Eddie Howe

[The Prophet]

Just now, Checko said:

My only disappointment yesterday about tactics/subs etc. was our complete unwillingness to try and keep the ball for a bit 2nd half. Every goal kick we just booted it straight back to them and went back into the defending drill.

 

Of course there's the argument that it gave us the best chance of winning as there was no risk of us giving the ball away in a dangerous area (on account of us refusing to have the ball), but frankly I thought they created quite a few good chances and should have scored a couple.

 

First half I thought we kept the ball well under pressure and looked good, but a consistent theme when we're struggling (eg vs Milan, Arsenal, Wolves, Bournmouth) is that when we're under the cosh & can't do the super press, we don't seem to be able or willing to just keep the ball when we get it, slow things down, get a little bit of control in the game and wrestle back momentum. If you're tired sometimes you can conserve energy by making the opponents chase you, rather than vice versa. It's probably a lot more fatiguing mentally to be defending constantly as well, always having to be switched on at any moment. Plus the opponents aren't making any chances if you have the ball.

 

That's the one consistent thing about our play that I'd like to see improved. Other than that can't fault the application, and the general organisation. Perhaps we just need a little bit more big boy mentality at times.

 

It was probably mental fatigue than a conscious decision not to keep the ball.

[Checko]

Just now, The Prophet said:

 

It was probably mental fatigue than a conscious decision not to keep the ball.

I dunno, when you get the ball in open play maybe. When you've got a chance to set up from a goal kick and do it every time, seems a pretty conscious strategy.

[Lush Vlad]

1 minute ago, Checko said:

My only disappointment yesterday about tactics/subs etc. was our complete unwillingness to try and keep the ball for a bit 2nd half. Every goal kick we just booted it straight back to them and went back into the defending drill.

 

Not much chance of doing that when you're down to the bare bones, squad wise.  They were cranking up the pressure, making attacking subs, changing formation.  We didn't have that option, save for maybe Hall, Dummett at a push.  Plenty were dead on their feet, and understandably so.  When we then had a chance to retain possession, mental and physical tiredness crept in.  Sloppy touches, passes, wrong decisions etc. 

 

In fact, all of those games you mention, save for Milan where I think there were mitigating circumstances.  We have had fuck all options off the bench and the XI on the pitch at the time have looked knackered.  

 

I also think sometimes credit has to go to the opposition.  I doubt it is a fully conscious decision by Eddie and the players to drop off that markedly.  The other team's tactics can force that upon us, as well. 

 

[The College Dropout]

1 hour ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

PSG brought on that kid on the left and he had a mare, missed loads of chances and did almost everything wrong. Subs aren’t always an easy answer. 

He was very dangerous and more of a threat than Dembele and Muanie.... he just didn't have his shooting boots on.

 

Again we are looking at things in terms of outcomes rather than the thought process. Dembele and Muanie had quiet games and deserved to be subbed. Our players tired so fresh legs coming on would create more routes to goal. This was successful for Enrique, it just didn't convert to goals due to poor finishing and excelling GKing.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

Well however you want to assess it, finishing is part of football. He had a bad game IMO. 

[BShearer]

He needs injured players back asap as again now we have 11 players who has to be ran into the ground with no chance for proper rotation. same starter this weekend again vs MU and then again vs Everton.

 

Brutal schedule again after the break, Chelsea, PSG, MU, Everton, Milan, Spurs. midweek game the Everton, so no time to relax at all.

 

 

[LionOfGosforth]

Woke up this morning expecting to feel that sickening feeling from last night yet all I feel is pride for this team. Unconditional love for this man for the class and professionalism he displays weekly, the stunning resource management of a depleted squad and the amazing journey he is taking us on. 

[PauloGeordio]

7 minutes ago, LionOfGosforth said:

Woke up this morning expecting to feel that sickening feeling from last night yet all I feel is pride for this team. Unconditional love for this man for the class and professionalism he displays weekly, the stunning resource management of a depleted squad and the amazing journey he is taking us on. 

