Eddie Howe

[Kilcline]

We should hire another manager to work alternative seasons to Howe so he can have a rest

[AyeDubbleYoo]

Just now, James said:

Also there was an article in the Athletic it was about Matt Ritchie but it suggested that Tindall and Purches are still commuting from Bournemouth.

 

if true these two need to move up here permanently or move on.

Tindall takes his kids out in Metrocentre so he’s really making the effort if he lives in Bournemouth. 

[SUPERTOON]

Just now, AyeDubbleYoo said:

Tindall takes his kids out in Metrocentre so he’s really making the effort if he lives in Bournemouth. 

Thought you where off for the day 

[TRon]

14 minutes ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

Tindall takes his kids out in Metrocentre so he’s really making the effort if he lives in Bournemouth. 

 

 

That makes him borderline mackem in my book. Metrocentre is heaving with them on a bad day. 

[Sibierski]

54 minutes ago, Cf said:

 

I still put this down simply to we can't play like that every game with this increased fixture load. When we tried it two seasons ago we had one of the worst injury crises ever.

 

Maybe we've swung too far the other way. And we haven't got the players in we needed to. But I think a lot of this is simply we've moved away from playing like that every game as it would cripple our squad.

Wasn’t the injury crisis because of freak injuries mostly though, rather than muscle injuries. Anderson / Barnes / Burn at least were from my memory, which had a knock on. 
 

We’ve pivoted away from a style that was starting to be our identity, to something no-one really knows what it is anymore, with load more players that fit the 22-23 style. Something is completely off in training, and that’s been apparent since start of last season. Think there’s valid argument that the players who have been here since that 22-23 season are switching off to Howe / motivation has dipped 5% which in the prem will see a big drop off because we’re not at an elite level where we can ride through games when we dip effort.

[Vinny Green Balls]

42 minutes ago, midds said:

Those are results, I'm talking about the general attitude and mentality of how we now play. We've won games this season despite the mentality issues, I'm suggesting we look shit and scared and have zero belief, it's negative as fuck imo

I think that's rewriting the last stage of the season, man. Scoring 3 or more goals for nearly half of your ten last games, and after an exhausting Cup Final, doesn't suggest mentality issues at all in that timeframe.  I think it's recency bias compounded by an awful summer making people forget that we were in pretty good form for most of the last third of the season.

[Vinny Green Balls]

16 minutes ago, Kilcline said:

We should hire another manager to work alternative seasons to Howe so he can have a rest

[midds]

27 minutes ago, Cf said:

 

That stat of 0 points from losing is a little misleading imo, though it looks bad. 

 

Games we've lost:

 

Liverpool. 0-2 down with 10 men. Pulled back to 2-2 and lost to last minute goal. 

 

Barcelona. 0-2 down. Pulled back to 1-2. No shame in this one imo.

 

Arsenal. Went ahead. Conceded last minute goal to lose. 

 

Brighton. 0-1. 1-1. 1-2. Not great but we got back into it and the winning goal was late. 

 

West Ham. Went ahead then this was just a shit performance. 

 

Brentford. Carbon copy of above. 

 

Marseille. Went ahead then conceded two. Felt we played well enough we should have got something from this. 

 

And the latest one we all know. 

 

Not saying everything is sunshine and roses but the "0 points from losing positions" doesn't strike me as a huge deal when of all of those only West Ham/Brentford/mackems stand out as bad performances. It's hardly season defining stuff imo - just a stat quirk. 

 

There's context behind each game obviously and I'll accept we've been bang unlucky at times and been robbed in some games too. However, that stat is horrific, context doesn't mean much when you're scrambling for points in both comps and it's a fact that when we go behind we lose (somehow) every time so far. Couple that horror stat with the volume of points lost when taking the lead AND the number of late goals we concede these days AND the way we now score then immediately sit back and try and soak up pressure (in an attempt to save energy I assume) suggests that it's not a quirk and a regular facet of our game. Put all of that together and it paints a very poor picture for those responsible. We have little/no bottle to see games out and little fight at all to claw anything back and make it stick

[Lucky]

Would anyone take Rafa back? I often wonder what he’d have been able to do with a better squad.

 

He really worked wonders with the shit he had and he was excellent in terms of identifying why the squad needed with his little database of players.

[SUPERTOON]

Just now, Lucky said:

Would anyone take Rafa back? I often wonder what he’d have been able to do with a better squad.

