Eddie Howe

[Cf]

Just now, Matt1892 said:

If he can’t cope with the fixtures of Champions League football then it is hard to argue that he is a Champions League level manager.

 

This is such a boring point to have to repeatedly make but I'll say it again:

 

Put Howe in charge of Arsenal and you'll find he can manage all the extra games perfectly well. 

 

Put Arteta in charge of us and you'll find he can't. 

 

It's not hard. 

[Wallsendmag]

2 minutes ago, TRon said:

I think he might get another season just on the back of his relatively successful time here. Give him a chance to right the wrongs.

 

He has to be kept away from recruitment though. 

 

Premier League is brutal and unforgiving these days. I honestly don't think you get the chance to right the wrongs anymore. There's simply too much at stake these days, financially.

[Erikse]

1 minute ago, Bimpy474 said:

 

For context, we played less games in the Champions League though, and played our last game in that on Dec 13th after being eliminated. Better chance to at least rest a bit more than now.

 

If our squad is too thin, and the amount of games is such a huge problem. Why did we have to play a strong team every round of the Carabao? Even against Bradford. Should we not prioritize a little when we're playing in 4 tournaments?

[Bimpy474]

I definitely think the 4-3-3 needs binning in the guise it is now anyhoo.  Tweak it so we have a presence in front of the back four, and not spread our CM's too wide, we got overrun so easily in CM now. Teams are playing on it, and having so much success. 

[Erikse]

1 minute ago, Cf said:

 

2 less games in the CL and 2 less games in the LC. 

 

Doesn't sound much but that's 4 weeks where we'll have had time on the training ground, to recover, to analyse games, etc, that we haven't had this season. 

 

Also we struggled during the fixture congestion as we are now. It's once that eased up that performances/results improved. 

 

See my last post.

[TheBrownBottle]

1 minute ago, Cf said:

 

2 less games in the CL and 2 less games in the LC. 

 

Doesn't sound much but that's 4 weeks where we'll have had time on the training ground, to recover, to analyse games, etc, that we haven't had this season. 

 

Also we struggled during the fixture congestion as we are now. It's once that eased up that performances/results improved. 

If we were playing well before that you’d have an argument 

[Cf]

Just now, Erikse said:

 

If our squad is too thin, and the amount of games is such a huge problem. Why did we have to play a strong team every round of the Carabao? Even against Bradford. Should we not prioritize a little when we're playing in 4 tournaments?

 

I don't disagree. 

 

I imagine a lot of people would not be happy with no going for it though especially when we were the holders. 

[HaydnNUFC]

1 minute ago, Cf said:

 

2 less games in the CL and 2 less games in the LC. 

 

Doesn't sound much but that's 4 weeks where we'll have had time on the training ground, to recover, to analyse games, etc, that we haven't had this season. 

 

Also we struggled during the fixture congestion as we are now. It's once that eased up that performances/results improved. 

We were never as poor at home in 23-24 amongst the congestion as we have been all of this season. We’ve not once had a performance at home similar to the levels to what we had against Palace, Chelsea and Man Utd that season.

[AngelofTheFourth]

14 minutes ago, toontownman said:

You are not wrong. Benitez chose us when we were far worse.

 

However lots has also changed. Howe wasn't a top level appointment ans Emery turned us down, not convinced by the project.

Back then PSR didn't crush all hope, owners were vocal and unquestioned in their support of the project. Everything was positive. 

 

Ultimately the project is still an easy sell if sold right. It's more about which top managers are out there and a right fit vs other top 6 sides also being in the market for a top manager.

 

4 out of the "big 6" could replace their manager this summer. 

 

Im just a bit out of touch with who out there would be considered a top level, huge step up appointment. That will be needed to convince players to come in the summer and more importantly stay.

 

 

I think it was most likely more to do with the team that we had at the time. I controversially think that we would have got relegated under Emery not because Emery isn't a good manager but the team needed confidence.

 

Villa had a squad they’d spent millions on that was massively underperforming when Emery took over. We, on the other hand, had a squad built to fight relegation. Howe was the perfect manager for what the club needed then, but I’m now questioning whether he can take us to the next level. The players don’t seem to have a confidence issue anymore, now they just look like they don’t know what to do on the pitch right now.

 

 

Edited February 7 by AngelofTheFourth

[500bhp]

It does feel like end of days, the beginning of the end. Last couple of years we've consistently failed to win away at top 10 teams. But we also look vulnerable at home now.

 

We seem stale and are the players still responding to his instructions or of our coaches? We are so easy to play against. Its a 4-3-3 with a flat midfield three playing in a straight line near centre circle. Any half decent manager can work out a system to beat that.

 

Imagine going into an exam where you already know how the questions are to presented and what they are likely to cover at a high level. And all you need to do is a add a bit of detail. That's what its like playing against our 4-3-3 that's been our MO for 95% of games in the last 4.5 years. 

[Kid Icarus]

13 minutes ago, Keefaz said:

Well, probably not. But only by dint of the fact the bottom three are fucking atrocious. We need to pick up points.

Not just being a pedant/contrarian here, but that's never been relegation battle status like. Most teams survive on 36 points after 38 games, last two seasons you would survive on 26 and 27 points.

[Wolfcastle]

21 minutes ago, The Butcher said:

How many impressive performances have we had in the league this season? A wee handful? 

That's what stands out to me. I've never seen a more consistent season of utterly average performances only slightly puncuated on a couple occasions by slightly better than average and slightly worse than average. 

