Eddie Howe

[Alan Pardew]

"dust ourselves down.." Did he really fucking say that in the post match interview? 

[Elliottman]

32 minutes ago, duo said:

His job atm the minute is not to get us into Europe, or win things it is to keep us up.  Granted he inherited a mess but he knew the brief when he came in so it's only right he's judged on it.

We have zero midfield, a horrific back line and our best forward is injured. There’s no way this set of players can play the way he wants them to play, there’s not enough athleticism in the team. Until he’s got some of his own players in, I’m not going to be over ally harsh on him, it’s pointless. 

[HaydnNUFC]

6 minutes ago, Elliottman said:

We have zero midfield, a horrific back line and our best forward is injured. There’s no way this set of players can play the way he wants them to play, there’s not enough athleticism in the team. Until he’s got some of his own players in, I’m not going to be over ally harsh on him, it’s pointless. 

 

Agreed tbh. He's had Liverpool, Arsenal and Leicester away plus Man City and Man Utd at home and I doubt he'd have planned for Clark's red card or Darlow costing us 2 goals v Brentford. He has however not had the impact we all desired but he has come into an absolute shitshow of a squad.

 

Said it before but what's worried me is these last 2 games. We've had a break since playing Man Utd off the park and have looked clueless in two halves of football against a League 1 side and garbage Watford who had lost their last 7 in a row. 

 

The club needs to just splash for our targets and get them in ASAP as we're just tossing games off given our options.

 

 

Edited January 16, 2022 by HaydnNUFC

[McCormick]

Watford’s squad is just as unbalanced as ours is and with a worse backline. Completely capitulating after taking the lead time and time again is as much Howe’s fault as it is the players’, arguably more so.

[Thomson Mouse]

1 minute ago, HaydnNUFC said:

 

Agreed tbh. He's had Liverpool, Arsenal and Leicester away plus Man City and Man Utd at home and I doubt he'd have planned for Clark's red card or Darlow costing us 2 goals v Brentford. He has however not had the impact we all desired but he has come into an absolute shitshow of a squad.

 

Said it before but what's worried me is these last 2 games. We've had a break since playing Man Utd off the park and have looked clueless in two halves of football against a League 1 side and garbage Watford who had lost their last 7 in a row. 

 

The club needs to just splash for our targets and get them in ASAP as we're just tossing games off given our options.

 

 

 

 

Agree with the last two games, was expecting a lot more yesterday 

[HaydnNUFC]

1 minute ago, McCormick said:

Watford’s squad is just as unbalanced as ours is and with a worse backline. Completely capitulating after taking the lead time and time again is as much Howe’s fault as it is the players’, arguably more so.

 

Against Burnley he brought on Fernandez and went to a back 3 to tighten up and we did look more solid and saw the game out. If we were intending to sit back then I don't know why he didn't do the same, move Dummett to a CB in a 3 and bring Lewis on to play LWB. First time I've had questions of Howe was yesterday and I hope he can provide the answers and still believe he can but needs help in the transfer market. This squad is finished.

[The Prophet]

Having totally given up on us under Ashley and Bruce, I didn't particularly watch much of us, but based on past results I thought this team was still capable of finishing midtable.

 

Having watched more or less all of our games since Howe came in I was completely wrong, I was totally ignorant as to how much some players have regressed.

 

I don't know if its physical or mental, Lescalles is totally shot, he makes errors on an almost gamely basis. Once upon a time he was a capable albeit limited PL centre back, but due to a lack of options he's still starting. He simply has to replaced and the captaincy needs to be moved on. 

 

Longstaff and Hayden, again two that were always limited, but at least capable look absolutely awful. Again, due to a lack of options and Willock's form falling off a cliff, one them is almost always guaranteed to start, but the pair of them are absolute liabilities. If you play Shelvey, you need someone to do the defensive graft behind him, something neither of these two looks capable of or willing to do.

 

There's others who are less culpable, for example Schar and ASM who are still among our only good players and talented footballers, but they just aren't the players they were 18 months ago.

 

I honestly think without reinforcements at CB and CM, Klopp would struggle to keep us in the division. Our weak spine means we're far too easy to play through and we'll always concede far too many chances.

 

 

Edited January 16, 2022 by The Prophet

[The College Dropout]

4 hours ago, TRon said:

 

  Where have you been hiding? It was the toxic crowd who got rid of Bruce right? Did you read Ron Liddle's column today?

 

 

Notice how you are putting words in my mouth?

