Gallowgate Toon

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Don't know what's in his head at the minute but he had some decent preseason time, looked sharp, and now seems to have withdrawn again because of a niggle.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.

Gayle and Ritchie don't look match fit, tbh. Not surprised at the latter, considering how limited his preseason was.

Pretty comfortable, tbh. Just need to get into some rhythm going forward. Don't buy this team doesn't have goals, all about confidence.

I don't think him as a no.10 is a bad shout. Benitez liked having presence behind Gayle last season and this lad seemingly fits the bill, especially with Diame looking like a backup CM now. He won't be uber creative but we don't really need that for the system Benitez is likely going to have us playing in a lot of games this year.

They really didn't like. Did nothing until well into the second half and even that was from a set piece. We looked more accomplished and created more in open play against a side that is more settled and more capable defensively than City. They had 6 attempts. How many did we have? Most were potshots, no? Edit: Gayle's attempt seemed the only decent opportunity of the 1st, IIRC? Edit: ignore me

Spurs also created nothing of note for 45 minutes, like. You can't base attacking ability off 45 minutes of football. Lots of factors go into a game.

This is where I'm at. Unfortunately, he's very important to us.

Not going to wildly speculate based on one game. We'll see a clearer picture of our standing in this division in a few games time. Confident we'll have improved in attacking. Still need some reinforcements, whether starters or squad competition.

Ritchie and Gayle are clearly behind with their fitness.

He obviously has some issues. Absolutely no value or logic to what he did, especially as he worked so hard to get into peak shape. Ruined it for his team mates.

How annoying that this has all been ruined by the actions of a stupid fucking prick.

Cheers, Jonjo, pal.

Idiot. What was the point in that, the tit.

Biggest learning curve today is for Hayden. He'll make it as a PL player but you can tell this is his first real taste at this level.

Solid enough start, tbh. Good shape, some opportunities we should've done better with. Annoying about Lejeune's injury, hope it's more of an impact injury that's easy to recover from.

Honestly, I think we're going to be fine.

Loftus-Cheek with some lovely skill. Seems to have some talent.

Palace have had 2 very good opportunities, like. For a team playing counter, Huddersfield are leaving some gaps.

Zaha has been awful.

Surely if you're built on fitness you would last longer into the season? In the sense that they'll be incredibly fit now so can start quickly. First 6 games of the season are notorious for teams trying to get up-to-speed so you see lots of weird results.

Huddersfield are built on fitness, not a surprise if they start the campaign well. They'll still be well short come the end of the season, IMO.