Gallowgate Toon

Needs a run of games. We also need more wingers in.

Heard we were already on top before the sending off and that Diame played well as a CM

Good to see everyone's keeping calm. Sounds like the players got a little bit tense after a good start and shrunk back. Hope the support in the 2nd is positive for them, getting angry won't do anyone any good.

Sounds like we started well but have panicked since.

Let's do 'em.

Atsu needs to step up from the start. He can make a difference. Diame rightly rotated. 13 passes all game on Monday

Can understand his thought process a lot more now, after hearing his post-match comments. Most interesting takeaway was him saying players were panicking on the ball and playing it long, leading to them picking up the second balls. That would probably explain his lack of Mitro intro (a situation he needs to sort this Jan, IMO) in that he didn't want to encourage us stretching play in that fashion. He's probably looking at it from the European standpoint - to break teams down, you keep a wider general shape and work the ball into the final third and then speed play up. His big problem is still midfield, IMO. Think he misjudged a couple of players and what they're capable of without Shelvey. Diame's contribution from a 10 was especially pathetic. I'm not sold on 4-4-2, either - we were porous with the extra man yesterday, don't think we've got the athleticism in midfield or the individual defensive quality to cope with opening up like that. We've shown we can play really good football in 4-2-3-1, he just needs to find the balance again.

It's been the same tactics all season. Can't say it's good tactics when we win and bad tactics when we lose.. Well you can sort of. When a team is good enough to exploit our tactic, we do absolutely nothing, or should i say Rafa does nothing to change it. We look completely unable to approach games differently. Now i love Rafa but that is not a good thing from him imo, it's only a minor issue if you look at the table but our limited flair and creativity are shown up terribly if the opposition get it right against us. Come on man, he's a world class manager isn't he but he can't adjust tactically in the championship ? Your sentence is completely correct, he is world class and so far has shown he can't adjust in the Championship tactically when a team plays a certain way. I know the first point should rule out the 2nd but it hasn't as we've seen so far. He's been overly cautious so far in some respects but i've no doubt he'll see it and change. But so far for the 1st half of the season he hasn't, but with window and him learning more about his players in certain situations i've no doubt he'll tweak it. I don't think he'll tweak it. We have a better squad than everyone else, we'll improve it in January and we'll keep on going as we are, which will still be enough to get promoted. We do, but in central midfield we are weak as p*ss for numbers and quality (Shelvey and Hayden aside). We must strengthen in CM, simply must. Sure ? After Shelvey and Hayden we have Colback and Anita. Doesn't sound good to us but as third and fourth choice in this division that's very good. Not helped by the tactics I'd say. By what standards are they good in this league as CMs? Colback has very little in redeeming qualities. Anita was weak in Premier League games as a midfielder, that's not going to change here. Have you not thought that Rafa might be trying to build something long-term for the club and its style of play? Not that I think he's shown tactical inflexibility, we've won games in all manners this season - sometimes counter, sometimes possession, sometimes direct, sometimes with deeper CMs, sometimes a more balanced midfield 4 approach etc. He's wedded to 4-2-3-1 as a shape but I don't see that as the real problem here, more the lack of balance the team has at times. Colback gets slagged off loads as much because of his SAFC background and his poor games are amplified because of it, he's not helped with the tactics. As regards Rafa and his building something, no I don't think he does see it that way, he just really does think that way is right, to me, better managers would get what is best out of what he has and wouldn't be wedded to any particular way. Colback is suited to what tactics, exactly? His only strength is short passing and that's exactly what our game revolves around. Surely a good manager, in our situation especially, should be building towards long-term success while balancing out short-term matters? Benitez has had the same general style wherever he's been and has enjoyed some pretty good success out of it - it seems apparent, to me, that he's trying to build that up here as a means to actually win something but there's still a long way to go. Not sure if you've read any of the Chron coverage but there were details about how they layer more and more tactics into the side as the season goes on, for example. Out of curiosity, what would you be doing differently?

