Eddie Howe

[Isegrim 8872]

2 hours ago, PaddockLad said:

I can agree with that as a general view but there are some specific things Howe is responsible for. Why have we persisted with trying to play the high pressing game this season with mostly a knackered bare 11 supplemented by players half fit returning from injury? It doesn’t make any sense to me and that is entirely down to him. A glimpse v Wolves that playing on the break more could yield success but that was jettisoned last night….

Howe obviously is neither flawless nor faultless. There are quite a few things I disagree with, especially his lack of rotation and substitutions. But overall I think he is still doing a terrific job and absolutely the right man currently. There is no need to look for greener gras tbh.

[Gemmill 34503]

Just to be clear, I was simply lumping myself in with the thickos to make them feel better about themselves.

 

OF COURSE I didn't think it was repeatable this season with all the extra games.

 

I didn't think it would hammer us as badly as it has, but then it wouldn't have had we not had the ridiculous set of injuries.

 

[wykikitoon 16678]

Wow wasn't expecting all this today! 

[RobElliott 970]

Think Excel must be down  

[Dr Gloom 19826]

4 hours ago, LongTimeAdmirer said:

Personally, I cant wait to see what a First XI and bench full of Eddie players looks like, the final product. 

You don’t want to see 11 ASMs then

[Dr Gloom 19826]

Howe 100% deserves another season, whatever happens with the rest of this one. The summer window was one for the future, not the present, he wasn’t backed in the January window at all. He can only take these Mike Ashley era players so far. We all need to be patient.
 

I agree that Howe has made mistakes and is frustratingly stubborn tactically and loyal to certain players but pushing the panic button now is a pointless gamble.
 

Howe has shown he can improve players. We’re still in a much better place than we were two years ago when he took over, even if we have taken a step back after a massive leap forwards last season. Let’s see how he does after he’s been given the chance to properly build a squad equipped to play the sort of game he wants to. 

[spongebob toonpants 3604]

37 minutes ago, Dr Gloom said:

You don’t want to see 11 ASMs then

Leave it!

[aimaad22 3472]

It's easy to point to something like the high press and say that's why we're struggling. I mean I understand it, maybe it is. But so much else has gone on and who can say for sure what's at the root of our problems. Just look at the unusually large amount of individual errors this season. Tripper, Burn, now Botman. Dubravka ffs. Almiron and Longstaff have reverted to type and are largely passengers. Whether that's down to confidence, injuries and fatigue etc I don't know but you've got to trust Howe has a handle on it. We've all speculated having Joe or Tonali available would have reduced these errors but then that's just the cards we've been dealt this season aye?

 

I think his objective now would be to maintain some sort of confidence and spirit in the dressing room and target a well within reach 7th place finish. It would mean a very decent season under the circumstances and probably fair given we've got a first time still half full of Bruce players. Anything above 7th/6th is punching above our weight which we did last season. 

 

That is key. If the club wants progress next season you've got to upgrade 3-4 players. Then demand a top 5 finish and a cup run. It's just not a realistic target otherwise.

Edited March 12 by aimaad22

[wykikitoon 16678]

Re Longstaff and Miley. I just don't think putting Miley in over Longstaff is the answer. I still think he's too lightweight and has a lot to learn. 

[aimaad22 3472]

1 minute ago, wykikitoon said:

Re Longstaff and Miley. I just don't think putting Miley in over Longstaff is the answer. I still think he's too lightweight and has a lot to learn. 

 

Yes because Longstaff has been absolutely throwing himself about really getting into people's faces eh?

 

[Holden McGroin 4867]

1 minute ago, wykikitoon said:

Re Longstaff and Miley. I just don't think putting Miley in over Longstaff is the answer. I still think he's too lightweight and has a lot to learn. 

I would have agreed with you a couple of weeks ago but there is something up with Longstaff. I suspect injury.

 

ideally Anderson would get a run out but he is nowhere near fit enough to start. I’m surprised he is even on the bench. He looks so rusty. 

[Dr Gloom 19826]

We’ve been forced to play half a side of Mike Ashley era players for most of the season. Miggy, Longstaff, Krafth, Dubravka, Murphy, Schar - all had serious game time last night and have done throughout the season. There are some Mike Ashley players (Schar/Joelinton) who

belong at the level we aspire to but most have been outperforming (thanks to Howe).
 

We need to judge Howe once that is no longer the case. I don’t think it was ever the plan for Longstaff, for example, to play so many minutes this season. 

[wykikitoon 16678]

I've always said How's achilles heal is his subs, especially the timing. 

 

Krafth could have come on more to help out but the most minutes he's played are 10 or so minutes in the league. 

 

Yes we've had ridiculous injuries but at times when we have players like Trips running on fumes I don't understand why he hasn't put Krafth on. 

[wykikitoon 16678]

Great points 

 

 

[ackas 304]

None of us know what conversations are going on behind the scenes about what the target is for the rest of the season.

We may be happy with 8th-10th and no Euro football next season to give us a chance to have a realistic shot at qualifying for the Champs League again.

Or we may be pushing for 7th to get us into the conference and give us further experience of playing European football and getting the club used to that idea.

 

With that in mind I think Howe is experimenting a little bit with tactics and personnel.

I think the obvious tactic last night was to sit deep and hit them on the break, but long term thats probably not a tactic that we want to be using regularly.

So we used a high press and told Gordon to stay further up the pitch.

It didnt work particularly well, but the more we get used to that style, the better in the long term.

 

Hopefully we're going to give him 2-3 years to get it right before we think about making a change, but these days you never know.