Even in other midtable seasons there'd been ups and downs, false dawns either way, but this is flatter than a plate full of piss. 

 

 

Edited February 7 by Wolfcastle

[nufc4eva]

So Spurs, Villa, Man City, Everton and Man U to come next domestically and we have fucking no chance getting anything in those 3 away games and wouldn't fancy our chances against Everton and Man U at home

[toon25]

We leak so many goals and we can't score for shit.

[The Prophet]

4 minutes ago, Matt1892 said:

Iraola would be my choice, I can see him making the step up to Man City or Liverpool eventually.

 

Is he better than Howe?

 

His preferred system is the high press, often leading to Bournemouth becoming fatigued.

 

He also no experience of managing two games a week.

 

[Smal]

Think it’s going to be a bit like this until the end of the season now, unfortunately. Hopefully people can get used to it and get behind them team once they realise.

 

The full back situation is really bad, and the striker situation is probably worse. These are self inflicted issues ofc but I don’t think anyone could possibly have expected Wissa to be so bad. These two issues are absolute killers, they  are costing us goals at both ends every game and there is not really a way to fix it now this season, especially with no time on the training ground.

 

Get to the summer, let a few players leave and fix the issues with the squad.

[Holloway]

1 minute ago, Kid Icarus said:

No, it's an easy one to answer (why is Trippier playing so much?)

Ah right, like stating the facts. But the question is why has it been allowed to happen? Maybe he thought we were adequately covered until they were fit again, maybe not. But it isn't turning out that well is it

[Bimpy474]

5 minutes ago, Erikse said:

 

If our squad is too thin, and the amount of games is such a huge problem. Why did we have to play a strong team every round of the Carabao? Even against Bradford. Should we not prioritize a little when we're playing in 4 tournaments?

 

The squad is quite strong when all are fit, but the injuries have/are killing us.  And, unlike Man City for instance we can't address those injuries in the transfer market, not just because of transfer fees, the wages are a wall to us too. 

 

You know all that though, just say you want Howe out. It's a fair position to have if you do. I wouldn't agree, but it's opinions.

 

 

Edited February 7 by Bimpy474

[Lush Vlad]

13 minutes ago, SUPERTOON said:

Have we played well for any period of games this season ? For me we haven’t, and that’s a concern as we don’t have that to fall back on in the hope things get better.

When we went on that mad winning streak or one defeat in 10 and 9 wins or whatever it was last season? Some of those games were actually really tight. It was fine margins that we were coming out the right side of. Better to be lucky than good might be a bit harsh. But we found ways to win and hang onto results. Which has been a strong point of Howe’s since joining. 
 

The fact we regularly come out the wrong side now, get worse when we score a goal and can’t see out a game for shit. Makes me wonder what is going on. Surely it stops becoming luck/variance and there is a big, fundamental flaw with the setup and/or our mentality? 
 

We’ve not looked like stringing a sequence of decent results/performances together for most of this season. How many games have we actually won comfortably and been decent over most of the 90 minutes in the league?
 

Forest, Everton, Palace (weren’t great, but we were always winning that one). Not many more, like…?!

 

Burnley at home, maybe at a push? Had it won at half time and was only the last 5-10 we fucked up a bit. Rotated for that one too and felt like a fairly professional ‘job done’ type of result. 
 

The crap, disjointed performances aren’t really a recent revelation and I can’t agree with those blaming injuries, fatigue and the fixture pile up. They’ve just amplified what we’ve already been seeing and we now understandably look even worse. 
 

 

 

[Armchair Pundit]

I think half the problem is that in the first couple of seasons we had some momentum, new players, all in it together, unexpectedly into the Champs league which also increased some of who we could bring in... then the project stalled. A couple of the well liked ownership left, dickheads like Mitchell and Stapleton came in and the investment into building the club went quiet. We now find ourselves struggling, with a slightly disillusion squad, up against a hard fixture list from previously punching above our current weight. Is that Eddie's fault, no, I don't think it is - some occasional sub/tactic choice have been questionable, but also some have been forced, I think we'd massively regret losing Eddie if they sacked him.

[Colos Short and Curlies]

It will be Jose, and you know what I'm all for the ride for 2 years before it blows up 🤣

 

It's written in the stars that he manages here, may as well get it out of the way

[The Prophet]

21 minutes ago, Andy said:

 

We were even a bit shakey in that game until Pickford threw in the second, was plain sailing from there though. 

 

To be fair. You'll struggle to watch many games all season, where one side completely dominates from start to finish.

[Deuce]

It’s clear that injuries have severely hamstrung us (no pun intended) this season. 
 

But what effect has our playing style had on the injury crisis? It’s not been a spate of freak leg breaks.

[Kid Icarus]

1 minute ago, Holloway said:

Ah right, like stating the facts. But the question is why has it been allowed to happen? Maybe he thought we were adequately covered until they were fit again, maybe not. But it isn't turning out that well is it

I do worry if we're 'letting perfect be the enemy of better' a bit with our search for signings. I'd be playing 5 at the back until Miley's back now, tbh. Trippier's been a fantastic footballer and on the ball he's still good, but in defence and when teams break on us we're so vulnerable on that side.

[Cf]

Just now, The Prophet said:

 

To be fair. You'll struggle to watch many games all season, where one side completely dominates from start to finish.

 

Feels like that's what people are after otherwise it's shit.