Eddie Howe

[TheBrownBottle]

11 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

That’s his plan B. And it’s firmly plan B. 
 

What I mean is ‘the opposition will setup like this… so I will set us up a little different to counter it’. Like Pep will alter his time a little when facing a back 3.  He’s not so much a horses for courses manager. 
 

We have the finances to make plan A and B brilliant though. I think Klopp is the same.  They are doing what they are doing, it either works or it doesn’t. 

He hasn’t had the squad options that Guardiola has had since day one of his managerial career. 

[Wandy]

The fact that today is the first truly bad day we have had since the 2-1 loss to Wolves on 2nd October 2021 speaks volumes on how well Eddie has done in his time here. To go 18 months without a single truly poor performance and result is quite remarkable, especially considering our position when he took over. 
 

Not gonna lie though, it’s still gutting that he has finally been schooled in a game, and by Emery of all people. I bet he is fuming about it too.

 

I was hoping we’d get a statement result against this lot as I can’t abide them, but the exact opposite happened. Admittedly, looking at the big picture it’s great for the league to see another big club emerge from the wilderness to challenge the establishment…. I just hope this isn’t the start of Villa becoming a bogey team for us while their current manager is there.

[54]

Howe is definitely the sort of manager who likes to do all his work on the training pitch, so it makes sense that he doesn't like to tinker between them two or three tactics, he's the type that unless he has full faith in a setup, he not going to risk changing it on the fly, as in his eyes its not engrained in the players, so has less of a chance of working. 

 

Its not really a criticism of him, as different managers have different styles, and that style has worked to date, and with better and better players, its going to work more and more.

[The College Dropout]

4 minutes ago, reefatoon said:

Must have been killing college dropout to have to wait until April to have a dig at Howe. Fancy the spiteful bastard having us playing so well and sitting third. Left us no time to have a go at him and his tactics.

Stop being so sensitive. 
 

Howe has done miracles. He’s been great. We know this. 
 

But we came to play the exact same game we always try to play. When it didn’t work, we had no idea how to stop the opposition. The 10s kept getting the ball in the half spaces and doing whatever they wanted. The left back kept exploiting space out wide. Bruno was piss poor but he was often running between two 10s. We kept being vulnerable to Watkins runs between central defenders. Botman was playing like he didn’t realise Watkins was right footed.  These are things we can mitigate and prepare for. 

[Pata]

I don't see the point in changing your tactics after winning five in a row. That's a Pardew thing to do, focusing on your opponent and not your own team. Shite games happen and sometimes everything goes against you. We had our best spell of the game right before their second and if we could have scored there maybe we could have nicked an undeserved point. Literally every player had one of their worst games of the season, it's impossible to win away against a decent side when that happens.

 

I have no doubt that Howe will analyse this and learn from it and we'll be a lot better next week.

[KaKa]

20 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

Learning a lot about Eddie. He’s not the most tactically flexible is he?

 

Bro chill man

 

He hasn't really needed to be to be so far this season to be fair as we've been rolling.

 

He played different systems at Bournemouth. He can definitely switch things up. As a matter of fact his whole pivot to a 4-3-3 under us was a great adjustment after he came in originally with a 4-2-3-1.

 

He's legit man.

[The College Dropout]

1 minute ago, 54 said:

Howe is definitely the sort of manager who likes to do all his work on the training pitch, so it makes sense that he doesn't like to tinker between them two or three tactics, he's the type that unless he has full faith in a setup, he not going to risk changing it on the fly, as in his eyes its not engrained in the players, so has less of a chance of working. 

 

Its not really a criticism of him, as different managers have different styles, and that style has worked to date, and with better and better players, its going to work more and more.

I agree with this. 
 

I’ve struggled to accept that Dan Burn is the horse for every course but that’s how Howe sees things. 

[KaKa]

2 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

Stop being so sensitive. 
 

Howe has done miracles. He’s been great. We know this. 
 

But we came to play the exact same game we always try to play. When it didn’t work, we had no idea how to stop the opposition. The 10s kept getting the ball in the half spaces and doing whatever they wanted. The left back kept exploiting space out wide. Bruno was piss poor but he was often running between two 10s. We kept being vulnerable to Watkins runs between central defenders. Botman was playing like he didn’t realise Watkins was right footed.  These are things we can mitigate and prepare for. 

 

Fair points, but perhaps he thought our midfield would still disrupt them, but it didn't turn out that way.

 

I would have liked to see us drop into a mid/low block to close up those middle spaces, as I don't think they would have any answers, but maybe he decided against it to stay aggressive as we were already a goal down.

 

I doubt we will look so off it again going against them.

[The College Dropout]

People are so sensitive. Even Pep has weaknesses.  He can overthink and change his system too much based on opposition.  And he’s the greatest manager of all time. Fergie was often schooled tactically in Europe etc. I can say Howe is a little inflexible in setting up his team va the opps strengths 

[Pata]

This and Brighton away have been the only terrible performances this season which is ridiculous considering it's been 30 games with a still limited squad. 

[Kid Icarus]

Would it be fair to say that the analysis of Schär and Botman doesn't need to go any further than 'do your job'?

