Eddie Howe

[Shearergol]

20 minutes ago, Dr Jinx said:

Honestly think Eddie Howe has gotten a fairly easy ride this season. Manchester Utd are doing better than us and their manager gets asked about his future on a weekly basis.

 

Risking injured players, spending our budget on players who have had no real impact on the first team, not changing things up when it became obvious the high intensity pressing plan wasn’t working anymore.

 

I don’t think he has a plan B.

 

Am sick of hearing how grateful we should be.. we have been grateful and we’ve lavished love and support to the players and management team, we’ve never properly boo’d the team after a stinking performance and there’s been quite a few this season.

 

I believe a change is needed. If it’s going to happen I’d rather he went sooner than later before all the good is tarnished by what’s coming next. I just can’t see him turning it around without major investment this month.

Who you fancying to come in and turn it around with our absolutely knackered squad? Potter? Mourinho? Pep?

[gbandit]

Mourinho is as bad a fit as they come. Can’t think of a worse manager for us really, both in terms of the style of play, sustainability and his work with tired players. He’s still a very good manager if you throw money at him and focus on the cup competitions but that’s it 

[Cf]

1 minute ago, Shearergol said:

Who you fancying to come in and turn it around with our absolutely knackered squad? Potter? Mourinho? Pep?

 

And without major investment to boot. 

 

Season has shown how far away our squad is from CL/top 4. And even then before it unraveled we were giving it a good go. 

[TwoForJoy]

Howe is still having to work with a helluva lot of other people's players. I'm sure he'd love to upgrade each and every one of these.

 

Rafa’s team

Dubravka, Schaar, Lascelles, Almiron, Longstaff, Ritchie, Dummett, Manquillo, Murphy, Hayden

Bruce’s team

Krafth, Willock, Joelinton, Wilson, Gillespie, Fraser, Hendrick, Lewis

[madras]

3 minutes ago, Cf said:

 

And without major investment to boot. 

 

Season has shown how far away our squad is from CL/top 4. And even then before it unraveled we were giving it a good go. 

How can our squad be that far from top 4 when it literally made it last year ?

[Gawalls]

3 hours ago, SUPERTOON said:

I’ve seen a few posts over the last few weeks saying PIF will be ruthless and won’t accept a poor season. What exactly is this based on, because nothing they have done since the takeover suggest this.

 

 

 

agreed - how they'll react is an unknown quantity at the moment as they've never had to think about it before.  This is new territory so we just don't know how they'll react or when.  For me personally it's Howe all the way.

[Sean]

Reading through a few pages of this thread has been hard work, seems to be two camps going at each other when there is clearly validity in both sides' argument (ignoring the odd one calling for the manager to be sacked of course). It's not a clear one or the other situation. He's had it hard but has also underperformed this season.

[TRon]

22 minutes ago, Shearergol said:

Who you fancying to come in and turn it around with our absolutely knackered squad? Potter? Mourinho? Pep?

 

That's the million dollar question no one will be prepared to answer.

[Shearergol]

18 minutes ago, madras said:

How can our squad be that far from top 4 when it literally made it last year ?

 

I mean you just need to look at the investment every single team above us made in summer to answer that?

[Cf]

16 minutes ago, madras said:

How can our squad be that far from top 4 when it literally made it last year ?

 

We got there without the demands of being there already (the extra hard games mainly) whilst a couple of other teams had a bit of an off season. 

 

Not to downplay how well we did mind. We were really fucking impressive. 

 

This season I think was likely to not be as good. The injuries make it really hard to judge where we are but just look at the squads of the "bigger" teams. I think it's fair to say we're quite a way off. 

[toon25]

What's all this about then...

 

 

 

(From The Upshot)

[Shearergol]

2 minutes ago, toon25 said:

What's all this about then...

 

 

 

(From The Upshot)

 

Mackem rumour.

[Holmesy]

17 minutes ago, Cf said:

 

We got there without the demands of being there already (the extra hard games mainly) whilst a couple of other teams had a bit of an off season. 

 

Not to downplay how well we did mind. We were really fucking impressive. 

 

This season I think was likely to not be as good. The injuries make it really hard to judge where we are but just look at the squads of the "bigger" teams. I think it's fair to say we're quite a way off. 

I think that's where EH has earned the leeway. Look at our performances this season and it's easy to see who the weak links are in the squad. And yet last season every player was exceptional, performing well above levels we thought they were capable of. Based on the quality of our squad, we had no right to make it into the Champions League. It was a monumental achievement.
The likes of Longstaff, Burn and Almiron are arguably lower to mid-table PL players and they are performing to those levels this season. Last season they all tore up trees (maybe that's over-selling Burn a bit tbf ). Longstaff's replacement, a young, dynamic Italy international isn't available. Burn's long term replacement is totally unfancied by the management team and Almiron's has a life threatening toe injury.

I remain critical of what EH and JT are doing this season. We should be doing better and our performances are awful, but trying to manage a season with sub-par, very tired players who are now performing to their actual levels and who massively overachieved last season is making the situation look and feel a lot worse than it probably is

 

 

Edited January 2 by Holmesy

[Erikse]

15 hours ago, Yorkie said:

Gordon for a while looked like our only hope of getting something in the second half. He was the out-ball and he also provided a very good assist for the equaliser. If we had any hope of getting anything from the game then I think he had to play the full 90 again, sadly, such is the situation. 

