It may be the minority, but I found it quite alarming to see some sections of our fan base seriously question Eddie Howe and his credentials after yesterday’s defeat to Liverpool.
It was an unprecedented turn of events to concede twice in the final 10 minutes and an absolute sickener. Criticism is fair in football and a lot of it was justified on Sunday night. Some of it, however, was over the top, misplaced and frankly ridiculous.
‘Shocking tactical naivety. Anymore of this and Howe will be out.’ That was one comment I woke up to on the blog this morning. I’ve seen a few on Facebook suggest he’ll be history if this happens again and Twitter rants questioning if he can make the right substitutions, compete with top managers and/or come up with a plan B. To be clear, criticism is fair after such an awful defeat and collapse, but sweeping statements about his ability as a manager feel painfully premature the moment things don’t go our way.
It’s a sad state of affairs if 18 months of incredible form, a top four finish, just five defeats last season, the second best defence in the Premier League and a cup final leaves you under fire (from some) as soon as we suffer back-to-back defeats against Man City and Liverpool.
Of course we can be critical – the nature of loss was bad and that’s football sometimes – but parts of our fanbase can be so black and white. If Almiron’s effort hits the other side of the post or that ball doesn’t deflect off Botman and into the path of Nunez, we’re all celebrating a comfortable win and go into Saturday’s trip to Brighton absolutely flying.
Fine margins, costly misses and errors at the back that have been punished brutally, yet I find some of the post-match reaction towards Howe a bit much. He’s bad at subs now? Two weeks ago, we were raving about the impact Barnes and Wilson made against Villa, where both scored to seal the win in style.
That doesn’t make Sunday’s changes the right ones – Howe’s decision to take off Gordon and Tonali was odd at the time and backfired badly – but some of the reactions I’ve seen over the past 24 hours and questioning of Howe from small but vocal sections of social media are painful to read.
Yes, it went horribly wrong yesterday and he’ll have to learn, but that’s football. We’re still growing. We do struggle to break down low blocks and did manage the game poorly, but we’re on a hiding to nothing if we expect to be outstanding in all departments. We’re not going to enjoy this journey if small setbacks lead to meltdowns online and finger pointing at the earliest opportunity.
Let’s stay calm and keep faith in a manager and group of lads who’ve given us so little reason to doubt them over the past 18 months. Criticism will come but keeping our heads when things get tough is important for us fans; even if expectations have risen in light of our recent success.
Most of the comments I have seen were critical of his substitutions which were very strange given Gordon and Tonali were out two best performers.
I’m also not convinced our signings have been in the right areas of the pitch again just my opinion.
And I also think several starters in the team have struggled this season and indeed tail end of last season and may need taken out to help them reset, again just an opinion.
But I’m certainly not calling for EH to go, but we do need to start getting results against the Liverpools of the league and I think EH got it wrong tactically on Sunday and was out thought by Klopp again an opinion.
We are allowed opinions even if they differ from the contributors on here.
Anyway that’s my thoughts and opinions and happy to discuss.
David Dryburgh(Quote)
Agreed, some of the comments are mad. Yesterday was painful, probably more painful than any league loss last season, so maybe that has spilled over a bit. Howe made the wrkf decision as did all of the team at multiple stages in all honesty, the game should have been wrapped up by Almiron or Barnes to Wilson but there we go. Liverpool have a whole bunch full of players who can make the difference and we just aren’t there yet.
Newkie(Quote)
David Dryburgh :-
Totally agree, some of the automatic starters you mention, without upsetting them by naming them, need to recapture their earlier form or be given a rest.
I am sure Eddie Howe who has been honest enough to admit he possibly didn’t get it right with the substitutions will be a better manager for it.
I also wouldn’t swap him for another manager because he gets this club and it’s supporters and there are not many of them about.
Hope some of the automatic starters you mentioned do likewise and become more consistent for it.
Joseph(Quote)
We all have our opinions and I think most NUFC supporters were surprised when Anthony Gordon was subbed as he was giving Alexander Arnold the run around . With hindsight Eddie probably also regrets that decision,but, hindsight is a wonderful thing. For me ( and I have supported NUFC for nearly 70 years ) Eddie has the potential to be one of the best managers we have had and to be compared with Kevin Keegan and Sir Bobby Robson. NUFC have always had a small number of over critical supporters who are quick to criticise and slow to remember. For the benefit of the club they need to keep their critical opinions to themselves and get behind the team instead of backbiting and creating ill feeling. Howay the Lads.
