Eddie Howe

[nufc4eva]

But that's the point isn't it, what chances we created we fluffed massively and again looked disjointed going forward, it's a mess and I can't actually see what system Howe is playing as well look 2 steps behind other teams most the time. That City defence was there to be pressed and got at and tbh looked like we were going through the motions really, yes they have class players but you have to want to win and have to take the game to them and we didn't do it enough.

 

When we get the ball we go into panic/rush mode in their half or are too slow and they get back into position, most teams in the league move the ball better and more accurate than us and take a chance. Seeing Gordon run down the left/run it out of play/dive like fuck or slow it down/not do anything is horrible, other side watching Murphy other than when can get early cross in is horrible, midfield 3 not dominating, probing or pushing them back and a back 4 that just backs off. It might be city, may think we did ok but we just don't look capable of much as a team.

[nufc4eva]

7 minutes ago, Heron said:

Respectfully (?) This is nonsense.

 

You are (of course) entitled your opinion. But we tactically set out to squash the gaps between our lines and prevent their talented playmaker from playing between them.

 

It was tactical and it somewhat worked.

 

It could have been a different game tonight with a competent goal getter. But like shite will I shoot down Woltemade and Wissa. They did what they could.

 

 

 

I get it and is my opinion from watching it, also wasn't convinced by Saturday or Leeds game and may be tactical but we spend far too much time worrying about the opposition and should play our own game - let them worry about us a bit more as in the past when we play that way we force mistakes from even teams like City,ay not change the result but we look so.passive

[The Prophet]

1 minute ago, nufc4eva said:

But that's the point isn't it, what chances we created we fluffed massively and again looked disjointed going forward, it's a mess and I can't actually see what system Howe is playing as well look 2 steps behind other teams most the time. That City defence was there to be pressed and got at and tbh looked like we were going through the motions really, yes they have class players but you have to want to win and have to take the game to them and we didn't do it enough.

 

When we get the ball we go into panic/rush mode in their half or are too slow and they get back into position, most teams in the league move the ball better and more accurate than us and take a chance. Seeing Gordon run down the left/run it out of play/dive like fuck or slow it down/not do anything is horrible, other side watching Murphy other than when can get early cross in is horrible, midfield 3 not dominating, probing or pushing them back and a back 4 that just backs off. It might be city, may think we did ok but we just don't look capable of much as a team.

 

I've watched us plenty of times this season and thought we were a mess, tonight wasn't one.

 

We played well.

[cubaricho]

10 minutes ago, Heron said:

Respectfully (?)

 

[Heron]

10 minutes ago, nufc4eva said:

I get it and is my opinion from watching it, also wasn't convinced by Saturday or Leeds game and may be tactical but we spend far too much time worrying about the opposition and should play our own game - let them worry about us a bit more as in the past when we play that way we force mistakes from even teams like City,ay not change the result but we look so.passive

What is the strongest part of our squad (on paper - all being fit and well) I'd ask...genuinely...

 

 

 

 

Edited January 14 by Heron

[huss9]

11 minutes ago, Heron said:

What is the strongest part of our squad (on paper - all being fit and well) I'd ask...genuinely...

 

 

 

 

 

back four.

[TheBrownBottle]

9 minutes ago, huss9 said:

back four.

Yep, it’s our defence which has the best players both in depth and in relative ability 

[Chicken Dancer]

2 hours ago, Minhosa said:

To have successfully made such a good profit on Isak and then immediately BLOW it, is such a missed opportunity it’s unbelievable.

This is very much aligned with my thinking. We’ve overpaid massively for some shit/average/decent players in the summer. Wissa, Ramsey and especially Elanga don’t move the needle for basically anybody in the PL, let alone a club who’s just qualified for the Champions League. 
 

Really gutted at how we spent the money last summer and fear it’ll have a lasting impact for a while.

[Lucky]

2 hours ago, Minhosa said:

Feel really sorry for him that him and his coaching staff have put so much time and energy into developing Isak only to have their hands forced and then being immediately on the back foot with signings last summer but, fuck me, our recruitment in response to that Swedish Cunts strop, requires a serious post mortem. 
 

To have successfully made such a good profit on Isak and then immediately BLOW it, is such a missed opportunity it’s unbelievable. Like heartbreaking. 
 

And, whilst I’ve got tonnes of sympathy for him, I’d fucking kill to have an honest from him on what the fuck him and his scouts saw in Elanga. That useless bastard was first through the door. The only number one choice they fucking got! 
 