My post wasn’t a compliment to Bruce.  It’s gigantic criticism of Howe.  We got rid of a dinosaur that everyone despised. And we are no better for it. I don’t think any manager in this league would have amassed less points/wins in the 11 games 

[midds]

He's got to be feeling the pressure now, he's had no discernible impact on results, minimal impact on performances, same deficiencies we've seen for the last couple of years not addressed. It's a critical few weeks now, Staveley needs to nail this situation now and be decisive but it many ways she's caught between 2 stools. They took their time to appoint him (fair enough) and he's very much their choice. If he's having little or no impact on results then her decision to appoint him looks like a huge, very public mistake. If however, they're feeling that he can pull this around and they give him more time then it questions her judgement on big decisions. But if they have doubts and do nothing then they'll be criticised for not acting swiftly and correcting their mistake quickly enough. 

 

They need to get their shit in a pile and get it right, we'll know more in 2 weeks time if they manage it.  

[Billy Pilgrim]

Not sure we can pin it all on Staveley. It's a collective decision for a consortium to take. So far as her judgement goes, on paper it was optimistic but not ludicrous to suggest that Bruce was the major obstacle and that a highly rated Eddie Howe could come in with a plan and change things. We had been turned down by the first target and we needed to do something. What matters is being decisive should we get to february and still be on a single win. 

 

They're definitely working hard and they have done a lot already and it seems they have detailed plans for more to do. But they also need to get working on a contingency plan for what happens if we go through more winnable games and end up with no wins. Fail to prepare, prepare to fail, and time is no medicine for bad football management.

[Minhosa]

The word when he was appointed was that the board was split 50/50 on him and Emery.

 

If the Saudi's wanted Emery and PCP wanted Howe, I'd suggest that might be a position that is very hard to recover from.

 

If it's the other way around then Saudi will be quick to dispatch him imho unless there's a significant turn of events....

 

Whichever way you chop it, even the least demanding NUFC fan/employer would have anticipated a FAR better points return than he's managed to date and in an environment where EVERYTHING has been set up for him. Crowd completely on side, pretty much universal acceptance of his appointment, a new ownership with a complete clean slate, he's got 2 signings in fairly quickly and he's also had ZERO negative press.

 

He literally couldn't ask for better circumstances surrounding his overall employment.

 

He's the man who turned up, laptop in hand and wowed the owners about how he could get so much more from the current playing squad also, as we are led to believe. Bar Joelinton, that hasn't happened.

 

No two ways about it, he's currently failing and needs wins quickly. Preferably back to back to reverse this trend of disappointment.

 

 

Edited January 16, 2022 by Minhosa

[Infinitely Content]

1 hour ago, HaydnNUFC said:

 

Against Burnley he brought on Fernandez and went to a back 3 to tighten up and we did look more solid and saw the game out. If we were intending to sit back then I don't know why he didn't do the same, move Dummett to a CB in a 3 and bring Lewis on to play LWB. First time I've had questions of Howe was yesterday and I hope he can provide the answers and still believe he can but needs help in the transfer market. This squad is finished.

To be fair to Eddie Howe, there's evidence to suggest he wasn't, and isn't intending to retreat into a passive, defensive structure to protect leads. I was watching him on the touchline yesterday and he was repeatedly urging the players to move up the pitch as they began to retreat in the final 20 minutes of the game. 

It appears that he's still trying to work on the players' mentalities, which remain timid and apprehensive after taking the lead in a game, often fearing the worst which is naturally causing them to retreat. It's understandable, they've been instructed to do so under previous management and thus developed that habit which can't be undone quickly in those high pressure moments.

I hope we all stay behind him. Indeed we had all hoped a style of play would be implemented and be more apparent by now, a style that makes us look more cohesive and threatening in games, however there's little to be achieved by asking questions of whether he was the right appointment or not. They're not going to change the manager at this stage, and rightly so in my opinion. I still believe the tide could turn this season, I've witnessed seemingly miraculous changes in fortune plenty of times watching the Premier League over the years; where teams which appear to be lacking all confidence and ability are transformed and renewed in a moment. Whilst we are getting increasingly closer to requiring such a transformation and renewal, there's still time for us, and I'm certain Howe and his team are doing all they can. It will be hurting him.

We need a Joelinton-esque rebirth to be embodied by the full side.

 

 

Edited January 16, 2022 by Infinitely Content

[HaydnNUFC]

2 minutes ago, Infinitely Content said:

To be fair to Eddie Howe, there's evidence to suggest he wasn't, and isn't intending to retreat into a passive, defensive structure to protect leads. I was watching him on the touchline yesterday and he was repeatedly urging the players to move up the pitch as they began to retreat in the final 20 minutes of the game. 

It appears that he's still trying to work on the players' mentalities, which remain timid and apprehensive after taking the lead in a game, often fearing the worst which is naturally causing them to retreat. It's understandable, they've been instructed to do so under previous management and thus developed that habit which can't be undone quickly in those high pressure moments.

