Eddie Howe

[Abacus]

Incidentally, this whole plan B thing. I do think we actually have the tools to play on the counter if needed.

 

Gordon in particular strikes me as that type of player you could release an early ball to, likewise Isak.

 

We don't play that way, but there's nothing to say we can't learn to when the press isn't working.

 

Think this European campaign could be the making of this team being more adaptable - I'm inclined to think of it as an enjoyable ride for us and part of a learning curve for both manager and players. Forget this group of death nonsense - that's hype we don't need.

[GeordieDazzler]

Forest beat Chelsea because Chelsea aren’t very good.

[Stottie]

1 hour ago, Kanji said:

going to guess, that trippier has been staying back a little more because he was up against Grealish, Diaz, and Mitoma. Id argue Trippier did quite well against them all. When we’re playing teams that don’t have top left wingers I assume he’s going to be far more attacking focused like. 

That's all true. It's not Trippier's side but I understood our approach against Liverpool because Salah is about the best there is on the counter and them going down to 10 doesn't change that.

 

The issue is that if Trippier stays back, what other creative patterns do we have? He's a huge part of our play. Almiron doesn't cross it. Bruno has also done good work for us in the right half space with Trippier nearby. Those loopy passes to Almiron in behind etc.

 

As Kanji says, hopefully its just an opponent based thing and won't be an issue till we play Martinelli and Arsenal.

[Gallowgate Toon]

Interesting to look at the heatmaps from yesterday. Don't think I've ever seen our back 4 so flat. When you look at theirs, it's basically their front 4 on our back 4. Wonder if they pinned us back or it was tactical.

 

Something I hadn't noticed from the first goal is the pathetic covering by either Almiron or Tonali once Pope fucks up his kick. Estupinan picks up Pope's ball with nobody around him, he has acres and it forces Trippier to rush in a bit despite already having Mitoma to worry about.

 

Absolutely shite defensive effort on all 3 goals. Still don't think Brighton were even that good.

[PauloGeordio]

22 minutes ago, Gallowgate Toon said:

Interesting to look at the heatmaps from yesterday. Don't think I've ever seen our back 4 so flat. When you look at theirs, it's basically their front 4 on our back 4. Wonder if they pinned us back or it was tactical.

 

Something I hadn't noticed from the first goal is the pathetic covering by either Almiron or Tonali once Pope fucks up his kick. Estupinan picks up Pope's ball with nobody around him, he has acres and it forces Trippier to rush in a bit despite already having Mitoma to worry about.

 

Absolutely shite defensive effort on all 3 goals. Still don't think Brighton were even that good.

Agreed, we made them

look exceptional yesterday. They weren’t. Alan Smith wanking over their performance! 🙄😂

[MrRaspberryJam]

2 minutes ago, PauloGeordio said:

Agreed, we made them

look exceptional yesterday. They weren’t. Alan Smith wanking over their performance! 🙄😂

Amen brother. 

[Stottie]

 

I hate to take anything away from Ferguson, who's a good young lad and really coming on, but our defence for that second was like the parting of the Red Sea. Christmas come early.

[Ghandis Flip-Flop]

5 minutes ago, Jonas said:

Impression I got was that a lot on here were of a similar mindset that 4th again would be a great success but generally were expected to drop a few places. That is my view so might have been seeing what I wanted to.

Fully expected a 94/95 to 93/94 ahead of schedule positional drop (*whilst still growing as a club generally) with the addition of CL catching us out at this point where we'd have been ready another season or two down the line.

 

 

 

were we not actually better off for points 94/95 until we sold Cole? 

[HaydnNUFC]

3 minutes ago, Ghandis Flip-Flop said:

were we not actually better off for points 94/95 until we sold Cole? 

 

Yep, 4 points better off.

[rgk_lfc]

You have had to face not just good teams; you had to face Emery, Pep, Klopp, and De Zerbi - who are in most opinions among the top 8-10 managers operating in Europe currently. 

 

Howe has always outperformed in practically 90% of the seasons he has been the manager. And he has done that by playing aesthetically pleasing football. 

 

The difference is this is the first time he is in the spotlight. His performance last season put NUFC on the map across Europe. Now managers and their teams will spend a lot of time analyzing his style of play, limitations, defensive positions, attacking patterns, how best to handle, etc. It is going to be interesting to see how he evolves when he is scrutinized to a higher degree than he is used to. 

 

Given the fact that he has always come out better in the past in response to challenges, I would bet on him being successful. Having said that, I don't expect it to be linear and there are going to be ups and downs. Whether your fanbase and owners have the patience for it, I cannot answer that. 

 

[Lish007]

5 minutes ago, rgk_lfc said:

You have had to face not just good teams; you had to face Emery, Pep, Klopp, and De Zerbi - who are in most opinions among the top 8-10 managers operating in Europe currently. 

