Eddie Howe

[Jackie Broon]

40 minutes ago, gbandit said:

Good to see you posting. I may be wrong but I feel like you’ve been a bit less active for a while and I rate your takes on things. I agree with you here 

 

 likewise. I still lurk, just life and self-doubt get in the way of actually posting sometimes.

[The College Dropout]

46 minutes ago, Kid Icarus said:

Considering our patchy form and search for a winning formula, do you think we're in a position to do that and still get results?

This we rotated earlier and didn't win. We really need to win now and so we are playing our best team. It makes sense.

 

We don't have the squad quality.

 

You can rotate a rested Trippier, Hall & Tino - they've all shown quality for us at their best. You can rotate Wissa & Woltemade. But we don't have many options. Full backs pick themselves. Wingers pick themselves. Midfielders pick themselves.

 

If we actually seriously want to win.

 

And it's an indictment of the Ramsey & Elanga transfers.

[HayDen Traces]

I'm 100% pro Howe and it's frustrating he didn't get his first choice picks in the summer, we've never really recovered from that.

 

Howe however, for his part, backed the wrong horses and we've got to review that process moving forward as it could set us back for a couple of windows now.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

Might be being naive as usual, but I wouldn’t assume the current few months of underperformance is all we’ll ever get from these new players. 

[MagPar]

We can laugh at Liverpool for spending all that money on the rat and his inability to so far fit in, but they'll be laughing at us for squandering 100 million on players that haven't really improved us. All Elanga has done is make HB raise his level. 

 

Not all signings pay off but when we are forced to overpay for two 50 million players it really shows. We're not Man Utd who can have bad transfers, have them be shite, but be able to go out and spend even more money. 

 

Our signings have to work because we don't have the financial clout to write them off and spend the same again. 

 

I was never sold on Elanga but I thought that Jacob Ramsey would have improved us. Neither have added anything much apart from a bit of (largely ineffective) squad depth. I still believe in big Nick and I've no doubt that Wissa will score goals with better service. He's so far only scored pretty much unmissable chances. I reckon he needs a quality strike to get his confidence soaring. Nick is only going to work out long term if Eddie finds a way to play him in a position that suits him. Fans say we need a playmaker, he's the guy.

[Sibierski]

5 hours ago, Elliottman said:

 

I assumed that would be a theme but for some reason he's just reverted back to pretty much the same 11. 

Creature comfort. Few wins and he’ll stick with the side. It’s a bit of a red flag that he doesn’t know the answers still, because it’s a case of ‘we won, played reasonable, so I must keep it the same’.

 

Like if we go 3 at the back against PSG and look ok, we’ll 100% keep it for Liverpool. 

[timeEd32]

Not sure if this was posted earlier, but interesting: https://theanalyst.com/articles/premier-league-player-fatigue-stats-running-sprints-injuries-rotation

[Ilovetoon8788]

One of my biggest gripe with Howe is his reluctant to play youth. Atleast give them some minutes. 

 

Leo shahar, neave, Alex Murphy. All of them been on the bench all the time but never gets a chance. 

 

And I don't belive that local lads are all not good enough. If we don't give a chance we'd never know. 

[KingArthur]

15 hours ago, KaKa said:

 

And here is where any further discussion will no longer be necessary 

 

If you truly believe we progress the ball forward just fine as a team then all the best man.

But we did. It is the final third which is the problem clearly. 

[gbandit]

3 hours ago, timeEd32 said:

Not sure if this was posted earlier, but interesting: https://theanalyst.com/articles/premier-league-player-fatigue-stats-running-sprints-injuries-rotation

Very interesting, the recovery runs stat was the most telling. Both in terms of the potential fatigue impact but more importantly the fact we’re turning the ball over so much in positions where teams can break against us

[ExiledGeordie]

14 hours ago, MagPar said:

We can laugh at Liverpool for spending all that money on the rat and his inability to so far fit in, but they'll be laughing at us for squandering 100 million on players that haven't really improved us. All Elanga has done is make HB raise his level. 

 

Not all signings pay off but when we are forced to overpay for two 50 million players it really shows. We're not Man Utd who can have bad transfers, have them be shite, but be able to go out and spend even more money. 

 

Our signings have to work because we don't have the financial clout to write them off and spend the same again. 

 

I was never sold on Elanga but I thought that Jacob Ramsey would have improved us. Neither have added anything much apart from a bit of (largely ineffective) squad depth. I still believe in big Nick and I've no doubt that Wissa will score goals with better service. He's so far only scored pretty much unmissable chances. I reckon he needs a quality strike to get his confidence soaring. Nick is only going to work out long term if Eddie finds a way to play him in a position that suits him. Fans say we need a playmaker, he's the guy.

I have my doubts over Wissa and Woltemade if I’m honest. Wissa because I’m not convinced he’ll score enough goals and carry us and Woltemade because I’m not convinced we’ll play a formation which properly suits him though he think he will continue to improve. 
 

