Eddie Howe

[KaKa]

2 minutes ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

You don't need to be a nob about it

 

It's been doing my head in all season man.

 

Can't bare to watch the same pattern unfold each game anymore.

 

For the love of God  can we try something different!!! 

[Smal]

19 minutes ago, Lush Vlad said:

In the original poster’s defence. I didn’t read it like that at all. It was more about making those runs for the tap in that he was referencing. Not the ability to score worldy finishes out of nothing  

 

Which he definitely did improve on. There was even a bit with Shearer about his touches and shots not being close enough to goal and he needs to be attacking the 6 yard box. He then started scoring so many identical goals making that run and getting on the end of a low cross from Murphy or maybe a high ball from the other side. All close in on goal. 
 

We seem to still be flashing the ball across the face of goal. But we never have a striker attacking it or the other wide man at the back stick following in. Also known as the Raheem Sterling for City. 

this is exactly what I meant, and yes, it was an issue for Isak that was highlighted by both Howe and Shearer. It wasn’t really until part way through his second season here that he regularly started scoring those sorts of goals (and Murphy started getting loads of assists).

[The College Dropout]

Bruno is great at 6 and 8. At the 6 we are more vulnerable on transition but better at deep build up. 
 

I don’t think deep build up is a major issue mind. And I don’t get this idea that Tonali should play LCM either. that’s Joelinton’s position.  
 

I think we need to be more willing to change formation entirely. 

[KaKa]

11 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

I never said we should leave things as they are, that’s all a wee bit strawman.  I’m suggesting that something which Howe tried for quite some time which didn’t work then is unlikely to present a solution to our current issues.  I don’t think Tonali would make a particularly good ‘8’ - he didn’t look much cop when Howe played him there. 
 

edit: I also didn’t think Bruno looked particularly good playing deeper. 

 

 

 

 

How do you think Tonali has looked playing where he is currently this season?

 

If he's not going to get another go at playing as an 8, and Bruno is  preferred further up, then Tonali needs to be out of the team and replaced by Miley in that deeper position.

 

 

Edited January 26 by KaKa

[TheBrownBottle]

1 minute ago, KaKa said:

 

How do you think Tonali has looked playing where he is currently this season?

 

If he's not going to get another go at playing as an 8, and Bruno is  preferred further up, then Tonali needs to be out of the team and replaced by Miley in that deeper position.

 

 

 

I don’t think it would matter which position he plays in, he’s just absolutely out of form and I agree, I think Howe would actually send a better message to the team benching both Tonali and Gordon for a few matches

[Rocker]

I’m really struggling with what feels like our only attacking idea at the minute. We endlessly get it wide, hit the byline, sling a cross in… and more often than not it’s to absolutely nobody. There’s barely any play through the middle, no real variation, no attempt to pull teams apart in different ways.

Our forwards don’t look suited to the volume or type of crosses we’re putting in. Half of them are overhit, a fair chunk hit the first man, and when they do get into the box there’s rarely anyone attacking them with conviction. It just feels wasteful and predictable.

The front three just don’t seem capable of creating something out of nothing right now, Harvey Barnes aside. Everything is so rehearsed. Same patterns, same movements, same outcome. Defenders know exactly what’s coming and deal with it comfortably.

There’s no guile, no adventure, no willingness to try something different. It’s football by numbers, and when it stops working we don’t seem to have a plan B. That’s the most frustrating part of all.

[The Prophet]

[Dr.Spaceman]

Genuinely #worrying reading that.

[The College Dropout]

Front 3 spread wide as hell. 8s pushed all the way up.  
 

Yesterday we kept giving it away and giving Villa opportunities on the counter. And while it got better in the second half we ended up looking even less dangerous.  Rarely any players in the middle to interplay. 
 

It’s the opposite approach to Villa or always get numbers in centrally.  

[AyeDubbleYoo]

2 minutes ago, Dr.Spaceman said:

Genuinely #worrying reading that.

 

I feel like you could look at any content the week of a manager being sacked

 

Also just sounds like football fans going through a bad time. I mean, any manager who isn't getting good performances is by definition attached to something that you could argue is not working. Otherwise it would be working. 

 

We need to decide if the new players aren't Howe players or if Howe has signed too many Howe players and not enough different ones. Both criticisms seem to be levelled at the same time despite basically being opposite. 

