Eddie Howe

[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    

[Smal]

Just now, Kid Icarus said:

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 

If you play a high line with slow defenders you need really good pressure on the ball, which is what we've had most of the season. 

 

Our press got absolutely schooled today. They always had a man free and we didn't seem to have the athleticism to get near them. 

[STM]

I'd certainly like Howe to explore 3 at the back for games like today.

 

                       Pope

 

        Schar     Botman    Burn

Trippier                                 Targett

 

         Willock  Bruno  Joelinton 

 

                   Isak   Wilson

 

Would have caused them problems.

[STM]

2 minutes ago, Disco said:

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.  

 

Happened noticeably at home to west ham.

[KaKa]

4 minutes ago, Kid Icarus said:

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 

 

We usually close down midfield's much better though, so those passes aren't played nearly as often or nearly as effectively.

 

Their setup made it really difficult though, as they had 4 people in those central areas. It was very effective.

 

 

Edited April 15, 2023 by KaKa

[Optimistic Nut]

6 minutes ago, Smal said:

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  

 

I don't think he's been the same since the Liverpool game. It's like his Ginola/Dixon moment. Hope he snaps out of it soon.

[Smal]

6 minutes ago, Disco said:

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.  

 

Our average touches on the ball today. This doesn't show you where they were without the ball but it does show you that you're probably gonna get fucked in transition. 

 

edit: you cannot just leave nowt in front of the defence.

 

 

Edited April 15, 2023 by Smal

[The College Dropout]

5 minutes ago, SUPERTOON said:

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.

Aye.  
 

Usually the midfield is competitive and solid. Teams usually have to rush that ball over the top so the quality isn’t good and we can deal with it with Pope’s aggressive sweeping.  
 

Today those Vila wide players kept having loads of time to time and weigh their passes. At times they are playing with 5 central midfielder and we are playing with 3. 
 

There was space to attack Villa in behind and wide but we never had the quality to lay a glove. 

[Kid Icarus]

I'd need to watch it back, but there were at least 3 speculative balls that reached Watkins today that I'm used to Schär and Botman picking up.

[The College Dropout]

9 minutes ago, 54 said:

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. 

It’s also a numbers game. Villa had 4 or 5 in central midfield areas, we had 3. There’s always going to be an open pass in that setup for them to play around us. 

[The College Dropout]

Good discussion in here today lads.  

[STM]

I think yous have it spot on. Our press vacated the space in front of the back four. They stuck two in there and played balls through the gaps.

 

Could have had Bolt in the back four, it wouldn't have mattered. Too much time and space to snuff out them runs.

[worthy]

14 minutes ago, SUPERTOON said:

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.

This is what I was thinking as well a lot of the times. They played exactly like Liverpool did. Direct ground and over the head balls whilst their front 3 were always playing on the shoulders of the defense. Same result today. So it is something that has not been done anything with for sure.

[Dr Jinx]

He got spanked tactically today and he was let down by a few very sub par performances.

 

We didn’t give them the respect they were due and approached the game like any other. When that didn’t work out we looked stunned.

 

Now if I thought he wasn’t going to learn from this I’d be concerned, but he’ll hate what happened and will analyse the fuck out of what went wrong.

 

It’s also hopefully a lesson into what he needs to bring in this summer I’m terms of midfield, we were overrun today.

[Kanji]

I don’t want us to have a defensive mid every match but today was crying out for one. In hindsight I’d have played longstaff from the off with Bruno and willock. Joelinton wide left. Murphy or Gordon right and Wilson up top. 

[TRon]

2 hours ago, Weezertron said:

Wonder if losing this game stings Eddie a bit given Emery was our first choice. 

 

I couldn't give a shit, like. Eddie is our guy. 

 

It's got to sting a bit hasn't it? Considering Emery was first choice and today we got schooled all over the pitch.

 

There's always a risk playing the way we do with less than blue chip players. We press high trying to create chances, and that leaves us vulnerable to the counter if the likes of Murphy, Willock or Almiron aren't firing the bullets.

 

I guess Howe would argue that we are building an identity, and this is how our team is being set up to play, regardless of who we are up against. Tbf, it's worked pretty well all season against some pretty decent teams. Definitely a learning experience.