Eddie Howe

[andycap]

It's crazy to me that we can't control games, he's been here five years and we still cannot calm a game down with steady passing and keep ball to get breathers in matches.

with the likes of miley thiaw botman bruno tonali joelinton Ramsey Barnes woltemade on the books. 

[Minhosa]

30 minutes ago, TRon said:

 

 

It was a bit like in our other games, we had it for the first 45 but faded badly after that. 

 

I think our lack of ability to keep possession is making it hard to maintain intensity, we keep having to chase the ball after losing it. 

Watch the first 15 mins of yesterday back. We barely got close to them. It’s like we’ve ran out of legs which is mad given we’ve not played with intensity all season. 
 

Agree we need a proper DM next season to give us the foundation if we are to reintroduce a proper press. 

[Chicken Dancer]

Aye our first goal was against the run of play, but after that we played better than we have for ages (granted a very low bar) for the rest of the half.

 

Second half was meh but we managed to hold on which I suppose is the main thing. Do agree with what someone was saying earlier though - we lack any type of control and can’t seem to keep the ball for a sequence beyond 3 or 4 passes. 
 

But the rot is stopped and any lingering - however small - doubts about being dragged into a relegation battle are thankfully gone. 
 

Roll on 6pm on 24th May.

[SUPERTOON]

5 minutes ago, Minhosa said:

Watch the first 15 mins of yesterday back. We barely got close to them. It’s like we’ve ran out of legs which is mad given we’ve not played with intensity all season. 
 

Agree we need a proper DM next season to give us the foundation if we are to reintroduce a proper press. 

Obviously could mean nothing, but we have been linked with a few DMs already ahead of next season. Think its vital we get one if we are to see any improvements next season. 

[Holmesy]

12 minutes ago, TRon said:

 

 

He was fully justified in his team selections yesterday, the result was everything. But as a pointer to future progress it told us nothing. 

Totally agree. The overwhelming feeling after the game was just relief. I think all of us looked at the starting lineup with a sense of disappointment and resignation but it got us the 3 points and Eddie deserves credit for that, even if the performance wasn’t pretty. 
But none of the concerns that have been discussed on here at length have been put to rest. If anything, they’ve been further reinforced.  
 

Hopefully the players take a bit of confidence from the win, and we can finish strong.

[dcmk]

19 minutes ago, andycap said:

It's crazy to me that we can't control games, he's been here five years and we still cannot calm a game down with steady passing and keep ball to get breathers in matches.

with the likes of miley thiaw botman bruno tonali joelinton Ramsey Barnes woltemade on the books. 

This isn't true at all.

 

We haven't done it for a while, but the team needs fixing. During his time here we have done well at closing out games in the main.

 

As for the last time we did, think Chelsea away we were comfortable imo.

 

[Erikse]

I didn't have that much of a problem with the front 3 yesterday given the form of some of our forwards, but I'm still not convinced by the Burn pick over Hall, even if Burn scored. He has scored 7 goals in PL his entire carreer, and I'm not really into judging decisions based on absolute anomalies that noone in their right mind could have predicted. It would be like sort of be like applauding a decision to put loads of money on a 1/25, just because it happened to work out, as if it was now somehow a smart decision becuase of that. I'm not saying that it was wrong as a fact, maybe the team does currently function better with him at LB over Hall (I doubt it personally), but I won't judge my opinion based on him scoring on a corner (despite height being part of the reasoning for the decision). If he really wanted Burn in there, it was possible to start him at CB instead. He's alot better there.

 

Overall though, I absolutely agree that he got so many things right yesterday, as evidenced by the performance, so I don't have much reason to complain this weekend.

 

 

Edited May 3 by Erikse

[Holloway]

33 minutes ago, andycap said:

It's crazy to me that we can't control games, he's been here five years and we still cannot calm a game down with steady passing and keep ball to get breathers in matches.

with the likes of miley thiaw botman bruno tonali joelinton Ramsey Barnes woltemade on the books. 

This all day long. It infuriates me how mid table outfits all look way better in  possession than us and we never seem to gain any ground on it 

[andycap]

23 minutes ago, dcmk said:

This isn't true at all.