I actually think the club need to sign another striker in summer. 

[The Butcher]

 

[Menace]

Probably cause he's shite?

[Yorkie]

Let it go man, Butcher.  the kids aren't up to it, that's all there is to it.

 

Would love to know what strides we're making at the academy like, if any. Would be ideal if we could peddle a few lads in the £10m range rather than have to sell Miley.

[The Butcher]

How many 18 year olds are PL standard? Hardly any. Look at Man Utd. They hoy bairns in all the time. Most of them don't make it, but at least they're given a chance.

 

Can't even remember who we were playing, but we were leading comfortably with 5 minutes to go. We had four kids and Willock on the bench. Willock got put on.

 

Our kids are never given a chance, not even cameos in cups. 

[RS]

Our youth teams seem to have been shite for decades now. Shame as it’s our only hope seeing as the EPL are doing such a tremendous job at stifling competition. If they could only swap villa out for spurs, Masters would be wanking himself silly at how the top 6 looks. 

 

 

Edited January 27 by RS

[Yorkie]

Literally can't think of a single reason why it matters. If they're never gonna make it then who gives a monkeys if they get a five minute run-out or not? 

 

Miley is proof that young players do get a chance if they're good enough.

[The Butcher]

Why would promising youngsters sign for us if there's no intention to play them?

 

Miley is a fantastic talent. Far less talented players than him has played in the PL at a similar age.

 

You just mentioned selling academy players for 10m. Surely their value increases if they've got first team games to their names?

[Lush Vlad]

2 hours ago, KingArthur said:

But we did. It is the final third which is the problem clearly. 

It’s been a feature of Howe’s time here. We are poor at building attacks from

the back and we really need Bruno as the link man. When he’s not there or playing as an 8. It’s a lot of passing along the back line and trying to get down the flanks. Before we invariably lose it. Or it’s a long diagonal, which we’re not great at without Schar. 
 

Even when Bruno plays further forward. He soon gets fed up and starts dropping. He was doing it after 5-10 minutes the other week, I think against Wolves?

 

It’s not beyond the realms of possibility that teams realise Tonali is poor on the ball, especially under pressure and having to shift it quickly. They can also easily cut off passing lanes and funnel the ball where they want. Such as to Burn when he is playing left back. Nowhere near as easy when Bruno plays there. As he is press resistant, his passing is better, he can find space and also wins fouls or gets away on the half turn. 
 

Teams have already nullified Elanga, Gordon and Woltemade in our system. So not sure why Tonali would be any different. 
 

I can see the argument for keeping him deeper. As that is where he has looked at his best previously and he offers the defensive cover to the back 4. However I can’t see how anyone can watch us and think we are ‘fine’ when trying to build possession or dictate play. 
 

An actual DM who is comfortable on the ball and sits that bit deeper would be ideal. But we’ve been saying that for years and Howe seems dead against it for some unknown reason. 

[La Parka]

Neave isn't shite though. He's stood out every time I've watched him. But if you never give him a shot how will we know?

 

Sure the ability of the youth side as a whole isn't good, but it doesn't mean everyone is useless. Sometimes playing at a different level allows a player to grow. It's like saying a player who plays for a smaller nation is shit internationally because their national side is wank but then they thrive in a better side. 

[Pilko]

I'm sure they asked Eddie about this a while ago when we had the injury crisis in the last CL campaign and he said something like he wasn't one to hand out debuts for the sake of it.

 

Only times it's bugged me is for example; when we were 3-0 down in a game away to Everton and you had a clearly fucked Isak running about during 10 minutes added time and he refused to throw one of the kids on. Not from a development point of view but the game is over, just chuck a body on to save a senior players legs but he still wouldn't do it.

 

You'd imagine Neave will get a run eventually if he's good enough so we'll see.

[johnny36]

1 hour ago, The Butcher said:

 

We complain about fatigue but hardly ever use our full compliment of 5 subs

[La Parka]

16 minutes ago, johnny36 said:

We complain about fatigue but hardly ever use our full compliment of 5 subs

Probably because we are chasing games more often and he's scared to change out a purple or take a bigger risk

 

 

Edited January 27 by La Parka

[Yorkie]

43 minutes ago, The Butcher said:

Why would promising youngsters sign for us if there's no intention to play them?

 

Miley is a fantastic talent. Far less talented players than him has played in the PL at a similar age.

 

You just mentioned selling academy players for 10m. Surely their value increases if they've got first team games to their names?

 

I'm sure Man City have managed to sell youngsters without them having ever kicked a ball competitively for them. 

 

Promising youngsters would sign for us because it's an absolutely incredible opportunity and there's a pathway into the first team if you're good enough. 

 

I know everything is on the table at the moment but I really don't see why this can't just be a case of trusting the manager's judgement. I think he's probably got a handle on how to develop players.

[duo]

I think it's a valid question - surely mins in the PL is part of their development. Isn't Neave a CF? It's not like our current crop are pulling up any trees.