Eddie Howe

[AyeDubbleYoo]

6 minutes ago, Wallsendmag said:

Well that was the 8th time we've failed to score this season, a figure I expect to rise quite a bit in the coming weeks, which suggests you're right.

 

We've missed a fair few good chances as well mind, which is nothing to do with opposition finding us really easy to play against. 

[J7]

1 hour ago, Vinny Green Balls said:

Whether he's trying to transition to something else or not, we are stuck in a disruptive period because of the summer, which has put us in a transitional mode becasue we lost our focal point up front and the replacements haven't been up to the task yet. I think he is trying to get us to play more possession football, but we are much more toothless than we've ever been. So far it's 4-3-3 in our last 10. Not great at all, but not exactly an unmitigated disaster either. 

I don’t doubt it’s a period that has been disrupted by the Isak sale, however he was always going, last summer or this. Transitional to me means we’re trying to transition into something different. I barely see any evidence of that and teams who want to go more possession bases don’t buy Elanga. ‘Transitional mode’ because we’re not playing well is just nonsense. We can spend all season transitioning, then if we don’t qualify for Europe we’ll be losing other good player/s in the summer that we’ll need to ‘transition’ from next season. To be fair, it all just shows how important the lack of a DoF was. I’ve no idea what we’re trying to be beyond ploughing on trying nothing new.

[TheBrownBottle]

Next few weeks could be rough - I wonder how Howe will approach it.  If the matches go the way this season’s performances suggest they will, it’s going to be a big task turning things around.  

[SUPERTOON]

4 minutes ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

 

We've missed a fair few good chances as well mind, which is nothing to do with opposition finding us really easy to play against. 

I said easy to plan against tbf. 

[SUPERTOON]

3 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

Next few weeks could be rough - I wonder how Howe will approach it.  If the matches go the way this season’s performances suggest they will, it’s going to be a big task turning things around.  

Likely be bottom half after the next few weeks imo. 

[TheBrownBottle]

Just now, SUPERTOON said:

Likely be bottom half after the next few weeks imo. 

There is a good chance that’s the case.  There would still be time to turn it around, but we don’t look anything like the level of previous seasons.  This isn’t a transition, as the formation and tactics look no different. The summer will be really interesting - Howe needs to do a serious amount of in / out transfer business; and that business needs to be an order of magnitude better than what he and his team did last summer. 

[LionOfGosforth]

Just now, Wolfcastle said:

The only players have that aren't shit according to NO now are Hall, Thiaw, Miley and recently Barnes (who previously was shit apparently) and Bruno but only when he's not playing.

Some of the worst teams we've ever had were more popular player for player. In the dark days it was only really Stimpson, Brock and Dillion that would regularly get as much flack as most of our current team.

 

 

 

Dillon got mountains of grief weekly, it was comical at times. I remember 89/90, we were a strong side in the 2nd division, regularly cuffing teams at home but every week without fail, he'd miss a 1 on 1 and get it in the neck

[AyeDubbleYoo]

10 minutes ago, SUPERTOON said:

I said easy to plan against tbf. 

Is that different? Unless teams are planning to let us have great chances? 

[SUPERTOON]

Just now, AyeDubbleYoo said:

Is that different? Unless teams are planning to let us have great chances? 

I think so, it’s easy to make a plan to play against us because we are very predictable. We set up, and play the same way every game. We even make the same subs most games.

[Wallsendmag]

27 minutes ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

 

We've missed a fair few good chances as well mind, which is nothing to do with opposition finding us really easy to play against. 

 

Thinking of our most recent blanks last week v Wolves we didn't trouble their keeper until the 87th minute. Against Man City did we test Trafford at all? Mackems away, Villa away, Bournemouth, Leeds. All games we didn't score nor create much in.