How can anyone have watched him, as a professional scout, and thought he was the answer to anything other than ‘How can we best waste a shit tonne of money?’ I will never know. 

 

Honestly don’t think we got any of our first choice targets.
 

Thiaw should have been Guehi (also linked with Scalvini)

 

Between Wissa and Woltemade, we first bid for Larsen, Pedro, Ekitike, Delap and Sesko.

 

Before Ramsdale, we first went in for Trafford.

 

Elanga was after we bid for Mbuemo.

 

Ramsey was after we were linked with a bid for Cunha, but no solid evidence as to a concrete bid there so maybe at a push you could say he was.. but just doesn’t feel like it’s that way.

 

It was a shit summer of business, even putting all the Isak bullshit aside.

[r0cafella]

25 minutes ago, Lucky said:

 

Honestly don’t think we got any of our first choice targets.
 

Thiaw should have been Guehi (also linked with Scalvini)

 

Between Wissa and Woltemade, we first bid for Larsen, Pedro, Ekitike, Delap and Sesko.

 

Before Ramsdale, we first went in for Trafford.

 

Elanga was after we bid for Mbuemo.

 

Ramsey was after we were linked with a bid for Cunha, but no solid evidence as to a concrete bid there so maybe at a push you could say he was.. but just doesn’t feel like it’s that way.

 

It was a shit summer of business, even putting all the Isak bullshit aside.

We aren't a cartel club thus not getting our first choice targets is par for the course. 

 

I'm not going to write off our signings just yet personally, Eddie has shown he can turn water in to wine before

[Zero]

No, even if we got the so-called first choice targets, only Mbeumo would make a huge difference. It’s the type of players we targeted that’s the problem.

 

We bought players that excelled at physical attributes instead of technical abilities. We are building a team that should be playing high level of pressing and outrun our opponents. So certainly if we don’t play like that we look broken or disjoint. 
 

I genuinely didn’t expect Howe to make a u-turn on our tactics. But he did, and even publicly admit it. He must have his reasons. Still, he should do it much earlier before the summer, and we could buy players like Akliouche instead of Ramsay. 
 

 

 

[Lucky]

The new medical setup seems to be at odds with what he wants to do.

 

The main issue I see is that other clubs in or around us seem to have upped their pressing game without having the same fatigue issues that we do.

Why that is I do not know.

 

It’s fair to say we were flat for large parts of the game.. the players kept going but we were just running on fumes and unlikely to really lay a finger on what’s far from Man City’s most vintage of sides.. we can just chalk that off as one game too many or we can analyse how other sides are able to do it.

 

Is it solely down to squad depth?

 

Are we tactically doing something or not doing something that other sides do?

[Newcastle Fan]

Tactically we are fine, but we are now at the highest level of football so the abillities of the players you bring in are really important, put a better striker in Wissa's player and we win yesterday, put a better player in Elanga's place and we have a few more points on the table. I am afraid Eddie taking over transfers and paying over the odds for average players has set us back this year so far.

[The Prophet]

We could have still had Isak and still comfortably lost 0-2 last night.

 

City are still a superior side who played well on the night. It happens.

[The Butcher]

Thought we played well enough, but lacked quality in both boxes on the night.

 

Haaland with another no show against the mighty Toon.

[Newcastle Fan]

2 minutes ago, The Prophet said:

We could have still had Isak and still comfortably lost 0-2 last night.

 

City are still a superior side who played well on the night. It happens.

 

Arsenal were much better than us last season but we won both games because Isak was terrorizing them.

[The Prophet]

48 minutes ago, Newcastle Fan said:

 

Arsenal were much better than us last season but we won both games because Isak was terrorizing them.

 

He was very good in both games, but I wouldn't say we were hugely second best.

 

We similarly played well last night, but City are capable of doing that to any side on the planet, Isak or not.

 

 

Edited January 14 by The Prophet

[RS]

He set the team up well but as people have said the quality to compete against the best just isn’t there. 

[Displayname]

We played alright, lack of quality on top and at the back makes it an overall so so performance though.

Having the energy to get through a two-legged semis against the squads of City and Arsenal was always going to be a near impossible task. 

"Defending champions" or not, we never had any business competing in the league cup in a CL season.

