Eddie Howe

[Kilcline]

👑

[Miggys First Goal]

What a bloke. We are so lucky to have him. 
 

Wor Eddie. 

[TRon]

3 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

Thats because there isn’t anything to comment on re that.  We’ll never get more of a shoo-in away from home again.  Unlike Villa at the weekend where the manager and team got all the credit they deserved, tonight was more of a professional performance against a terrible side. 

 

Also a side that couldn't cope physically with us. PL sides are more battle hardened so comparing apples to oranges. 

[Pilko]

Got that absolutely bob on tonight. Chelsea contrived to draw their game at the same venue so it wasn't the absolute gimme we made it look, although they were set up in a ridiculous fashion first half.

 

Credit to him and the team though for fully exploiting it and allowing us to rest legs and/or blood a few youngsters in the return leg. Going full strength tonight clearly the correct move.

[NEEJ]

[Heron]

Should be embarrassed we conceded against that bunch of Sunday League farmers tbh. Enough is enough. Howe Out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[The Prophet]

Played 4-4-2 v Villa, according to the man himself.

[alexf]

Glad the majority stick by him despite "noise". There's a minority that want to stick the boot in but as I was saying after Brentford, he always turns bad runs around. He hasn't failed us yet so no one had any right to doubt him based on his performance for us so far. Have faith in the man and support him and the players even when we have dips that are completely explainable with some context. 

 

Sure we were struggling for form but he's just helped us deliver three fantastic away performances in a row. 

[SteV]

1 hour ago, The Prophet said:

Played 4-4-2 v Villa, according to the man himself.

Didn’t he say Spurs?

[Lotus]

He said in his interview he wants to turn us into a more possession based side that opens teams up.

But he also said we were back to our best with our high press and forcing turnovers further up the pitch.

 

Guess that’s the problem! Feels like we’re in between 2 ethe. 
 

We did both well tonight. Very happy for him and the coaching team.

[TheBrownBottle]

2 minutes ago, Lotus said:

He said in his interview he wants to turn us into a more possession based side that opens teams up.

But he also said we were back to our best with our high press and forcing turnovers further up the pitch.

 

Guess that’s the problem! Feels like we’re in between 2 ethe. 
 

We did both well tonight. Very happy for him and the coaching team.

You have to actually sign the players to allow you to do that - most of this stems back to bad recruitment last year.  We’ve got a squad built for a particular style of play - either play that way, or buy players who can play a different way (and sell those who can’t).  

[r0cafella]

Exactly the kind of performance we all want to see, we felt back to our best as we cut through them with ease. 

 

More of this please gaffa. 

[timeEd32]

42 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

You have to actually sign the players to allow you to do that - most of this stems back to bad recruitment last year.  We’ve got a squad built for a particular style of play - either play that way, or buy players who can play a different way (and sell those who can’t).  

 

You could make a case that we did start to move in a different direction:

 

- Thiaw: a CB comfortable on the ball and playing progressive passes

- Ramsey: a CM with better technique than Joelinton or Longstaff while not totally sacrificing tackling ability or the pace of someone like Willock; does well at finding spaces

- Wissa: meant to be an instant impact striker with the pace to lead a press (which we still want to do in either version of our team)

- Woltemade: obviously a very different type of forward than we've had

- Elanga: the outlier in terms of being something different 

 

Now you can argue that Ramsey is maybe underwhelming if that's the upgrade or that Woltemade is an awkward fit and clearly Wissa has fallen flat for various reasons, so maybe the execution failed which is ground we've covered ad nauseam. But there are signs of different components there.

[TheBrownBottle]

21 minutes ago, timeEd32 said:

 

You could make a case that we did start to move in a different direction:

 

- Thiaw: a CB comfortable on the ball and playing progressive passes

- Ramsey: a CM with better technique than Joelinton or Longstaff while not totally sacrificing tackling ability or the pace of someone like Willock; does well at finding spaces

- Wissa: meant to be an instant impact striker with the pace to lead a press (which we still want to do in either version of our team)

- Woltemade: obviously a very different type of forward than we've had

- Elanga: the outlier in terms of being something different 

 

Now you can argue that Ramsey is maybe underwhelming if that's the upgrade or that Woltemade is an awkward fit and clearly Wissa has fallen flat for various reasons, so maybe the execution failed which is ground we've covered ad nauseam. But there are signs of different components there.

Agreed re Thiaw - though I think Schar could certainly play a passing game in his pomp.  Botman was always an excellent passer, too.

 

I’m not convinced Ramsey is that much of an upgrade - if he is one - and the three forwards signed have been different levels of poor (the stats will still be kind to Woltemade due to the initial goal glut even if performance belie that). 

 

I don’t get the impression that the forwards were particularly well-thought out generally, and based on who we bid for initially there just looks like a confused approach (Pedro, Delap, Ekitike, Sesko, Strand Larsen).  There’s no joined-up thinking on show there - and this is before Isak was sold (whether they were being bought as a replacement is conjecture of course).

