Eddie Howe

[Joe1984]

42 minutes ago, Danh1 said:

Aye that’s what I said.

It was intended as a sarcastic joke... 😄

[TheBrownBottle]

1 hour ago, Yorkie said:

 

There might be, tbf. We could pick up injuries to critical players during the World Cup. Our new goalie could break his arm before he's played a game for us. Anything could happen between now and the end of August.

 

Appreciate the sentiment that we need to get off to a good start but going at it from a position of "no excuses" puts him on a hiding to nothing imo. If we've decided that Howe is still the best option for us long-term then we need to stick even if early results are mixed. If we have a terrible start, fair enough, we've probably backed the wrong horse. 

 

Presumably the idea is that we're 'going again,' which means refreshing the squad with players from a different market and then rebuilding an identity with a re-tooled team. If the expectation is that we have to be class again more-or-less immediately then it would undermine the premise on which we've retained him imo. 

 

Certainly more time on the training ground makes it reasonable to expect we'd start seeing the green shoots of an exciting new team, but it's probably going to take a bit of time to find our groove. Hopefully expectations reflect that reality.

It has to a be fresh start and see where we are around Xmas for me - there’ll be (hopefully) a few new signings to bed in. 
 

A really positive start would definitely help, but I’d say 15-or-so league games is when we’ll have a good idea where we are. 

[r0cafella]

11 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

It has to a be fresh start and see where we are around Xmas for me - there’ll be (hopefully) a few new signings to bed in. 
 

A really positive start would definitely help, but I’d say 15-or-so league games is when we’ll have a good idea where we are. 

For me, it's the gap to the Europa league places I'm watching. At any point say a 9 point gap opens up then it would be times up for me. 

[Shearergol]

1 hour ago, Yorkie said:

 

There might be, tbf. We could pick up injuries to critical players during the World Cup. Our new goalie could break his arm before he's played a game for us. Anything could happen between now and the end of August.

 

Appreciate the sentiment that we need to get off to a good start but going at it from a position of "no excuses" puts him on a hiding to nothing imo. If we've decided that Howe is still the best option for us long-term then we need to stick even if early results are mixed. If we have a terrible start, fair enough, we've probably backed the wrong horse. 

 

Presumably the idea is that we're 'going again,' which means refreshing the squad with players from a different market and then rebuilding an identity with a re-tooled team. If the expectation is that we have to be class again more-or-less immediately then it would undermine the premise on which we've retained him imo. 

 

Certainly more time on the training ground makes it reasonable to expect we'd start seeing the green shoots of an exciting new team, but it's probably going to take a bit of time to find our groove. Hopefully expectations reflect that reality.

 

My mate used to be on Scunthorpe's books as keeper. Broke his arm early on in a game, sub keeper came on, also broke his arm. It's exactly that sort of thing that happens to us too

[The College Dropout]

11 hours ago, Optimistic Nut said:

 

I think he managed squad minutes pretty well overall. Even before Bruno was injured he'd not started close to what he normally does. Lack of form/quality of certain individuals crippled him. 

 

Thiaw & Tonali were the only two to start 30+ league games for instance. Thiaw the most at 33. 

 

The same two were the only ones to start more than 10/12 of our Champions League matches (no-one started all 12). The only other two who were close were Barnes & Gordon with 9 each.

 

I thought rotation was the one area he actually nailed last season which gives a bit of hope for next time we qualify, only we need the players to do a helluva lot better. 

My point is we would’ve been poor in the league in the Europa league anyway.  Fundamental issues with the squad and setup and extra games are still extra games.