Eddie Howe

[Pata]

Hard to believe it was just few days ago when we went toe to toe with the reigning CL champions in Paris without our captain while reading all these 'questions'.

[nufc4eva]

2 minutes ago, Vinny Green Balls said:

1 player who was world class.

 

And you missed my point. Many have complained every season that we look tactically over the shop until we don't. Yeah, of course I hope he can get us being more consistent. But sometimes his tweeks probably take a bit to bear fruit. And there are valid reasons every season why we have struggled at times. But his overall form table since he's been here doesn't lie.

Ah I get that but this season just feels completely different. I don't know what the answer is but feels like needs a different style to our play and a different type of player as well as in game management, see the risk and take action which may or may not have made a difference tonight but the changes when they did come were desperate.

[Vinny Green Balls]

Just now, Mikky said:

The summer was the clubs fault and not on EH (he should not have been in the place to  lead) - it’s hurt us massively because it was all over the show and not in any way strategic like it should have been 

I think he is not without blame either. The holding out hope with Isak until the last minute, and then conceding appears to be a prettt big mistake.

[Geordie Ahmed]

2 minutes ago, Mikky said:

But that’s ultimately his remit - At least Europa Lg every season and runs in the cup - it’s a heck of a lot of pressure on him - but that comes with the territory - that’s why I said you can’t be sentimental in these situations - as much as we all like him and I love what he’s achieved - there are things I haven’t liked - signings, tactics, team selections, in game management - I need to be seeing things that make me positive but I don’t - it’s the same every week 

 

Maybe this is the residual impact of a shitshow that was the summer - that’s on the clubs head, but these were his signings and then have by in large been poor 

 

Whilst that is probably his remit if he misses it for a season is there no grace for him?

 

What is the remit for Pep? To win the league or at the very least challenge for it? Why didn't City get rid of him in 2019-20? Or in 2024-25?

 

Same can probably be said for all managers

 

He has done enough good work that for me he gets grace for a season, and I don't think this season is as bad as some are making it out to be

[Vinny Green Balls]

1 minute ago, nufc4eva said:

Ah I get that but this season just feels completely different. I don't know what the answer is but feels like needs a different style to our play and a different type of player as well as in game management, see the risk and take action which may or may not have made a difference tonight but the changes when they did come were desperate.

my argument is that it may well just click like in the past. It's being left late, but we usually finish pretty strongly under Howe.

[GOTONEW]

I'm no Howe apologist, but he set us up brilliantly, and we tore them apart for the first 30-40 mins. 

 

There are definite issues HE needs to get on top of. Our falloff is predictable, our gaps are not new, subs are poor for the moment, etc etc. He's not flawless.

 

But, I've said this before...having a day (2 if we're lucky) training between games cannot be anything other than damaging. Especially with a big group of new players. 

[Keggy_Keagal]

21 minutes ago, Holmesy said:

For 99% of his time here he has played 4-3-3 and made subs on the 70 minute mark. He says ‘we have lots of different ways of playing’. Can anyone identify or name them? 
On the rare occasion he strays from his norms, we often see what looks like progress and the he reverts to type. 
He is what he is as a manager, and that has largely been great up until now but we look predictable, devoid of identity and limited tactically. 
I sincerely hope he can break his own mould and evolve but sadly, I don’t see it happening. 

He likes 4-3-3- but so do a lot of coaches in Europe at the moment. I'll concede that ours is a little flawed as we often seem to leak goals from central positions with players running from pockets between our midfield and defence, partly because it looks like our midfield is a little flat but getting a top class number six who can play the ball in the right way is a problem for a lot of sides. Bruno's very good at it but there's no-one who can link he play as well up the top of the midfield, so it often falls to Tonali and he's gone to pot at times this season. Howe's got tactical flexibility though. He's played 4-5-1, 3-4-3, 4-4-1-1, and 4-4-2 at various times, for portions of the Arsenal cup game last season he was having us play 5-5-0. We've taken a player who can run in behind a defensive line and score 20 goals out the side and as consequence we're struggling to put teams away when we're dominant and in tight games we're not nicking that lead at key moments. This ties in with my other post on this thread, the poor recruitment has made things difficult. Imagine Ekitike in our side with a Wissa to come off the bench when his race is run. Or if you believe the talk of the plan, we were going to have Liverpool's two strikers with Ekitike, probably playing off the left and Isak as the central striker, that pace in behind pushes any defensive line further back and makes sense when you consider Elanga as the right side player in that three. So we're making the best of a Wissa still recovering from injury and adjusting to the side and the transfer. Or, Woltemade doing the same whilst also trying to learn a completely different position to the one he's played for his professional career and also adjusting to a league that's acknowledged as the hardest to adjust to in the world, and playing in a side that doesn't suit his skill set whatsoever. 

