Eddie Howe

[Smal]

I know it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea but fwiw Villa’s xG difference (xG for - xG against) is -0.29 per 90, the 15th best in the league (ours 3rd, btw). Much like Forest last season, they are where they are in the league through a fair bit of luck and someone banging in low percentage goals most games. Say what you want about this stuff but history would suggest that it isn’t sustainable.

 

On the eye test I haven’t really seen them play well much at all this season.

 

 

Edited December 28, 2025 by Smal

[Begbie]

6 minutes ago, Smal said:

I know it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea but fwiw Villa’s xG difference (xG for - xG against) is -0.29 per 90, the 15th best in the league (ours 3rd, btw). Much like Forest last season, they are where they are in the league through a fair bit of luck and someone banging in low percentage goals most games. Say what you want about this stuff but history would suggest that it isn’t sustainable.

 

On the eye test I haven’t really seen them play well much at all this season.

 

 

 

Tbh I would take goals over expected goals any time..

[Sir Joel Inton]

25 minutes ago, Interpolic said:

 

Flavour of the month is right. Funny how the Areola patter has died down. 

 

Never been keen on him.

 

Heard he’s a bit of a tit.

[Smal]

Just now, Begbie said:

Tbh I would take goals over expected goals any time..

well for sure, but performances do actually matter long term.

[The Butcher]

true mind

[TRon]

1 hour ago, Wallsendmag said:

We're just suffering from a really poor summer transfer window. Simple as that. £100m wasted on Elanga and Ramsey and the jury still out on £55m Wissa. A club like ours simply can't afford to make mistakes like that. The goalkeeper we brought in is poor and we lost our striker who was pretty much averaging 20 goals a season. Yes Thiaw has been a success but then there's the likes of Pope, Joelinton, Burn, Trippier and Schar who are clearly on the decline now. Less said about Gordon the better.

 

In short our team is worse than last season. In fact it's the worst team we've had in the past few seasons. Not sure how or if we can correct it. If Wissa turns out to be a flop that's £150m wasted on those 3, plus agents fees, plus wages. I'd imagine that would leave us hamstrung for quite a while.

 

I think it's fair to ask whether we are buying the right type of players for how football is evolving in the PL. We are still targeting athletes over technique, but we are getting stuck between two stools for me. 

 

We don't have the technique to overcome the physicality of this season's opponents on the floor, and we don't have the physicality to outmuscle them either. We aren't winning however we play it. Howe might have been better off just going all in on Dyche-ball if he wanted to win by overpowering teams with athleticism. 

[Dr.Spaceman]

8 minutes ago, The Butcher said:

true mind

 

But there's a bunch of teams much worse than us in the league?

[AyeDubbleYoo]

Also desperation defending like Man Utd did isn't a system. It's what you do when you have no other choice. 

[AyeDubbleYoo]

9 minutes ago, TRon said:

 

I think it's fair to ask whether we are buying the right type of players for how football is evolving in the PL. We are still targeting athletes over technique, but we are getting stuck between two stools for me. 

 

We don't have the technique to overcome the physicality of this season's opponents on the floor, and we don't have the physicality to outmuscle them either. We aren't winning however we play it. Howe might have been better off just going all in on Dyche-ball if he wanted to win by overpowering teams with athleticism. 

 

Calling what we were doing Dyche ball is a bit silly. 

[Yorkie]

Wish people wouldn't post horseshit from random NPCs on twitter. There's enough of it on here already without leakage from the cesspit. 

[KingArthur]

33 minutes ago, Begbie said:

Tbh I would take goals over expected goals any time..

You would, but in the long term it doesn't really work like that.

[bobbydazzla]

1 hour ago, Smal said:

I know it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea but fwiw Villa’s xG difference (xG for - xG against) is -0.29 per 90, the 15th best in the league (ours 3rd, btw). Much like Forest last season, they are where they are in the league through a fair bit of luck and someone banging in low percentage goals most games. Say what you want about this stuff but history would suggest that it isn’t sustainable.

 

On the eye test I haven’t really seen them play well much at all this season.

 

 

 

See this is where the stats are just daft.

 

Villa have been on the rise for multiple seasons, comparing them to Forest is just naive. They’re in the position they’re in on merit, not luck. 

 

Villa have been doing excellent work to break into the established cartel stranglehold. They may not create many chances, but the chances they do create they take. That’s just called being clinical.
 

George Graham’s Arsenal didn’t create many chances but they won loads of trophies over multiple seasons because they were defensively strong and clinical in attack. If you’ve got clinical goalscorers and a rock solid defence you don’t need to create many chances to win games. 

 

 

Edited December 28, 2025 by bobbydazzla

[TRon]

16 minutes ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

 

Calling what we were doing Dyche ball is a bit silly. 

 

I'm not calling what we were doing Dycheball, I'm saying maybe we need to go all in on one approach rather than get stuck between two stools. Could be Dycheball or Pepball, at the moment it seems to be neither. 

[Toonjam88]

Not sure if this has been mentioned but managers have worked out now we have a massive gap between our midfield and defence. If you play a number 10 or push a midfielder further up they have loads of space. Don’t understand why Howe can’t see it. If you watch our game the 3 in midfield will line up together when the opposition team are attacking and just leave anyone that runs off them into the gap in front of our defence. Might work at home but away it isn’t. 

[Wallsendmag]

23 minutes ago, TRon said:

 

I think it's fair to ask whether we are buying the right type of players for how football is evolving in the PL. We are still targeting athletes over technique, but we are getting stuck between two stools for me. 

