Eddie Howe

[Thumbheed]

No issue with that game today. 

 

I've just been waiting for that game where we go back to our roots and that seemed as close to it as I've seen in a long while. 

 

That 1st half smothers 75% of the teams in the league for the remainder of the game, it just so happens that we were up against a team with excellent technical and mental quality who are still able to create pressure when the breif moment strikes. 

 

It was a set peice and a goal from a mistake, outside of that, they didnt create many clear cut chances whilst we created plenty.

[TRon]

Just now, Thumbheed said:

No issue with that game today. 

 

I've just been waiting for that game where we go back to our roots and that seemed as close to it as I've seen in a long while. 

 

That 1st half smothers 75% of the teams in the league for the remainder of the game, it just so happens that we were up against a team with excellent technical and mental quality who are still able to create pressure when the breif moment strikes. 

 

It was a set peice and a goal from a mistake, outside of that, they didnt create many clear cut chances whilst we created plenty.

 

 

They are a good team and we have to account for that. They will hurt plenty of others so no shame in that result at all. We just need to get the rub of the green in the second half of the season, and it does feel like we are going back to our get at 'em philosophy which is what the majority of these players were bought for. So count me in. 

[andycap]

Since we ran out of legs in the middle with Ramsey and bruno would any of you brought Murphy on and stuck miley in the middle for the last ten minutes. 

[Lush Vlad]

Just now, andycap said:

Since we ran out of legs in the middle with Ramsey and bruno would any of you brought Murphy on and stuck miley in the middle for the last ten minutes. 

No. Because he’s a left footed centre back/left back and Miley was having yet another great game for the most part at right bacl.
 

We brought Willock on instead. Albeit a bit too late for my liking. 

[andycap]

50 minutes ago, Lush Vlad said:

No. Because he’s a left footed centre back/left back and Miley was having yet another great game for the most part at right bacl.
 

We brought Willock on instead. Albeit a bit too late for my liking. 

Just an option is all. 

[Ronson333]

Needs to complain a lot more about the penalty. Being the nice guy won’t work in Our favour unfortunately, we need to be smarter.

[Danh1]

Really frustrating that we threw the lead away but multiple big decisions went against us today and we looked a much bigger threat going forward.

 

Beat them redundancy loving cunts Boxing Day and I’ll have a fair bit of confidence we are on the right path. 

[ExiledGeordie]

10 hours ago, TRon said:

 

 

They are a good team and we have to account for that. They will hurt plenty of others so no shame in that result at all. We just need to get the rub of the green in the second half of the season, and it does feel like we are going back to our get at 'em philosophy which is what the majority of these players were bought for. So count me in. 

I do have concerns about our ability to become more consistent but there’s definite positive signs. Woltemade is scoring goals and yesterday he was playing much more like an out and out striker. We also had Wissa back which benefits Woltemade but he’ll also add goals and a different threat. Ramsey looks to be finding his feet a little bit and Miley has come to the fore. Maybe we can bring a couple in in Jan too.
 

I agree it looks like Howe might be getting us back to that original philosophy and I hope in the process that he starts being more proactive in games to change things. 
 

There are definite positive signs that the second half of the season can be a good one.

[Rod]

10 hours ago, andycap said:

Since we ran out of legs in the middle with Ramsey and bruno would any of you brought Murphy on and stuck miley in the middle for the last ten minutes. 

No.

[PauloGeordio]

 

[Sibierski]

14 hours ago, Vinny Green Balls said:

It's not. In fact I think you are doing that here. We had far more clear cut chances than they did, even in the second half. We were also cutting through them at will with greater frequency. We were the better team.

We did in the final 20 because it was you attack, we attack. The fact Chelsea didn’t make the most of that in final 20 shows their lack of quality, rather than us being good  

 

We were fucking awful for first 25 mins of that 2nd half.

 

First half we were superb, last 20 we created some great chances. Christ, can’t point of how bad we were for a period without it being seen as only negative. Can’t criticise the god again.