 

I’d like to see us move to a retention-style passing game, I think Howe is more than capable of coaching a style change (he never struck me as a limited coach), and hopefully this summer he’ll get the tools he needs to actually change things up.  He shouldn’t be anything like as close to recruitment this time though - tbh I’d like to have seen some genuine expertise brought into the club in that regard (the DoF appointment wasn’t particularly impressive, and we’ve still got a small scouting team who clearly dropped the ball last year). 

[Decky]

4 hours ago, The Prophet said:

Three away wins in a row, including progresion in the cups. Lovely.

 

Still fuming our reward for Villa was fucking Man City

[Disco]

2 hours ago, SteV said:

4 hours ago, The Prophet said:

Played 4-4-2 v Villa, according to the man himself.

Didn’t he say Spurs?

Needs a plan B either way

 

Make earlier subs FFS

[The Prophet]

8 hours ago, SteV said:

Didn’t he say Spurs?

 

He might have, I was only half listening.

[lovejoy]

6 hours ago, TheBrownBottle said:

Agreed re Thiaw - though I think Schar could certainly play a passing game in his pomp.  Botman was always an excellent passer, too.

 

I’m not convinced Ramsey is that much of an upgrade - if he is one - and the three forwards signed have been different levels of poor (the stats will still be kind to Woltemade due to the initial goal glut even if performance belie that). 

 

I don’t get the impression that the forwards were particularly well-thought out generally, and based on who we bid for initially there just looks like a confused approach (Pedro, Delap, Ekitike, Sesko, Strand Larsen).  There’s no joined-up thinking on show there - and this is before Isak was sold (whether they were being bought as a replacement is conjecture of course).

 

I’d like to see us move to a retention-style passing game, I think Howe is more than capable of coaching a style change (he never struck me as a limited coach), and hopefully this summer he’ll get the tools he needs to actually change things up.  He shouldn’t be anything like as close to recruitment this time though - tbh I’d like to have seen some genuine expertise brought into the club in that regard (the DoF appointment wasn’t particularly impressive, and we’ve still got a small scouting team who clearly dropped the ball last year). 

 

 

In terms of strikers, i think the plan was 2 of the first 3 you mentioned, our arses went after that and it was a total mess.

[The Prophet]

It seemed we were looking for a second striker who could play a bit deeper all summer. There was talk of Cunha early doors, then the failed bid for Pedro. 

 

Not sure how it would have worked if we'd been successful with our early pitch for Delap like, unless we knew Isak was gone at that point.

[Geogaddi]

12 hours ago, TheBrownBottle said:

Thats because there isn’t anything to comment on re that.  We’ll never get more of a shoo-in away from home again.  Unlike Villa at the weekend where the manager and team got all the credit they deserved, tonight was more of a professional performance against a terrible side. 

They were terrible no doubt about it but they have beaten Frankfurt and Copenhagen at home whilst also drawing against Chelsea so are nowhere near as bad as we made them look last night.

[TheBrownBottle]

2 hours ago, Geogaddi said:

They were terrible no doubt about it but they have beaten Frankfurt and Copenhagen at home whilst also drawing against Chelsea so are nowhere near as bad as we made them look last night.

I thought we’d hammer them comfortably before it and they were even worse than I thought they’d be.  Beating two even worse sides at home is no great shakes - Frankfurt and Copenhagen were even more dire.  In all honesty UEFA has overseen the destruction of meaningful European competition

[huss9]

26 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

I thought we’d hammer them comfortably before it and they were even worse than I thought they’d be.  Beating two even worse sides at home is no great shakes - Frankfurt and Copenhagen were even more dire.  In all honesty UEFA has overseen the destruction of meaningful European competition

i dont like the new format but it has allowed some of the non-elite clubs like ourselves a greater chance of progressing to the knockouts.

you've the likes of Inter, Psg, both Madrids, Juve, Dortmund having to go again in the play-offs.

 

[Chris_R]

11 hours ago, Decky said:

 

Still fuming our reward for Villa was fucking Man City

 

Hopefully they "concentrate on the league" and play the kids

 

[Shays Given Tim Flowers]

Winning 6-1 away from home in a CL knockout. 

[Yorkie]

37 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

I thought we’d hammer them comfortably before it and they were even worse than I thought they’d be.  Beating two even worse sides at home is no great shakes - Frankfurt and Copenhagen were even more dire.  In all honesty UEFA has overseen the destruction of meaningful European competition

 

If their previous results are anything to go by, you'd assume Qarabag would make a pretty decent fist of the Conference League, which shows what a non-achievement it would be for us to go deep in that competition. 

 

In CL qualifying they comfortably beat Shelbourne (34th in the Conference) and Shkendija (22nd) and then knocked out Ferencvaros (12th in the Europa League) in the play-offs. 

 

Laughable that Palace have given themselves an extra hurdle in that competition. Hopefully Zrinjski just knock em out.