 

 

Edited January 25 by Wallsendmag

[Vinny Green Balls]

8 minutes ago, J7 said:

I don’t doubt it’s a period that has been disrupted by the Isak sale, however he was always going, last summer or this. Transitional to me means we’re trying to transition into something different. I barely see any evidence of that and teams who want to go more possession bases don’t buy Elanga. ‘Transitional mode’ because we’re not playing well is just nonsense. We can spend all season transitioning, then if we don’t qualify for Europe we’ll be losing other good player/s in the summer that we’ll need to ‘transition’ from next season. To be fair, it all just shows how important the lack of a DoF was. I’ve no idea what we’re trying to be beyond ploughing on trying nothing new.

whether he is trying to transition or not, we are in transition. We've gone from one state with Isak to one without. Always unlikely that we'd just hit the ground running. If we got Ekitike, who we really wanted, instead, we probably would have been a little better off. But here we are.

 

Now on whether he is trying to transition or not, I think it's clear that he is trying to get this team to have the ball more, but it's having very mixed results, and it isn't exactly wonderful to watch more often than not. We have seen tweaks here  and there without just trying to blow up the formation. We're 4-3-3 in the last 10 PL games once again, so it's been nothing more or less than mixed. That's a season equivalent of 57 points. If we average for the rest of the season as we have been lately, we'll get 55-56 points. If we average what we've done over the season, we'll get 54-55 points.There is still a chance that our form could improve over the last part of the season, and we could well end up with 60-64 points. But some  treat it as an absolute catastrophe when it's clearly not. It's well and totally within the realm of blah. It will be unacceptable if we get another season of it, but where we currently are, it's pretty clear that there have been a number of extenuating circumstances that have disrupted our season. A transitional season caused largely by said disruption.

[Sandrotastico]

Hope he can ride out the storm but he's looking short of ideas and it's getting very groundhog day in terms of how we play.

My bigger issue is how much we have wasted on players (his players) who quite honestly are bang average.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

I don’t think Isak was always going like. The chat was more about he would stay if we made CL. The player himself seems to have wanted a new contract at one point. 

 

 

Edited January 25 by AyeDubbleYoo

[SUPERTOON]

3 minutes ago, Vinny Green Balls said:

whether he is trying to transition or not, we are in transition. We've gone from one state with Isak to one without. Always unlikely that we'd just hit the ground running. If we got Ekitike, who we really wanted, instead, we probably would have been a little better off. But here we are.

 

Now on whether he is trying to transition or not, I think it's clear that he is trying to get this team to have the ball more, but it's having very mixed results, and it isn't exactly wonderful to watch more often than not. We have seen tweaks here  and there without just trying to blow up the formation. We're 4-3-3 in the last 10 PL games once again, so it's been nothing more or less than mixed. That's a season equivalent of 57 points. If we average for the rest of the season as we have been lately, we'll get 55-56 points. If we average what we've done over the season, we'll get 54-55 points.There is still a chance that our form could improve over the last part of the season, and we could well end up with 60-64 points. But some  treat it as an absolute catastrophe when it's clearly not. It's well and totally within the realm of blah. It will be unacceptable if we get another season of it, but where we currently are, it's pretty clear that there have been a number of extenuating circumstances that have disrupted our season. A transitional season caused largely by said disruption.

Whilst I agree he is seemingly trying to get us to be more possession based, for me it raises even more questions about the summer window. 

[Guillaume]

How many times have we been held scoreless this season? Certainly feels like teams know how to stop us.

[nufc4eva]

If he finishes below 7th I think it's right to ask questions. Acceptable to not get above Liverpool etc but Fulham, Brentford etc would be awful

[SUPERTOON]

Just now, AyeDubbleYoo said:

I don’t think Isak was always going like. The chat was more about he would stay if we made CL. The player himself seems to have wanted a new contract at one point. 

 

 

 

He told the club he wanted out before the arsenal away game last season (cunt move). He was always going imo, and in fairness we tried to get Ekitike. If we had, we wouldn’t be having half the problems we have now.

[Keegans Export]

15 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

There is a good chance that’s the case.  There would still be time to turn it around, but we don’t look anything like the level of previous seasons.  This isn’t a transition, as the formation and tactics look no different. The summer will be really interesting - Howe needs to do a serious amount of in / out transfer business; and that business needs to be an order of magnitude better than what he and his team did last summer. 

This is the decision the ownership will have to make. Wherever we end up finishing, there'll need to be a decent amount of turnover. At least one first team player will probably leave, hopefully for good money which we will look to reinvest. 