 

We haven't done it for a while, but the team needs fixing. During his time here we have done well at closing out games in the main.

 

As for the last time we did, think Chelsea away we were comfortable imo.

 

We didn't calm the game down with possession and keep ball though against chelsea. We basically sat in and soaked up the pressure. 

[Holmesy]

13 minutes ago, dcmk said:

This isn't true at all.

 

We haven't done it for a while, but the team needs fixing. During his time here we have done well at closing out games in the main.

 

As for the last time we did, think Chelsea away we were comfortable imo.

 

I think you misunderstand what people mean by control - control is what Barca did to us in the second half of the second game - keeping the ball away from us, drawing us in, tiring us out. That isn’t our game, and our game is entirely dictated by Eddie. 
If we go back and re-watch the game against Chelsea, there will no doubt be some dogged defending but I’d put my house on there being no possession control in the manner we are talking about because that’s not our game and hasn’t been for the past 4.5 years.

 

[AyeDubbleYoo]

I’m relatively sure the plan is to make us better in possession, surely Howe wants this. For various reason, including confidence being shot, we just can’t do it at the moment. 
 

While we have some technical players we haven’t always been able to pick them together and we also have quite a few mistake makers in our ranks. 
 

I don’t think we should necessarily use this season as indicative of much TBH. It’s more like been one long exercise in struggle and trying to do whatever Howe things we can to get some results. 

 

 

Edited May 3 by AyeDubbleYoo

[Ben]

1 minute ago, Holmesy said:

I think you misunderstand what people mean by control - control is what Barca did to us in the second half of the second game - keeping the ball away from us, drawing us in, tiring us out. That isn’t our game, and our game is entirely dictated by Eddie. 
If we go back and re-watch the game against Chelsea, there will no doubt be some dogged defending but I’d put my house on there being no possession control in the manner we are talking about because that’s not our game and hasn’t been for the past 4.5 years.

 

 

We had good control of the game in the cup final

[andycap]

1 minute ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

I’m relatively sure the plan is to make us better in possession, surely Howe wants this. For various reason, including confidence being shot, we just can’t do it at the moment. 
 

I don’t think we should necessarily use this season as indicative of much TBH. It’s more like been one long exercise in struggle and trying to do whatever Howe things we can to get some results. 

Longstaff said when he joined Leeds that it was unusual to work with the ball so much from his time at Newcastle. That tells me we worry more about off the ball orientated stuff than keeping the ball comfortably. 

[Dr Venkman]

53 minutes ago, Ben said:

 

You reckon ?

They’re exceedingly rare and Howe’s a cautious manager who prioritises trust, long-term relationships, experience, and familiarity with his system.

 

Players will leave, undoubtedly. But it won’t be massive turnover. 

[andycap]

3 minutes ago, Ben said:

 

We had good control of the game in the cup final

It was more down to our work ethic and snapping in on challenges getting our head to everything basically joelinton esque. 

[joeyt]

6 minutes ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

I’m relatively sure the plan is to make us better in possession, surely Howe wants this. For various reason, including confidence being shot, we just can’t do it at the moment. 

 

 

It feels like we've exclusively targeted players with little techinical ability preferring pace and endurance

 

Elanga being the most obvious example

[Holmesy]

3 minutes ago, Ben said:

 

We had good control of the game in the cup final

Same thing though - attacking prowess and dogged defending is not the same as possession-based control. We had 34% possession in the cup final.

Against superior opposition, it’s more difficult to do granted, so trying to keep the ball away from the likes of Liverpool isn’t easy, but if we wanted to do it, we’d see it against Sunderland, Brentford, Brighton, Bournemouth etc.

Instead, they do it against us. 

[SUPERTOON]

8 minutes ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

I’m relatively sure the plan is to make us better in possession, surely Howe wants this. For various reason, including confidence being shot, we just can’t do it at the moment. 
 

While we have some technical players we haven’t always been able to pick them together and we also have quite a few mistake makers in our ranks. 
 

I don’t think we should necessarily use this season as indicative of much TBH. It’s more like been one long exercise in struggle and trying to do whatever Howe things we can to get some results. 