 

We don't have the technique to overcome the physicality of this season's opponents on the floor, and we don't have the physicality to outmuscle them either. We aren't winning however we play it. Howe might have been better off just going all in on Dyche-ball if he wanted to win by overpowering teams with athleticism. 

 

Honestly mate had pretty much this exact conversation on our WhatsApp group after the Man Utd game. Most of us saying just that. We need to be looking at more technical players rather than out and out athletes. Athletes will take you so far, and arguably our best athlete over the last few seasons, Joelinton, appears to have his best years behind him.

 

Our athletes aren't all that athletic right now and we simply don't have the technical players there to make that difference and do something a bit different when a game is tight, ie mackems away.

[Toonjam88]

And another thing while I’m having a whinge our corners. Everyone stands at the back and before the ball is kicked everyone runs to the front. If the ball goes deep there is no fucker there as they are all at the front post and at that point they are all standing still 

[r0cafella]

A unpopular thought here but worthy of mention regardless. 

 

If we take the club at face value Eddie's job is to essentially overpeform our spending power. In order to do that he has more control over things this is the essential trade off. Ultimately we've spent a lot of money and with that comes certain expectations. 

[El Prontonise]

Woltemade is definitely more technique than athlete.  

[Whitley mag]

2 hours ago, Lush Vlad said:

@Whitley mag odd to use Man U as a comparison. No Europe so only one game a well. They’ve still spent a lot of money over the years and from a higher floor than us. They have bought well at times, yet also wasted money like we have. They have spent a large amount on an underperforming attacking player this summer. Much like we have. 
 

I’m sure Froggy will be on to tell us how great they are. But are they really looking that good or like they’re close to figuring it all out? They still look incredibly easy to play through whenever I watch them. 

Fair, but I think they are showing signs of evolution this season, albeit in entirely different circumstances I agree.

 

Their league position alone suggests improvement and think with Cunha, Mbeumo and Fernandes they’ve got some good attacking threat. 
 

They were garbage on Boxing Day but last season they would have lost that. Can many say we would have held out in similar circumstances this season, with so many players missing and youth players on the pitch?

 

Maybe not the best example but ask any of their hardcore fans and I think they’d agree they are improving under Amorim.

 

 

 

Edited December 28, 2025 by Whitley mag

[Wallsendmag]

10 minutes ago, El Prontonise said:

Woltemade is definitely more technique than athlete.  

 

Agreed. But we aren't playing to his strengths.

[Smal]

yeah, one thing that is entirely Howe’s responsibility, and something that I think it’s very fair to criticise him for this season, is that he needs to develop better attacking play that suits us playing with Woltemade more. It’s clear he has fantastic ability imo, but we aren’t seeing it in general play at all atm. He’s mostly just getting bullied by physical defenders whilst he’s fairly isolated.

[Lush Vlad]

22 minutes ago, Whitley mag said:

Fair, but I think they are showing signs of evolution this season, albeit in entirely different circumstances I agree.

 

Their league position alone suggests improvement and think with Cunha, Mbeumo and Fernandes they’ve got some good attacking threat. 
 

They were garbage on Boxing Day but last season they would have lost that. Can many say we would have held out in similar circumstances this season, with so many players missing and youth players on the pitch?

 

Maybe not the best example but ask any of their hardcore fans and I think they’d agree they are improving under Amorim.

 

 

 

 

As @Interpolic pointed out. We were heavily linked with Mbeumo and Cunha. I would say wages and the overall financial packages would be better from Man U. Plus the fact that it is still Man U we’re talking about. Even if they have fallen off. 
 

We were very close to signing Sesko, too. But luckily he chose Man U. Looks a bullet dodged already IMO and Woltemade looks a much better footballer. 
 

We would also look a lot better if we weren’t playing in Europe and already going deep in the League Cup and

not getting dumped out by Grimsby in our first game.
 

Small sample size with Howe. But it does seem like he struggles with this and hasn’t adapted to it yet. That’s not to say he won’t. But I have my doubts.
 

This transition to a different style has been a bit of a mess and where I do agree with you is. I don’t think we are improving and I can’t see what it is he’s trying to do. 
 

He’s proven me wrong countless times and I’d like to think he will yet again.  

 

[Stottie]

1 hour ago, Smal said:

I know it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea but fwiw Villa’s xG difference (xG for - xG against) is -0.29 per 90, the 15th best in the league (ours 3rd, btw).

I won't comment on Villa's because I'm more interested in us, but I think the thing you have to look at with xG is game state, not simple xG totals. Your xG when winning is far less important than when level or behind.

So having said that, here's ours.

We've created more chances than our opponents when we're a goal ahead, but have somehow managed to only score four and concede eight despite us averaging a much higher xG per shot. That's eight of the points we've lost right there.

 

Based on both stats and the eye test, Ramsdale's probably cost us 4 points on his own.

[Mr Misery]

40 minutes ago, Toonjam88 said:

Not sure if this has been mentioned but managers have worked out now we have a massive gap between our midfield and defence. If you play a number 10 or push a midfielder further up they have loads of space. Don’t understand why Howe can’t see it. If you watch our game the 3 in midfield will line up together when the opposition team are attacking and just leave anyone that runs off them into the gap in front of our defence. Might work at home but away it isn’t. 

This has been an issue for an absolute age and gets right on my wick.

[Kid Icarus]

Amorim's also another (and probably the biggest) example of a manager who would have been sacked 3 or 4 times over by the people who want Howe out. He'd never have got to the point where anyone could even claim he's turned things around, he'd have been out on his arse after that loss to Grimsby.