Gallowgate Toon

Joselu was great, btw. He looks very reliable in his play, gets into good positions, challenges consistently, solid link up play. Think he's a really good squad option for us.

Excellent performance, like. There is attacking quality in this team to put lower teams to the sword, I've not doubted that. West Ham were crap but there are plenty of others like them, and we're good foil for this style of team. Certainly didn't look out of place in the league today. Let's keep taking a game at a time and hope to fuck the Rafa situation works itself out (obvs unlikely).

Does better with more space, as we saw that last season. He's looked sharp this year, his dribbling has been a good outlet for us.

Expecting this sort of performance a lot this season, too. Solid, patient, picking counters. West Ham were crap but I think there's more teams like them in the league, style-wise, than Huddersfield, which will suit us.

Masterplan. Always had confidence we'd get a win sooner rather than later.

What a performance.

This one's got some potential.

Solid. Again, look generally fine at the back. Joselu has made a difference for our midfielders, no doubt. Merino has been everywhere.

I think he'll stay on for the season out of duty to fans and players, but he won't continue on after that, whatever happens. Sad. So deflating. I was really looking forward to the season and now this shite, and there's absolutely no way that this won't transmit to our lot tomorrow. Mike Ashley, man. I honestly don't give a toss about him putting his own money in or whatever, I just really don't get what there was to gain from lying to a manager about a budget that the club apparently has on its own. I always feel like there's some tactical purpose to his thought process but he's just taking the piss.

Loved Remy, tbh, even though he was a total dick. Legs haven't gone but his head has which is worse.

We pretty much played 4-4-2 against Huddersfield, tbh. Don't think he's as rigid as many think. Edit: Tonight wasn't a good selection. Deserves flak for it.

Gayle and Ritchie need to start. This should be their chance to get themselves into a groove and their fitness up. If they can't, they can drop to the bench for West Ham.

Ritchie had a disrupted preseason, tbf. He doesn't look completely fit and needs to play into a bit of form. He's not a top Premier League wide man but he is better than he's shown so far this season and is good enough for a midtable/lower midtable outfit.

With Shelvey out, and Gayle not really in top shape, it makes more sense to have some kind of target up front to help us away from home.

I imagine the learning comment is because he's been focusing on defence first and the attacking training side is taking a secondary focus, at the moment, especially with makeshift players at the back. Privately, I imagine he's looked at simply getting some points from the first 2 games, be solid, get the shape right and get going in a pretty low key manner. Not necessarily wins but some points. These first 2 games have felt a lot like the first 2 games of last season. Feeling things out, some experimenting, laboured play, attacking seeming a bit disjointed. I do expect we will improve, but he needs to settle more on the game plans pretty quickly, IMO. Setting up for the counter and then leaving out your quickest players doesn't seem very smart, on the face of it.

Honestly, I know people think we're terrible but there really are some not good teams in the league, like. I look at West Brom and they have some utter crap playing for them, yet they'll be comfortable. Refuse to believe a manager as good as Rafa can't get close to matching their position.

Burnley, Bournemouth and Swansea are the 3 outside of the promoted who'll be in the mix, IMO.

Strongest team. Need to get confidence going and some key players need minutes, by the looks.

For the media furore, they all need to take some blame. Ashley the most, obviously. Fucking ridiculous that we've got ourselves into this situation. Absolutely nobody has come out of it looking good, IMO.

New 'keeper please. Watching this knob repeatedly launching the ball out is painful.

Gayle's head isn't right at all. Either needs a kick up the arse or some time out. Happy to see Joselu come in next game, much better foil for Perez anyway.

Improved as the game went on. As expected, caught out by the pace on occasions. Will need time to adapt, would've been a great idea to ease him into the league. Oh, wait...

Rafa's going to have to work really hard to get some confidence into this team, like. Looking at today, that's our biggest issue with the current personnel. People will twist on about 'quality', but we played a worse team than us today, the biggest difference was their level of confidence. It had little to do with tactics, we fucked up basic things, were nervous on the ball and lacked any kind of energy. As much as he's been right to get at the board for transfers, I don't think the way he's managed it has helped the team. We should be absolutely bouncing into this league, in terms of morale and fight, but the players look like they have the world on their shoulders and as if they're ready to crumble. We have lots of young, inexperienced players in the side, he needs to get their heads right and he's apparently committed to this year because of these players. Thought Huddersfield were shite and they will finish bottom. One bit of quality for the goal and that's it, similar story to last year, they'll run out of steam. Gayle needs to sort himself out. Don't know what's in his head at the minute but he had some decent preseason time, looked sharp, and now seems to have withdrawn again because of a niggle. Wouldn't start him next game, he's not ready and, frankly, I thought his attitude to today was shite. I'd consider easing Ritchie in from now on too, he's been more of a hindrance so far and is clearly playing catch up. Lastly, fuck off the media. All I heard today was about how shit we are, how good fucking Huddersfield are and how we're probably down. Fuck right off, we're 2 games in. Reminded me of why I enjoyed the Championship so much, already sick of this hyped up shite.

Terrible defending.

We haven't lost yet dude. We're also 1.5 games into the season. It's really not entirely clear where we stand yet and won't be for another couple of games, some of our key players aren't even properly fit yet. We're not going to pull up any trees, but it seems lost on people that we might actually get better.