Eddie Howe

[r0cafella]

2 minutes ago, Yorkie said:

 

Yeah definitely; it was the same against Brighton. This appears to be a new problem too, not something that happened much last season that I recall. I don't know if it's midfield shape or CBs being deeper, or what.

 

However, two clean sheets on the bounce indicates some solidity. Probably not sustainable though given this tactical issue. 

Teams are starting to invert a fullback against us to create a central overload. They’ve studied how we press and this is the counter I suppose. 

[Yorkie]

Just now, r0cafella said:

Teams are starting to invert a fullback against us to create a central overload. They’ve studied how we press and this is the counter I suppose. 

 

Interesting observation.  will keep an eye out for that. 

[Displayname]

2 hours ago, jigen said:

Great tactician but a coach should never make the transfer market. He make it and this year your market is average at best and very expensive. 

Yes lets judge his ability in the transfer market on the players who has played 0-6 games for us and not those that made us qualify for the CL last year.

 

Botman, Bruno, Pope, Isak, Burn etc has all turned out to be excellent signings.

[buzza]

15 minutes ago, Dr Venkman said:

The only thing I’d add to my comments about being poor in possession is that we look very susceptible to a ball played through our midfield to a player between our midfield and defence. It seems to happen a few times in every game and I thought he would have fixed it by now. Plenty of good performances last night but as a team we don’t look defensively solid IMO.

Agree 100% on this. We are fixated on closing passing lines and we sometimes forget about pressuring the man with the ball.

Good attackers find the spaces to receive the passes...

[KaKa]

11 minutes ago, jackyboy said:

We miss having the 2 Joe's bossing the midfield and seem to be struggling to find a balance. As said by someone earlier, we are in the process of integrating Tonali and Gordon into our system. Personally, I would like to see Gordon tuck in a bit rather than being glued to the line so much. 

 

Last season, with Burn at left back, serving mainly as a defensive stopper, the overlap for the winger cutting in on the left came from Willock playing at LCM.

 

Missing this element has affected a lot of our most effective build up and attacking play.

 

On the right side having Longstaff and Miggy's defensive support allowed Trippier far more offensive freedom, which allowed him to be one of the highest chance creators in our open play.

 

All these partnerships are gone for the mean time, and new ones are being worked on and established.

 

Reading through match threads, people continue to state that things have changed and they don't understand why, with a heavy element of panic and bed wetting. Seems pretty clear as to why things aren't quite clicking yet to me.

 

 

Edited September 20, 2023 by KaKa

[Jagten]

3 minutes ago, Displayname said:

Yes lets judge his ability in the transfer market on the players who has played 0-6 games for us and not those that made us qualify for the CL last year.

 

Botman, Bruno, Pope, Isak, Burn etc has all turned out to be excellent signings.

Legit but extremely early question to ask whether as his influence has grown (and they appointed his brother in senior scouting position) talent ID has got a bit worse. 

[KDT]

Before last weekend's Derby this Milan team had started the season very well, I think it's more of a case of the Inter game being the anomaly rather than norm. As people have mentioned away wins in the Champions League are at a premium & we were the only pot 4 team to take a point last night. We didn't play very well but apart from that barrage of 10-20 minutes in the first half it looked like 2 pretty evenly matched teams. I don't think anyone can be disappointed with an away point in Europe.

[The Prophet]

9 minutes ago, Dr Venkman said:

Total faith in Eddie to find the answers, he has done it over and over.

 

100%.

 

That's why it doesn't bother me too much. The creativity problems are being overstated, but the attack does look incoherent at times. I have every faith we'll overcome that.

[Coffee_Johnny]

2 hours ago, Wilson said:

 

That doesn't equate to 'should have been comfortably beaten' in my book.  Feel like you're doing the lads an injustice by suggesting it tbh. 

 

We were worth the point. 

 

 

25 shots to 6; 9 on target to 1. Come on, man. We were beaten 3-1 by Brighton and the shots totals were 15 to 9 (6 to 2 on target).
Great CL result for us but we definitely had the rub of the green. 

[The Prophet]

You get no credit for a solid rearguard action these days?

[Displayname]

2 minutes ago, The Prophet said:

You get no credit for a solid rearguard action these days?

We did put up a hell of a fight in defense. But we still had Milan players tripping themselves over trying something fancy in our box. We arent getting out of that alive when we face Mbappe.

[Groundhog63]

3 minutes ago, The Prophet said:

You get no credit for a solid rearguard action these days?

Clean sheets don't count anymore

[AJ9]

20 minutes ago, Yorkie said:

 

Interesting observation.  will keep an eye out for that. 

Hernandez roamed quite a bit into central areas last night. 

[The College Dropout]

There's a massive gap between defence and midfield when we don't press. Been evident last season but more so from GW1 this season. Keeps happening.

 

When we do press the CBs can press whoever drops into those positions.

