Eddie Howe

[OverThere]

1 hour ago, Dr.Spaceman said:

 

I think part of the problem is that bit doesn't appear to be true. Whether that's because of the injuries, who knows, I'm just not sure how anyone can say that he's demonstrating that he's learning when we have put in some incredibly poor performances against sides at the bottom of the league. Next season, barring a repeat of the injury crisis I think we may see it.

I agree. I am concerned about the lack of learning. The rubber will meet the road next season one way or another.

 

He said in his presser on Friday he plays people on merit for instance and IMO that is clearly not true.

 

 

Edited March 18 by OverThere

[The College Dropout]

The "7 points off 6th" take is ludicrous btw.

It was funny at first.

 

Bottom of the CL group. 5 points ahead of 13th with 10 to go. You can paint narratives if we want to fit agendas or we can face a nuanced reality.

[The College Dropout]

3 minutes ago, OverThere said:

I agree. I am concerned about the lack of learning. The rubber will meet the road next season one way or another.

 

He said in his presser on Friday he plays people on merit for instance and IMO that is clearly not true.

 

 

 

And I don't even mind if it's not true. Some managers are "horses for courses". Howe isn't. Only a few spots seem genuinely up for whoever is in better form (RW for example).

[The Prophet]

4 minutes ago, OverThere said:

I agree. I am concerned about the lack of learning. The rubber will meet the road next season one way or another.

 

He said in his presser on Friday he plays people on merit for instance and IMO that is clearly not true.

 

 

 

 

I wouldn't say it's clearly not true  without the full knowledge of why certain decisions have been made. 

[OverThere]

7 minutes ago, The Prophet said:

 

I wouldn't say it's clearly not true  without the full knowledge of why certain decisions have been made. 

Well I would say how can the LB (and for a period the RB position too) position, us being torched in defence be a reflection of people in great form. I cant see how conceding 3 goals per game and being only being bettered by Sheff U didn't warrant trying other options. 

 

The thing is, apart from training how would you know given the alternatives never made it onto the field? The alternatives should have been fresh as all get out given they never play......

 

 

Edited March 18 by OverThere

[Shays Given Tim Flowers]

He certainly seemed to develop his style when he came to us and throughout last season compared to how his Bournemouth team performed. 

 

Has he been dealt a bad hand this year, yes. Has he played that hand as effectively as possible, probably not. Biggest concern is injured players and his role in that. That needs sorting out more than anything. 

 

 

Edited March 18 by Shays Given Tim Flowers

[SUPERTOON]

25 minutes ago, Slim said:

Champions league ( fucked over by dodgy pen) and 7 points off 6th despite a brutal injury season not good enough like? 

 

Finish 6th and it's again annother good season.

Aye, but we are very unlikely to finish 6th. We can’t defend.

[Slim]

2 minutes ago, SUPERTOON said:

Aye, but we are very unlikely to finish 6th. We can’t defend.

Got a clean sheet in our last premiership game Vs a team that scored 3 and 4 against Man U and Chelsea.

 

 

[jack j]

Just now, Slim said:

Got a clean sheet in our last premiership game Vs a team that scored 3 and 4 against Man U and Chelsea.

 

 

Wolves were missing quite a lot of their attacking threats if you meant that game and they were pretty garbage in general(chelsea was our last game ane we conceded 3)

[GideonShandy]

47 minutes ago, jackyboy said:

Howe made mistakes at Bournemouth, all part of learning but he didn't wait and hope for the next job to come along. He travelled Europe for 2 years, working and learning from top coaches including Someone. 

Autocorrect gold.

[Shays Given Tim Flowers]

It is also worth remembering that he is not experienced at the level we have been at (Upper Premier League European Competitors). He is gaining experience all the time. Do you think the players would have looked as relaxed against Sunderland away if they hadn't had the experience of the European campaign. The same benefits of experience will be found more covertly in Eddie. He has shown that he can have us competing against the very best, what is missing is consistency. 