Onwards and upwards! 

[80]

Yeah I don't feel bad today. Last night was one of the greatest performances in the club's history, all things taken into account. The fact we had victory stolen illegitimately doesn't take anything away from it. A proper Viking saga of a match. They were heroes last night.

[huss9]

took longer to get over the liverpool defeat

[Elma]

8 minutes ago, huss9 said:

took longer to get over the liverpool defeat

I'm still trying to get over Liverpool.

 

Had we won last night we'd still have had to beat Milan to guarantee progression. The only difference is we're now relying on Dortmund getting something. A win or draw against Milan will also guarantee third as a consolation.

 

Couldn't fault us last night in the circumstances, so don't feel bad at all really. Just slightly disappointed an otherwise good referee didn't stand up for his original decision.

[Lish007]

On 29/11/2023 at 03:19, Memphis said:

The thing that I think makes Eddie Howe a truly world class manager is his unusual (for this level of manager) ability to learn from his own mistakes. He took time after Bournemouth to overhaul his thought process defensively and has now become fantastic at drilling defensive shapes with us. 

 

For Milan and Dortmund, he didn't want the players to train at the stadium the night before the match, preferring to stay in Newcastle longer. But for this match he took the team over earlier for training and we absolutely looked far more comfortable as a result. 

 

He modified our pressing structure last year as the season went on, he modified the formation against PSG to operate more flat in a 4-5-1 rather than the 4-3-3, I could go on. 

 

He's humble and ready to admit when he gets it wrong. I was always told, 'Never waste a failure.' and I think he's a great example of that concept. 

 

And the players obviously respond to his methods. I cannot ask for more and I cannot imagine a better manager for us in the position we are in.

Great post. 

[The College Dropout]

20 hours ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

Well however you want to assess it, finishing is part of football. He had a bad game IMO. 

 But it was the right move by Enrique. The lad missing chances doesn’t negate that.  

[AyeDubbleYoo]

13 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

 But it was the right move by Enrique. The lad missing chances doesn’t negate that.  

My point was more about bringing people on not being automatically the right thing to improve your chances.
 

For example, Howe could have brought a kid on they could have been skinned 2 or 3 times to give away chances to PSG.
 

Just like Enrique brought his kid on and he messed up the  critical moments. 

[The College Dropout]

2 minutes ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

My point was more about bringing people on not being automatically the right thing to improve your chances.
 

For example, Howe could have brought a kid on they could have been skinned 2 or 3 times to give away chances to PSG.
 

Just like Enrique brought his kid on and he messed up the  critical moments. 

I agree it’s not automatically the right thing to do.  Especially in our circumstance.  
 

Howe has a track record of sticking when other managers might twist. Against PSG I don’t think he had any really valid options.  Wolves - I think he needed to twist. 
 

This injury crisis has made him trust more players which I think is great.  Livra has earned his total trust now I suspect. 

[PauloGeordio]

 

 

 

 

Edited November 30, 2023 by PauloGeordio

[PauloGeordio]

 

[Erikse]

5 minutes ago, PauloGeordio said:

 

 

Around february then.

[Tiresias]

If people in the media are serious about being critical of intimidation of refs and them being slagged off by managers could more be written or said about how spectacularly Klopp and Arteta lost the run of themselves, and a bit more praise for Howe who has expressed disappointment but has not gone screaming injustice to the hills (and he has more right too than Klopp and Arteta), when asked in press conference if he was seeking anything from UEFA he just say it has happened the moment is gone not worth dwelling on too much. The unsaid thing is that the league secretly wants these over the top dramas, wants managers to act like pantomime villains cos it's exciting.

[Sima]

1 hour ago, Erikse said:

 

Around february then.

 

Or both in the squad tomorrow night.

