Eddie Howe

[Ashley17]

7 minutes ago, Barnes23 said:

I agree in a general sense, and there's real cause for optimism that we can continue to progress this season and silence some of the pessimists who believed our performance level would drop off substantially this year.

 

I would say though that a game which plays out in the manner that yesterday's did is not purely a question of personnel. That was systematic domination. 

 

They're the best team in the world for a reason, finding tactical solutions against them under Pep is just about the greatest challenge any coach can face right now. But if Howe is here for the long-term, as we all hope he will be, it is one metric (among many) against which he will be judged. 

Whilst I agree with what you are saying, anybody who plays City has to do a lot of chasing but also have to be clinical when the opportunities arise. Our opportunity came when we managed to press Rodri into a mistake but Wilson couldn’t make the most of what should have been a one on one for Almiron. Better players would help with that aspect.

[Displayname]

Just now, Ashley17 said:

Whilst I agree with what you are saying, anybody who plays City has to do a lot of chasing but also have to be clinical when the opportunities arise. Our opportunity came when we managed to press Rodri into a mistake but Wilson couldn’t make the most of what should have been a one on one for Almiron. Better players would help with that aspect.

City probably had 5-6 chances were they could have scored with better finishing aswell. 

Wilson is probably the best backup striker in the Premier League atm(if you count Alvarez as a first team player).

[Cronky]

6 minutes ago, Barnes23 said:

I agree in a general sense, and there's real cause for optimism that we can continue to progress this season and silence some of the pessimists who believed our performance level would drop off substantially this year.

 

I would say though that a game which plays out in the manner that yesterday's did is not purely a question of personnel. That was systematic domination. 

 

They're the best team in the world for a reason, finding tactical solutions against them under Pep is just about the greatest challenge any coach can face right now. But if Howe is here for the long-term, as we all hope he will be, it is one metric (among many) against which he will be judged. 

 

I think the difference in personnel is the primary issue though. Not one of our players would get in their first team. Right from the start, City's plan has been to achieve world domination, and it seems they have been prepared to cheat financially in order to get there. There is that elephant in the room.

 

I'm not sure what the opposition can do now, because they are technically good enough to beat the most aggressive press, and they are physically strong enough to retrieve the ball quickly on the rare occasions that they lose it. They are able to do this against much better players than we have at the moment. Against the best, they can turn games into a drawn out contest of attack v defence.

 

Eddie has managed to over-achieve massively with the players at his disposal. With all due respect to Pep, the manager of Barca, Bayern and Man City, he has not faced that challenge. He has produced a major tactical change in how the game is played at the top level, but he has the players to make his system work better than anyone else can achieve.

[Ashley17]

Just now, Displayname said:

City probably had 5-6 chances were they could have scored with better finishing aswell. 

Wilson is probably the best backup striker in the Premier League atm(if you count Alvarez as a first team player).

I didn’t mean it as a dig at either player but if we were in City’s position we would have better players available than quite a few of our first team squad. 
 

The fact we didn’t even get a shot off in that situation was very disappointing 

[NUFC_Chris]

I still view it as a progression. Loads of teams will go there and get pumped.
Personnel is still the key factor, their quality playing it out from the back is outstanding. Defensively we were excellent but you can see a gulf in quality when our back line is pressed high up the pitch as opposed to theirs. In my opinion. 

 

 

Edited August 20, 2023 by NUFC_Chris

[Barnes23]

13 minutes ago, Ashley17 said:

Whilst I agree with what you are saying, anybody who plays City has to do a lot of chasing but also have to be clinical when the opportunities arise. Our opportunity came when we managed to press Rodri into a mistake but Wilson couldn’t make the most of what should have been a one on one for Almiron. Better players would help with that aspect.

