Eddie Howe

[Smal]

Atm, assuming Joelinton is going to miss games, I’d like us to try:

 

Pope

 

Miley

Thiaw

Botman

Hall

 

Bruno

Tonali

 

Gordon

Woltemade

Barnes

 

Wissa

 

Allow Bruno license to get forward so that he can still be a goal threat. I think Tonali has been individually poor on the ball and that’s on him, but he also wants to play it forward quickly and there’s usually nobody close to him either. Having a #10 in front and Bruno closer should give him more options.

 

Now that Osula is available you have a Wissa backup/sub option and Ramsey can come in for Woltemade.

[ploppy43]

For me the players don't seem to be giving the same effort we have become used to and like the majority of fans I still fully support Eddie but my concern is that he may well be sleepwalking himself out of a job if things dont take an upturn, really hope this is not the case. (yes I am one of the 315 (85% or so)

 

 

Edited January 26 by ploppy43

[Jackie Broon]

1 hour ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

Think that’s mainly confidence and fatigue TBH, maybe lack of time on the training pitch as well. 

 

In terms of fatigue, the same issues have been present since the start of the season, or before.

 

I think fatigue is obviously an issue with such a crowded fixture list, but I think fear of fatigue is as much if not more of an issue, I think Eddie is instructing the players to play in bursts and have less intense periods of sitting back and building patiently between bursts of pressing. The problem is our players clearly struggle to be effective in that less intense mode and struggle to switch the intensity back on, it's just not working.

 

He also isn't using his squad to manage fatigue, other teams rotate when they have three matches a week, we stick to our 'best 11' every match. That is counterproductive to the fatigue of the 'best 11' and the confidence of the players that only get on for 15 minutes at the end. I know that they get stick on here and there might be eyebrows raised at them starting matches but Willock, Ramsey and Elanga need to be played much more than they have been.

 

 

[gbandit]

8 minutes ago, Jackie Broon said:

 

In terms of fatigue, the same issues have been present since the start of the season, or before.

 

I think fatigue is obviously an issue with such a crowded fixture list, but I think fear of fatigue is as much if not more of an issue, I think Eddie is instructing the players to play in bursts and have less intense periods of sitting back and building patiently between bursts of pressing. The problem is our players clearly struggle to be effective in that less intense mode and struggle to switch the intensity back on, it's just not working.

 

He also isn't using his squad to manage fatigue, other teams rotate when they have three matches a week, we stick to our 'best 11' every match. That is counterproductive to the fatigue of the 'best 11' and the confidence of the players that only get on for 15 minutes at the end. I know that they get stick on here and there might be eyebrows raised at them starting matches but Willock, Ramsey and Elanga need to be played much more than they have been.

 

 

Good to see you posting. I may be wrong but I feel like you’ve been a bit less active for a while and I rate your takes on things. I agree with you here 

[Smal]

 

some pretty good analysis in this of why we’re seeing what we’re seeing this season league-wide. And also why English sides are dominating the CL group stage.
 

For those feeling despair at our performances, I think you can take something from the fact that pretty much every team in the league is struggling to play effective/good football with any degree of consistency this season. Teams are pretty much cancelling each other out. 

 

Sooner or later somebody is going to come up with a counter to these man-to-man systems with heavy reliance on set pieces and they will dominate for a while.

[Kid Icarus]

The patterns of play out wide that have worked for the last 4 years and continue to have our wide players in space with the opportunity to play it across into the middle have evidently not stopped working up to a point. Why anyone says that when we still get those opportunities multiple times per match is beyond me.

 

You might be understandably bored of seeing it, but that step in the attacking phase hasn't stopped working. It's often not even the next step of it that's an issue either - the quality of the final ball. It's nigh on always the very final step - the positioning and finishing of our attacking players. And they're all letting each other down because for all that Barnes might put in a ball that's on a plate at the back post but Gordon's not there, it often happens where Gordon does the same and Barnes isn't there, and that's just one example, with Woltemade and Wissa imo being the most guilty of poor positioning and finishing. 

 

 

Edited January 26 by Kid Icarus

[KaKa]

33 minutes ago, KingArthur said:

When Bruno was playing deeper, every single person here said we need to move him higher up the pitch and sign a no 6. Tonali started as an 8 for us, but he cannot receive the ball in tight areas and is only effective when game is happening in front of him.

edit. and I dont know why you think last season that midfield worked and didnt invite pressure, but now it is clearly wrong and inviting pressure. When "inviting pressure" is not our problem. Scoring goals is.

 

 

 

 

Well we didn't sign a 6 did we, because Tonali is not one, certainly not in the way this team sets up. He was originally played as an 8 too, because that's where the manager was looking to have him play.

 

You seem to think just because it worked last season it should just work now as a given. It's not working anymore for whatever reason, whether that's teams having made adjustments to pressure Tonali more, or him having just been in rare form previously.