 

[wykikitoon 16678]

I just hope we don't bring in any Bournemouth players in like. 

[aimaad22 3472]

That was my main takeaway from that tweet as well  

 

That and getting 25M for Almiron from Saudi and stuffing him in a taxi. 

[Holden McGroin 4867]

3 minutes ago, wykikitoon said:

I just hope we don't bring in any Bournemouth players in like. 

it depends on our budget with FFP. I’d take Lloyd Kelly on a free.  I don’t see anyone else improving our team. 
 

I like Ryan Christie but he would be a squad player at best. 

[Ayatollah Hermione 12767]

4 hours ago, Alex said:

I think there’s something to that. But I also think you need to be pragmatic. If you don’t deliver in the here and now you’ll get the push eventually. There’s also the point about adaptability. Which relates to HMHM’s comments about how the game continually moves on. In any case, I think unless you’re at Man City / Liverpool / Real Madrid levels then you need to shape the way you play according to your opponents at times. 

I agree and I’ve advocated to either switching to a 5 at the back or seeing out the season with the system we saw against Wolves. But, I’m pretty sure Howe has been given long term assurances about his job so he’s trying to implement this style now, hiccups and defeats be damned. And, you’d hope with the fixtures we have left that it’ll see us put poorer sides away but with Gordon missing (and potentially Barnes), I think it might be a continually frustrating couple of months and the questions are only going to intensify 

[Dr Gloom 19826]

1 hour ago, ackas said:

None of us know what conversations are going on behind the scenes about what the target is for the rest of the season.

We may be happy with 8th-10th and no Euro football next season to give us a chance to have a realistic shot at qualifying for the Champs League again.

Or we may be pushing for 7th to get us into the conference and give us further experience of playing European football and getting the club used to that idea.

 

With that in mind I think Howe is experimenting a little bit with tactics and personnel.

I think the obvious tactic last night was to sit deep and hit them on the break, but long term thats probably not a tactic that we want to be using regularly.

So we used a high press and told Gordon to stay further up the pitch.

It didnt work particularly well, but the more we get used to that style, the better in the long term.

 

Hopefully we're going to give him 2-3 years to get it right before we think about making a change, but these days you never know.

 

 

even 7th or even 8th could get europa league this season depending on who wins the fa cup and whether the PL get the 5th champions league spot

[LongTimeAdmirer 925]

4 hours ago, Dr Gloom said:

You don’t want to see 11 ASMs then

[The Fish 8993]

Thing is, the game against Chelsea was turned on its head after an against the run of play brain fart and slice of bad luck for Palmer's opener. 

 

If we scored first I think their fans would have turned and we'd have gone on to win. But, as with Man Utd, Chelsea's team is peppered with quality individuals who can dig them out of trouble without any broader plan.

 

Howe is getting criticism for sticking to his style, and I understand why it would be frustrating, but I don't think he's still rigidly adhering to the high intensity, high pressure we saw last season. Trouble is, when we are chasing the game that's our most reliable goal threat. And unfortunately we're quite often chasing the game because Dubravka isn't as good as Pope. So Howe is trying to change tactics but gets pulled back to the horse what bring him.

[tinofbeans 86]

My 2 penneth. Once the champions league games were underway we were playing 2 v difficult games a week for a while. The team was on its knees because of accumulated fatigue and lack of meaningful squad depth. The style of our team means fitness first is the way to go but the team has literally run itself into the ground. Our tactics as well and howes willingness to stick with players out of form or injured means we’ve had next to no rhythm and his decision making is getting more odd as the season goes on. 
 

I think if we’d have got a non European slot last season we’d have finished higher this season.. 

 

also our players do seem to get injured more than most other teams… maybe we’ve just had a duff season! 

[OTF 6175]

On 13/03/2024 at 00:53, Isegrim said:

Howe obviously is neither flawless nor faultless. There are quite a few things I disagree with, especially his lack of rotation and substitutions. But overall I think he is still doing a terrific job and absolutely the right man currently. There is no need to look for greener gras tbh.

There's no need to look for greener grass because it doesn't exist right now. Howe is the best fit, loves the project, the team and is loved by the supporters. The lack of rotation has been largely out of his control and sustitution options have been limited. It has highlighted our lack of depth in some positions as well as perhaps a lack of alternate strategies to implement based on player availability. We've not been miles off the pace though and is we can turn around our injury record that alone will go a large way to putting us back on the right trajectory.

 

Compare our squad, spending and wages to any of the 'top 6' teams and we're still spending A LOT less. £30m+ less than Spurs (AND Villa), £50m+ less than Liver "we have a ceiling" pool and the others are loads ahead of them on spending. Both Manchester clubs spend more than double us on wages and Arsenal are close enough to double too. Don't forget this when gauging our level of success. We'd spend more if we were allowed, but the only ways to that are dramatically increasing our revenue (which is happening gradually) or a change in the FFP and PSRs. They are under review with the premier league cautious of missing out on the top levels of talent.

 

1. Manchester United – £205,756,000
2. Manchester City – £200,668,000
3. Arsenal – £166,036,000
4. Chelsea – £155,324,000
5. Liverpool – £136,240,000
7. Tottenham – £117,520,000
6. Aston Villa – £117,000,000
8. West Ham United – £95,316,000
9. Newcastle United – £84,500,000
10. Everton – £78,978,000

[ewerk 26390]

Add to that the fact that Ashley put a lot of shit players on extended contracts as it was cheaper than buying replacements.