 

It's true, but it's not just about looking at each game individually. It's about the bigger picture. Maybe we thought the same as what you said about playing him vs Forest, but what we will never know is whether he would've had a significantly better game against Liverpool if we rested him vs Forest. Maybe we played someone who was tired to have a slightly better chance against Luton, but then that player could not perform against Forest due to the fatigue. I could give many examples like this for december. This is the point that people are making.

 

 

Edited January 2 by Erikse

[Orphanage]

28 minutes ago, toon25 said:

What's all this about then...

 

 

 

(From The Upshot)

Theyre shagged out ?

[The College Dropout]

50 minutes ago, Holmesy said:

I think that's where EH has earned the leeway. Look at our performances this season and it's easy to see who the weak links are in the squad. And yet last season every player was exceptional, performing well above levels we thought they were capable of. Based on the quality of our squad, we had no right to make it into the Champions League. It was a monumental achievement.
The likes of Longstaff, Burn and Almiron are arguably lower to mid-table PL players and they are performing to those levels this season. Last season they all tore up trees (maybe that's over-selling Burn a bit tbf ). Longstaff's replacement, a young, dynamic Italy international isn't available. Burn's long term replacement is totally unfancied by the management team and Almiron's has a life threatening toe injury.

I remain critical of what EH and JT are doing this season. We should be doing better and our performances are awful, but trying to manage a season with sub-par, very tired players who are now performing to their actual levels and who massively overachieved last season is making the situation look and feel a lot worse than it probably is

 

 

 

We knew that going into this season. We attempted to replace 1 of these players this season in the summer transfer window. That looked like a massive risk going into this season and so it has turned out a mistake.

[timeEd32]

9 hours ago, Ronaldo said:

Great post timeEd and quite right. I’ve said it before but we’re too emotional as a fanbase and, particularly, those of us who grew up, like I did, in the Keegan years are predisposed to idealism. We don’t want to buy superstar-inspired success; we want a team of uniquely talented relatable characters that functions under a likeable, forward-thinking idiosyncratic manger who grows with us. A lot of us thought we were already there and evidently (though we have many of the raw ingredients) we are not, and we’re frustrated.

 

5 points from 10 games away from home is very difficult to defend. As abysmal as we’ve been on the road, results and performances, I’d find it a lot easier to brush it off as part of the journey etc if I had confidence that the ownership will give this time. It’s a great irony that for well over a decade we all longed for a regime that wouldn’t tolerate managerial failure / mediocrity and now a lot of us fear impatience or impulsiveness from the top.

 

One thing to note on the away form that does not excuse it, but I think is important context: we've played 8 league games this season at a rest disadvantage and 6 of those were away. Overall in the first half of the season we played league games with a net of negative 17 full rest days, which breaks down as -3 at home and -14 away. On top of the injuries we've been pretty unfortunate with how the fixtures have played out.

[Groundhog63]

1 hour ago, Shearergol said:

 

I mean you just need to look at the investment every single team above us made in summer to answer that?

Or just not be fucking stupid 

[Tonalis Bookie]

1 hour ago, Shearergol said:

Who you fancying to come in and turn it around with our absolutely knackered squad? Potter? Mourinho? Pep?

 

Said start of the season Jose would be in for first game next season and still believe it. On a personal note also, id like it. Come and finish your mentors work, sir.

[Dr Jinx]

1 hour ago, Shearergol said:

Who you fancying to come in and turn it around with our absolutely knackered squad? Potter? Mourinho? Pep?

De Zerbi could be a good shout. Tactically astute and his team are extremely comfortable on the ball. He’ll end up at one of the bigger clubs soon am guessing.

 

I agree with others that Mourinho may not be a good fit compared to how we play currently.. although I still think he’s a top manager. He just suits some clubs more than others. He could well be very good here if it all clicked.. but a gamble. He’s the one attainable manager who I think has the confidence and qualities to get a club like ours to the next level.

 

Conte would fit the same mold but I think Mourinho is a better manager.

 

Anyone else who’s highly rated have seemed to have found new jobs recently so it’s not a massive pool of candidates out there.

 

 

[AyeDubbleYoo]

Just now, Tonalis Bookie said:

 

Said start of the season Jose would be in for first game next season and still believe it. On a personal note also, id like it. Come and finish your mentors work, sir.

 

You're off your bonce. 

[KaKa]

2 minutes ago, Tonalis Bookie said:

 

Said start of the season Jose would be in for first game next season and still believe it. On a personal note also, id like it. Come and finish your mentors work, sir.

 

I almost want this to happen because of how badly it is guaranteed to go.

 

Think it's what some of you fully deserve tbh.

[Orphanage]

4 minutes ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

 

You're off your bonce. 

Hes just another Mackem gink 

[Hovagod]

3 minutes ago, KaKa said:

 

I almost want this to happen because of how badly it is guaranteed to go.

 

Think it's what some of you fully deserve tbh.

Fuck off with this. We all support the same team don’t we?

 

[Shearergol]

7 minutes ago, Dr Jinx said:

De Zerbi could be a good shout. Tactically astute and his team are extremely comfortable on the ball. He’ll end up at one of the bigger clubs soon am guessing.

 

I agree with others that Mourinho may not be a good fit compared to how we play currently.. although I still think he’s a top manager. He just suits some clubs more than others. He could well be very good here if it all clicked.. but a gamble. He’s the one attainable manager who I think has the confidence and qualities to get a club like ours to the next level.

 

Conte would fit the same mold but I think Mourinho is a better manager.

 

Anyone else who’s highly rated have seemed to have found new jobs recently so it’s not a massive pool of candidates out there.

 

 

 

Brighton have players who are much better with the ball technically. That's years and years of committing to that approach. De Zerbi would have nightmares with our players.