 

Our system last season was largely personnel-dependent and not working this season. We progressed the ball greatly through Joelinton and Willock running with the ball last season. Without them - we can't pass our way up the field. Bruno passed and ran his way up the pitch for us. He's being man-marked and struggling more to do either - we haven't had an answer to that. He's been man-marked for a long time now.

 

His post-match presser proves he's trying to play in a similar way to last season. But the lads aren't able to do it. And we continue not to have a functional plan B.

 

It's not even just a poor "attack". The build-up is slow and ponderous. We rarely get the ball to our best attackers in semi-dangerous positions. 

 

 

Edited September 20, 2023 by The College Dropout

[Thumbheed]

Aston Villa 3 

Man City 0

Liverpool 1

Brighton 1

Brentford 3

AC Milan 0

 

How many point would people have expected from the above run in?

 

I'd have said 8 realistically.

 

If anything, I'm slightly encouraged by the fact we're probably on par with expectations and it hasn't even clicked for us yet. 

 

 

[Wilson]

23 minutes ago, Coffee_Johnny said:

25 shots to 6; 9 on target to 1. Come on, man. We were beaten 3-1 by Brighton and the shots totals were 15 to 9 (6 to 2 on target).
Great CL result for us but we definitely had the rub of the green. 

 

 

Regardless, we weren't beaten and won't ever agree that we 'should have been comfortably beaten'. 

 

 

[The College Dropout]

13 minutes ago, Thumbheed said:

Aston Villa 3 

Man City 0

Liverpool 1

Brighton 1

Brentford 3

AC Milan 0

 

How many point would people have expected from the above run in?

 

I'd have said 8 realistically.

 

If anything, I'm slightly encouraged by the fact we're probably on par with expectations and it hasn't even clicked for us yet. 

 

 

Nobody's worried about the points mate.

[Matt1892]

The worry for me is that he will carry on with the formation rather than looking to change it as part of the team evolving, which will still be enough to get 3 points against the weaker teams which you would expect with the players and money we have spent but leaves us exposed against the better opposition players and managers.

[Thumbheed]

5 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

Nobody's worried about the points mate.

 

I'm not sure what the point of this post is mate.

[Infinitely Content]

A different time and a different team, but at the beginning of the 2002-03 season, a season which has many parallels to our current one having finished 4th the prior year, and being presented with a difficult set of opening fixtures; we began with a comprehensive win at home, before failing to win in the next 5 games.

Bobby Robson, addressing the team’s form, said: “The fact that we finished 4th the year before meant that we knew we had a good side, it was just getting it together and we needed perhaps a bit more time. So I wasn’t too worried about it, I knew the staff was quality and it would be okay."

Recalling that season, and how it unfolded after the difficult start can offer us much reassurance. As fans, myself included, we can sometimes get too enmeshed in over-scrutinising perceived defects in the team’s performances, drawing broad conclusions to what are marginal factors. Despite the fact we’re not being swept away by teams and have been relatively competitive in most of our fixtures, we’re looking for the team’s identity we became so accustomed to last season, and we draw the conclusion that our identity has become entirely dismantled and we’re a long way off from where we should be. Sir Bobby’s quote above calmly suggests that with a good team and good staff, which we all know we currently have, you’re never too far away. It’s the story of Edgar Allan Poe’s Purloined Letter; in that perhaps the solution is not to tear the room apart in search of the answer, but is instead found in the most subtle and unquantifiable of places. A shift from within the team, that we as on-looking fans searching for an answer in all of our analysis can not perceive or understand. For me this is the magic of football, as much as many like to believe, it is not just a scientific game of numbers and tactics, those are the basics which any professional team have in their grasp. The turning of the tide of a team’s fortunes and performance is often found those subtle places, invisible to the eye.

I feel confident that many of us will be looking back at the start of this season in a few months time thinking to ourselves "why was I so doubtful of this team?" and “what was I so worried about?”

[RobsonsWonderland]

You know I would be more worried if we had last year's fixtures and results.

 

It wasn't until Fulham we kicked into gear

[nufc123]

41 minutes ago, Thumbheed said:

 

I'm not sure what the point of this post is mate.

The concern is not about points but performance

[Dr Venkman]

1 hour ago, The Prophet said:

 

100%.

 

That's why it doesn't bother me too much. The creativity problems are being overstated, but the attack does look incoherent at times. I have every faith we'll overcome that.

Bothers me short term because we’re a difficult watch at the moment, not bothered long term.

[Thumbheed]

7 minutes ago, nufc123 said:

The concern is not about points but performance

Yeh, I referenced that in my post.

 

We're at par points wise and haven't played particularly well, I'll worry when we don't play well and don't get the points we expect.

[Coffee_Johnny]

18 minutes ago, RobsonsWonderland said:

You know I would be more worried if we had last year's fixtures and results.

 

It wasn't until Fulham we kicked into gear

We were good against Forest—very one sided game and could have been a much higher score line.