Eddie Howe

[Coffee_Johnny]

1 minute ago, Keegans Export said:

He absolutely needs to bring in at least one coach. Not a "set piece coach" or some sort of analyst, someone from outside of his circle who can work with the first team day in, day out. He doesn't even need to bin any of his current group, just add to it.

Wonder if Lawro is still available. For those of you who don’t get the reference, brought in as a defensive coach for Keegan team perceived to need it (… check the goals conceded, there was nothing wrong with our defence relative to other top teams at the time and certainly to all our teams since). 

[The Butcher]

Getting a proper DM in would ease the pressure on our defence imo. We've been wide open for so long, but if we could close that gap we'd be a lot better.

[Holmesy]

42 minutes ago, Holloway said:

Howe mentioned that JT predominantly works on the defence coaching recently

I think it’s too simplistic to just blame JT for the defensive frailties when it’s the system and game management (or lack of) that continually exposes the defence.

That said, some of what we saw last night and at times throughout this season does point to a poorly coached unit - the second goal from the set piece was an absolute calamity. 

[bobbydazzla]

I don’t know what the answer is, it’s above my pay grade.

 

But I know that going into next season with the same group of defensive players (keeper, defenders & defensive midfielders) and coaches and tactics isn’t the answer. 

 

 

Edited March 19 by bobbydazzla

[Holloway]

Just now, Holmesy said:

I think it’s too simplistic to just blame JT for the defensive frailties when it’s the system and game management (or lack of) that continually exposes the defence.

That said, some of what we saw last night and at times throughout this season does point to a poorly coached unit - the second goal from the set piece was an absolute calamity. 

Aye I'm not blaming him,it was just a mention answering a question about their longevity as a partnership the other day. Ultimately any set up/ tactics the buck stops with Eddie 

[Holmesy]

1 minute ago, Holloway said:

Aye I'm not blaming him,it was just a mention answering a question about their longevity as a partnership the other day. Ultimately any set up/ tactics the buck stops with Eddie 

I agree with you though dude, but given how strong the partnership is, I can’t see Eddie bringing anyone in to help him. Something clearly needs to change on the defensive side though. 

[Yorkie]

I think Howe probably didn't cover himself in glory last night and could've made some tactical choices that might have protected the players a bit in that second half. The fourth goal opened the floodgates so if that doesn't happen, it's a different story. We were destined to lose but not necessarily destined to get utterly annihilated. And you could say he probably should've gone damage limitation sooner. 

 

On the flip side, he's manufactured a team that matched Barcelona for three out of four halves, as everyone's said, and it's not a coincidence that the last of those halves is where it fell to pieces. The players are absolutely spent and it's a miracle they've been delivering their recent levels.

[Kid Icarus]

7 hours ago, OverThere said:

No. We fucked up big time by saying Isak was not for sale and then selling him when it was too late. We should of either have sold him right away or not at all 

Weirdly I think you're both right. Both things happened. 

[54]

Its going to be weird going from having a game every 3 days going back to September, to having a full 3 week gap after Sunderland. I'm so fucking glad for it too  

[The College Dropout]

44 minutes ago, Yorkie said:

I think Howe probably didn't cover himself in glory last night and could've made some tactical choices that might have protected the players a bit in that second half. The fourth goal opened the floodgates so if that doesn't happen, it's a different story. We were destined to lose but not necessarily destined to get utterly annihilated. And you could say he probably should've gone damage limitation sooner. 

 

On the flip side, he's manufactured a team that matched Barcelona for three out of four halves, as everyone's said, and it's not a coincidence that the last of those halves is where it fell to pieces. The players are absolutely spent and it's a miracle they've been delivering their recent levels.

Exactly.  
 

It was a high risk approach and he should’ve went damage control earlier. But it had benefits.  
 

The penalty and set pieces were poor. But the style was always going to expose the defence. 

[500bhp]

We finished our CL campaign with P12, W6, D3, L3 and scored a fuck load of goals with a small CL squad and having suffered a very poor summer transfer window which weakened our starting 11 and no reinforcements in January. Not bad for a Pot 4 seeded team. Well done Howe and the players 👏

[Elliottman]

28 minutes ago, 54 said:

Its going to be weird going from having a game every 3 days going back to September, to having a full 3 week gap after Sunderland. I'm so fucking glad for it too  

Can’t wait 

[toon25]

New approach needed defensively, but it's been good to see somewhat of a return to the warrior mentality of this team in recent weeks

[Geordie Ahmed]

30 minutes ago, 54 said:

Its going to be weird going from having a game every 3 days going back to September, to having a full 3 week gap after Sunderland. I'm so fucking glad for it too  

I'm looking forward to it but suspect how enjoyable that break is will depend on the outcome of the game on Sunday 

 

Win that and I'll throughly enjoy the 3 week break, draw/lose and whilst it would still be a much needed break it will definitely spoil it

[mouldy_uk]

43 minutes ago, 54 said:

Its going to be weird going from having a game every 3 days going back to September, to having a full 3 week gap after Sunderland. I'm so fucking glad for it too  

I normally hate internationals, but with the relentless nature of the games recently it’s going to be a nice break.
 