 

[Rod]

3 minutes ago, nufc4eva said:

Ah I get that but this season just feels completely different. I don't know what the answer is but feels like needs a different style to our play and a different type of player as well as in game management, see the risk and take action which may or may not have made a difference tonight but the changes when they did come were desperate.

How were the substitutions desperate?

[Vinny Green Balls]

Just now, Geordie Ahmed said:

 

Whilst that is probably his remit if he misses it for a season is there no grace for him?

 

What is the remit for Pep? To win the league or at the very least challenge for it? Why didn't City get rid of him in 2019-20? Or in 2024-25?

 

Same can probably be said for all managers

 

He has done enough good work that for me he gets grace for a season, and I don't think this season is as bad as some are making it out to be

this is exactly where I am at. But people have this weird "you need to be ruthless" idea, which gets very old. I do appreciate a sense of loyalty and rewarding someone for doing an excellent job up until this point. The world is full of ruthless win at all cost cunts. It's nice to have some decency. And there are way too many cunts in football. So yeah. someo of you might be happy with a terrible cunt who wins things, but fuck that. We have someone who is very good at his job, has us punching above our weight by some distance overall, and isn't a cunt. It's a really good position to be in.

[Rod]

1 minute ago, Keggy_Keagal said:

He likes 4-3-3- but so do a lot of coaches in Europe at the moment. I'll concede that ours is a little flawed as we often seem to leak goals from central positions with players running from pockets between our midfield and defence, partly because it looks like our midfield is a little flat but getting a top class number six who can play the ball in the right way is a problem for a lot of sides. Bruno's very good at it but there's no-one who can link he play as well up the top of the midfield, so it often falls to Tonali and he's gone to pot at times this season. Howe's got tactical flexibility though. He's played 4-5-1, 3-4-3, 4-4-1-1, and 4-4-2 at various times, for portions of the Arsenal cup game last season he was having us play 5-5-0. We've taken a player who can run in behind a defensive line and score 20 goals out the side and as consequence we're struggling to put teams away when we're dominant and in tight games we're not nicking that lead at key moments. This ties in with my other post on this thread, the poor recruitment has made things difficult. Imagine Ekitike in our side with a Wissa to come off the bench when his race is run. Or if you believe the talk of the plan, we were going to have Liverpool's two strikers with Ekitike, probably playing off the left and Isak as the central striker, that pace in behind pushes any defensive line further back and makes sense when you consider Elanga as the right side player in that three. So we're making the best of a Wissa still recovering from injury and adjusting to the side and the transfer. Or, Woltemade doing the same whilst also trying to learn a completely different position to the one he's played for his professional career and also adjusting to a league that's acknowledged as the hardest to adjust to in the world, and playing in a side that doesn't suit his skill set whatsoever. 

 

I'm not reading that!

[Holmesy]

2 minutes ago, Vinny Green Balls said:

unfortunately I feel you here, man. In some twisted ways, it would have been nice to still have Ashley so I could just check out completely. The sport was always prone to corruption, but it's on another level, and represents the entire state of the world.

The euphoria of getting rid of Ashley and the what followed was amazing but the league’s machinations to stop us succeeding was one of the most blatant abuses of power I’ve ever seen. And yet we’re the only ones talking about it funnily enough. ‘Level playing field’ is an absolute joke. 
When you know the game is rigged, what’s the point?! Exciting football and continued progress to stick two fingers up to the cartel and their enablers would probably keep me interested but it feels like the only way that happens is if we hire an elite manager (which they would probably find a way to block) and do something left field with regards to player recruitment, which won’t happen with Eddie here. And that probably feeds into my feelings towards him. 
As things stand, their plan is working. We’ll remain in our place and it’s both incredibly frustrating and boring as fuck. 

[Funtime Frankie]

2 minutes ago, GOTONEW said:

I'm no Howe apologist, but he set us up brilliantly, and we tore them apart for the first 30-40 mins. 

 

There are definite issues HE needs to get on top of. Our falloff is predictable, our gaps are not new, subs are poor for the moment, etc etc. He's not flawless.

 

But, I've said this before...having a day (2 if we're lucky) training between games cannot be anything other than damaging. Especially with a big group of new players. 

Before the PSG game there was an interview with Wissa and Thiaw on SSN and they said that even those training sessions in between games is a light warm up and that's it.

 

The schedule is making life hard for Howe to adapt team and tactics.

