“They didn’t play like an Eddie Howe team.”
Not my words but the succinct summary of a Bournemouth fan I bumped into on the Metro heading towards the airport at about 8.30 last night.
He added that it hadn’t been a good match, with little attractive football and that we were the better team in the second half. When you are on an undefeated 13-game run in the Premier League, I guess you can afford to be generous.
“An Eddie Howe team.” He was referring to Newcastle United, of course; the irony being that AFC Bournemouth imitated the way a Howe team play at their best.
Solid at the back, quick and incisive in midfield, always a man in space, usually in a progressive position. Happy to foul an opponent if they sensed danger, happier to overload down the flanks and outnumber our toiling full-backs.
Anyone of a black-and-white persuasion at St James’ Park yesterday shouldn’t have been surprised by the result. A 2-1 defeat three times in a row is a deeply unwelcome little record.
The question is why Howe seems unable to make his team better than the sum of their individual parts. For most of his tenure, a group of players with few true aces have defied logic and expectation. This is no longer the case.
They look devoid of confidence, lacking in ideas, unwilling to run through brick walls.
One of the few criticisms levelled at our chief coach in the good times was his reluctance to tweak the line-up, to give fringe players a chance.
The counter-argument, of course, was that he knew his best team and wanted to stick with them. Apart from the simple logic in starting each match with the strongest possible line-up, the loyalty shown by Howe was likely to be rewarded by players who knew they wouldn’t be dropped if they made a mistake or two.
As a way of building a powerful team spirit, it was undoubtedly successful. Two Champions League campaigns, two League Cup finals and March 16, 2025 provide irrefutable proof.
What happens, though, when changes are made, when comings and goings alter the dressing room? Three consecutive transfer windows with no first-team recruits was seen as a negative. Howe’s ability to beat opponents replete with costly new signings was lauded. Rightly so.
What might be called inertia also allowed the time to fine-tune tactics and moves within a relatively small squad. Off-the-ball running became almost automatic.
Time and tide wait for no man, however. At the end of last season, facing a bare minimum of 48 matches in 2025-26 and with some players beyond their best-before date, everyone accepted churn was essential.
We will never know how many Newcastle United targets rejected our advances last summer. In the end, by the very end of the transfer window, there were six new faces. Quite some refresh.
Change presents challenges. Would, could the identity of the squad survive?
Much as I hate to write this, the answer appears to be “no”. That familiar willingness to go the extra mile, a hallmark of a Howe team, has all but vanished.
Jacob Murphy, outstanding last season, is no longer a regular. His popularity in the dressing room is unquestioned.
Anthony Elanga, an expensive acquisition presumably being paid a salary that reflects his transfer fee, is often preferred.
While I still believe he will be a success (his career trajectory is similar to Murphy’s so far) there is no denying this season has been a big disappointment for the speed merchant.
Murphy’s best asset is his crossing, especially first-time crossing, as one former favourite striker can testify. With that player’s protracted departure (as well as Callum Wilson’s exit) and the arrival of Nick Woltemade and Yohan Wissa, Howe had to find a different way to empower the team. He’s still trying.
Murphy out, Elanga in. Just one of many factors that haven’t improved the team this season.
Ball-playing central defenders are precious because they are rare. We have one of the best in Fabian Schar, who has been greatly missed since Dominic Calvert-Lewin clattered into him with both boots on January 7.
Malick Thiaw and Sven Botman might be mainstays for the next few seasons but so far neither has shown an ability to pass the ball forward as impressively as our ageing Swiss maestro. Bournemouth were relaxed when they were in possession yesterday, except for a belated break down the left by the German with only minutes remaining.
As at Selhurst Park last weekend, I lost count of the times the ball went from one to the other, across to the full-backs, was returned to Aaron Ramsdale and almost inevitably booted forwards in hope rather than expectation.
Call me old-fashioned but if a team are relying on a keeper playing hoof-ball when under no pressure, something is seriously wrong. I’m no advocate of suicidal short passes to tightly marked teammates facing the wrong way on the edge of our box but there has to be a third option that involves intelligent movement and quick distribution. That usually necessitates non-stop running.
Howe did something different yesterday: he made a half-time substitution, replacing Lewis Hall with Kieran Trippier and switching Tino Livramento to left-back. I suspect this was forced by an injury to Hall, just as an injury to Tino in the second half meant Big Dan Burn got some game time.
Trippier’s sensible play helped Newcastle gain a bit of momentum but there were still only three efforts on target from 12 attempts in a match that lasted more than 100 minutes. Bournemouth’s figures were identical but their play was not.
They passed the ball forwards with accuracy and intent, broke menacingly down the flanks and seemed to find players in space far more frequently than the hosts.
A lot of that can be put down to confidence. When you’ve lost that winning feeling, there’s a reluctance to take on an opponent, attempt a high-risk, high-reward pass or run beyond the man you are meant to be marking.
Each misplaced pass, each failed dribble adds to the tension, especially if the team are trailing. That’s when mental as well as physical bravery is vital. There was little on show from United against Bournemouth.
To his credit, Elanga did burst past the full-back on the outside and send in a low cross at least once. He also lost possession a dozen times.
I never saw Harvey Barnes do anything except try to cut back onto his right foot or pass the ball backwards. Bournemouth knew he didn’t want to use his left foot, knew his lack of appetite for a crunching tackle. With Anthony Gordon absent because of a minor hip injury (that’s the official reason) Barnes had one of his least effective games. A right-footer who dislikes playing on the right. Welcome to the world of inverted wingers.
William Osula’s goal showed again he is no headless chicken, contrary to the opinion of some so-called supporters. For the second consecutive match he ploughed a lone furrow with energy and determination. Even a fully fit £130m centre-forward would have done no better, in my opinion.
Matches tend to be won or lost in midfield. Our three of Sandro Tonali, Jacob Ramsey and Lewis Miley were outmanoeuvred by Bournemouth, for whom the agile Alex Scott was outstanding. As for Marcus Tavernier, the person at St James’ Park who decided he was not worth keeping needs a kick where the sun doesn’t shine.
One team’s ability to win when not playing well can make football fun. Such victories tend to rely on a top keeper doing his stuff, taking control, commanding his six-yard box.
Ramsdale is not that man, from what I have seen this season. A reluctance to leave his goal-line and a failure to adjust quickly to aerial crosses are big weaknesses that again were culpable for the late winner yesterday.
Has the replacement of Pope by Ramsdale been as important as Elanga usurping Murphy? Is it another blow to that indefinable team spirit, which helped to earn Newcastle many points when they were not at their fluent best over the past four seasons?
A generation ago, countless thousands of us went to Milan and watched Sir Bobby Robson’s team play Inter off the pitch in a first half as good as any I have seen in a lifetime of support. With hindsight, that 2003 Champions League game was a high-water mark. Two decades of mainly dross followed.
The fear is that the League Cup final last season will prove to be a performance this manager and this team will never match.
There is, realistically, nothing to play for in our remaining five league games other than pride. That wasn’t the case against Bournemouth, whom we would have overhauled in the race for Europe if we had won.
If I didn’t know better, I would suspect some of the Newcastle United team want to avoid the extra effort needed to compete on four fronts next season in 50-plus games, with two nearly every week. Now there’s a thought.