I hope we all stay behind him. Indeed we had all hoped a style of play would be implemented and be more apparent by now, a style that makes us look more cohesive and threatening in games, however there's little to be achieved by asking questions of whether he was the right appointment or not. They're not going to change the manager at this stage, and rightly so in my opinion. I still believe the tide could turn this season, I've witnessed seemingly miraculous changes in fortune plenty of times watching the Premier League over the years; where teams which appear to be lacking all confidence and ability are transformed and renewed in a moment. Whilst we are getting increasingly closer to requiring such a transformation and renewal, there's still time for us, and I'm certain Howe and his team are doing all they can. It will be hurting him.

We need a Joelinton-esque rebirth to be embodied by the full side.

 

 

 

 

Need signings.

[AJ9]

Needs to get some fucking wins sharpish, or the pressure will be too much, with Rafa hanging about.

[TRon]

12 minutes ago, Infinitely Content said:

To be fair to Eddie Howe, there's evidence to suggest he wasn't, and isn't intending to retreat into a passive, defensive structure to protect leads. I was watching him on the touchline yesterday and he was repeatedly urging the players to move up the pitch as they began to retreat in the final 20 minutes of the game. 

It appears that he's still trying to work on the players' mentalities, which remain timid and apprehensive after taking the lead in a game, often fearing the worst which is naturally causing them to retreat. It's understandable, they've been instructed to do so under previous management and thus developed that habit which can't be undone quickly in those high pressure moments.

I hope we all stay behind him. Indeed we had all hoped a style of play would be implemented and be more apparent by now, a style that makes us look more cohesive and threatening in games, however there's little to be achieved by asking questions of whether he was the right appointment or not. They're not going to change the manager at this stage, and rightly so in my opinion. I still believe the tide could turn this season, I've witnessed seemingly miraculous changes in fortune plenty of times watching the Premier League over the years; where teams which appear to be lacking all confidence and ability are transformed and renewed in a moment. Whilst we are getting increasingly closer to requiring such a transformation and renewal, there's still time for us, and I'm certain Howe and his team are doing all they can. It will be hurting him.

We need a Joelinton-esque rebirth to be embodied by the full side.

 

 

 

 

Yep. He came as close as he's done to criticising the players yesterday, he said he was disappointed we dropped back to defend the lead rather than go for the jugular. I think he needs to show this side more, people are starting to wonder if he's too nice to be an effective manager. My main gripe is his choice of players to implement his way of playing, we are running out of games for him to learn as he's going along. 

[RealGoneKid]

I do wonder whether in his pitch for the job he told the board that he could make a silk purse out of a sows ear ? I was kind of expecting deals to be lined up and sorted on the first day of the window 

[RealGoneKid]

Needs some rougher management style 

 

 

[TheInfiniteOdyssey]

Just now, RealGoneKid said:

I do wonder whether in his pitch for the job he told the board that he could make a silk purse out of a sows ear ? I was kind of expecting deals to be lined up and sorted on the first day of the window 

Wasn’t he supposed to have delivered a very convincing presentation at his interview on the squad’s strengths, weaknesses, how to get them to play a different way etc?

 

I doubt he went to the interview and said actually “I need Botman, Carlos, Van De Beek and Trippier” to get any results.

[nufcnick]

hopefully we’re now doing with Rafa what spurs were doing with Conte, getting everything in place of over the next few games things don’t go right to make a change in days instead of weeks 

[Minhosa]

1 minute ago, nufcnick said:

hopefully we’re now doing with Rafa what spurs were doing with Conte, getting everything in place of over the next few games things don’t go right to make a change in days instead of weeks 

You'd have to think there is a huge temptation from the owners to do just that. He's the one they wanted all along.

[HWTL]

26 minutes ago, alijmitchell said:

Needs to get some fucking wins sharpish, or the pressure will be too much, with Rafa hanging about.

Rafa couldn't get a tune out of Everton with a much better squad, yes there players also seem to have lost there way and he has worked with most of ours but that was awhile ago and there done now. Can't see him doing any better. 

[duo]

1 hour ago, Elliottman said:

We have zero midfield, a horrific back line and our best forward is injured. There’s no way this set of players can play the way he wants them to play, there’s not enough athleticism in the team. Until he’s got some of his own players in, I’m not going to be over ally harsh on him, it’s pointless. 

His job is not getting the team to play the way he wants but getting the team to play in a way that suits the players.  That's where Rafa was king - he nailed it.

[Beth]

2 hours ago, Amir_9 said:

How is it we're halfway through the window and we still do not have a CB in? You seriously telling me we can't find anyone short term better than the shit we've got?

Because any half decent one does not want to come. We could offer Lille £50M for Botman and him £200k a week and he still wouldn't come. Some people on here need to wake up and realise it isn't 1996 anymore.

[Beth]

1 minute ago, ManDoon said:

So that’s the only option? That’s ridiculous. There are loads of professional footballers around. 

Of course, but just pointing out why the better ones won't come to us.

[nufcnick]

21 minutes ago, Minhosa said:

You'd have to think there is a huge temptation from the owners to do just that. He's the one they wanted all along.

I think Mandy really could have made a phone call today TBH