[gbandit]

I think the rest of this season will be hard to draw conclusions. The summer and then into next season, I’m extremely confident that Eddie will have us in fantastic shape in August and we’ll be putting form together that matches last season 

[AyeDubbleYoo]

1 hour ago, Yorkie said:

 

This season and last both provide a great demonstration of how this intangible thing very much exists in football.

 

Last season was full steam ahead; all the bumps were minor and we weaved around them with mostly minimal fuss. This season we've been juddering ever since December punched our lights out.

 

Even if 6th and 7th doesn't happen, our last four games are Sheffield, Burnley, Brighton and Brentford. Huge opportunity there to finish the season with a bit of momentum and feel-good factor going into the summer.

 

Momentum for a season works in both directions, or snowball effect or compounding or whatever you want to call it. Teams can get on a roll and setbacks don't affect them, teams can get in a hole and minor positives fail to turn it around. We fell into a massive hole due to injuries (and fixtures) and so the season could never really take off. 

[Keegans Export]

1 hour ago, Displayname said:

This season will be forgotten fast if we start out the next with some good performances. Especially if we get a couple of good signings.

Changing the narrative doesn't even have to wait until next season. We've got West Ham & Everton next, both at home. Wolves are away at Villa and Burnley, West Ham have Spurs after they play us. Brighton are at Liverpool and Brentford. At the start of April, the table could look like this;

 

7th Newcastle 46pts 

8th Wolves 46pts

9th West Ham 44pts

10th Brighton 43pts

 

We have the fixtures, we have players returning to full fitness. We shouldn't be thinking about next season, we can still qualify for Europe this season. Then it's much easier to look at a "dip in form" rather than a fundamental issue with how we have played.

[SUPERTOON]

23 minutes ago, Slim said:

Got a clean sheet in our last premiership game Vs a team that scored 3 and 4 against Man U and Chelsea.

 

 

We conceded 3 in our last prem game. We also conceded 4 against Luton, 2 against Bournemouth and were lucky it wasn’t more. Teams don’t even have to play well currently to get through us. Until that is sorted we can forget about finishing top 6.

 

 

Edited March 18 by SUPERTOON

[TBG]

41 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

The "7 points off 6th" take is ludicrous btw.

It was funny at first.

 

Bottom of the CL group. 5 points ahead of 13th with 10 to go. You can paint narratives if we want to fit agendas or we can face a nuanced reality.

 

Checks notes - PSG, AC Milan, & Dortmund.

 

For a second I forgot we had the toughest group, with a win away to PSG (keeping us in European football) snatched away from us. 

 

Yes we can face a nuanced reality, but we shouldn't also conveniently leave out important details because it goes against the narrative I wish to be formed. 

 

[TBG]

I  really wish we had went further in the Champs League just for the reactions.

 

Turned over by Real Madrid in both legs? Embarrassing. 

[The Prophet]

7 minutes ago, OverThere said:

Well I would say how can the LB (and for a period the RB position too) position, us being torched in defence be a reflection of people in great form. I cant see how conceding 3 goals per game and being only being bettered by Sheff U didn't warrant trying other options. 

 

The thing is, apart from training how would you know given the alternatives never made it onto the field? The alternatives should have been fresh as all get out given they never play......

 

 

 

 

No one is claiming Burn is in "great form". Up until recently it was quite poor.

 

We know why he's in the side though. He provides height, particularly while Joelinton is out, he's natural off the left and he drops into a back three in possession. 

 

Looking at the alternatives.

 

Hall still looks really raw when we don't have the ball. Perhaps chucking him in, with an equally developing Miley in front of him offering very little protection, was seen as an disaster waiting to happen? Perhaps there are problems off the field that we aren't aware of?

 

Livramento is more confusing. He might not offer the height or be natural off the left, but he's a lot safer in one-on-ones and offers far more going forward. Has Howe decided what Burn brings is more important? Livramento himself recently claimed he's played more football than expected this year, so are they still concerned about overloading him after a long term injury?

