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Intensity was our identity. WTF happened to the press?


Dr Gloom
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One of the big things this season - and large parts of last season, though there was mitigation because of the injuries - is our identity. Or rather, our lack of identity. I don’t even know what the game plan is at the moment tbh. We can’t control games for more than 10-20 minute spells, so it’s not been a move to a more possession-based system.

 

The first season Howe came in he did what was required to keep us up. The second season we saw his “intensity is our identity” plan come together and Eddie Howe’s high-pressing shit-housing mags finished 4th.

 

What do you lot reckon? Should we get back to playing that way? And if so, how does he do it?

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23 minutes ago, aimaad22 said:

 

This message was loud and clear when you said start Miggy. 


I was up for selling him in the summer. Barnes and Gordon are clearly better technical players with end product Miggy lacks.

 

However…

 

is it a coincidence that the press has diminished since Miggy lost his place?
 

For all his many flaws, the one thing he’s good at is pressures. And we haven’t executed the press better than the season we finished 4th, when he started pretty much every game.

 

I’d like to see us return to that style of play. Has Howe given up on it? Or is it a player like Barnes, for all he’s been one of our few bright spots this season, can’t do it the way Miggy can?

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32 minutes ago, Dr Gloom said:


I was up for selling him in the summer. Barnes and Gordon are clearly better technical players with end product Miggy lacks.

 

However…

 

is it a coincidence that the press has diminished since Miggy lost his place?
 

For all his many flaws, the one thing he’s good at is pressures. And we haven’t executed the press better than the season we finished 4th, when he started pretty much every game.

 

I’d like to see us return to that style of play. Has Howe given up on it? Or is it a player like Barnes, for all he’s been one of our few bright spots this season, can’t do it the way Miggy can?

He's evolving and I think its necessary, the level of press we executed in the season we finished 4th was unreal, it was SO high energy and incredibly physcially demanding.

 

Klopp did it at Dortmund until it stopped working and then he did it at the start of his Liverpool tenure but found it quickly became unsustainable in the premier league.

 

We found that out big time last season, that injury crisis was almost unprecedented and while some of it was down to bad luck there should be no doubt that some of it was just to the intensity demanded by Howes way of working at the time.

 

To be a top team that is sustainably going deep in the cups and in europe as staying up near the top of the league you can't play like we were doing forever without having the kind of squad that we simply can't have yet where its high quality and highly physical all the way through the 25 with very little drop off between your first and second string. 

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8 hours ago, Dr Gloom said:

One of the big things this season - and large parts of last season, though there was mitigation because of the injuries - is our identity. Or rather, our lack of identity. I don’t even know what the game plan is at the moment tbh. We can’t control games for more than 10-20 minute spells, so it’s not been a move to a more possession-based system.

 

The first season Howe came in he did what was required to keep us up. The second season we saw his “intensity is our identity” plan come together and Eddie Howe’s high-pressing shit-housing mags finished 4th.

 

What do you lot reckon? Should we get back to playing that way? And if so, how does he do it?

 

Pretty much from February after the first transfers we had that high-press. Fraser, Murphy, Wood, Willock, Joelinton, etc would run their bollocks off high up the pitch, Schar & Burn would defend the halfway line clearing up anything launched when they had to go long because of it, and we just grew from there. 

Edited by Optimistic Nut
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7 hours ago, Andrew said:

He's evolving and I think its necessary, the level of press we executed in the season we finished 4th was unreal, it was SO high energy and incredibly physcially demanding.

 

Klopp did it at Dortmund until it stopped working and then he did it at the start of his Liverpool tenure but found it quickly became unsustainable in the premier league.

 

We found that out big time last season, that injury crisis was almost unprecedented and while some of it was down to bad luck there should be no doubt that some of it was just to the intensity demanded by Howes way of working at the time.

 

To be a top team that is sustainably going deep in the cups and in europe as staying up near the top of the league you can't play like we were doing forever without having the kind of squad that we simply can't have yet where its high quality and highly physical all the way through the 25 with very little drop off between your first and second string. 


good points. I wonder then whether it’s a deliberate change by Howe to change our identity. If it is, I’m not entirely sure what he’s trying to turn us into because this stage of our evolution  hadn’t been as successful so far. It doesn’t look like we have a clearly defined style of play anymore - perhaps a result of the failure to back him in the past two transfer windows 

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29 minutes ago, Dr Gloom said:


good points. I wonder then whether it’s a deliberate change by Howe to change our identity. If it is, I’m not entirely sure what he’s trying to turn us into because this stage of our evolution  hadn’t been as successful so far. It doesn’t look like we have a clearly defined style of play anymore - perhaps a result of the failure to back him in the past two transfer windows 

 

not be our problem for much longer, fucking off to be with reunited with his old mate dan.....

 

https://www.footballinsider247.com/exclusive-man-united-turn-attention-to-eddie-howe-after-boardroom-bust-up/

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If Howe is trying to move from high pressing intensity to a more possession-based style of play, we should be playing our most technical players. That means Tonali has to start. Trippier too. We have struggled to keep possession of the ball for sustained periods in games all season. I’m not sure what the game plan has been so far this season tbh other than get it out to Gordon or Barnes to see if they can make something happen. 

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1 hour ago, thebrokendoll said:

 

not be our problem for much longer, fucking off to be with reunited with his old mate dan.....

 

https://www.footballinsider247.com/exclusive-man-united-turn-attention-to-eddie-howe-after-boardroom-bust-up/


eddie just got rid of ashworth and you reckon he would join him at the red flops?

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9 hours ago, Andrew said:

He's evolving and I think its necessary, the level of press we executed in the season we finished 4th was unreal, it was SO high energy and incredibly physcially demanding.

 

Klopp did it at Dortmund until it stopped working and then he did it at the start of his Liverpool tenure but found it quickly became unsustainable in the premier league.

 

We found that out big time last season, that injury crisis was almost unprecedented and while some of it was down to bad luck there should be no doubt that some of it was just to the intensity demanded by Howes way of working at the time.

 

To be a top team that is sustainably going deep in the cups and in europe as staying up near the top of the league you can't play like we were doing forever without having the kind of squad that we simply can't have yet where its high quality and highly physical all the way through the 25 with very little drop off between your first and second string. 

When Klopp did it he evolved the tactics to dominate possession - they still pressed relentlessly whenever they were out of possession but because they had more of the ball it was less evident. It's the same as Pep, they press less purely because they have the ball more often than not. Also with Klopp it was noticeable how much shitter they became when their midfield became ancient, and leggy.

 

Howe's approach is sustainable but we need to be far better on the ball for it to work. We played some far better stuff last season when he had us sitting deeper with fast counters using the pace of the front three.

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Based on absolutely fuck all but gut feeling I think possibly someone came in for Bruno in the summer (again without evidence that was definitely Man City :D ) and he wanted to leave, the club blocked this and gave him the captaincy as a gesture but he’s still pissed off, which puts him in the same boat as Gordon. Two out of our three best players not knocking their cunts in for us… 

Edited by PaddockLad
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