[Keegans Export]

7 minutes ago, Toonjam88 said:

I’m not currently a Howe out but the fact you can’t question him recently because it makes you not a fan pisses me off. I think there are loads of questions to be asked. Why sign Ramsey, Elanga and Wissa for £140 million when we have spent millions on a scouting network who would surely get better players for less (and before anyone says that wasn’t Howe, this Summer was a Howe window) Questions need to be asked and yes he won our first trophy in decades and he will be a legend but fuck me don’t question people being a fan for asking those questions makes you less of a fan as your happy with the status quo. 

It's not even that we could have got better players for less, it's that we seemed to have signed players to play a style of football we no longer seem to play. 

[nufc4eva]

3 minutes ago, Toonjam88 said:

I’m not currently a Howe out but the fact you can’t question him recently because it makes you not a fan pisses me off. I think there are loads of questions to be asked. Why sign Ramsey, Elanga and Wissa for £140 million when we have spent millions on a scouting network who would surely get better players for less (and before anyone says that wasn’t Howe, this Summer was a Howe window) Questions need to be asked and yes he won our first trophy in decades and he will be a legend but fuck me don’t question people being a fan for asking those questions makes you less of a fan as your happy with the status quo. 

I think this is spot on,  they are all fans and I think it's a fans right to have opinions. I have been supporting them for over 35 years, loved the good times of Keegan and robson, struggled through the Ashley years until I had enough and threw my season ticket in when the kebab loving cunt was appointed and then loved the club again under Howe, but it just doesn't seem to be moving forward and we have spent a lot of money in the summer but look like gone backwards and im just not convinced Howe knows how to change it.

[Zero]

Just now, Vinny Green Balls said:

my argument is that it may well just click like in the past. It's being left late, but we usually finish pretty strongly under Howe.

yea when we are left with EPL competition only, and he can held his training session again.

 

Howe is the type of manager that needs these extra training sessions for the players. Good or bad - he can make the players playing above their capacity if properly trained, while he also doesn’t have the game management skills we are talking about to cover things up when we don’t have these training sessions due to heavy schedule.

 

I know it sounds a bit silly but can the club or Howe can hire a coach that is excellent in advising him on game management?

[Minhosa]

Appreciate this is easy to say with hindsight, but I did call it before the game, I can’t understand starting Trippier over Miley here btw. 
 

Even Trippiers delivery is shite these days. 

[nufc4eva]

3 minutes ago, Rod said:

How were the substitutions desperate?

We were 3-1 down, danger was there and should have been made earlier. 1 single tweak may have got us back in the game, instead 3 subs up front, change to 442 and no threat then concede 1 more. Doesn't get more desperate

[TheInfiniteOdyssey]

Not putting the blame on him tonight, but overall I do think we’re a much softer side to play against all this season. Felt like the players didn’t really believe they’d get back into the match tonight.

[Vinny Green Balls]

Just now, Minhosa said:

Appreciate this is easy to say with hindsight, but I did call it before the game, I can’t understand starting Trippier over Miley here btw. 
 

Even Trippiers delivery is shite these days. 

thought he made it clear why. Don't necessairly agree with him, but I can completely understand it. 

[vexred]

Apparently he said in the press conference there will be no signings in January. 

[Colos Short and Curlies]

One thing you can definitely say is that if we approach the majority of games to the end of the season with the way we have Weds and today (in attitude) then we'll do ok. May be a point and a defeat in them but we did look threatening for spells in both.

 

And, if I'm not mistaken we had a fair few attempts from outside the box today, which is a change 

[The Butcher]

sound

[Rod]

1 minute ago, nufc4eva said:

We were 3-1 down, danger was there and should have been made earlier. 1 single tweak may have got us back in the game, instead 3 subs up front, change to 442 and no threat then concede 1 more. Doesn't get more desperate

Eh?

[nufc4eva]

1 minute ago, Zero said:

yea when we are left with EPL competition only, and he can held his training session again.

 

Howe is the type of manager that needs these extra training sessions for the players. Good or bad - he can make the players playing above their capacity if properly trained, while he also doesn’t have the game management skills we are talking about to cover things up when we don’t have these training sessions due to heavy schedule.

 

I know it sounds a bit silly but can the club or Howe can hire a coach that is excellent in advising him on game management?

Or should he just prioritise some competitions and bow out the other 2 if doesn't have the squad for it. I would have been fine dropping out of 1 of them

[Vinny Green Balls]

Wasn't it the thing to criticize coaches for not prioritizing all competitions back in the day? Guarantee that some would criticize Howe if he did. I mean, weren't some highly critical of the PSG starting lineup?

 

 

Edited January 31 by Vinny Green Balls