Eddie Howe

[gbandit]

3 minutes ago, Shak said:

Can't really fault him for anything today.

 

Suppose you could argue based on what we saw that Almiron starting ahead of Murphy might have been a better call, Miggy looked sharp and tried to get on the ball I thought.

 

We controlled that game for the majority of the 90 minutes and had the penalty gone on I'm fairly confident we close it out without much issue.

 

Today was a consequence of what we did in the summer. Or didn't do, more accurately. Some of which is Eddie's responsibility.

 

We have three really good front players in Gordon, Barnes and Isak. The drop off on quality after them is absolutely immense. A past it striker whose body is gone, a raw kid who they clearly don't think is ready to play and two wingers who offer work rate and almost nothing in the way of quality on the ball.

 

There's not a team in the Premier League that Jacob Murphy could start for at RW and be a real asset to his side. Had we had a player who can actually contribute something in general play there I'd expect today we'd have found a goal.

 

There's also the issue of our midfield. We still haven't added a player with any ability to unlock a team in the final third. Tonali looks like he'll be a player, but he seems to me more like an upgrade on Joelinton. Meanwhile, we've extended Joelinton go presumably play alongside him.

Agree with all of this 

[macphisto]

13 minutes ago, 80 said:

I don't think another senior striker was feasible if we couldn't get rid of Wilson, but if we broaden your point out to a creative RW, I agree.

 

I don't hate tonight's performance. We had just about everything except genuine goalscoring threat.

 

Hopefully people can see now that just because we scored a lot of goals last season, it doesn't mean we were actually good going forwards, just rampaging, which is different.

Also applies to RW not being feasible without shifting Almiron. 

 

This is why Howe is doing a great job, so many of our players are bang average, evidenced by the fact we can't find buyers. 

[Maggies]

Doesn’t help himself at times.

[SUPERTOON]

3 minutes ago, macphisto said:

Also applies to RW not being feasible without shifting Almiron. 

 

This is why Howe is doing a great job, so many of our players are bang average, evidenced by the fact we can't find buyers. 

We did have a buyer for Miggy this summer mind.

 

 

Edited 3 hours ago by SUPERTOON

[nemtizz]

Even with Isak in the team we've been awful at creating chances. Coincides with Trippier's drop in form, too. We were relying on him far too much.

[hakka]

34 minutes ago, Ronaldo said:

I don’t think his tactics were terrible today. His part in the summer shitshow on the other hand… We desperately needed 2 attacking players and signed Osula who he doesn’t want to play.

 

Pursuing Guéhi at potentially high cost seems more unnecessary now given how season has gone. Quality Wilson replacement and an actual quality right winger and suddenly we start hurting teams. 

 

Injuries are temporary for defence, but lack of quality backup for centre forward and no quality starting right wing is a permanent issue that's needed fixing for ages.

[macphisto]

5 minutes ago, SUPERTOON said:

We did have a buyer for Miggy this summer mind.

 

 

 

Did we, who? 

[gbandit]

Just now, macphisto said:

Did we, who? 

Charlotte FC for £6m was it?

[SUPERTOON]

1 minute ago, macphisto said:

Did we, who? 

That American side, around 8 million I think.

[Keggy_Keagal]

Miggy didn't want the move and the way Murphy's playing he'll be confident about getting back in the side sooner rather than later

[Matt1892]

A performance where we passed the ball around well in the first half and we bosses the game but as it went on it was clear that we had no plan B.

[Shak]

20 minutes ago, gbandit said:

Agree with all of this 

 

Good post.

[toon25]

57 minutes ago, Maggies said:

Doesn’t help himself at times.

 

[Danh1]

Still perplexed at Barnes leaving the pitch before Murphy. 

[joeyt]

Just now, Danh1 said:

Still perplexed at Barnes leaving the pitch before Murphy. 

 

Yeah that was a strange one for me, especially as we've barely seen Murphy play on the left at all and Barnes was doing okay

 

It was the passes to Barnes which were the problem

[Danh1]

Just now, joeyt said:

 

Yeah that was a strange one for me, especially as we've barely seen Murphy play on the left at all and Barnes was doing okay

 

It was the passes to Barnes which were the problem

We didn’t have a shot on target that I recall second half. Barnes one of the only players out there who has it in him to rifle one in, and he was taken off. 

[TRon]

1 hour ago, hakka said:

 

Pursuing Guéhi at potentially high cost seems more unnecessary now given how season has gone. Quality Wilson replacement and an actual quality right winger and suddenly we start hurting teams. 

 

Injuries are temporary for defence, but lack of quality backup for centre forward and no quality starting right wing is a permanent issue that's needed fixing for ages.

 

 

At one point there was talk of us signing Madueke for £30m, then he scored some goals in pre-season and Chelsea put a £60m price tag on him. The he scored a hatrick in the PL and suddenly he wasn't for sale. I guess timing is everything.

[80]

1 hour ago, macphisto said:

Also applies to RW not being feasible without shifting Almiron. 

 

This is why Howe is doing a great job, so many of our players are bang average, evidenced by the fact we can't find buyers. 

We do have a first choice forward, but we don't have a first choice RW worthy of the title, though. So the balance of the decision is different. We had money enough to condemn Murphy and Almiron to permanent bench duty if we'd wanted to.

[Shearergol]

I love him, really do. But I’d also love to explain why Murphy stayed on instead of Barnes.

[jack j]

5 minutes ago, Danh1 said:

We didn’t have a shot on target that I recall second half. Barnes one of the only players out there who has it in him to rifle one in, and he was taken off. 

Strangely Barnes kept taking his man  down the line on the outside first half and floating a ball over rather than his usual inside and have a dig.

[TRon]

2 minutes ago, jack j said:

Strangely Barnes kept taking his man  down the line on the outside first half and floating a ball over rather than his usual inside and have a dig.

 

Think he was trying to change it up because defenders are probably expecting him to cut inside every time.

[Danh1]

2 minutes ago, jack j said:

Strangely Barnes kept taking his man  down the line on the outside first half and floating a ball over rather than his usual inside and have a dig.

Aye, admittedly he wasn’t great tonight. Would’ve kept him on purely for the chance of that bit magic 

[jack j]

Aye I wasn't having a go at him doing it. Would have been better if we had a striker in the middle like

[Ellis H]

Barnes is a funny one. He’s only played the full 90 minutes for us a few times despite being fit since 3rd February, which seems to follow a similar pattern to his time at Leicester. He played a part in almost every PL game for years but his minutes played is normally about 1,300 short of the maximum.