[arnonel]

No team plays perfect football for 90mins. Games always eb and flow. Expecting more is delusional 

[Dr Venkman]

4 hours ago, Sibierski said:

We did in the final 20 because it was you attack, we attack. The fact Chelsea didn’t make the most of that in final 20 shows their lack of quality, rather than us being good  

 

We were fucking awful for first 25 mins of that 2nd half.

 

First half we were superb, last 20 we created some great chances. Christ, can’t point of how bad we were for a period without it being seen as only negative. Can’t criticise the god again.

It’s not that. It’s…you’re wrong.

[Colos Short and Curlies]

17 hours ago, Lush Vlad said:

No. Because he’s a left footed centre back/left back and Miley was having yet another great game for the most part at right bacl.
 

We brought Willock on instead. Albeit a bit too late for my liking. 

 

So what you are saying is we should have brought Murphy on and pushed Schar into midfield 👍

[Colos Short and Curlies]

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DSfzkS5ku5v/?igsh=bTZsdGtjOGRmN2Mw

 

 

[The Bonk]

5 hours ago, Sibierski said:

We did in the final 20 because it was you attack, we attack. The fact Chelsea didn’t make the most of that in final 20 shows their lack of quality, rather than us being good  

 

We were fucking awful for first 25 mins of that 2nd half.

 

First half we were superb, last 20 we created some great chances. Christ, can’t point of how bad we were for a period without it being seen as only negative. Can’t criticise the god again.

We weren’t awful, Chelsea upped their level of play and were able to score two good goals, one of which was an inch perfect free kick. 

 

 

[The Bonk]

5 minutes ago, Colos Short and Curlies said:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DSfzkS5ku5v/?igsh=bTZsdGtjOGRmN2Mw

 

 

I really hate AI slop. Wissa jabbing the ref excluded of course.

[El Prontonise]

8 minutes ago, Colos Short and Curlies said:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DSfzkS5ku5v/?igsh=bTZsdGtjOGRmN2Mw

 

 

 

That's awful, fuck off with the AI shite.

 

Sorry to the admins but I think this needs looking at eventually.

[Smal]

Thought this was somewhat interesting seeing as the narrative seems to be that we don't press anymore. PL only.

 

Average distance of NUFC's defensive actions (tackles, interceptions) from their own own goal in meters. Higher number indicates higher press:

22/23: 47m (5th highest in PL)

23/24: 46.6m (6th)

24/25: 47.45m (7th)

25/26: 47.8m (3rd)

 

The differences here are negligible really, but this season's press is the highest outright.  

 

Opposition's pass completion rate in their own 2/3s of the pitch. Lower indicates more effective NUFC press:

22/23: 75.5% (2nd best in PL)

23/24: 80% (6th)

24/25: 80.4% (3rd)

25/26: 78.7% (2nd)

 

Not quite as disruptive as 22/23, but still more effective than 23/24 & 24/25. 

 

Opponent's unsuccessful passes, lost dribbles, or bad touches near their goal. Higher values indicate more effective NUFC press:

22/23: 27.3 (5th highest in PL)

23/24: 25.9 (9th)

24/25: 22.7 (12th)

25/26: 26.6 (1st)

 

Similar story here too. NUFC's possession could've been a factor with this one but actually isn't because any differences there are negligible (52.3%, 52%, 51.2% and 51% average across the seasons respectively).

 

Here is a graph of PL pressing efficiency this season:

[Smal]

3 minutes ago, Smal said:

Thought this was somewhat interesting seeing as the narrative seems to be that we don't press anymore. PL only.

 

Average distance of NUFC's defensive actions (tackles, interceptions) from their own own goal in meters. Higher number indicates higher press:

22/23: 47m (5th highest in PL)

23/24: 46.6m (6th)

24/25: 47.45m (7th)

25/26: 47.8m (3rd)

 

The differences here are negligible really, but this season's press is the highest outright.  

 

Opposition's pass completion rate in their own 2/3s of the pitch. Lower indicates more effective NUFC press:

22/23: 75.5% (2nd best in PL)

23/24: 80% (6th)

24/25: 80.4% (3rd)

25/26: 78.7% (2nd)

 

Not quite as disruptive as 22/23, but still more effective than 23/24 & 24/25. 

