Eddie Howe

[Amir_9]

Still confident he will take us to 6th this year with players coming back from injury and hopefully some additions in January. Man United, Brighton and West Ham are just as capable of dropping points.

 

The concern for him shouldn't be now but it should be if this same situation happens again next season or in the future as I think this will be the one and only time he is afforded this lesson.

 

Of course not all of it is entirely his fault.

 

 

Edited December 23, 2023 by Amir_9

[Jordan]

I did think the Miley sub was odd as well. If he was punishing him for the goal, it’s a bit hypocritical starting Tripps after the goals he’s cost us recently. Made even stranger by the fact Miley was looking good and Longstaff was anonymous. 

[andycap]

Just now, Jordan said:

I did think the Miley sub was odd as well. If he was punishing him for the goal, it’s a bit hypocritical starting Tripps after the goals he’s cost us recently. Made even stranger by the fact Miley was looking good and Longstaff was anonymous. 

Was tripps not meant to be on the post where the goal came from? 

[Displayname]

Maybe he is struggling abit with mental fatigue himself

 

 

 

Edited December 23, 2023 by Displayname

[TRon]

Just now, Jordan said:

I did think the Miley sub was odd as well. If he was punishing him for the goal, it’s a bit hypocritical starting Tripps after the goals he’s cost us recently. Made even stranger by the fact Miley was looking good and Longstaff was anonymous. 

 

Miley looked far more confident on the ball than Lonstaff whose first touch was often landing a yard i front of him. But maybe he wasn't tracking back properly. I didn't notice it, but someone in the match thread said his side was wide open.

[Whitley mag]

1 minute ago, Jordan said:

I did think the Miley sub was odd as well. If he was punishing him for the goal, it’s a bit hypocritical starting Tripps after the goals he’s cost us recently. Made even stranger by the fact Miley was looking good and Longstaff was anonymous. 

One of the few who can actually pass the ball as well, its a sign Howe is slightly struggling to find answers at the minute and was very out of character to make an early change like that.

[TheBrownBottle]

6 minutes ago, jonny1403 said:

He’s completely right though. You’d have to be incredibly thick to be calling for the managers head at this stage.

It’s daft, no doubt about it.  But it’s also an emotional reaction after a piss poor performance.  I don’t read too much into it - I doubt the same folks will write the same thing even a few hours later.  I’m happy for football fans to have their cathartic rant tbh.  

[Gallowgate Toon]

3 minutes ago, Jordan said:

I did think the Miley sub was odd as well. If he was punishing him for the goal, it’s a bit hypocritical starting Tripps after the goals he’s cost us recently. Made even stranger by the fact Miley was looking good and Longstaff was anonymous. 

Tough one - I'd have kept him on but likely just a protective move as Miley has played so much intense footy in a short span, plus playing in a 2 is a lot more work for a young lad.

[WideopenMag]

I feel for Howe I think he done everything right over the summer really. We devolped a good identity and style of play last season- high intensity pressing which he knew would be hard to maintain with our extra games. He signed Barnes to give us 4 competing wide men and to add more goals to our side. Tonali so we weren't over reliant on Bruno and to allow us to retain possession more and two young full backs to allow us to rotate and keep us fresh for the press. He's lost the ability to do any of that mainly through freak injuries and suspension.

 

 

Edited December 23, 2023 by WideopenMag

[Orphanage]

Always thought it was a bit odd not to get another striker in the summer . 

[TheBrownBottle]

2 minutes ago, Displayname said:

Maybe he is struggled abit with mental fatigue himself

 

It’s not as a daft a shout as you might think

 

Howe is obsessive and has said himself he studies the opposition before games etc.  We’ve been playing two games a week for quite a while - it has to drain his batteries, too.  

[Ronaldo]

I completely understand the reluctance of some to criticise but it’s not rocket science is it. We’re 2 completely different teams home and away and it screams of being unable to find a way to play when we can’t pin a team back.

[Gallowgate Toon]

Has a team ever had such good home but dreadful away form?

 

It's bizarre.

