Gallowgate Toon

Murphy looking sharp. Amazing what confidence can do.

Murphy showed some promise. I'd play him.

Merino will be crucial, if he plays. He does so much good defensive work and is the best athlete we have in midfield - that should allow Shelvey a tad more freedom in a game where we're probably going to have to break down a counter side.

This gets done for 350m, IMO.

We do desperately need him, mind. Adds so much to us at both ends of the pitch.

A performance no different to many of Atsu's, tbh. Done some good, some bad.

Well, that's that. That was poor defending all over, tbh.

Played well enough, save for a poor last 5 minutes. Seemed to lose shape and everything went a bit ragged. Don't expect us to get anything from the second half.

Wicked.

Unlucky. Murphy looking a yard quicker.

He just needs to keep things as simple as possible to begin with. His biggest problem is confidence and he must find a way to build that. I watched him in the games against us last year, he has talent.

IIRC his overall performances against us were good, and we were the top of that pile in the Champ. He's definitely not this bad; he just looks totally overwhelmed.

Once again, so slow to release the ball. A quick pass outside of the boot was all that was needed, IIRC, and he tries to do far too much 30 yards from his own goal. We desperately need to upgrade on him.

Loftus-Cheek, as a 10, would be absolutely perfect for our current system. Gutted we didn't get him.

Rafa wants his 10 to press all game, Perez has been tireless. I like Diame but he's not that player.

Good win, that's usually the sort of performance where we'll be beaten by a 'lesser side' through a sucker punch or two. I mean, we were fucking terrible but remained solid. Guess that's Rafa's dream when we aren't playing well - we have a back up of sorts through our defensive dependability. Can't be said enough how fucking terrible we were in possession, mind. Sometimes completely laughable.

Need Merino on ASAP - his ability to break the lines could be crucial. And this is the sort of game where Hayden offers very little. We should rightfully be wary of them on the counter but we have to open things up a tad, and pick the tempo up off the ball. Also need to fucking concentrate when we're passing - the amount of sloppy turnovers has been really poor.

Fucking awful use of the ball time and time again. Rubbish.

Every fucking time It's not like we've been shown over and over and over again that players can make bad starts at clubs and then go on to do very well.

It's also frustrating because we really did play some nice football going forward. Wish we'd have gone for the 3rd just a bit more.

Needs a little more time to prove himself. Has he even played 180 minutes yet? Good shot at the end. Think he just needs to adjust to a new level.

Looks a bit like he can't be arsed.

Annoying. Should've seen that out and shouldn't have sat so much after going up. Disappointed with Lejeune - an otherwise excellent performance totally marred by one error.

Fucking strike.

Seems they're merging. Love what they do but they've come across as a bit weird on a couple of occasions. Someone is slagging them on Twitter for the message being poorly-worded, as it's apparently only a couple of them that are taking a step back and not the whole group.