 

Opponent's unsuccessful passes, lost dribbles, or bad touches near their goal. Higher values indicate more effective NUFC press:

22/23: 27.3 (5th highest in PL)

23/24: 25.9 (9th)

24/25: 22.7 (12th)

25/26: 26.6 (1st)

 

Similar story here too. NUFC's possession could've been a factor with this one but actually isn't because any differences there are negligible (52.3%, 52%, 51.2% and 51% average across the seasons respectively).

 

Here is a graph of PL pressing efficiency this season:

 

Also, when you look at outright defensive output I think that context helps too. I do agree that we defend deeper more often now, but when we engage our high press it is as effective - if not more effective - than ever really. Perhaps dropping deeper more often is more efficient as well because:

 

xG allowed p/90:

22/23: 1.14 (2nd best in league)

23/24: 1.52 (8th)

24/25: 1.36 (8th)

25/26: 0.87 (2nd, would be good enough for 1st in any of the 3 prior seasons, but Paellanonceball is at 0.65 this season ).

 

Indicates we are exceptionally good defensively despite our continued very average possession.

 

All of our issues are in possession this season, for me. Our xG p/90 over those 4 seasons is at:

22/23: 1.83 (4th)

23/24: 1.99 (4th)

24/25: 1.67 (7th)

25/26: 1.27 (9th)

[Vinny Green Balls]

8 hours ago, Sibierski said:

We did in the final 20 because it was you attack, we attack. The fact Chelsea didn’t make the most of that in final 20 shows their lack of quality, rather than us being good  

 

We were fucking awful for first 25 mins of that 2nd half.

 

First half we were superb, last 20 we created some great chances. Christ, can’t point of how bad we were for a period without it being seen as only negative. Can’t criticise the god again.

Why do you resort to this garbage when you don't have to? I didn't think we were horrible in the second half overall. You have constantly criticized Howe and yet have somehow avoided the reeducation camp. Some of you have serious martyr complexes.

[Kid Icarus]

7 hours ago, arnonel said:

No team plays perfect football for 90mins. Games always eb and flow. Expecting more is delusional 

Imo Howe's definitely set a bit of a rod for his own back by getting us to do this loads.

[Lush Vlad]

49 minutes ago, Vinny Green Balls said:

Why do you resort to this garbage when you don't have to? I didn't think we were horrible in the second half overall. You have constantly criticized Howe and yet have somehow avoided the reeducation camp. Some of you have serious martyr complexes.

It’s the whole ‘you can’t say that these days or you’ll be cancelled/free speech isn’t allowed anymore’ argument and all. 
 

Well, people keep slating Howe and bringing their dreary, depressing takes to every thread. So you clearly can. But they get annoyed if they’re in the minority or they get pulled up for some of their points. 
 

They then just resort to saying you’re not allowed to criticise Howe on here  

[Vinny Green Balls]

6 minutes ago, Lush Vlad said:

It’s the whole ‘you can’t say that these days or you’ll be cancelled/free speech isn’t allowed anymore’ argument and all. 
 

Well, people keep slating Howe and bringing their dreary, depressing takes to every thread. So you clearly can. But they get annoyed if they’re in the minority or they get pulled up for some of their points. 
 

They then just resort to saying you’re not allowed to criticise Howe on here  

that's really the part that irritates me most. Howe got what he deserved when he got slated for that utterly dog shit Sunderland performance. And these guys know that he got criticized from almost everyone for it on here. He didn't exactly get praise from other games like West Ham and Brentford either. Yet they still default to being that Eric Idle character in the Holy Grail screaming that they're being oppressed. It's the classic appeal to pity logical fallacy.

[bigfella]

58 minutes ago, Vinny Green Balls said:

that's really the part that irritates me most. Howe got what he deserved when he got slated for that utterly dog shit Sunderland performance. And these guys know that he got criticized from almost everyone for it on here. He didn't exactly get praise from other games like West Ham and Brentford either. Yet they still default to being that Eric Idle character in the Holy Grail screaming that they're being oppressed. It's the classic appeal to pity logical fallacy.

 

Michael Palin.

Unless you're taking about Loretta/Stan, then that's in Life of Brian.

 

 

Edited December 21, 2025 by bigfella