 

He really worked wonders with the shit he had and he was excellent in terms of identifying why the squad needed with his little database of players.

Windup surely 

[Lucky]

Just now, SUPERTOON said:

Windup surely 

Not really. There was an outcry when he left. And it’s not been all that long ago.

 

The league hasn’t changed that much.

[Vinny Green Balls]

Absolutely not over Eddie. Rafa was absolutely brilliant for us, and I was furious enough when he left to hope that we got relegated with Bruce. But Rafa hasn't done much at all since he moved on. That spell at Everton was abysmal. 

 

The game's passed him by. It's better than wondering about Mourinho, but seriously, man.

 

 

Edited December 15, 2025 by Vinny Green Balls

[Lush Vlad]

40 minutes ago, Andy said:

 

We don't need to play like it every game tbf, but if there was ever a time to show that we still have that edge and intensity to our game, yesterday was it. 

 

Not only was it a chance to put our recent league derby record right, it was a chance to put ourselves in a much stronger league position going into the Christmas fixtures. We just completely blew it. 

 

Sunderland were first to every ball and made up for their obvious limitations by battling like it was their cup final, as we all knew they would. We battled like it was our FA Cup third round, as unfortunately we all suspected we would. 

This is what hurts the most about yesterday. Both teams played like they were shit scared of losing, as opposed to trying to win. The stats bear that out.
 

At least they showed a bit more intent in the first 20 minutes or so. We were worse in that regard. 

 

 

Edited December 15, 2025 by Lush Vlad

[Tiresias]

Rafa is washed man he clicked with us and made a haphazard team play above their level with buy in and discipline. Everywhere since he has been overly negative and unable to connect with the players. We should not be playing the underdog anymore. If plan is to be number 1 in five years we need to be more ambitious than that. I'm sticking with Eddie though. Sorry he's not perfect but you have to build around something and he fucking won us a trophy. We need a hard reset of the team with a raft of new young players capable of playing high intensity. 

[Lucky]

Just now, Vinny Green Balls said:

Absolutely not over Eddie. Rafa was absolutely brilliant for us, and I was furious enough when he left to hope that we got relegated with Bruce. But Rafa hasn't done much at all since he moved on. 

Fully agree on what he’s done since.

 

But just like certain players, managers will suit certain clubs and not others. He should never have gone to China.

 

There were enough envious eyes on Amorim going to Man Utd at the time, and on that current form a lot of clubs were interested, but it’s not worked out that way.

 

But then it’s probably also true that second time is never as good. KK coming back didn’t create any major waves other than the happiness that he had actually returned.

[The College Dropout]

1 hour ago, midds said:

I think the most disappointing thing to watch this season is the complete disintegration of our mentality. Howe's had issues to deal with but to watch us lose all of our edge, spirit and positivity has been borderline heartbreaking. We used to be a team of lions who never knew when they were beaten, gave every single team a game and we matched them physically to the point we became a nightmare team to play against. All of that has totally disappeared now, the attitude has gone and that's not down to finances or PSR or anything other than a deliberate shift in the opposite direction. The team looks disorganised, lacking in any confidence and belief and unmotivated too. They're not enjoying it and the atmosphere in the squad has changed, they can upload all the daft little training ground content they like there's something massively wrong during games. It's happened gradually over the last couple of years but it's certainly accelerated since the Cup Final

Lack of leadership at the top of the club - where is this project going?

 

26 minutes ago, James said:

Howe will always be loved and a legend but the ownership are going to have to make a call in the next two years about whether he will take us to 2030. There are now three really fundamental things that are sticking out for me:

 

1) he has repeatedly ducked big decisions to sell players. Wilson should have been  sold and replaced during the Tonali window. Willock and Almiron too whilst their stock was at their highest. Gordon should have been shipped at the start of this window and used the money to reinvest further. Even a lesser extent Dummett and Lascelles not letting them go in favour of youth.

 

2) there seems to be clash between training focused on improving players and teams vs him not able to coach the players due to fixture pileup.

 

3) Form has been poor actually since he was ill. Has he lost that 5% of energy that made him truly great?

 

I do think he would benefit from a mentor, a really top level manager no longer in the game who he can discuss some of these challenges with in a private setting. The ideal would have been Fergie, Rafa might have been another choice had he not taken a job elsewhere.

 

with hindsight I also think we should have rested Howe post-illness until the summer and brought Rafa in for a few months.