[madras]

5 minutes ago, Tiresias said:

If people in the media are serious about being critical of intimidation of refs and them being slagged off by managers could more be written or said about how spectacularly Klopp and Arteta lost the run of themselves, and a bit more praise for Howe who has expressed disappointment but has not gone screaming injustice to the hills (and he has more right too than Klopp and Arteta), when asked in press conference if he was seeking anything from UEFA he just say it has happened the moment is gone not worth dwelling on too much. The unsaid thing is that the league secretly wants these over the top dramas, wants managers to act like pantomime villains cos it's exciting.

I wouldn't say exciting but it helps fill in the gaps between games and keeps interest (monetised) going.

 

 

 

I could do without it personally.

[Erikse]

20 minutes ago, Sima said:

 

Or both in the squad tomorrow night.

 

It's either one or the other, nothing in between. There's no way Howe would be saying the truth, that would be too much information.

 

 

Edited December 1, 2023 by Erikse

[Cronky]

23 minutes ago, Tiresias said:

If people in the media are serious about being critical of intimidation of refs and them being slagged off by managers could more be written or said about how spectacularly Klopp and Arteta lost the run of themselves, and a bit more praise for Howe who has expressed disappointment but has not gone screaming injustice to the hills (and he has more right too than Klopp and Arteta), when asked in press conference if he was seeking anything from UEFA he just say it has happened the moment is gone not worth dwelling on too much. The unsaid thing is that the league secretly wants these over the top dramas, wants managers to act like pantomime villains cos it's exciting.

 

With two previous penalty appeals being turned down, I think there was extra pressure on the officials to give this one. 

 

There is a general problem about handballs in the penalty area. I don't think Tino's one would have been noticed by a ref in pre-VAR times - it happened too quickly and the touch was too slight to be seen with any certainty. Now that these incidents can be picked up in slow-motion replays, there's a big problem in establishing what is a 'clear and obvious error'. There are too many complicating factors.

 

Maybe handballs should be excluded from VAR. The ability of the officials to spot a handball already gives a good indication of how significant the offence is.

[Tiresias]

I think he regretted not giving a penalty for the gordon 'push' which wasn't a pen either but it would have been a slightly reasonable call, realised time was running out and psg weren't going to score and thought oh hell that pen not given is going to haunt me, and that playing on the mind i suspect...

 

regardless, I am more in favour of just ditching VAR. Never going to happen but it was meant to stop howlers and yet what it is doing is pedantically rechecking every goal for millimetre offside calls and then still making howlers. I am sure there are fewer howlers but also before, at least sometimes it was just that the ref didn't see it right? I remember that being infuriating a lot at the time, and if VAR is ditched (which it won't be) it will be forgotten quickly how bad it was, but there is a difference between a ref just not seeing something and them seeing it on a big screen in slow mo and still getting it wrong.

 

If it is to be used, and it will be, I think like cricket, each team gets 2 or 3 challenges per half made by captain and has to be within 5 seconds of the incident (can't be someone on bench with video equipment and has to be before they could reasonably signal to a player) can ask ref to look at VAR to check a decision. If they get it wrong they lose that challenge, not if right. The only exception when VAR could intervene on it's own would be if the referee had missed an extremely violent tackle they could say that should be a red.

 

I hate the pedantry too. I don't actually believe some of these super narrow offside calls, because when exactly does the pass from a player start? Is it when one player makes contact with the ball to kick it to make an offside pass or is it the moment the ball loses contact with the kicking foot? And if it's the latter how many millimetres does it travel before that is visably lost the foot? Now you may say that is ludicrous but if you are putting down milimetre perfect lines and adjudging offside on that then a millisecond difference in when you place the line could make a difference. Einstein discovered time is relative anyway. It's rubbish. 

[Monters]

Personally I don't want challenges being brought in - VAR should be used or not... Football is too fluid for challenges to work in the way cricket does which has a natural stop after every ball, plus you still see some ridiculous calls out of desperation just because they have challenges to use up...

 

I have always been in favour of VAR but currently a little dismayed how it's gone but agree that it is hear to stay