 

I agree, the crux of the difficulty is that so much of our success is built upon the quality of our pressing game and our physical qualities more broadly. The way that City play under Pep, which is only able to be implemented to such ruthless effect with a legitimately elite group of players, is almost uniquely placed to highlight the technical deficiencies within our team. So the two things very much go together

 

 

Edited August 20, 2023 by Barnes23

[Displayname]

Got to be said though, if they didnt have Foden mimicking ASMs performance from last year the game would have looked alot different. Thought most of their threat came through him.

 

 

Edited August 20, 2023 by Displayname

[Ashtton]

4 minutes ago, Displayname said:

Got to be said though, if they didnt have Foden mimicking ASMs performance from last year the game would have looked alot different. Thought most of their threat came through him.

 

 

 

 

I think pretty much all of their threat did. Grealish was ordinary. Alvarez pretty quiet other than his great strike. Haaland got little change from our centre-backs. Foden was the only one where you felt something could happen every time he got on the ball.

[Barnes23]

10 minutes ago, Cronky said:

 

I think the difference in personnel is the primary issue though. Not one of our players would get in their first team. Right from the start, City's plan has been to achieve world domination, and it seems they have been prepared to cheat financially in order to get there. There is that elephant in the room.

 

I'm not sure what the opposition can do now, because they are technically good enough to beat the most aggressive press, and they are physically strong enough to retrieve the ball quickly on the rare occasions that they lose it. They are able to do this against much better players than we have at the moment. Against the best, they can turn games into a drawn out contest of attack v defence.

 

Eddie has managed to over-achieve massively with the players at his disposal. With all due respect to Pep, the manager of Barca, Bayern and Man City, he has not faced that challenge. He has produced a major tactical change in how the game is played at the top level, but he has the players to make his system work better than anyone else can achieve.

 

I think Pep has built a team which is very much hand-selected and purpose-built, so it's not straightforward to judge. But Schar, Botman, Trippier, Bruno and Isak wouldn't look out of place in the City squad IMO. Too early to call on Tonali and the other new arrivals. It's true that the rest wouldn't make the grade technically. 

 

I do agree with your general point, that our personnel isn't at the level where we can truly compete with City yet, it's very difficult not to. But the hope would be that we will find ways to hurt them, and that we can impose ourselves on the game in an attacking sense more than we did last night. I think that's going to require an evolution of both tactics and personnel. It's a quandary that's going to be on the lips of every coach in Europe looking to go to the very top. 

 

 

[ianovthetoon]

Man City’s squad has been years in the making. This is Eddie’s 4th transfer window and we’re a little hamstrung by FFP. 
 

What he’s achieved so far builds him a lot of credit and patience. 
 

No shame in losing by a single goal at Man City away, and it’s a goal less than last year so arguably some progress 

[Shak]

13 minutes ago, Barnes23 said:

 

I agree, the crux of the difficulty is that so much of our success is built upon the quality of our pressing game and our physical qualities more broadly. The way that City play under Pep, which is only able to be implemented to such ruthless effect with a legitimately elite group of players, is almost uniquely placed to highlight the technical deficiencies within our team. So the two things very much go together

 

 

 

 

Would agree with this.

 

City are perfectly suited to nullify what we do best defensively and their own pressing really exposes the fact that we have a number of players who aren't comfortable enough on the ball to keep it effectively against a team like City.

 

A big issue for us last night for me was that the ball to an unmarked Walker on the right was on all night for them when we tried to press. I thought that Burn was actually decent yesterday but having him at LB isn't ideal as him pushing upfield to take that ball away would have been suicide. A better athlete at LB will help a lot IMO, hopefully that can be Hall.

 

As we keep evolving and improving the squad we should be better able to hold our own in possession, too. I'm not sure it makes a ton of sense to change it up and go direct either, as their defenders are all fucking animals so I'm not sure Isak or Wilson would have had any joy with that.

 

Just have to be patient and wait for us to get better players, essentially.