 

Shouldn't be his decision alone. And you do need Leaders

[midds]

1 minute ago, Vinny Green Balls said:

I think that's rewriting the last stage of the season, man. Scoring 3 or more goals for nearly half of your ten last games, and after an exhausting Cup Final, doesn't suggest mentality issues at all in that timeframe.  I think it's recency bias compounded by an awful summer making people forget that we were in pretty good form for most of the last third of the season.

Since the Cup Final I think I've only seen the old us once or twice since - second half of Liverpool H and for large parts of Arsenal H. We dug in and fought in the Final and looked fantastic but I've seldom seen it since - we're still capable of it in little pockets of the odd game but it's never sustained like it used to be.

 

The Everton H game was also a bit of a shocker too, was a huge game with CL qualification as the prize and we just wilted when it mattered. The pictures of the players just hanging around waiting for Man U to qualify us because we simply didn't do it ourselves were a bit of foreshadowing. I hate how passive we are, no idea why we're conserving energy every match as when we actually need to see the players step up (yesterday) it just doesn't happen. It's slowly killing us, I get the fact I'm currently a bit doom and gloom but it's because of the negative, turgid dross that's being served up more often than not. I don't expect to win every game but I kinda do expect us to at least look interested and up for it and we just don't

[Vinny Green Balls]

3 minutes ago, midds said:

Since the Cup Final I think I've only seen the old us once or twice since - second half of Liverpool H and for large parts of Arsenal H. We dug in and fought in the Final and looked fantastic but I've seldom seen it since - we're still capable of it in little pockets of the odd game but it's never sustained like it used to be.

 

The Everton H game was also a bit of a shocker too, was a huge game with CL qualification as the prize and we just wilted when it mattered. The pictures of the players just hanging around waiting for Man U to qualify us because we simply didn't do it ourselves were a bit of foreshadowing. I hate how passive we are, no idea why we're conserving energy every match as when we actually need to see the players step up (yesterday) it just doesn't happen. It's slowly killing us, I get the fact I'm currently a bit doom and gloom but it's because of the negative, turgid dross that's being served up more often than not. I don't expect to win every game but I kinda do expect us to at least look interested and up for it and we just don't

I really do think it's recency bias. I saw a wholly different team in March and April, a team that was determined not to let up after the high of the Cup Final. It's all about perspective, but the amount of goals scored in that time suggests that the mentality was there, even with Isak deciding to be a passenger for most of it.

 

 

Edited December 15, 2025 by Vinny Green Balls

[ianbeany]

30 minutes ago, Kilcline said:

We should hire another manager to work alternative seasons to Howe so he can have a rest

 

I think Fergie could do it if we get him up here as Eddies mentor

[Jaqen]

Rafa  

[midds]

4 minutes ago, Vinny Green Balls said:

I really do think it's recency bias. I saw a wholly different team in March and April, a team that was determined not to let up after the high of the Cup Final. It's all about perspective, but the amount of goals scored in that time suggests that the mentality was there, even with Isak deciding to be a passenger for most of it.

 

 

 

Ok, if I changed it to 'mid-April' rather than 'Cup Final' (mid-March) would you agree? The games after the Cup Final were class and the whole city was bouncing and the team were riding the wave a little but I'll accept we did look very very dangerous for the next few games after the final

 

I'm not trying to be an arsehole I'm just bitterly disappointed that the very thing that shot us up the League has now deliberately been completely abandoned save for the odd flash here and there once a month for 20 minutes. There's no zip or spark in this squad, there's precious little fight or bottle to defend til the whistle either, christ even 10 man Burnley nearly nicked a point a week or so ago. The poor performances are now the norm and the times we click are the blips and I find that really sad and largely self inflicted 

[Vinny Green Balls]

4 minutes ago, midds said:

Ok, if I changed it to 'mid-April' rather than 'Cup Final' (mid-March) would you agree? The games after the Cup Final were class and the whole city was bouncing and the team were riding the wave a little but I'll accept we did look very very dangerous for the next few games after the final

 

I'm not trying to be an arsehole I'm just bitterly disappointed that the very thing that shot us up the League has now deliberately been completely abandoned save for the odd flash here and there once a month for 20 minutes. There's no zip or spark in this squad, there's precious little fight or bottle to defend til the whistle either, christ even 10 man Burnley nearly nicked a point a week or so ago. The poor performances are now the norm and the times we click are the blips and I find that really sad and largely self inflicted 

you're not being an asshole, dude  It's been pretty grim for large stretches of the season. I just have found it a little strange how people keep on pushing the bad form back. Some have even said that we've been terrible for the whole calendar year.