[Gawalls]

2 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

It’s daft, no doubt about it.  But it’s also an emotional reaction after a piss poor performance.  I don’t read too much into it - I doubt the same folks will write the same thing even a few hours later.  I’m happy for football fans to have their cathartic rant tbh.  

Love your posts, they’re always sensible 

[Gawalls]

Just now, Orphanage said:

Always thought it was a bit odd not to get another striker in the summer . 

We were skint

[TheInfiniteOdyssey]

Think he’ll be under some pressure if we lose to Sunderland unfortunately. Our away form is unsustainable. He has to find the answers very soon. 

[Orphanage]

Just now, Gawalls said:

We were skint

Nope . Howe decided he had other priorities which then blew up in his face

[Jagten]

Whilst I think there's legit questions as to the sustainability of our tactical approach, we're top four in basically every expected points model, and reliably higher than Villa. It's still mostly been really good, with a squad that is good but obviously flawed. 

[Gallowgate Toon]

2 minutes ago, Ronaldo said:

I completely understand the reluctance of some to criticise but it’s not rocket science is it. We’re 2 completely different teams home and away and it screams of being unable to find a way to play when we can’t pin a team back.

We won in quite a few different ways for the aways last season. It's definitely in our locker.

[TheBrownBottle]

1 minute ago, Gawalls said:

Love your posts, they’re always sensible 

First time I’ve ever been called sensible  

[Orphanage]

Just now, Jagten said:

Whilst I think there's legit questions as to the sustainability of our tactical approach, we're top four in basically every expected points model, and reliably higher than Villa. It's still mostly been really good, with a squad that is good but obviously flawed. 

Fans will look at where Villa are in the table and make their own judgements 

[The Prophet]

Why are Villa relevant to our trajectory though?

[Shak]

Feels like this little run and how he adjusts his ideas going forward will be the making or breaking of him long term.

 

I would hope that the last season and a half before this have built up enough credibility that our owners aren't considering doing anything stupid. This season has thrown so many challenges at him, barring a complete meltdown and him losing the dressing room in the second half of the season there should be no serious thought given to moving on from him.

 

That said, this season has given him some serious issues to consider going forward.

 

Firstly, he hasn't managed the squad well from a fitness perspective. Maybe it's just an epically unlucky run of freak injuries, but the most worrying thing for me has been that we've had a number of players either suffer setbacks on the way back from injury or get hurt again soon after returning to the first team. Eddie clearly demands a high intensity approach from his teams and I think it's very fair to wonder if he's demanding too much of them physically before they're ready.

 

The last few weeks have also shown that once we can't play the relentless high press that we're a side very much devoid of ideas on the ball. Today was painful to watch, we kept the ball quite well but it's clear that we have very little idea what to do with it once we get to the final third. Does Eddie try to bring in players who maybe offer more in terms of craft on the ball, even if it means sacrificing some of the workrate? Or does he feel that with three or four more quality additions to the squad we'll be able to play the relentless style he likes every game and it won't matter? And if that's the plan, has he solved the fitness issues that have arisen from it this year?

 

Those are the two main questions going forward for me, and it's OK to ask them. There is no perfect manager out there, nor a secret list of the good managers and bad ones that we're trying to find out which one he belongs on. Being a manager that can take a club where we want to go is a really big ask, and it's entirely possible that ultimately he won't be up to it.

 

However, he's shown a lot of top level qualities in his time here and his drive to keep improving are incredibly evident. I really don't think he'll be sitting there wondering why things have gone badly the last month or so, he'll know full well why and will have ideas on how to fix them. And he deserves our backing every step of the way while he tries to do it.

[Jagten]

2 minutes ago, Orphanage said:

Fans will look at where Villa are in the table and make their own judgements 

For sure, but reverse-engineering analysis from a small sample of outcomes is how you make the wrong call 

[Orphanage]

1 minute ago, The Prophet said:

Why are Villa relevant to our trajectory though?

Because Emery was our first choice and hes seemingly done a better and quicker job than Howe ( with less money i might add )