Eddie Howe

[Pilko]

I think with the Dortmund & Milan home games, they felt like a bit like the Man U cup final in that we faced teams with more Champions League experience and nous than us. (or "final" experience in the Man U case, same kind of thing though).

 

That said, we didn't really look like scoring in the cup final whereas in the two CL home defeats we were a lot closer - hit the crossbar twice & Wilson missed a sitter he usual buries Vs Dortmund, the Miggy chance & Bruno shot saved onto the crossbar which puts us in the driving seat hugely Vs Milan. They were much finer margins and that's a good sign of progress - next time in the CL we go with that much more experience, plus whatever else we've brought in by then.

 

Howe will definitely have learned from the experiences and I bet we see that next time around when we look back on this CL campaign.

 

 

Edited December 15, 2023 by Pilko

[The College Dropout]

We had some big moments against Dortmund at home but we were well worth the defeat.  Our general play was better in the league cup final but we never looked like scoring.  

[Froggy]

1 hour ago, The Prophet said:

This isn't the Eddie Howe thread.

 

[Cronky]

Whenever a team loses, it's tempting to come up with some overall explanation, and 'naive' has been coming up a lot. In reality, in a close game, luck will play a big part. We were fully committed to the win and were throwing people forward, and of course that comes with risk. And throwing defenders forward is part of the tactic of going for it. If the pass to Schar had been more accurate, it would probably have been a different story.

 

It really boils down to whether we should have been prepared to settle for the draw. Personally, I think Eddie called it right, in putting the correct value on a place in the Europa League. You can say he was wrong, but not 'naive'.

 

[Cronky]

Sorry, me again. Eddie isn't that experienced when it comes to the very top level, and so maybe it's inevitable that his supposed inexperience gets cited when something apparently goes wrong.

 

But I've just checked - in the two years he's been here, we've beaten Man U three times, Chelsea, Spurs and Arsenal twice and Man City once. Liverpool are the only team that's escaped. Results that would once have been exceptional have now become regular. 

 

But when we're beaten, he's 'naive' and been put in his place. It's bollocks. Eddie is at least the equal of any manager out there.

[WideopenMag]

57 minutes ago, Cronky said:

Whenever a team loses, it's tempting to come up with some overall explanation, and 'naive' has been coming up a lot. In reality, in a close game, luck will play a big part. We were fully committed to the win and were throwing people forward, and of course that comes with risk. And throwing defenders forward is part of the tactic of going for it. If the pass to Schar had been more accurate, it would probably have been a different story.

 

It really boils down to whether we should have been prepared to settle for the draw. Personally, I think Eddie called it right, in putting the correct value on a place in the Europa League. You can say he was wrong, but not 'naive'.

 

The team was naive and didn't manage the situation at all I think its a fair assessment. Of course we wanted to win but still had time to do so, Milan were the ones going out and were going to have go for it, being that open and expansive committing defenders forward out of position and playing like we were getting beat was daft. We need to look at that in big games, cup finals, European games etc or we can get used to loosing. 

[TheBrownBottle]

14 hours ago, Checko said:

Seriously? With your username?

I always assumed WideopenMag was from Wideopen  

[christ]

2 minutes ago, WideopenMag said:

The team was naive and didn't manage the situation at all I think its a fair assessment. Of course we wanted to win but still had time to do so, Milan were the ones going out and were going to have go for it, being that open and expansive committing defenders forward out of position and playing like we were getting beat was daft. We need to look at that in big games, cup finals, European games etc or we can get used to loosing. 

Win or bust mentality in the context of Wednesday makes perfect sense though. There’s no part of me that thinks the club really wanted to drop into the Europa League when you consider how badly the CL fucked us. We could do with one game a week again for the next few months.

[Checko]

9 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

I always assumed WideopenMag was from Wideopen  

Hey, don't ruin a perfectly good pun.

[WideopenMag]

1 hour ago, christ said:

Win or bust mentality in the context of Wednesday makes perfect sense though. There’s no part of me that thinks the club really wanted to drop into the Europa League when you consider how badly the CL fucked us. We could do with one game a week again for the next few months.

Yet the team who didn't go for that mentality had far more chances and won the game? I didn't get it tbh, you can still go for the win whilst still keeping things a bit more tight and organised at the back. Our solid defence was the base for our success last season. What are we playing for this season then if we don't want European football?

 

 

Edited December 16, 2023 by WideopenMag

[The Butcher]

Not making it easy for himself.

 

The lack of rotation over the last few weeks has been a really, poor bit of management and now we're paying the price.

 

I know that the options aren't great, but we've had about 4 options on the bench for weeks and they've never been used. I just can't get my head around it.