[The College Dropout]

4 hours ago, gbandit said:

Agreed on how easy it was for them to find Foden. I think we were more worried about Haaland and what they’d do to us from wide that we didn’t really set up to stifle their central midfield. If you look at how teams try to suffocate Bruno now,

we needed to do that but to Foden. However, Foden’s pretty much the best player in the league after De Bruyne and he’s not normally allowed a free role centrally so I completely understand why he was free to receive the ball so much yesterday 

That same space is where Villa killed us last season and where Villa had some joy last week. 
 

If it wasn’t Foden it would be KDB so there’s really not a good reason to not have a decent mitigation in place for the entire 90. 

[Hot Since 1882]

Love how we press high, but difference between how us and Man City pull it off is how compact we are and how we stop midfield attacks.  

 

When we had the ball, we found it near impossible to beat their press, and pass it into our midfield/attack and get on the turn. Playing through the lines is second nature with Man City/Pep.

 

We'll beat a lot of teams this season with our intensity, but Man City are levels above.

[alexf]

There was a brief moment in the first half where the ball was drilled into Isak on the half way line and he turned brilliantly and got us running at their back 4. It was the first moment of quality by us that matched them and it made me wonder if we used Isak incorrectly last night. 

 

He was starved of service and barely got a kick. Perhaps if we could have found a way to drop him into a pocket of space, similar to how Foden worked for them starting wide but with license to wonder. Almiron and Gordon worked hard but they don't have Isak's dribbling ability and open up space.

 

But benefit of hindsight. Man City were just too strong. Press them hard and Ederson just pinged accurate passes over the top. Don't press and they just pass you to death til you lose concentration.

[patrone]

 

Tbc...

[patrone]

Mates wedding coming up so a month ago I thought why not, quick letter to EH via the club, didn't really expect a response.

 

Yesterday received a lovely email from his PA, and today this (It's in a plastic sleeve)

[hakka]

Class that.

[PauloGeordio]

3 minutes ago, hakka said:

Class that.

He is isn’t he. Our gaffa!  

[elbee909]

I'd like to see the letter from Steve Bruce, where he says he had the idea to congratulate your mate first.

[Tiresias]

Written in ketchup

[patrone]

His pa even said let us all know how it went etc.

 

Class

 

👏👏

[Mountain]

Are there many managers on his level in the Premier League that don't into beef and ignore direct hateful comments from other managers?

 

Jurgen Klopp says shit, Eddie just says "he's a great manager"

 

Pep says shit, Eddie just says "He's a great manager"

 

Ten Hag said shit, he just says "He's a great manager" but in the dressing room he read out his comments and said "They want a fast game? Let's fucking give it to them"

 

He takes the high road every time in public.

 

I bet that aggravates them.

 

 

Edited August 25, 2023 by Mountain

[elbee909]

Exercising emotional control and staying on target in the public eye garners respect from whom you're managing. You can't very well demand, with a straight face, level-headedness on the pitch from the players if you're mouthing off like a loon to the media.

 

Look how he's said nothing about the Fraser situation to the media. Some would mouth off to get the media on their side but Howe's kept it all away and discreet. So you may have disagreements, but you keep things respectful and in their proper context, and that only strengthens the trust of the wider group as they know you won't throw them under the bus.

[Yorkie]

Really enjoyed his presser today. Incredibly measured in the face of the journos' stoking of a so-called rivalry between the two managers; just no temptation from him at all. Just letting Klopp cryarse to himself and his arsekissing minions. 

 

Liked his answers in general about social media. Spot on again in how he says it's not for him to dictate whether or not the players are on it but you can sense that he wants them to be educated on its pitfalls.

 

He's just a bloody good egg and it's great feeling like we're in such good hands. You know we'll be absolutely ready for Sunday. Plus I'm a sucker for any KK chat. 

[Disco]

Straight bat always and rightly so. Moreso when you’re playing a press favourite. As someone who likes Klopp and sees through the bravado it’s a battle of wits and personalities. Roll on Sunday.