Football supporters always over-react and I’m no different. Two wins and all is rosy; two defeats and it’s the end of the world.
Getting beaten by our friends from the dark side means lots of us were baying for blood yesterday: Eddie Howe out, Sack the Board etc. (Can you still sack the Board? Sack the Director of Football doesn’t have the same ring to it).
Come on, let’s calm down. Let’s look at the big picture in a cool, statesman-like manner.
Look at the four and a bit years since Howe took over. Brilliant, absolutely brilliant. I’m old enough to remember Eric Ross and George Hope, Dave Elliott and Tommy Robson. I never thought I’d see us win a trophy – thanks to Eddie, it happened.
Progress never travels in a straight line, so let’s accept this season, back our excellent manager and move on to greater things (which we will).
Look at this season with a bit of balance. Not great, admittedly – but I’d make the slightly controversial point that if anything, Eddie Howe has overachieved this year. Why do I say that?
First, he has had to get through the season without a striker. We lost one, if you recall, and to put it mildly have not managed to replace him. Would anyone really claim we have had a striker this year? If so, can they let us all know where he has been hiding all this time? Unless he was heavily involved in signing Woltemade – which I struggle to believe – that is not Eddie’s fault.
(To quote someone or other – Joe Harvey possibly – “To sign one flop may be regarded as a misfortune. To sign two looks like carelessness”).
Second, with a near-60 game season to contend with, he was armed with a woefully inadequate squad – not enough players and nowhere near enough quality to enable effective rotation. That again, was not his fault. There have been times lately when the team has looked knackered.
With those two issues hampering him at every turn, Eddie Howe hasn’t done too badly. As I say, it’s reasonable to claim that he has even overachieved.
He’s not perfect, obviously. In my view, he is too concerned with “athleticism” (his favourite word) and I think he’s sacrificed technical ability on that particular altar. You could put Daley Thompson on the left wing but no matter how good an athlete he is (or was) he wouldn’t cut it (Come to think of it, put him on the right wing and he might be a better bet than Elanga …).
We have too many technically deficient players – so when the intensity runs out, we have nothing to offer: no passing, no finding space, no ball retention. Look at the Liverpool, Man City and Barcelona (away) games recently for glaring evidence of that. As the game wore on, our players struggling to control the ball, dodgy first touch, crowded out endlessly – opposition players receiving the ball smoothly, moving into space naturally, passing it, getting it back, passing it again … etc. Men against boys. No matter how many beasts you have in your team, if they can’t manipulate a football as well as your opponents you’ll come unstuck eventually. Sometimes heavily.
And I wonder if Eddie has worked this one out… all 13 forward players (six midfielders and seven up front) are right-footers. Not a left-footer amongst them. That’s an issue he must have spotted. He needs to do something about it. Arteta has deliberately targeted left-footed players in recent years: Odegaard, Merino, Calafiori, Gabriel, Hincapie, Havertz, plus Saka who came through the ranks. Man City will have Silva, Ait-Nouri, Foden and Haaland, plus others on occasions. They give balance, angles and options which we regularly miss. Top priority for the summer in my opinion.
Anyway, they aren’t going to sack Eddie Howe – it would be madness. But they need to back him. Sadly, the race is on once again for a proper centre-forward. We also need a quick mobile centre back and a versatile full back, two creative midfielders, including a left-footer, and probably a new goalkeeper.
We can lose a few of the current squad: Ramsdale, Krafth, Willock can all go as far as I’m concerned and I would be fairly sure Woltemade will be back in Germany before the summer’s over. I suspect Howe might have to bite the bullet and lose Trippier and possibly Schar – purely on the grounds of age. No doubt one of the big names will go – Gordon? That wouldn’t break my heart but I’d rather keep him.
Yes, I know we’ve lost both derbies to a fairly poor team who will probably go down next season, and yesterday was truly horrendous. But let’s look at the big picture. Defeat at the Nou Camp followed by yesterday… but remember the previous two games: Man Utd with ten men and Chelsea away.
Sack or back? No contest.