 

Howe may well have made an error in not rotating Burn, but without knowing his reasoning, it's hard to say it's "clear".

[The College Dropout]

1 hour ago, TBG said:

 

Checks notes - PSG, AC Milan, & Dortmund.

 

For a second I forgot we had the toughest group, with a win away to PSG (keeping us in European football) snatched away from us. 

 

Yes we can face a nuanced reality, but we shouldn't also conveniently leave out important details because it goes against the narrative I wish to be formed. 

 

I was showing you can make an entirely different narrative. 
 

The nuance is we made a valiant effort in the group of death. But ultimately failed. We were fantastic against PSG at home, were robbed away.  But we’re pretty poor overall in the other tough games which is why we finished last.  
 

We’ve suffered a crazy amount of injuries. We’ve also been pants for months. We are at the point where we should expect an uptick in form and that hasn’t happened. We keep conceding and look devoid of confidence or ideas.  
 

We’ve been handed some bad luck with injuries and suspensions.  You wonder if the strength , conditioning, recovery and physio departments have lacked.  You also wonder if theres stuff Howe could’ve done better.  

 

Howe has built tremendous goodwill and credit over his first 18 months. But he's starting to eat into the credit he has built. If we don't have a strong end to the season questions will be asked about his suitability for the job. Likewise, he's only 3-4 wins in a row from silencing nearly all the naysayers.

 

 

Edited March 18 by The College Dropout

[Sean]

My main concern when he was given the job was the lack of experience at the top level of domestic/European competition -  echoed by the decision makers at the club also as their preference was for Emery and his experience.

 

So it was always going a bit into the unknown as to how this season went - it's been poor so far, despite circumstances. There was always going to be a learning curve with him, and he's earned the right to show what he has learned next season, but if we fail to qualify for Europe, then there is no chance to apply what has been learned as we will only have one game a week anyway.

 

Absolutely need to qualify for European competition next season.

[ExiledGeordie]

2 hours ago, Shays Given Tim Flowers said:

He certainly seemed to develop his style when he came to us and throughout last season compared to how his Bournemouth team performed. 

 

Has he been dealt a bad hand this year, yes. Has he played that hand as effectively as possible, probably not. Biggest concern is injured players and his role in that. That needs sorting out more than anything. 

 

 

 

Managing injuries, rotation and developing a plan B could be his undoing or making moving forwards. 

 

 

Edited March 18 by ExiledGeordie

[TRC]

Just now, ExiledGeordie said:

Managing injuries, rotation and developing a plan B could be his undoing or making moving forwards. 

 

 

 

If we want to be top 6 long term, we need someone who can do these things.

[Dr Venkman]

1 hour ago, Shays Given Tim Flowers said:

It is also worth remembering that he is not experienced at the level we have been at (Upper Premier League European Competitors). He is gaining experience all the time. Do you think the players would have looked as relaxed against Sunderland away if they hadn't had the experience of the European campaign. The same benefits of experience will be found more covertly in Eddie. He has shown that he can have us competing against the very best, what is missing is consistency. 

 

Indeed. Patience.

[TRC]

3 minutes ago, Dr Venkman said:

 

Indeed. Patience.

What do you mean by patience, if we take 1 point from our next 3, essentially killing our season do we still stick with him?

 

Have to be looking at 7 points from the next 3, West Ham are going to be weak through the middle with no Alvarez and their defence is leaky as hell anyway.

 

Everton have to beat them at home

 

Fulham are a solid team but player for player we should beat them.

[timeEd32]

4 minutes ago, TRC said:

What do you mean by patience, if we take 1 point from our next 3, essentially killing our season do we still stick with him?

 

Have to be looking at 7 points from the next 3, West Ham are going to be weak through the middle with no Alvarez and their defence is leaky as hell anyway.

 

Everton have to beat them at home

 

Fulham are a solid team but player for player we should beat them.

 

Yes, that would be the definition of having patience.