simply discussing what he needs to improve.

 

So if we keep losing every match the rest of this year and deep into the relegation spots, no signs of improvement, you still want to give him the season? To me those statements are as ridiculous as saying you want him out, which funnily enough no one has...

 

 

Edited November 10, 2025 by Marxen the Mag

[TaylorJ_01]

20 minutes ago, Pilko said:

 

I think all teams will have players that are undroppable for most fixtures, cup games against lower division sides apart. I'd like to see a bit more horses for courses thinking though now that we do have some alternative options that are mostly the manager's own pick of signing. Joelinton for the third time in 8 days when he's out of form is ridiculous when you've two senior centre midfielders sat on the bench that are very much the managers choice rather than players he's inherited. Three if you stretch to include Willock.

 

That's right, but we don't really have any positions where there's a massive gap between 1st and 2nd choice; bar Tonali & Guimaraes, potentially looks like maybe Thiaw too in time.

 

The rest, broadly speaking, could/should be getting rotated a lot more freely given current form, injuries/suspensions aside.

[Matt1892]

'Something needs to change' - fans' verdict on defeat at Brentford

 

We asked for your thoughts after Sunday's Premier League game between Brentford and Newcastle.

 

Here are some of your comments:

 

Steve: This is another Eddie Howe mistake. The midfield has needed a change for a while. Dan Burn struggles at left-back while England's best full-back sits on the bench. Huge pressure on the boss now. Not good enough and he knows it.

 

Alvin: Sorely lacking. Nick Pope lacking the ability to organise a defence or kick a ball properly. Lacking pace and creativity at full-back, with Kieran Trippier and, unbelievably, Burn. Lacking fluency and control in midfield, Bruno Guimaraes turning in what is becoming a customary anodyne performance. Lacking a cutting edge up front without anyone running beyond an isolated Nick Woltemade. And it seems Howe is lacking ideas to turn it around. It is just lacking.

 

Jackie: Terrible again. Burn staying on after his booking was an absolutely ludicrous decision by Howe. Truly awful to watch yet again, with Harvey Barnes' goal the only time Caoimhin Kelleher had to get involved. Howe gets a very easy ride from the media but four points from 27 is embarrassing. He has been found out. We keep hearing that this midfield trio is as good as anyone's, but I'm still yet to see it.

 

Wayne: Another absolutely appalling performance on the road, making our run away from home the worst under Howe. We have serious problems right now. We look lacklustre: going forward, our midfield being opened up with ease and defensively we look all over the place and are conceding a lot of goals. Something needs to change.

 

John: Once again, Newcastle seemed unable to pass the ball and retain possession, particularly in the first half, when we looked short of confidence and ideas. My guess is that the team was so used to feeding the ball to Alexander Isak that, now he is gone, there is a void up front which hasn't been filled by Woltemade. He tends to play deeper and, although he has scored a few goals, they have all been from inside the box from set-pieces or passes into the area. He is not the type of player to receive the ball 40 or 50 yards out and run with it. I hope Yoane Wissa provides a better outlet when he is fit.

 

Andrew: Howe's biggest failing was not making his substitutions sooner. Burn was struggling and a second yellow waiting to happen. He left it too late and we paid the price. Sadly, I believe the first penalty shout should have been a penalty!

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/teams/newcastle-united

 

[Andy]

14 minutes ago, Marxen the Mag said:

Find it quite funny people saying, give him the season, give him 2 seasons or whatever. As if they are so generous and better than anyone who is simply discussing what he needs to improve.

 

So if we keep losing every match the rest of this year and deep into the relegation spots, no signs of improvement, you still want to give him the season? To me those statements are as ridiculous as saying you want him out, which funnily enough no one has...

 

 

 

 

I get what you're saying, and you're right that if we lost our next 10 games obviously most people would be changing their stance, but I assume the "he's at least got until the end of the season for me" type comments are on the basis that our form remains inconsistent rather than turns absolutely catastrophic. 

[Lucky]

Where are the points in the league going to come from between now and Christmas?

[janpawel]

51 minutes ago, Decky said:

In fairness the signings he targeted early on are good players but we couldn't compete with the top six coming in for them. Where would we be now if we got the likes of Ekitike and Mbeumo in as planned?

 

Completely pointless for me to say but imagine if got Ekitike, Mbeumo and Cunha, probably about £200m for the 3 of them, would be worth it imo. Not that we had a chance anyway 

[Yorkie]

23 minutes ago, Lucky said:

Where are the points in the league going to come from between now and Christmas?

 

Man City (h), Everton (a), Spurs (h), Burnley (h), Sunderland (a), Chelsea (h). Those are the fixtures so points will come from one or more of those games. Hope that helps!

[Doctor Zaius]

6 minutes ago, Yorkie said:

 

Man City (h), Everton (a), Spurs (h), Burnley (h), Sunderland (a), Chelsea (h). Those are the fixtures so points will come from one or more of those games. Hope that helps!

 

Go on then, which ones? 

 

edit: 

 

Ill stick my neck out. I think we'll get a 3 points out of either City or Spurs. Beat Burnley. Not sure about Chelsea, depends on our three home fixtures before that. We'll do well to get a point out of either Everton or Sunderland. Relying on being infallible at home though. 

 

 

Edited November 10, 2025 by Doctor Zaius

[RUHRLYASLEEVESUP]

59 minutes ago, Marxen the Mag said:

Find it quite funny people saying, give him the season, give him 2 seasons or whatever. As if they are so generous and better than anyone who is simply discussing what he needs to improve.

 

So if we keep losing every match the rest of this year and deep into the relegation spots, no signs of improvement, you still want to give him the season? To me those statements are as ridiculous as saying you want him out, which funnily enough no one has...

