For a while it was lets work and defend our way to a draw or a 1 goal win by playing our best defensive unit. Now, I think we're on the verge of Eddie taking more of a risk and playing our strongest attackers FIRST, getting the win, and THEN bringing on our stronger defensive players, and defending a result. It shouldn't be DEFEND A CLEAN SHEET from the beginning, and then bring ASM/Isak on later to trying and get the win, it should be go for the win and then defend it once we're winning.
Tbf the last run of games was tough I wouldn't jump to thinking newcastle are any better judt yet. Could've been different Pope nearly threw the match. I don't think howes guilty of mistakes personally.
Agree with Chaos - I'm not sure Eddie has much blame to take in anything thus far. Before the run of top opposition we had 12 games since the World Cup - 6 Wins, 5 Draws and 1 Loss - in the cup with a reserve team in effect. Lost to three of the top teams in the country/world on the bounce but while giving them decent games and never capitulated, threw in the towel and got battered. 5 losses all season so far. Personally I expect every season to be hit for, at the very least, 12 losses in the league vs the top 6, and in that we've only lost three times in the league so far to them during the campaign so far with only 4 of them left to go there really isn't much more Eddie could have done. The only thing I'd have liked to have seen was us try for the FA Cup - Sheff U got knocked out by Fleetwood, Fleetwood by Burnley and Burnley in the QF of that cup - we should probably be there facing City this week but apart from that there is nothing really to complain about.
Eddie has done nothing wrong,it's our forwards who couldn't hit a cow's arse with a banjo have let us down but it happens.
Some of you are quite sensitive aren't you? Eddie has done a good job, but at the same time we've gone on bad runs and have our weak areas, and one of those has been scoring goals and creating good chances at times. Just because we've done well doesn't mean we should turn a blind eye to our flaws, we could very easily start slipping down the table. We've scored the least amount of goals in the top 10 besides Chelsea, and remember we have a bunch of 4-5 goal wins, so have mostly struggled to score many goals and kill a game off, which is why we have so many draws. Despite having the best defence in the league, we are only just above the likes of Brighton who have scored considerably more than us. I hope we do start scoring more goals again, but reality is we have a mid table at best attack, and our defence is holding everything up, but if we want to press forward, we need to kill games off and score more, rather than hoping to scrape a game by 1 goal.
It's not just that though is it? We haven't created that many good chances, and our build up at times is quite predictable.
No, it's just facts contradict your point. And to think of us "start slipping down the table" is pure Munson, why not just say we're in "freefall" as well.
‘Gone on bad runs’ When? Assuming we are talking just this season. We haven’t had a ‘bad run’ in my honest opinion. Yes, we’ve just lost 3 in a row but when taking into account who the opposition were and how we performed I wouldn’t class that as a ‘bad run’.
Sensitive to stupidity. If you're not going to read what I've said and respond to my points, then don't bother responding. But alas it's my fault for trying to start a debate with someone who just posts dumb 1 liners.
He's not holier than thou and does make mistakes. But first and foremost, I think we have a weak squad, we have definitely overachieved and that's nice but we need reinforcements. Howe is the best manager to come in and help us transition, job is being done. My biggest criticism isn't even a proper one, man is boring as holy hell. I can't bring myself to listen to his interviews.
When taking into account our goals I'd say all the games against bottom half of the table oppositions that we've struggled to break down and score against them. All my point is to everyone is despite the fact that I'm happy with our season so far, if Brighton win their game in hand, we're only just above falling back into the mix below us, and that could have been avoided if not for all the draws against lesser opposition. I'm still happy we're in 5th, but regardless of our success rate we should still be taking into consideration our weaknesses. We won 1 in 7 in our season opening, and we've been struggling to kill off games throughout 2023 up until last night. I'm still happy, but our defence is carrying us, we have the worst attack in the top 10 besides Chelsea. It's clearly a concern if we want to stay in a european spot, as a couple of bad results and we're worrying again.
You really have got some sand in your vadge today haven't you? I could post waffling essays like you are, but there's no point responding to all your points because I disagree with the fundamental overall point. I appreciate that you think you've had some Road-To-Damascus/Eureka! style lightbulb moment, but you really don't have a point here - we need to concentrate on both the defence and attack here, not one or the other, we have never just been all out defensive under Eddie, and have always been a high press team.
But I would then contend we are actually further on in the hoped for progression than where we would realistically expect to be taking into account where we started, the players we had and the players we have since bought. If a manager gets a team to over perform and exceed expectations but then slips back slightly on earlier performances then that ‘slip’ can hardly be classed as a ‘bad run’ or a ‘mistake’. If the team had stopped trying then you might have a point but they haven’t. I do think the title to the thread is being unfair to EH not because I’m sensitive but rather because it’s being unfair.
I had a perfectly reasonable concern. My point us at times we've been too defensively-oriented, and this has lead us to draw too many games. We're 1st for goals against but 9/10th for goals scored, and remember like 18 of those goals came in 4 games when we hammered a few teams. Besides them we've struggled to kill games off. We've got by far the best defence yet we're still quite close to being caught by the likes of Brighton and Fulham. My main criticism is that we've had attacking players on the bench and went for a defensive approach and only brung on attacking options late on to try and chase the game, rather than starting them and then going defensive later. We did the opposite yesterday for a change and we looked more dangerous attacking wise. We've set up to not concede from the beginning rather than score, and then brung on attackers late to try and scrape a win, when in reality we should go for it early and kill games off then bring on defensive options later. If you disagree then it's fine, but it's perfectly valid concern. We've got the best defence but still are barely above those who have lost many more games because our attack is bang average, and we've not utilized attacking options early enough.
Absolutely fair mate, Eddie has done spectacularly, but I'm still gonna criticise when I think it's warranted, and my only big criticism of eddie is not being attacking minded early enough in games and instead saving attacking options until late. I think it has contributed to the amount of draws we've had. But I see your point, we still have quite a strained squad, so I suppose we've got to manage expectations with what we can achieve we our current squad. Squad limitations have played a part.
We just need to improve our attack options in the summer, pure and simple. Isak looks great at the moment, but we need another poacher. Wilson is only ever good for brief periods, the rest of the time he's either injured for months on end, or rubbish like now. I really wish we'd hung on to Wood until the summer tbh, cos then at least we'd have a target man in the box.
