Gallowgate Toon

He's shown he's good in a well functioning side. I think he can be solid enough with the step up but only with a Rafa-calibre manager. Rafa doesn't get a lot of credit for the fact we're an incredibly well-balanced side, like.

Pretty comfy. So many slack passes, though. Like Diame a lot but he can be a second behind with too many decisions.

We've got to go to Reading, Brighton and Huddersfield. Id be more concerned playing them at home tbh. Yep. I don't think we'll lose to any of them away. Quite confident of us winning each one, actually. Do we still have the best away record in the country?

2-0 win.

We'll go on a run. Rafa is focusing on one thing and one thing only, he'll eek it out of them, by any means necessary.

Really? I thought we were in complete control up until Anya came on tbh. We definitely lost something when Hayden went off. Diame and Shelvey looked a little too open. I think the last 10 was purely natural for our players, tbh. Didn't finish well enough, retreat in final minutes and look ropey.

Good win. Played well for the majority, bit nervy at the end. I guess that's probably understandable, considering the week (and some of our players are lacking in mentality too).

Like Diame going forward in CM but some of his defensive work is really, really dodgy.

What a ball.

Ah shit.

Comfortable. 5 minutes of possession aside, we've been much the better side and, once again, should be going in at the break at least 2 up. They'll step it up so we need to start quickly again.

Playing some great stuff. Need to score, though, cause we do this a lot

3-1.

Pretty fucking mint from Rafa, like. Time to update that Che Guevara flag...

Hasn't Benitez said that he never speaks to Ashley directly? Find that particularly worrying, considering who has the twat's ear. Also, I have it on good authority that Charnley is a shriveling arsehole who'll say whatever the person wants to hear that he's speaking to. So if Mike's making noises about not being happy we're not 'walking the league', one of his only sources to combat that and present a rationale is a total yes man twat who's heavily responsible for where the club sees itself today.

Just f*** off, man. I've never felt as much dislike for that f***ing arsehole as I do now. Utter prick. Not RB, obvs.

Think it's fair to say a lot of our players don't quite suite the 4-2-3-1, like. On the other hand our best 2 players most certainly do, so it's difficult to argue with when it gets results. We play much closer to 4-4-2 when Perez plays, tbh. I don't see another especially obvious formation to play, considering our defensive ability.

Think it's fair to say a lot of our players don't quite suite the 4-2-3-1, like. On the other hand our best 2 players most certainly do, so it's difficult to argue with when it gets results. I'm sure Shelvey could handle a middle 4 at this level and Gayle should thrive if we are more on the front foot because of it. Gayle already thrives though?

Still a 10

Because it's not that simple? He's less suited to this division's style, and he doesn't have the mentality to match.

I think Lascelles is more suited to the PL than he is the Championship, tbh. His power holds more weight there and it suits his general style better. I do think he should be rotated out, mind. Just even for a kick up the arse.

He offered some balance. That's about the best he can do, which is actually a help.

3-1 win. Our form isn't that bad over the last 5 games.

Compromise :lol: I'm not actually sure where I was going with that second bit now I've had a few drinks. Just something about not being c***s to one another.

The tactics talk almost always seems to be solely focused on our attacking play with little thought for our defensive frailties. Whenever a game gets stretched, our lack of legs in the spine of the midfield and defence is massively evident. We're not good enough individually to cover for it. So the gameplan is largely around being compact and keeping possession - that makes sense. Until very, very recently, and it may still be the case, we had scored the most goals and had the second-highest win %age in the country. The job he's done with this squad is underrated, in my eyes. We've picked up a lot of points, we just have better competition than last time. The usual response to this line of thinking 'the more you attack, the less defending you need to do', but a lot of our losses this season have come from teams countering us when we try and open games up. It's about balance, especially when you don't have a standout side in several departments. There needs to be some acceptance that we're just not that good. Then there's the inevitable performance stuff. I think we've shown a real depth to our play this season - we can win well and we can win scrappy. Some of the football has been a joy compared to what's come before in the last 10 years. It's just, as we already knew, it won't come every week. Taking some pressure for parts of the game is fairly normal, we're not Barca of 6/7 years ago.