[midds]

2 minutes ago, Vinny Green Balls said:

you're not being an asshole, dude  It's been pretty grim for large stretches of the season. I just have found it a little strange how people keep on pushing the bad form back. Some have even said that we've been terrible for the whole calendar year.

Yeah, I'm not really talking about the actual results, they've been a mixed bag tbh, we've played well in parts, been unlucky at times and we've stunk the place out at times too. I'm talking specifically about the mentality of the team, how we approach games, how we have chosen to be very passive and how little fight we seem to have these days. We've still won games despite this change in mentality but overall we look poorer for it and the horrific stats seem to back it up too. Yesterday was indefensible on every single level you could possibly think of

 

I also think (while I'm having a whinge) that Howe needs to come up with something special in the next week. He needs to ditch 433, it's just not working with this squad of players - it used to work and now it doesn't so stop being proud and change it for something else. 4231 I think possibly suits this squad a little better but maybe 4411 or a slight variation of it. He has to look at the players he's got in his squad right now and come up with a way of getting square pegs in square holes. He also needs to shift the mentality to being pro-active and ramp the aggression back up, play the game 15 yards higher up the pitch and get into the opposition faces, it's a brave move but it'll get the crowd onside and you'll get an instant response. Press as a team and if we need to make 5 subs a game after 65 mins then accept it and continue doing it, share the work around the squad we now have. He also needs to pick his best XI for his new formation and fucking stick to it until he needs to change it. The CL is done for now so the focus needs to be on League performances now. Pick your best team and stick to it as much as possible and let them build up a bit of rhythm and continuity. Can't flog them into the ground obviously but tell them they're first choice and rotate only when necessary. These are practical things that Howe could do tomorrow and wouldn't cost a penny, there's nothing stopping him, the squad is virtually fully fit and has very few injuries more than a week or so. If he carries on flogging this dead horse then he's toast - fucking change something, please

[Donut]

42 minutes ago, Lucky said:

Not really. There was an outcry when he left. And it’s not been all that long ago.

 

The league hasn’t changed that much.

Rafa is washed and the league is a completely different beast now.

[TheBrownBottle]

5 minutes ago, midds said:

Yeah, I'm not really talking about the actual results, they've been a mixed bag tbh, we've played well in parts, been unlucky at times and we've stunk the place out at times too. I'm talking specifically about the mentality of the team, how we approach games, how we have chosen to be very passive and how little fight we seem to have these days. We've still won games despite this change in mentality but overall we look poorer for it and the horrific stats seem to back it up too. Yesterday was indefensible on every single level you could possibly think of

 

I also think (while I'm having a whinge) that Howe needs to come up with something special in the next week. He needs to ditch 433, it's just not working with this squad of players - it used to work and now it doesn't so stop being proud and change it for something else. 4231 I think possibly suits this squad a little better but maybe 4411 or a slight variation of it. He has to look at the players he's got in his squad right now and come up with a way of getting square pegs in square holes. He also needs to shift the mentality to being pro-active and ramp the aggression back up, play the game 15 yards higher up the pitch and get into the opposition faces, it's a brave move but it'll get the crowd onside and you'll get an instant response. Press as a team and if we need to make 5 subs a game after 65 mins then accept it and continue doing it, share the work around the squad we now have. He also needs to pick his best XI for his new formation and fucking stick to it until he needs to change it. The CL is done for now so the focus needs to be on League performances now. Pick your best team and stick to it as much as possible and let them build up a bit of rhythm and continuity. Can't flog them into the ground obviously but tell them they're first choice and rotate only when necessary. These are practical things that Howe could do tomorrow and wouldn't cost a penny, there's nothing stopping him, the squad is virtually fully fit and has very few injuries more than a week or so. If he carries on flogging this dead horse then he's toast - fucking change something, please

I’m not sure Howe can change it.  He came into the club after a hiatus having went around Europe watching other managers train. He came up with a method and a plan and implemented them here - a 4-3-3 high press, and it worked really well.  Now other teams have moved on and worked us out a bit - but he didn’t attempt to evolve (as an actual elite manager would), but just continued with the same set-up and doubled-down in terms of his signings.  There’s a real ‘we’re playing four four fucking two’ element to this.  And I’m not at all convinced the players are still with him.