 

 

Edited January 26 by AyeDubbleYoo

[AyeDubbleYoo]

I am starting to get frustrated about how we can't play well, but Howe gets summer and next season for me no matter what so I find it a bit pointless to worry too much. 

[TheBrownBottle]

1 minute ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

I am starting to get frustrated about how we can't play well, but Howe gets summer and next season for me no matter what so I find it a bit pointless to worry too much. 

For me, he should get this season (barring an absolute disaster) and the opportunity to put forward the plan to fix what’s going wrong at present - but if the answer is ‘more of the same’, the board should be asking whether he should be in situ at that point.  But I’d like to think he’s smart enough to see that it isn’t working and is thinking of ways to correct the ship for next season. 

[nufcjb]

I find it worrying that we have reverted to some habits of the Bruce era, sloppy passing, heavy first touches, always losing second balls, no intent of having a go from distance and pulling out of 50-50 challenges. Slowly it has been seeping into our play, especially this season. How frustrating it was back then, I get the same feeling now when we do those things. Of course we have not sunk to exact Bruce levels, but those attributes are of his era, not Eddie's so I'm hating that we are making those errors.

 

We rarely had bad 1st touches, went in for 2nd balls, which made us intense in our press. Can hardly see those these days in our play.

 

 

Edited January 26 by nufcjb

[AyeDubbleYoo]

Think that’s mainly confidence and fatigue TBH, maybe lack of time on the training pitch as well. 

[Lush Vlad]

36 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

Several of Isak’s early goals came from inside the six yard box, and others from not much further out.  There weren’t many ‘worldies’ that first season. 

 

36 minutes ago, TRon said:

 

 

The two he scored against Liverpool on his debut were hardly worldies though. He was put through and he finished clinically one on one. I don't really recall him playing that much in his first season as he was alternating with Wilson so not really sure I would make a judgement that he wasn't there for the tap-ins. We just might not have seen him doing it early on because he was adapting to how we play. 

 

The header into an empty net v Fulham and the 'worldy' volley v Forest are the only ones that qualify, no?

 

They were worldy, ruthless finishes.  I don't mean he was rifling them in from 25 yards all the while.  They were not tap ins from the result of making an aggressive run to get on the end of crosses close in on goal.  Which is the original point and then my point about Howe, Shearer and articles on the BBC and The Athletic showing how he had changed this part of his game.

 

Not really difficult to grasp and not sure how it is even a discussion point TBH.  I'm sure if you're a masochist, you could trawl the Isak thread and find all this stuff and the chat around it. 

 

Anyway, fuck Isak   Wissa really should be able to make those runs and no idea why he never does.  Woltemade doesn't look like he ever will.  The Chelsea game is strange as he did it 3-4 times.  Yet barely seen him outside of that busting a gut to get on the end of chances. 

 

Yes some players naturally have that goalscoring instinct and almost sniff out chances.  But if we really do work on set patterns of play and what runs players are making.  It's absolutely baffling that we keep putting the ball in good areas.  Only for nobody in black and white to be attacking it. 

[BUJ]

We used to just shrug our shoulders at a poor performance. 

Now we reflect on the odd decent performance. 

 

The circle is very much turning. 

[TheBrownBottle]

15 minutes ago, Lush Vlad said:

 

 

The header into an empty net v Fulham and the 'worldy' volley v Forest are the only ones that qualify, no?

 

They were worldy, ruthless finishes.  I don't mean he was rifling them in from 25 yards all the while.  They were not tap ins from the result of making an aggressive run to get on the end of crosses close in on goal.  Which is the original point and then my point about Howe, Shearer and articles on the BBC and The Athletic showing how he had changed this part of his game.

 

Not really difficult to grasp and not sure how it is even a discussion point TBH.  I'm sure if you're a masochist, you could trawl the Isak thread and find all this stuff and the chat around it. 

 

Anyway, fuck Isak   Wissa really should be able to make those runs and no idea why he never does.  Woltemade doesn't look like he ever will.  The Chelsea game is strange as he did it 3-4 times.  Yet barely seen him outside of that busting a gut to get on the end of chances. 

 

Yes some players naturally have that goalscoring instinct and almost sniff out chances.  But if we really do work on set patterns of play and what runs players are making.  It's absolutely baffling that we keep putting the ball in good areas.  Only for nobody in black and white to be attacking it. 

