Well sure, but none of which is helped by UEFA/FIFA's desire to make their own slice of the pie. I mean, both of those orgs can get to **** for me. Conference League? Who the **** asked for/needed that? Nations League? Jesus ****ing wept. Bigger World Cup? WHY????? England vs Moldova/Georgia/Gibraltar/Malta is stupid/pointless enough. Why not give all these **** little teams a league and just leave the big nations alone to reduce the Intl breaks to about 4 a year tops. Conf League should be scrapped. They've lost the plot and their only answer is more games, more competitions. It's just the stupid leading the stupid and not one of them ever thinks to ask pro's from the industry. It's like IFAB. Or the Government. They're so self-absorbed and self-important they can't seek independent expertise. I absolutely ****ing loathe the world we've created. Sorry, went off on a bit of a tangent at the end there. That got out of hand fast.
Football tactics and styles constantly evolve. What wins today won’t necessarily win tomorrow. Simply aiming to match today’s winning style is short sighted and ultimately doomed to failure. What we should aim for is our own unique style and let others worry about us, not the other way around.
Im saying this now, screenshot it. I only want the club to win something meaningful. In order, Europa League, FA Cup, Premier League, CL. I think it’s disingenuous to now say the LC or Europa Conference means anything. And I’ve lived my life with us winning nowt so I’m not fussed if we don’t manage it - the point is we finally have a structure that’s trying to win things. That’s enough for me.
Who says the CL wouldn't just be the 1st of many? I think if you ask West ham fans they'd all say they loved winning it. We've won nothing for so long I don't think we're in the position to be choosey but hey that’s just my opinion. You'd rather win nothing though ?
Yeah they evolve based on the most successful approach to the current environment. I've made my thoughts clear and only time will tell, but this is a seed I'm planting for future harvest.
It would help when you put a Poll up if you made a bit more effort with your spelling and grammar. It only requires a minute to check it through and then you end up with a poll where the results might actually reflect people's thoughts. Anyway if the question is "Will Howe change Newcastle's style of play?" my chosen answer would be No. If it was "How will Newcastle's style of play change?" then my answer would be: It won't - it will evolve organically as we get better players in key positions. All good managers have a style of play they prefer and tweak this to suit the playing staff they have available to them. You indicate that Guardiola's and Howe's styles are different. I don't see that - fundamentally they are both aimed at getting the ball back high up the pitch and pressing from midfield and attack. Its just the players they have available to them means they don't have to do it as often as they don't give the ball away as much as we do. If we replaced Lascelles, Longstaff, Joelinton and Burn with world class players, who can retain the ball, you wouldn't see us losing possession quite as often. I don't think the style of play has anything to do with the injuries we have. They are a combination of the number of games we are playing, the probability of an injury increases the more minutes played, so with a small squad, competing in an extra competition, we will inevitably pick up more injuries. A significant number of our injuries (Murphy, Barnes, Burn) appear to be contact-type, rather than wear or tear which suggests that its not playing style. (Note: Classing Tonali's absence as injury-related, as the numbers do, is incorrect unless he was gambling on how many injuries AC Milan would pick up last year). Our training style has raised the fitness levels of all the squad, allowing us to play the style Howe prefers. I think his one weakness is his over-reliance on the same 11 when all our players are fit, which means a greater risk of injuries to those players and a requirement for forced squad rotation, rather than regular breaks for key players.
This is my take. Kind of what you said here. The pace of the PL is frantic. Meaning more injuries. By the very nature of the beast injuries will happen when teams are pushing their players bodies to the limits. Slower paced leagues tend to have less injuries. Also better squads can rotate more meaning less pressure on the bodies of the players. Meaning they can maintain that higher pace. I don’t know for definite but I bet in the first ten PL games our first 11 played the most combined games than all of the top ten teams. Eddie didn’t rotate.
So it would appear some of you do think a change is required and perhaps I've have raised a reasonable question.
Can I clarify what change of style is? Is it a change in the high counter press & low block at present (strange combo as usually it's on or the other but we seem to press high and hard when the ball is lost initially in the att. 3rd and then when it reaches the middle 3rd we revert to a low block with bodies in behind - I'd suggest this is where most of the running is done as we belt back in defence basically running through the middle third when teams counter) or a change in shape/formation: e.g. 4-3-3 to 3-5-2. Does switching from our current 4-3-3 (flat) to a 4-2-3-1 or 4-1-2-3 count as a change of shape or is it more of an evolution of what we are doing now? Or does it need to be a combination of both formation and tactic off the ball?
Any change in approach I'm not sure what needs to change and maybe nothing, but I'm just looking at how intense Newcastle are, looking at the injuries, the number of games and the fact Howes style is untested at this level and posing the question. I knew when I asked the question 'some' (not your good self) would read the post, view it as an attack on Howe and start getting shirty, but in truth it's just meant to be a topic of discussion and everyone's assessment is as good as anyone else's.
Assuming it's the last ever I'd agree , but I'm talking about the 1st one. I'd be delighted to see Newcastle win it and break through that ceiling. It's classed as major silverware at the end of the day. 4th over a pot ? I really don't get that personally.
I'd say it was his reluctance to change the 11 that did more harm than the style and if he changes anything going foward it'll be his policy on rotation.
