I am a big fan of Eddie Howe. He deserves so much credit for taking us to Wembley, bringing Champions League football back to St James’ Park and keeping us in with a real chance of European football despite a season from hell on the injury and suspension front.
For all the praise he rightfully received after that 4-0 win over Spurs, I feel criticism is only fair based on the selection and tactics we saw at Crystal Palace last night.
His game plan worked a treat against Tottenham. The man-for-man marking and bold approach with such a makeshift defence created one of our performances of the season, but a trip to Selhurst Park against a Palace side who set up completely differently to Spurs posed a very different set of problems.
After the match, Howe defended his approach, saying: “It’s always about the attitude of the group, first and foremost. If you’re not quite where you need to be mentally, for whatever reason, then it doesn’t matter what you do tactically, you’re going to fall down. And I think that’s probably where we were.”
Don’t get me wrong, the players didn’t turn up – technically we were way off it and Palace wanted it more too – but Howe’s decision to stay loyal to the same defence, full of square pegs in round holes, and system that worked against Spurs felt naive and slightly lazy against a Palace team who don’t play a high line and operate with an entirely different system. He has to take some responsibility for that.
Dan Burn has looked far better at centre-back of late and was superb alongside Schar in our last away game; a 1-0 win at Fulham. Moving him inside made sense now fit-again left-back Lewis Hall was available.
The same could be said about Emil Krafth. He’s a right-back, but his inclusion at centre-back added to our lack of balance and meant Jacob Murphy down the right against Eze, who he didn’t get close to all night. It’s emerged that Tino Livramento was not fully fit, which explains why he stayed on the bench, but a back four of Krafth, Schar, Burn and Hall felt like the way to go.
Instead, it felt naive of Howe to stick with the same 11 and makeshift defence. We had 10 days off, a much-improved Hall fit again and a huge chance to maintain our Europa League push in sixth. The players deserve plenty of criticism for being off it in all departments, but so does Howe on this occasion.
Hopefully we put it right on Saturday against Sheffield United. I’m confident we will, but a plan B must be found away from home. We’ve now lost 10 on the road this season and won’t have home comforts in three of our final five fixtures, with trips to Burnley, Man Utd and Brentford still to come.
we cant afford this guy to learn on our expense, the whole season he played 433 with the same players again and again and again until the y got injured, now he discovered 343 or 523
it was a mess ok it worked against spurs but come one, a good manager plays to the strength of the opposition.
BM London(Quote)
I hate this kind of article! Saying what we should have done AFTER the event – aye, in hindsight maybe things could have been done differently but that same team had dismantled Spurs. If Howe had changed it and we had still lost what would you be saying? I can guess. Let me ask you this – how many times this season have you seen his team sheet posted and moaned that that is not what you would have done and a couple of hours later been delighted that he had actually got it spot on, the Spurs game maybe???? Too many amateur experts around. Leave it to the pro – after all he took us from nailed on relegation to the Champions League in 18 months and despite everything that could go wrong going unbelievably wrong this season we are still in a chance for Europe again. Howe has had a fantastic effect on our club and given just 10% of the luck that Man U have had this season we might have even been in a Champions League semifinal. I hate to think that this blog is turning into another ‘Mag’.
Tonytoon(Quote)
Tonytoon:-
Olly is bang on.
Many supporters including myself have called this out when teams have been announced.
I think Eddie Howe is a great ambassador for our club but he needs a good tactician to work alongside him which he clearly doesn’t have on his coaching team.
The number of times he has said we were not at it or are not good enough are very telling.
There is no excuse for not playing people in their best positions when you are able to.
Joseph(Quote)
Christ, are we not allowed to have an opinion now when it’s ‘negative’ ?
I’ve said how much I rate Howe and very rarely have I criticised him, but I’ll have you know I was chatting with friends in group chats about my concern over line up / formation well before kick-off.
Doesn’t make me an expert – Howe knows far more than me about football – but there’s nothing wrong with sharing an honest opinion. He got it wrong. I still back him and the team. That’s it.
Olly Hawkins(Quote)