 

Their handling of Watkins was unbelievably bad. Literally any ball over the top and it was his. That's unacceptable 

[KaKa]

1 minute ago, Kid Icarus said:

Would it be fair to say that the analysis of Schär and Botman doesn't need to go any further than 'do your job'?

 

Their handling of Watkins was unbelievably bad. Literally any ball over the top and it was his. That's unacceptable 

 

There was a lot of space in behind man, and the people playing those passes weren't consistently being closed down quickly enough.

 

Very very difficult to deal with from a centre-back's point of view, especially as the two men upfront were running the channels so well, and dragging them wide, with their two 10s then making secondary forward runs off them.

 

Felt bad for Schar and Botman today.

[Smal]

3 minutes ago, Kid Icarus said:

Would it be fair to say that the analysis of Schär and Botman doesn't need to go any further than 'do your job'?

 

Their handling of Watkins was unbelievably bad. Literally any ball over the top and it was his. That's unacceptable 

They were horrendous. Couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

 

Didn’t seem ready for the ball in behind them all game and it’s been the most obvious feature of Villa’s attacking play.

[The College Dropout]

Just now, Kid Icarus said:

Would it be fair to say that the analysis of Schär and Botman doesn't need to go any further than 'do your job'?

 

Their handling of Watkins was unbelievably bad. Literally any ball over the top and it was his. That's unacceptable 

No.  
 

Neither of them have any real pace.  Watkins has scored his goals running between CBs.  We were always going to be vulnerable to that and it needed active mitigation.  Maybe a deeper line, a defensive 3, stopping the supply lines etc.  I don’t know but we clearly didn’t have much of a plan for Villa’s strengths. 
 

Anyway. These things happen. As someone pointed out, nobody turned up.  We go again. 

[Kid Icarus]

Watkins isn't unique in having pace and running between centre backs. Any ball short or in behind was his. 

[The College Dropout]

2 minutes ago, KaKa said:

 

There was a lot of space in behind man, and the people playing those passes weren't consistently being closed down quickly enough.

 

Very very difficult to deal with from a centre-back's point of view, especially as the two men upfront were running the channels so well, and dragging them wide, with their two 10s then making secondary forward runs off them.

 

Felt bad for Schar and Botman today.

It was the midfield. Ramsay and Buendia kept having the ball between full back and CB with little pressure from midfield. Easily knocking it behind the defence or bouncing it off Watkins and sustaining the attack. This happened for 90 minutes. 

[SUPERTOON]

Thought it was pretty similar to Nunez against us for Liverpool at st James. Ball in behind and we couldn’t cope. Haven’t learnt the lesson from that game.

[Smal]

I swear most of the season a normal feature of our defensive play is playing a reasonably high line and Pope sweeping everything up that goes in behind. Pope was bad in every aspect today. 

 

I'm so annoyed  

[54]

I think the biggest issue today was the gap between midfield and defense tbh, not necessarily just the defenders being bad, which they really where. The thing we've excelled at this season is being really good in the transitional phase, and pressing high when we lose possession, to smother the opposition into making a mistake high up the pitch, however they managed to play round that with ease today, with meant that they then had a tone of space to run into between the lines, and with Botman and Schar not being the paciest, caused us plenty of issues. 

 

Today was the perfect example of where someone like Rice who has the intelligence to sit in that game and control things would have been invaluable. 

[Kid Icarus]

You can’t put it all on the high line. We've played that way all season and when balls have made it through, either short or in behind, Schär, Botman and Pope have swept up.

 

It isn't as simple as that surely 

[MrRaspberryJam]

34 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

That’s his plan B. And it’s firmly plan B. 
 

What I mean is ‘the opposition will setup like this… so I will set us up a little different to counter it’. Like Pep will alter his time a little when facing a back 3.  He’s not so much a horses for courses manager. 
 

We have the finances to make plan A and B brilliant though. I think Klopp is the same.  They are doing what they are doing, it either works or it doesn’t. 

 

Ideally we appoint a manager that never loses. 

[Disco]

We quite often leave midfield pretty empty mind, it just hasn’t been too much of an issue until today. Think how often Bruno, who is the nominal sitter, gets into the final third.  

[KaKa]

2 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

It was the midfield. Ramsay and Buendia kept having the ball between full back and CB with little pressure from midfield. Easily knocking it behind the defence or bouncing it off Watkins and sustaining the attack. This happened for 90 minutes. 

 

Bruno in that deeper role did not help today either.

 

100% want a top defensive midfielder to play in there longer term.

[The Butcher]

We could do with a proper DM. All the top teams have one. We don't atm.

[The College Dropout]

1 minute ago, Kid Icarus said:

Watkins isn't unique in having pace and running between centre backs. Any ball short or in behind was his. 

His blend of pace and power is fairly unique and he’s in great confidence and is making consistent penetrative runs. He used to make more selfless runs before in the channels. 
 

They also play with wingers who are technically strong and are more 10s than actual wingers. Play that narrow box midfield where they can play balls in behind from half spaces and they had no pressure today for 90 minutes.  
 

And obviously the defenders are human. Their heads must’ve been rattled from 30 seconds in. Their composure went out the window but imo that’s because the setup was all wrong