 

 

 

Thay have 

[Erikse]

The issue with our away form against "weaker" sides is that we play 5 of the "big 6" at home in the first half of the season, and those are also tough games, even at home. Bascially if we consider games like this a tough game to win, only 4 out of the first 18 can be considered as "should win" games. 5 if you include home to Spurs in that. 4-5 wins in 18 is near relegation form.

 

 

Edited November 10, 2025 by Erikse

[Sibierski]

1 hour ago, Decky said:

In fairness the signings he targeted early on are good players but we couldn't compete with the top six coming in for them. Where would we be now if we got the likes of Ekitike and Mbeumo in as planned?

Mbeumo is the key one. He was that legit winger who was putting up numbers and a player opposition feared. Soon as it was known that was never possible, we should’ve stuck with trying to get a player of same ilk / style.
 

We need someone of that type for one of the wide areas still next summer, even if it means Barnes leaving to facilitate the squad place for it.

[bobbydazzla]

I think Howe's struggling because 3 x games per week plus travel means he can't utilise his natural approach - meticulous attention to detail and high quality training sessions.

And too many players are struggling, through a mix of poor form / workload / confidence. Which is magnified because Howe is struggling.

 

If Howe wants to step up into the tiny group of "global elite" managers, he needs to adapt his style to fit with the demands of Euro football. As uncomfortable as that may be for him.

 

However, lest we forget, it's only his 2nd ever Euro campaign and it's proving to be a steep learning curve for him. But that's what it is, a learning curve.

 

And look at the big picture, compare where we are now to where we were in Oct 2021 and the progress we've made in that time.

So I'm relatively chilled that we're in the doldrums in the league right now. Our cup form is good, for starters.

 

Life is just a series of peaks and troughs, and you don't know whether you're in a trough until you're climbing out, or on a peak until you're coming down.

 

 

Edited November 10, 2025 by bobbydazzla

[Yorkie]

5 minutes ago, Doctor Zaius said:

 

Go on then, which ones? 

 

edit: 

 

Ill stick my neck out. I think we'll get a 3 points out of either City or Spurs. Beat Burnley. Not sure about Chelsea, depends on our three home fixtures before that. We'll do well to get a point out of either Everton or Sunderland. Relying on being infallible at home though. 

 

Our home from has generally been the bedrock of our league campaigns and I don't see much evidence of that changing. 

 

I'm not going to predict each result because that's a fools errand imo; anything could happen between each game which affects the most likely outcome. 

 

You're either confident we'll pick ourselves up or worried that our problems are going to continue or worsen. History suggests the former so I'll go with that.

 

Can't be arsed with incendiary cryarsing like the post I quoted.

[The College Dropout]

1 hour ago, Decky said:

In fairness the signings he targeted early on are good players but we couldn't compete with the top six coming in for them. Where would we be now if we got the likes of Ekitike and Mbeumo in as planned?

There's a profession that can help us with that.

 

We have our pick over Brentford, Brighton, Bournemouth and 95% of European teams. There's maybe 12 clubs with greater pull than us in Europe.

[Elliottman]

Our away form will improve at some point, we'll up our game or we'll catch someone on an off day. Something will give. 

[Weezertron]

10 minutes ago, RUHRLYASLEEVESUP said:

Thay have 

Have thay?

[AyeDubbleYoo]

11 minutes ago, bobbydazzla said:

I think Howe's struggling because 3 x games per week plus travel means he can't utilise his natural approach - meticulous attention to detail and high quality training sessions.

And too many players are struggling, through a mix of poor form / workload / confidence. Which is magnified because Howe is struggling.

 

If Howe wants to step up into the tiny group of "global elite" managers, he needs to adapt his style to fit with the demands of Euro football. As uncomfortable as that may be for him.

 

However, lest we forget, it's only his 2nd ever Euro campaign and it's proving to be a steep learning curve for him. But that's what it is, a learning curve.

 

And look at the big picture, compare where we are now to where we were in Oct 2021 and the progress we've made in that time.

So I'm relatively chilled that we're in the doldrums in the league right now. Our cup form is good, for starters.

 

Life is just a series of peaks and troughs, and you don't know whether you're in a trough until you're climbing out, or on a peak until you're coming down.

 

 

 

The global elite managers also tend to have much better players. 

[The College Dropout]

2 minutes ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

The global elite managers also tend to have much better players. 

Aye we've still the worst squad of all the clubs in the CL from PL

[AyeDubbleYoo]

As depressed as I am we’ve really only had 2 really bad games against Ham and Brentford. They are the most recent but Brentford away was highly likely to be very difficult and not necessarily one we were likely to bounce back in. 
 

At the same time we obviously aren’t playing well in general. That needs to improve.  
 

TBH I could make a case for us losing any or all of the next 4 unless we find a better performance. That’s not because I think it’s a crisis, it’s just because we’re playing badly and they’re all challenging games. 

[jackyboy]

Premiership football has become really unpredictable. Last season Liverpool won quite easily which was helped by the poorer performances from the other top teams, Man City, Chelsea, Man United, Spurs and to some degree, us. On the strength of that Liverpool have gone out and spent enormous sums of money on players who were expected to massively improve them and make their defence of the title much stronger. But on actual fact it hasn't happened and they are without doubt worse than before. The reason is not just Liverpool, we have Sunderland and Bournemouth up there knocking on the door plus Man City seem to have adopted a new approach and are looking good again.

Because of the rat we were forced into buying new players and trying to change the way we play to accommodate them. We didn't get the players we wanted, we got what was left at the last minute. Eddie has a massive job on his hands to replicate some of our better performances 

[bobbydazzla]

10 minutes ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

The global elite managers also tend to have much better players. 

 

PSR working its magic