 

You say scoring goals is the problem, without recognising a large part of that is all the initial work the midfield should be doing in the lead up to that. Instead they can barely get the ball up the pitch.

 

Fine. Lets keep going as is. We'll soon see where the team ends up.

[Smal]

1 minute ago, Kid Icarus said:

The patterns of play out wide that have worked for the last 4 years and continue to have our wide players in space with the opportunity to play it across into the middle have evidently not stopped working up to a point. Why anyone says that when we still get those opportunities multiple times per match is beyond me.

 

You might be understandably bored of seeing it, but that step in the attacking phase hasn't stopped working. It's often not even the next step of it that's an issue either - the quality of the final ball. It's nigh on always the very final step - the positioning and finishing of our attacking players. And they're all letting each other down because for all that Barnes might put in a ball that's on a plate at the back post but Gordon's not there, it often happens where Gordon does the same and Barnes isn't there, and that's just one example, with Woltemade and Wissa imo being the most guilty of poor positioning and finishing. 

 

 

 

 

yeah, this is what I meant when I said I don’t think we’re that far off clicking. I think earlier in the season our attacking play was pretty dead and I was pretty worried, but it’s improved dramatically in the last month and a bit or so imo. We are working the ball into much more dangerous crossing positions more consistently like we used to.

 

People will groan at me for it, especially with yesterday’s enraging defeat still fresh in the mind, but our underlying defensive numbers are better than ever this season; and going forward we’re getting closer to last season’s metrics and we’re starting to look more threatening from set-pieces again. I keep saying it but our biggest issue is getting a striker into the right position to score easy goals atm. That’s the main difference from previous seasons.

[Displayname]

During the 3 games played in 7 days there were 2 changes in the line up, and one of them was forced.

 

Feel like he has learned nothing from 2 years ago.

[The College Dropout]

32 minutes ago, Sibierski said:

Feels a bit off if we’re just waiting for a striker to make 6 yard box runs. Like, are we forgetting all the issues with breaking down sides that we still had with Isak? Can’t keep relying on crosses out wide being the winning formula when teams have more and more data on how to nullify it. 

While we did have issues breaking teams down. How many times did we fail to score last season in the league vs this season? A lot of that is down to the quality we lost with Isak. Our strikers need to score 13 between them to equal Isak's output. You would hope £120m strike force would be good for 25-30 PL goals a season tbh

[Novocastrian]

14 hours ago, dcmk said:

So why is Eddie out the solution? 

Although I was frustrated and quite angry yesterday I wouldn’t actually sack Howe now. He deserves the rest of the season at least and although I wouldn’t allow him free rein in the transfer market he’s probably done enough to oversee a rebuild in the summer.

 

I just don’t think he knows how to get the best out of this squad , he doesn’t really know his best team and his tactics and in game management are currently ineffective. We’re still waiting for things to click after a fairly disastrous summer window and it’s the end of January.

 

 

Edited January 26 by Novocastrian

[Elliottman]

1 minute ago, Displayname said:

During the 3 games played in 7 days there were 2 changes in the line up, and one of them was forced.

 

Feel like he has learned nothing from 2 years ago.

 

Which is really bizarre because unless my memory is failing me, he did rotate at the start of the season. Was it Bournemouth away after a champions league game he freshened it up? 

 

I assumed that would be a theme but for some reason he's just reverted back to pretty much the same 11. 

[KingArthur]

5 minutes ago, KaKa said:

 

Well we didn't sign a 6 did we, because Tonali is not one, certainly not in the way this team sets up. He was originally played as an 8 too, because that's where the manager was looking to have him play.

 

You seem to think just because it worked last season it should just work now as a given. It's not working anymore for whatever reason, whether that's teams having made adjustments to pressure Tonali more, or him having just been in rare form previously.

 

You say scoring goals is the problem, without recognising a large part of that is all the initial work the midfield should be doing in the lead up to that. Instead they can barely get the ball up the pitch.

 

Fine. Lets keep going as is. We'll soon see where the team ends up.

We didn't and Howe decided Tonali can play it. And he is a much better 6 than 8. 

No, I don't think just because it worked last season it must work now. But you are saying this midfield doesn't work, like automatically, as a given fact it just doesn't work. But it has worked, so the problem is not those 3 players, but how the team is set up and how other players perform. 

Our problem is not midfield three. Only thing I would expect from them is more goals (beside Bruno, who funnily enough wouldn't score this much as a 6). 

You say the midfield is a problem, but we get to final third just fine  you make no sense. Drawing against Wolves or not scoring against Villa was not down on midfield 3 not getting the ball up. We did. We controlled the ball enough to win the game. Of course we lacked Bruno's ability to play through balls, but we would lack it if he played as a 6 also. Moving Bruno to 6 solves none of our issues.

I am thinking you don't even watch the games. 

[Infinitely Content]

8 minutes ago, Kid Icarus said:

The patterns of play out wide that have worked for the last 4 years and continue to have our wide players in space with the opportunity to play it across into the middle have evidently not stopped working up to a point. Why anyone says that when we still get those opportunities multiple times per match is beyond me.