 

Howe has to do enough between now and the end of the season to show that he's the guy to lead that rebuilt squad. Finish top 8 and I think he'll stay, any lower and I think they might look at going in another direction. 

[TheBrownBottle]

4 minutes ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

I don’t think Isak was always going like. The chat was more about he would stay if we made CL. The player himself seems to have wanted a new contract at one point. 

 

 

 

The chat on here was - that’s not the same as what Isak was telling the club.  It’s pretty apparent he told them he wanted out.  I also think Howe would’ve sold quicker but was hamstrung by PIF not wanting to sell. 

[Gallowgate Toon]

I'm just trying to get into his head at the 75 mark and what he's thinking. I don't know you how you can watch another game where we're struggling to create chances and not think there's something fundamentally wrong so we really should try something different. I feel he'll see we have decent 'control' in the game so it's not worth risking that when one down, but the problem is this is a well-worn pattern. You have to take risks.

 

I feel like the data behind our season is probably quite good, we'll be up there when it comes to territory and xg etc. but maybe that's clouding things for him in a way in these situations. It creates the illusion that it just needs the margins to flip, but I just don't feel that way about us this season. We feel off and often lifeless.

[Vinny Green Balls]

6 minutes ago, SUPERTOON said:

Whilst I agree he is seemingly trying to get us to be more possession based, for me it raises even more questions about the summer window. 

me too.  At least about Elanga. There was definitely logic on trying to get Ekitike. I'm glad they got Thiaw, and still think Woltemade could become an insanely good player in time that could really help keep posession.

 

We're seeing what we've seen before with regard to formation. I suspect that he doesn't feel comfortable changing it much until he has proper time to drill into them on the training pitch. It's an in between state where the results aren't so grim that he absolutely needs to tear up his plans. It sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. And so we're likely on track for 54-62 points. But I don't think it's a red alert at all.

 

On another note, his biggest mistake was probably holding out too long for Isak to come back into the fold. Now I think it was a mistake on my part that I supported the hard ball approach given where we are. I've now changed my mind, and am thinking that it was probably always best to jettison Isak, but it probably would have been best to give up on him far earlier, so we'd have a proper pre-season knowing that the motherfucker's gone.

[Jonas]

34 minutes ago, Wallsendmag said:

 

Thinking of our most recent blanks last week v Wolves we didn't trouble their keeper until the 87th minute. Against Man City did we test Trafford at all? Mackems away, Villa away, Bournemouth, Leeds. All games we didn't score nor create much in.

 

 

 

Even when we've won some they've felt bludgeoned rather than one of the abudance of chances from any sort of flowing play being converted. Wolves and Fulham e.g.

[TheBrownBottle]

If I was on the board, I’d be ok-ish with having a season which didn’t work after a poor window, given the previous seasons which Howe has had with the club.  What I would want to know is what he plans to do to change it, who he needs to get there and who needs to be sold to accomplish it.

 

The most disappointing part of the summer window isn’t just that the signings weren’t great, they were ‘more of the same’.  New ideas needed for me - and there’s no reason Howe isn’t the man to do that. 

[Vinny Green Balls]

8 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

If I was on the board, I’d be ok-ish with having a season which didn’t work after a poor window, given the previous seasons which Howe has had with the club.  What I would want to know is what he plans to do to change it, who he needs to get there and who needs to be sold to accomplish it.

 

The most disappointing part of the summer window isn’t just that the signings weren’t great, they were ‘more of the same’.  New ideas needed for me - and there’s no reason Howe isn’t the man to do that. 

this is very reasonable, and I would expect them to grill him on that this summer.

[SUPERTOON]

9 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

If I was on the board, I’d be ok-ish with having a season which didn’t work after a poor window, given the previous seasons which Howe has had with the club.  What I would want to know is what he plans to do to change it, who he needs to get there and who needs to be sold to accomplish it.

 

The most disappointing part of the summer window isn’t just that the signings weren’t great, they were ‘more of the same’.  New ideas needed for me - and there’s no reason Howe isn’t the man to do that. 

They need to be asking themselves more questions than they ask Howe imo. We should never have been left in a position where Howe had to do the job of manager and DOF.