 

 

 

You basing this on anything in particular? Our signings suggest the opposite. Unless you think we will change our approach this summer?

[Tiotes Witch Doctor]

What doesn't help is that our midfield 3 as talented as they all can be on their day are often wasteful with the ball, we know of Joelintons lack of technical ability, Tonali for all his positive traits isnt a great passer of the ball and even Bruno can be wasteful, I know it's not just about the midfield 3 we are poor in possession as a team but that's the biggest concern for me.

[andycap]

Just now, Tiotes Witch Doctor said:

What doesn't help is that our midfield 3 as talented as they all can be on their day are often wasteful with the ball, we know of Joelintons lack of technical ability, Tonali for all his positive traits isnt a great passer of the ball and even Bruno can be wasteful, I know it's not just about the midfield 3 we are poor in possession as a team but that's the biggest concern for me.

If they were drilled with passing routines I think they'd sharp improve. 

Nigh on every team can keep the ball well even wolves. 

Only us sunderland and maybes burnley are piss poor on that front. 

[joeyt]

Bruno is fantastic technically

 

He brings a measure of control and intricacy that none of our other players can. 

[AyeDubbleYoo]

9 minutes ago, SUPERTOON said:

You basing this on anything in particular? Our signings suggest the opposite. Unless you think we will change our approach this summer?

A lot of our signings have been technically pretty good. Howe likes Schar and we’ve signed Thiaw, Botman and Hall. 
 

I still maintain Elanga is meant to be technically better than Murphy. Howe rates Miley. We haven’t signed a technical CM but that’s because we already had our midfield pretty much locked in for now. Ramsey is very neat and tidy with the ball and rarely wastes it. 
 

Woltemade is obviously technically gifted. Even the forwards we failed to sign are too. 
 

I’m not saying we’re going to focus on possession as our overriding gameplan, but I feel we want to improve the quality in the team on the ball for sure. Of course balancing both is tricky because players who have both are playing for people like PSG. 

 

 

Edited May 3 by AyeDubbleYoo

[andycap]

1 minute ago, joeyt said:

Bruno is fantastic technically

 

He brings a measure of control and intricacy that none of our other players can. 

Naturally gifted that lad the others need to work on it though. 

[Holmesy]

2 minutes ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

A lot of our signings have been technically pretty good. Howe likes Schar and we’ve signed Thiaw, Botman and Hall. 
 

I still maintain Elanga is meant to be technically better than Murphy. Howe rates Miley. We haven’t signed a technical CM but that’s because we already had our midfield pretty much locked in for now. Ramsey is very neat and tidy with the ball and rarely wastes it. 
 

Woltemade is obviously technically gifted. Even the forwards we failed to sign are too. 
 

I’m not saying we’re going to focus on possession as our overriding gameplan, but I feel we want to improve the quality in the team on the ball for sure. Of course balancing both is tricky because players who have both are playing for people like PSG. 

 

 

 

Woltemade is a perfect example - very technical, capable of playing the kind of football we’re talking about. Doesn’t play.

Osula, who is a chaotic runner is preferred over him. 

 

Osula epitomises the kind of football we do play, Woltemade epitomises the kind of football many of us feel we should, but don’t. 

[joeyt]

12 minutes ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

A lot of our signings have been technically pretty good. Howe likes Schar and we’ve signed Thiaw, Botman and Hall. 
 

I still maintain Elanga is meant to be technically better than Murphy. Howe rates Miley. We haven’t signed a technical CM but that’s because we already had our midfield pretty much locked in for now. Ramsey is very neat and tidy with the ball and rarely wastes it. 
 

Woltemade is obviously technically gifted. Even the forwards we failed to sign are too. 
 

I’m not saying we’re going to focus on possession as our overriding gameplan, but I feel we want to improve the quality in the team on the ball for sure. Of course balancing both is tricky because players who have both are playing for people like PSG. 

 

 

 

 

The one you've mentioned there who is purely technical is Woltemade and he can barely get off our bench

 

I think you're being naive if you don't think we've focused largely on athletes rather than technical players