Yeah, he was expecting the pass to come to him at pace. When he saw it was trickling towards him at walking speed, then he came back towards it. Well too late, and part of Howard's problem is definitely that he's too slow to recognize situations like that.
Howard screwed up there, no question. It's this idea that everything was his fault that's ludicrous. Stones hung him out to dry with a terrible pass, and he didn't deal well with the situation. Lloris or Neuer probably would have dealt beautifully with it. A slightly quicker reacting keeper would probably have recognized that Ayew would get there first and backed off, but then Ayew would have been in on goal all alone.
Howard screwed up there, no question. It's this idea that everything was his fault that's ludicrous. Stones hung him out to dry with a terrible pass, and he didn't deal well with the situation. Lloris or Neuer probably would have dealt beautifully with it. A slightly quicker reacting keeper would probably have recognized that Ayew would get there first and backed off, but then Ayew would have been in on goal all alone.