 

You might be understandably bored of seeing it, but that step in the attacking phase hasn't stopped working. It's often not even the next step of it that's an issue either - the quality of the final ball. It's nigh on always the very final step - the positioning and finishing of our attacking players. And they're all letting each other down because for all that Barnes might put in a ball that's on a plate at the back post but Gordon's not there, it often happens where Gordon does the same and Barnes isn't there, and that's just one example, with Woltemade and Wissa imo being the most guilty of poor positioning and finishing. 

 

 

 

It's a bit different though, whilst I do think the wing play, however boring has kind of been working to an extent, it's not deployed in the same way as it was in previous seasons. We used to be a lot more intricate around the box to release Longstaff, Almiron, Murphy, Trippier etc into the box to cut back and create far more high value opportunities. It felt more calculated, detailed and disruptive to the opposition's defensive shape than it currently does this season. It's unimaginative for the most part.

I wasn't bored of the previous method as it was exciting, incisive and would cut the opposition open, nowadays it feels more aimless and unstructured.

[Kid Icarus]

1 minute ago, Displayname said:

During the 3 games played in 7 days there were 2 changes in the line up, and one of them was forced.

 

Feel like he has learned nothing from 2 years ago.

Considering our patchy form and search for a winning formula, do you think we're in a position to do that and still get results?

[KingArthur]

15 hours ago, Smal said:

 

yeah, this is what I meant when I said I don’t think we’re that far off clicking. I think earlier in the season our attacking play was pretty dead and I was pretty worried, but it’s improved dramatically in the last month and a bit or so imo. We are working the ball into much more dangerous crossing positions more consistently like we used to.

 

People will groan at me for it, especially with yesterday’s enraging defeat still fresh in the mind, but our underlying defensive numbers are better than ever this season; and going forward we’re getting closer to last season’s metrics and we’re starting to look more threatening from set-pieces again. I keep saying it but our biggest issue is getting a striker into the right position to score easy goals atm. That’s the main difference from previous seasons.

This is some basic stuff from the training pitch. When ball comes to Murphy or Trippier or whoever, players have to know what run to make. You can't just aimlessly cross and hope it hits someone.

 

 

Edited January 27 by KingArthur

[KaKa]

1 minute ago, KingArthur said:

You say the midfield is a problem, but we get to final third just fine 

I am thinking you don't even watch the games. 

 

And here is where any further discussion will no longer be necessary 

 

If you truly believe we progress the ball forward just fine as a team then all the best man.

[Displayname]

1 minute ago, Elliottman said:

 

Which is really bizarre because unless my memory is failing me, he did rotate at the start of the season. Was it Bournemouth away after a champions league game he freshened it up? 

 

I assumed that would be a theme but for some reason he's just reverted back to pretty much the same 11. 

Other than the wingers early on I can't really remember us doing any significant rotations. 

 

[Displayname]

6 minutes ago, Kid Icarus said:

Considering our patchy form and search for a winning formula, do you think we're in a position to do that and still get results?

I think it's a necessity when playing twice a week. Especially when we are so reliant on our players having enough energy.

[Kid Icarus]

1 minute ago, Displayname said:

I think it's a necessity when playing twice a week. Especially when we are so reliant on our players having enough energy.

Rock and hard place if we lose regardless though I'm sure you'd agree. In that situation the question is why we didn't play our strongest team. 

[TRC]

3 minutes ago, Kid Icarus said:

Rock and hard place if we lose regardless though I'm sure you'd agree. In that situation the question is why we didn't play our strongest team. 

I think it’s more rotate the players who have a history of injury like Joelinton and Hall if we had the option but I don’t know what we do there.

[Kilcline]

28 minutes ago, Smal said:

 

some pretty good analysis in this of why we’re seeing what we’re seeing this season league-wide. And also why English sides are dominating the CL group stage.
 

For those feeling despair at our performances, I think you can take something from the fact that pretty much every team in the league is struggling to play effective/good football with any degree of consistency this season. Teams are pretty much cancelling each other out. 

 

Sooner or later somebody is going to come up with a counter to these man-to-man systems with heavy reliance on set pieces and they will dominate for a while.

Good video that. I've been convinced for a while that a take on 3-5-2/3-6-1 is going to be the answer to your last sentence (as well as 3-5-2 being something I want us to try) and cannot tell you how much I fear that the person who susses it out is going to be Xabi Alonso if Arne Slot is moved on 

[Si67]

Not attacking/ defending the back post has cost us at both ends this season.

[Holloway]

Eddie sounded a bit dismissive about the two wubbleyous on the pitch together recently, I do hope he reconsiders 

[Displayname]

3 minutes ago, Kid Icarus said:

Rock and hard place if we lose regardless though I'm sure you'd agree. In that situation the question is why we didn't play our strongest team. 

It's impossible to please everyone. So what?

There are still a right way to do things and a wrong way.