But that’s not the same as Wissa or Woltemade being on the verge of ‘clicking’.  Isak was a clsss centre forward - the current two look light years away from it.  I don’t think that instinct can be coached - if Wissa and Woltemade can’t work out for themselves that they actually have to find the space (and how to do it) to score goals, then that is unlikely to be learned. 

[andycap]

We are a poor side now totally different to how we used to be it's a massive drop off in quality and intensity. 

Howe seems to me to of hit a wall and can't adapt to playing more than a game a week our mentality has dropped like a stone aswell a year or two back if we went a goal down it wasn't a worry, you knew the team would get back in it.

 

[Lush Vlad]

10 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

But that’s not the same as Wissa or Woltemade being on the verge of ‘clicking’.  Isak was a clsss centre forward - the current two look light years away from it.  I don’t think that instinct can be coached - if Wissa and Woltemade can’t work out for themselves that they actually have to find the space (and how to do it) to score goals, then that is unlikely to be learned. 

 

Oh yeah, I don't agree with that point particularly.  The Isak stuff was all spot on, though.  I do think they can be coached to make different runs and attack different areas.  As they have done so at times this season.  

 

I'm not expecting them to be Isak'like and it's daft to think they will be.  So far the Isak money looks to have been wasted on what we have as replacements IMO. Especially if we are going to keep using them like they are and chucking Woltemade up top in a system that doesn't suit. 

[Groundhog63]

45 minutes ago, nufcjb said:

I find it worrying that we have reverted to some habits of the Bruce era, sloppy passing, heavy first touches, always losing second balls, no intent of having a go from distance and pulling out of 50-50 challenges. Slowly it has been seeping into our play, especially this season. How frustrating it was back then, I get the same feeling now when we do those things. Of course we have not sunk to exact Bruce levels, but those attributes are of his era, not Eddie's so I'm hating that we are making those errors.

 

We rarely had bad 1st touches, went in for 2nd balls, which made us intense in our press. Can hardly see those these days in our play.

 

 

 

😂😂😂

[KingArthur]

1 hour ago, KaKa said:

 

Villa ran through the team anyway.

 

On top of that we were unconvincing going forward and hardly generated anything convincing thanks to how ineffective the midfield was.

 

It's okay though. We'll all just keep watching this happen every week.

They didn't.

Yea, but "unconvincing going forward" is not Tonali-problem. Why it is not Miley/Joelinton/Ramsey/Willock problem that midfield is ineffective? There are at least 5, maybe 6-7 players who have bigger part to play to our attacking play. If we couldn't get the ball from defence to wingers/8s/forwards that would be partly on Tonali. But wayward crossing, not playing combinations, not taking on the fullback, not making runs behind.. These are not problems Tonali could change. And he had our best chance playing DM!

[KingArthur]

1 hour ago, KaKa said:

 

It's clearly working so well.

 

Also, are you saying that when Bruno played deeper he didn't influence games going forward? Clearly not the case right?

 

Also Tonali mostly played in a pair at Milan, while for Italy he plays as an 8.

 

The current setup is not working. Are we just going to really leave it like this because Tonali makes a few recovery tackles each game, while we keep conceding goals and failing to get a hold off any kind of control of games in midfield?!!!

When Bruno was playing deeper, every single person here said we need to move him higher up the pitch and sign a no 6. Tonali started as an 8 for us, but he cannot receive the ball in tight areas and is only effective when game is happening in front of him.

edit. and I dont know why you think last season that midfield worked and didnt invite pressure, but now it is clearly wrong and inviting pressure. When "inviting pressure" is not our problem. Scoring goals is.

 

 

Edited January 26 by KingArthur

[Gallowgate Toon]

Bruno is an elite 8, we shouldn't move him. We can find ways to get him more involved in deeper play while giving him the freedom to get forward.

 

In theory, I'd say Miley is maybe the best profile we have for a lone DM. Smart on the ball with a range of passing, can drive forward, decent enough legs/engine to get back & cover, not scared of getting stuck in. However, I think you lose him as a box threat considering how poor our other mids are at scoring (other than Bruno).

[Sibierski]

Feels a bit off if we’re just waiting for a striker to make 6 yard box runs. Like, are we forgetting all the issues with breaking down sides that we still had with Isak? Can’t keep relying on crosses out wide being the winning formula when teams have more and more data on how to nullify it. 

[The College Dropout]

We won’t see it but double pivot Bruno and Miley. Wolte behind Wissa. Pick your wingers. I’d like to see it and is our best bet going forward imo