 

Howe has always outperformed in practically 90% of the seasons he has been the manager. And he has done that by playing aesthetically pleasing football. 

 

The difference is this is the first time he is in the spotlight. His performance last season put NUFC on the map across Europe. Now managers and their teams will spend a lot of time analyzing his style of play, limitations, defensive positions, attacking patterns, how best to handle, etc. It is going to be interesting to see how he evolves when he is scrutinized to a higher degree than he is used to. 

 

Given the fact that he has always come out better in the past in response to challenges, I would bet on him being successful. Having said that, I don't expect it to be linear and there are going to be ups and downs. Whether your fanbase and owners have the patience for it, I cannot answer that. 

 

Great post and a good outside view to which I wholeheartedly agree with. The hard start cannot be understated and I would argue, that even though we haven't played well, we've also been unlucky and had multiple chances that have hit the post or we've not taken. 

 

And yes, it's no shame to Howe to lose against those top managers, especially given his age and lack of game time at the top. But I really believe in this guy and I believe he can become elite if we stick with him. Look at Klopp's rise to the elite... It's not dissimilar to Howe. But he needs time to adapt and learn..I really hope the club and us give him that - I think he's earned the right. 

 

Well done on your win today, played very well. 

 

 

Edited September 3, 2023 by Lish007

[Geogaddi]

2 hours ago, astraguy said:

What Emery has just done after 18 minutes should of been what Howe did with burn or loelintin,we could all see it 

Keep seeing this nonsense about how good Villa are , they have played us and Liverpool away from home and been absolutely battered , still expect them to be top 8 and we will be above them .

[Pata]

2 hours ago, Lish007 said:

What did he do? 

 

Subbed off an injured player.

 

 

Edited September 3, 2023 by Pata

[The College Dropout]

There are people On Twitter suggesting wholesale changes which I think is the wrong thing to do. Just need to evolve it more. Our default approach is good enough to compete well in a lot of games.

[Vinny Green Balls]

Just now, The College Dropout said:

There are people On Twitter suggesting wholesale changes which I think is the wrong thing to do. Just need to evolve it more. Our default approach is good enough to compete well in a lot of games.

Don't know why many of you continually torture yourselves with Twitter.

[Yorkie]

17 minutes ago, rgk_lfc said:

Given the fact that he has always come out better in the past in response to challenges, I would bet on him being successful. Having said that, I don't expect it to be linear and there are going to be ups and downs. Whether your fanbase and owners have the patience for it, I cannot answer that. 

 

 

Probably my biggest fear of all. When I think back to the gut-punches of losing Robson, Rafa, even Hughton... I dunno if I'm 'in' enough these days to retain the emotional connection if something ridiculously hasty happened in terms of Eddie Howe.

 

There's too much about modern football that's hateful for me to maintain the emotional connection I felt from childhood up to mid-twenties. So if NUFC became one of those impatient entities who randomly hired and fired managers at the first sign of trouble, a la Chelsea - denying us the full ability to develop a connection to people and characters - I think my strength of feeling would start to wane.

 

Of course if something dramatic happened this season and we found ourselves in a relegation battle, for instance, it would be difficult to argue against a change. But that's not going to happen and my fear is that we undo everything that's been fostered over the last two years with itchy trigger fingers. We don't know how our owners operate in a perceived (not actually a) 'crisis' yet, so I'm nervy as far as that is concerned. 

 

It would be disappointing but I could handle a lower top half finish as a cost for some great European nights/cup run(s), and on the proviso that we were clearly still building something sustainable and good. Fwiw that's been my prediction for this season since the start. 

[The Prophet]

Howe has tweaked the system well last season. The change in personnel was arguably a bit late in the day, but the way he altered the way we press to draw out the low block reignited our season.

[LionOfGosforth]

1 minute ago, Yorkie said:

 

Probably my biggest fear of all. When I think back to the gut-punches of losing Robson, Rafa, even Hughton... I dunno if I'm 'in' enough these days to retain the emotional connection if something ridiculously hasty happened in terms of Eddie Howe.

 

There's too much about modern football that's hateful for me to maintain the emotional connection I felt from childhood up to mid-twenties. So if NUFC became one of those impatient entities who randomly hired and fired managers at the first sign of trouble, a la Chelsea - denying us the full ability to develop a connection to people and characters - I think my strength of feeling would start to wane.

 

Of course if something dramatic happened this season and we found ourselves in a relegation battle, for instance, it would be difficult to argue against a change. But that's not going to happen and my fear is that we undo everything that's been fostered over the last two years with itchy trigger fingers. We don't know how our owners operate in a perceived (not actually a) 'crisis' yet, so I'm nervy as far as that is concerned. 