 

[Yorkie]

8 hours ago, huss9 said:

there has to be some kind of review done at the end of the season with regards to our summer transfer dealings.

the owners, the recruitment team, and Eddie all need to reflect on how we can spend well over £200m but only Thiaw has actually improved the first team.

 

There's obviously some fair question marks over the recruitment but this wasn't an easy task tbf (notwithstanding what Heron said about it being a squad game which is true).

 

FBs, no chance we're improving on Tino and Hall. Likewise Gordon and Barnes at LW. CF obviously not, as it's impossible to improve on literally the best in the league/world. 

 

The only obvious opportunities to improve on our so-called best eleven were at RW and goalie. We haven't achieved it in either case but the mitigation re the latter is that a cartel club snatched our first choice target from under our noses.

 

The Elanga signing is the only place the spotlight can justifiably be shined imo. If he doesn't drastically improve then that transfer probably deserves the pelters it's getting. But let's see how he gets on after a few weeks out of the team and with an opportunity now to find form. 

[Kilcline]

The issue for me tactically is as Wissa and Woltemade aren't (or at least at this moment in time don't appear to be) killers, we need to get people closer to them so we can link up and cause more of a goal threat. The first half on Saturday looked good just without that final bit.

 

The problem there is that we're stuck between a rock and a hard place in terms of our squad make-up and injuries at the minute.

 

Solutions would be to continue with 4-3-3 but make the wingers proper "inside forwards," play 4-2-3-1 with the 3 pretty narrow or at least with the opposite "winger" moving narrow when we build up on the opposite side, or play 3-5-2.

 

But that would then cause a problem as in each of those scenarios the full backs are the threat from out wide, and with Livramento already out and Hall already being flogged to death albeit playing brilliantly, we'd look a similar version of what we did earlier in the season when Hall and Tino were missing/not playing together. And even if they were both fit we'd need to be able to rotate them/sub them like we do with our wingers, but the step down from those two would be significant without spending daft money. I think with everyone fit 3-5-2, as has been mentioned by a few people on here, would be worth a go, but to do it long-term we'd need significant squad upheaval to avoid it falling apart if a few are injured at the same time. I do think we have the flexibility in the squad to do something different with the players we have though.

 

TL;DR/alternative solution - Find the next Isak and we're laughing

 

Turned into a bit of a ramble/head dump that. Sorry 

[TheInfiniteOdyssey]

4 hours ago, The Prophet said:

We could have still had Isak and still comfortably lost 0-2 last night.

 

City are still a superior side who played well on the night. It happens.

Nah have to disagree, Isak puts away one of those chances last night and it’s a very different game. 

[andyman]

What if we just invent a time machine and bring prime Shearer back? Ahhh, I'm so sick of reading about Isak on this board  He's gone, boys.

[Lush Vlad]

9 hours ago, Zero said:

No, even if we got the so-called first choice targets, only Mbeumo would make a huge difference. It’s the type of players we targeted that’s the problem.

 

We bought players that excelled at physical attributes instead of technical abilities. We are building a team that should be playing high level of pressing and outrun our opponents. So certainly if we don’t play like that we look broken or disjoint. 
 

I genuinely didn’t expect Howe to make a u-turn on our tactics. But he did, and even publicly admit it. He must have his reasons. Still, he should do it much earlier before the summer, and we could buy players like Akliouche instead of Ramsay. 
 

 

 

 

Disagree.  It's all hypothetical.  But say Mbeumo, Ekitike/Joao Pedro and Trafford all came here last summer.  They are very different to the players they would have been replacing and the ones we actually ended up signing.  Plus they are different to our usual profile of player that we go after.  We were heavily linked or put bids in for plenty of players that wouldn't be considered the usual profile.  We even signed one in Woltemade. 

 

The fact that other clubs are still a bigger draw and can pay more wages and offer more attractive financial packages, has cost us.  

 

I'm not saying they're all blameless.  As so far, we have one hit (Thiaw), one very promising (Woltemade), a couple where the jury's out (Wissa and Ramsey) one looking like a massive flop....  We've overpaid by varying degrees on a lot of those.  

 

The tactics thing is overplayed.  We still do look to press and play aggressively when we can.  The squad just isn't there yet and the competing on multiple fronts has limited us.  Plus it does look like we are trying to exert more control over games.  But it is failing for multiple reasons, most of which have already been mentioned by us both.  

[Kanj]

Can’t stress more how shit the striker market was this last summer.