Pete G(Quote)
Nah that’s rubbish that like… the critics is fair… the subs against villa came at a time when Newcastle were in total control, he threw Barnes and Wilson into a very low pressure environment whereas the subs against Liverpool came at a time when the game was finely balanced. If you’re miles in front or chasing by all means make 3 subs BUT if you want to kill a game off (like we should of) make them one by one, make it stop-start to break the other teams rhythm and give the lads a chance to get up to pace.
Was totally unfair to throw 3 lads into a high pressure game like that.
The comments are fair because how many subs did Guardiola make last week when City were 1-0 up but NUFC were on top? None. Exactly. Why? Because Pep knows no matter how good his bench is it’s not fair to throw them into a finely balanced game and expect them to fly.
Its tactical naivety, simple as. Howe is a great coach, we did well last year because he gets the best out of the players he has BUT the Liverpool defeat was the first sign that maybe he’s tactically naive. Does he have a plan B? I don’t think so. There’s no-one like Nunez or Jota on our bench, our bench is like-for-like replacements, fresh legs only.
I’d imagine Gordon, Tonali and Isak will be annoyed at being dragged off while Wilson, Barnes and Longstaff will have had their confidence knocked, through no fault of their own because they shouldn’t of been put in that position, so a lot of damage has been done.
I don’t think anyone’s saying “Howe out” that would be stupid, he’s done more than enough to earn his chance BUT he did let his players down against Liverpool and that was definitely the first sign he’s tactically naive and will need to level up fast if we’re to compete will the top clubs.
David(Quote)
i don’t think it’s unreasonable to use your subs in a finely balanced game, thats what they are there for to be used as a manager sees fit. Howe said we lost the momentum and that the subs were his attempt at trying to regain…. fair enough. isak was doing nothing up front due to a lack of service, tonali like bruno was sloppy at times giving the ball away. gordon was the only sub that didnt make a lot of sense in my opinon, but i can still see why it was made – howe said he wanted a finisher – thats barnes, plus he has linked up well with wilson recently.
The only thing that would of been interesting is if gordon switched to the right side or barnes came on for miggy. migs is soooo one footed and predictable, leads himself into corners where he cant cross on his right and has to either look for trip with a simple left foot pass or lose the ball trying too hard at a time where keeping the ball is vital.
botman going off injured left a slow paced burn at CB, outpaced (and outsmarted) by darwin. im with Shearer, theres no need to panic here, just a naive performance against 10 men where we started getting sloppy instead of getting smart and closing the game out. We’ll be back dont you worry and Howe still has my 100% support and prob will do for a long time to come. HWTL
Jo Smo(Quote)
Watching the match on Sunday there was one point where I found myself shaking my head.
Despite the tremendous season we’d had, and our new found attacking image, 1-0 up and against 10 men we seemed to drop back into our old “trying to defend a lead” formation.
AGAINST 10 MEN!
Whether that was Howe or the players I don’t know, but that seemed to be an odd move to me.
City and Liverpool were always going to be tricky, and losing both by just 1 goal is hardly the end of the world, but it was all about fan expectations.
Leicester won the league in 2016, but it didn’t take long after that for the other teams to figure them out and come up with a way to successfully play against them.
Make no mistake, if Howe gets figured out and the results are not up to PIF’s expectations, Howe WILL be replaced. We just have to wait and see what those expectations are.
BykerBill(Quote)
Dealing with a manager who makes tactical mistakes against a main competitor in a home game deserves valid criticism..making a story out of it is a hack decision … taking off your best players and soon after losing a lead is no coincidence
Mike(Quote)
Olly is right though, it’s fine margins, we had great chances to finish them off more than once, they have an excellent keeper who showed us how good he is. We hit the post and there was the Barnes /Wilson **** up that should of been a goal, Gordon almost had a second, fine margins. Most of that is on the players and skills of an excellent keeper, not Eddie. Had we won noone would be questioning Eddie .
Too many panicky petes.
kimtoon(Quote)