 

It would be disappointing but I could handle a lower top half finish as a cost for some great European nights/cup run(s), and on the proviso that we were clearly still building something sustainable and good. Fwiw that's been my prediction for this season since the start. 

 

Nailed it

[The Prophet]

By all accounts YAR is a very process driven, data loving fiend, who accepts things may not be as rosy as they were last season. Fingers crossed anyway.

[PauloGeordio]

7 minutes ago, Yorkie said:

 

Probably my biggest fear of all. When I think back to the gut-punches of losing Robson, Rafa, even Hughton... I dunno if I'm 'in' enough these days to retain the emotional connection if something ridiculously hasty happened in terms of Eddie Howe.

 

There's too much about modern football that's hateful for me to maintain the emotional connection I felt from childhood up to mid-twenties. So if NUFC became one of those impatient entities who randomly hired and fired managers at the first sign of trouble, a la Chelsea - denying us the full ability to develop a connection to people and characters - I think my strength of feeling would start to wane.

 

Of course if something dramatic happened this season and we found ourselves in a relegation battle, for instance, it would be difficult to argue against a change. But that's not going to happen and my fear is that we undo everything that's been fostered over the last two years with itchy trigger fingers. We don't know how our owners operate in a perceived (not actually a) 'crisis' yet, so I'm nervy as far as that is concerned. 

 

It would be disappointing but I could handle a lower top half finish as a cost for some great European nights/cup run(s), and on the proviso that we were clearly still building something sustainable and good. Fwiw that's been my prediction for this season since the start. 

I believe our owners are realists and have a fluid plan. They operate in facts, not perceived crisis. Eddie’s got faith in the bank and quite rightly so. A smashing of Brentford wouldn’t go amiss mind! Botman back with a bullet header for the fifth goal!  

[HaydnNUFC]

No chance Howe is moved on this season unless it gets 2015-16, 2008-09, 1988-89 or 1977-78 levels of bad which it absolutely will not. They gave him a long term contract before the Forest home game last season and are on the record saying they want him to be their Ferguson iirc. 

 

It's about how Howe adapts to being in charge of a CL club against CL opposition and managers in tandem with the bread and butter of the league. It's a first for him, which is why it's exciting (or trepidation inducing if that's your mindset). The performances in the last 3 have been quite poor imo, yesterday especially. He needs to sort it and I have the utmost faith he will just like I had in January 2022. He needs to sort out the midfield conundrum and start playing the lads we've invested a lot of money into. 

 

The main anxiety comes from the owners being an unknown when things are going wrong as everything thus far on the pitch has been spot on. But given what Staveley and Goudoussi (sp) have been on the record with regarding Howe I can't see them changing this season in any circumstances outside of catastrophe as said in the first paragraph. But finishing outside of the European places (including the Conference League in that) with no cup run and crashing out the CL in the groups would be a very disappointing season for me. We overachieved last season but we proved to also be a very good side. Good enough to finish 4th. Spending £140m on that squad minus the Hall fee and getting worse despite knowing we'd have had extra games in April would be really poor imo. 

[Abacus]

I think Stavely is a canny operator and that PIF will listen to her - after all it's why they were interested in the club, then stuck with the deal to buy us when it ran into major problems, then delegated the running of the club to her.

 

You couldn't buy the club for £350m now, and our profile is exactly what they'd have wanted, so she's more than done her job and can demonstrate that in what's happened.

 

It's only if she loses faith in Howe that he is in any trouble imo and I think that is such a long long way off that it's not worth worrying about.

[Holloway]

Oh deep in my heart

I do believe

Eddie will overcome one day

 

[Holloway]

Just now, Holloway said:

Oh deep in my heart

I do believe

Eddie will overcome one day

 

If you're old enough 😉

[Kanji]

2 hours ago, Stottie said:

That's all true. It's not Trippier's side but I understood our approach against Liverpool because Salah is about the best there is on the counter and them going down to 10 doesn't change that.

 

The issue is that if Trippier stays back, what other creative patterns do we have? He's a huge part of our play. Almiron doesn't cross it. Bruno has also done good work for us in the right half space with Trippier nearby. Those loopy passes to Almiron in behind etc.

 

As Kanji says, hopefully its just an opponent based thing and won't be an issue till we play Martinelli and Arsenal.

Exactly, which is 100% why we HAVE to rip the bandaid and play Hall as left back. The balance is so off, and if Burn isn’t solid then he’s not offering much. If Targett isn’t playing the usual 7/10 solid defensively good link-up work we need a proper ball player and that is exactly what Hall is. Hall can tuck in and play the inverted fullback role, he’s got a brilliant left foot and he’s able to drive with the ball. He’s got to get going.