 

 

Edited December 16, 2023 by The Butcher

[dcmk]

Of course this thread gets bumped 

[The Prophet]

Other than Hall. We've had Dummett, Krafth and Ritchie.

 

I know some have an incessant need to blame someone for everything, but sometimes the circumstances are just fucking shit.

[SUPERTOON]

The only criticism I would level at him is not making a few changes earlier in the Everton and Spurs game when the games where pretty much done. Genuinely don’t think he could have rotated anyone given the options available and the size and importance of the games we have played.

[Solitude20]

6 minutes ago, The Butcher said:

Not making it easy for himself.

 

The lack of rotation over the last few weeks has been a really, poor bit of management and now we're paying the price.

 

I know that the options aren't great, but we've had about 4 options on the bench for weeks and they've never been used. I just can't get my head around it.

 

 

 

Isn’t the lack of rotation due to the depleted bench in the first place?

 

the front 3 and 2 midfielders used to be rotated at the 60th min in every match at the beginning of the season, that’s when Wilson, Barnes, Murphy, Anderson, and Longstaff used to come in for Isak, Gordon, Almiron, Tonali, and Joelinton. 
 

it’s only when the injuries started piling up did Howe stop rotating. 

[Cf]

Just now, The Prophet said:

Other than Hall. We've had Dummett, Krafth and Ritchie.

 

I know some have an incessant need to blame someone for everything, but sometimes the circumstances are just fucking shit.

 

I think Krafth is just about up to standard TBF and should have been getting some minutes. 

 

But beyond that it's mainly bad luck. Like look at today. Ideally Schar comes off at 60 to give Botman a bit of a run out but nope bam there's the injury. 

 

We get Isak back but it coincides with Wilson getting injured so he's been run into the ground. 

 

Finally get Longstaff back so gives us a few more options in midfield. Then Joelinton goes. 

 

The problem too is is as we get players back we need to slowly bring them back in. But the players already out there are fucked themselves. 

 

He could maybe have subbed a bit earlier a bit more often but I'm not sure what he's supposed to have really done about this. 

[54]

8 minutes ago, The Butcher said:

Not making it easy for himself.

 

The lack of rotation over the last few weeks has been a really, poor bit of management and now we're paying the price.

 

I know that the options aren't great, but we've had about 4 options on the bench for weeks and they've never been used. I just can't get my head around it.

 

 

 

This is our bench a week ago against Everton, what options do you speak of other then Hall?

 

 

[Yorkie]

With the levels of injuries and the lack of quality in depth, choosing between sticking or rotating is Hobson's choice. We're not gonna chuck the likes of Ritchie, Hall, Dummett and untrusted academy players unless it's totally unavoidable.

 

It was always going to get worse before it got better. Gordon or Miggy will be next. Or should we play Ritchie? 

[The Butcher]

Just now, 54 said:

This is our bench a week ago against Everton, what options do you speak of other then Hall?

 

 

Dummett. 

[54]

2 minutes ago, The Butcher said:

Dummett. 

Ah yes, Paul Dummett who has started 1 Premier League game in 2 and a half seasons. 

[midds]

More injuries were always going to be inevitable of your playing big games every 3 or 4 days for a few weeks of the bounce. The lack of options off the bench means the starting XI carry the weight until we get a few back. It's just shit timing that as soon as we get one or 2 back the ones who've run through walls for the club can't carry on and we're left in the same position. It's not Howe's fault but it's going to be like this for another couple of months and w just need to try and make the best of it. 

 

Pointing fingers and dishing the blame out is needless and pointless, they all need support as they're all clearly doing everything they can for the club. Some just want to twist on 21

[The Butcher]

Just now, 54 said:

Ah yes, Paul Dummett who has started 1 Premier League game in 2 and a half seasons. 

He's done well every time he's been called upon this season.

[The College Dropout]

Hands tied. The time to rotate was literally months ago atp. We’ve lost momentum.  We are losing players. We are fatigued.  Performances won’t be ideal and neither will results. 
 

Still Fancy us to win this and build something. 

[WideopenMag]

I love Eddie Howe

[Upthemags]

1 hour ago, The College Dropout said:

Hands tied. The time to rotate was literally months ago atp. We’ve lost momentum.  We are losing players. We are fatigued.  Performances won’t be ideal and neither will results. 
 

Still Fancy us to win this and build something. 

This is the key point really imo... Schär and Joelinton out now, and even with our reinforcements back, we're basically just back to square one where we were about a month and a half ago.

 

Very foreseeable this - I hope Eddie can learn from this for the next campaign.