After the break, my expectations for the remaining league games is going to be sky high!

[Lotus]

Thought the tactics and approach was wild from the off.

Maybe the idea was to try and rattle Barca and make them play catch up if we nicked a goal.

We're not a team who can manage 5 or 6 consecutive passes let alone manage a game so I thought that was very hopeful.

Man to man was never ever going to stick for 90 mins. And Burn and Trippier was always going to be very high risk playing like that. 

 

EH got found out a bit. So it goes. Was a painful score line. Puts a lot of good work in the shade which is a shame. 

 

Still, we did very very well to get that far. 

 

Unfortunately, given the state of the modern game and the power of agents. The players who are good enough to play at that level (or think they are) probably won't bother giving everything to NUFC to get us there again. They'll just agitate for a move.

 

Hopefully we'll blow the bad feelings away at the weekend and then try and get some consistent Prem results. Insha'Allah.

[Gallowgate Toon]

I can't tell if this season is going to be easy or hard for him to reflect on for where we go next. Such a weird campaign.

 

Going into the summer, I feel like we need to try and get more defensive mentality back into the team as a starting point. We've conceded a lot of soft goals, comically bad in quite a few cases. A consistent 'keeper will be a big help, but it's also a team mentality thing imo in that we lack bite now. E.g. we should be a dominant set piece team defensively but I feel we've lost simple battles far too often.

 

We do also need more certified ballers so no pressure  but that solid spine is critical to get in place for our next phase.

[madras]

4 hours ago, Mattoon said:

 

How can you suggest a resignation based on one half of football? How reactionary and emotional can you get? I think we'll see a bit of that from some corners today too. For me, its done, we did better than I expected but I am disappointed that we didn't do as well as I thought we could. The fact that this team took it as far as we did before our legs went is proof that there's no man better for the job, rather than the contrary, but then knee perk is what we've come to expect from talksport. 

 

This game is filed away in the depths already, we just need to win on Sunday and limp through to the international break, after which I can see us going on a rampage for the last stretch of the season and hopefully we end up somewhere respectable, with some kind of European campaign next season as a reward for what has been a totally tumultuous season.

To get clicks, callers and reaction. He's done it for years. Beats me how people fall for it.

[alexf]

Got to get a win over Sunderland or the season is over and ends on a real downer. 

 

If we beat them he atleast has one derby victory and then also well in the race to finish in the top 7. 

 

If we don't then it's possibly two derby defeats,  a humiliating beating in CL knocked out of all cups and likely finishing outside of any European places for next season. That would feel like a real negative heading into the summer for everyone connect to the club. 

 

Really hope the players and him can put last night behind them, take the positives from it (there are plenty once you remove the 15min defensive collapse) and give it everything on Sunday to save what's left of this season.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

If we don’t beat Sunderland we still have loads of points to play for. 

[TheEntertainer]

Been thinking about the season as a whole and despite the fact it's felt pretty grim at times, it's probably pretty close to a par season for us in current times, you'd expect us to reach the QF of the domestic cups on average (last 8, I know cups are a bit more random than that) so one semi and one 5th round is basically par. You'd expect us to qualify from the group stage of the champions league (given how easy it is to get out of the league now), but then probably go out early in the knockouts which is exactly what we did. You'd expect us to finish 7th or 8th in the league and that's still within reach pretty comfortably, so despite this season feeling pretty horrible at times, I think we've actually done more or less exactly as expected, we just haven't had the over-performances we saw from 2 of the last 3 seasons.

[Myleftboot]

2 hours ago, The Butcher said:

Getting a proper DM in would ease the pressure on our defence imo. We've been wide open for so long, but if we could close that gap we'd be a lot better.

I think we’ve needed one for years.

[Froggy]

10 minutes ago, Myleftboot said:

I think we’ve needed one for years.

 

Good ones are like gold dust. 

[Thumbheed]

I think our inability to maintain pressure at the top end of the pitch is putting us under far more pressure defensively than our defensive unit itself. 

 

 

[J7]

5 hours ago, Mattoon said:

 

How can you suggest a resignation based on one half of football? How reactionary and emotional can you get? I think we'll see a bit of that from some corners today too. For me, its done, we did better than I expected but I am disappointed that we didn't do as well as I thought we could. The fact that this team took it as far as we did before our legs went is proof that there's no man better for the job, rather than the contrary, but then knee perk is what we've come to expect from talksport. 

 

This game is filed away in the depths already, we just need to win on Sunday and limp through to the international break, after which I can see us going on a rampage for the last stretch of the season and hopefully we end up somewhere respectable, with some kind of European campaign next season as a reward for what has been a totally tumultuous season.

No way should that game be ‘filed away in the depths’. It was a humiliation on the biggest stage. Big lessons need to be learned from it in the nativity of how we approached that second half.