It's been the same tactics all season. Can't say it's good tactics when we win and bad tactics when we lose.. Well you can sort of. When a team is good enough to exploit our tactic, we do absolutely nothing, or should i say Rafa does nothing to change it. We look completely unable to approach games differently. Now i love Rafa but that is not a good thing from him imo, it's only a minor issue if you look at the table but our limited flair and creativity are shown up terribly if the opposition get it right against us. Come on man, he's a world class manager isn't he but he can't adjust tactically in the championship ? Your sentence is completely correct, he is world class and so far has shown he can't adjust in the Championship tactically when a team plays a certain way. I know the first point should rule out the 2nd but it hasn't as we've seen so far. He's been overly cautious so far in some respects but i've no doubt he'll see it and change. But so far for the 1st half of the season he hasn't, but with window and him learning more about his players in certain situations i've no doubt he'll tweak it. I don't think he'll tweak it. We have a better squad than everyone else, we'll improve it in January and we'll keep on going as we are, which will still be enough to get promoted. We do, but in central midfield we are weak as p*ss for numbers and quality (Shelvey and Hayden aside). We must strengthen in CM, simply must. Sure ? After Shelvey and Hayden we have Colback and Anita. Doesn't sound good to us but as third and fourth choice in this division that's very good. Not helped by the tactics I'd say. By what standards are they good in this league as CMs? Colback has very little in redeeming qualities. Anita was weak in Premier League games as a midfielder, that's not going to change here. Have you not thought that Rafa might be trying to build something long-term for the club and its style of play? Not that I think he's shown tactical inflexibility, we've won games in all manners this season - sometimes counter, sometimes possession, sometimes direct, sometimes with deeper CMs, sometimes a more balanced midfield 4 approach etc. He's wedded to 4-2-3-1 as a shape but I don't see that as the real problem here, more the lack of balance the team has at times.

His rigid style compounded with the failure to address our hideous lack of creativity just isn't conducive to consistently winning matches at home. It affects the crowd too. The atmosphere is completely f***ing flat because we're predictable and safe when we should be rolling teams over. To be fair - from what I've been told - in the games we've played good football and comfortably won at home, the crowd have only been up-for-it against Norwich.

Think we have a clear style of play personally, both home and away. Away, we're very good at it. At home, we've been patchy. The possession work has sometimes been really quick and swift. At other times, it's been so slow and ponderous. For me, things are a little too geared toward one style, if anything. Need to add some variety, especially out wide.

This is probably a fair assessment. Easy to forget that Rafa is also planning for the long-term with this side and that'll be starting with shape and defensive work, first and foremost.

Well, that's really not true, is it?

It had the distinct feel of McClaren's early games last year (post-Southampton) where we tried a style of play with players who aren't suited to it. I know his philosophy is about players being able to drop in and know what they're doing but if they really don't have the quality for it then it's pointless. I mean, if you're going with flanks of Dummett, Gouffran, Anita and Ritchie, that's screaming out as a counter team. I think he attempted to trust a few today and he'll have seen they're short of what's needed; ergo, a reshuffle of everything for the next one.

His tactics are around controlled possession - working openings and then combining to capitalize on that space. At the moment, we're not playing well enough for that to work, whereas it was looking great a couple of months back. Our wings are a massive problem, Gouffran and Dummett are a useless attacking combination, and Ritchie is struggling to consistently do anything of note. And that's then made worse by the lack of Shelvey in the middle. We need another winger in any way, but if he's not sold on Atsu ahead of Gouffran then he might as well cut that loan and bring in another.

This is it, really. He's obviously not trusted.

He could very easily move Diame back into CM.

It's not exclusively one up top, like. Even a shift of the current starting midfield would be a big help.

Really? I thought he was woeful, but not as bad as Ayoze, who was desperately bad woeful? he attacked, ran, shot, beat people. nonody else did any of these things. Yeah, not sure how you could deduce he was awful. He was easily better than Gouffran and Ritchie.

At the point where we just need to cut ties, tbh. He's clearly not suited to this league and, while I think he'll be better at PL level, his attitude just isn't there.

On Rafa, this. Gayle was clearly struggling to cope with their defenders after about 10 minutes and we didn't have enough in midfield to pass through them. Mitro should've been on 20 minutes earlier, at the very least; Rafa needs to sort that situation out fast. He doesn't seem to be able to trust him to throw him in earlier, might as well sell him if that's the case. Atsu should be starting ahead of either winger now (personally, think that's been clear for weeks). Colback was absolute shite and Diame hid. Most worrying was our lack of commitment off the ball, saw numerous occasions where we just absolutely left runners - somewhat reminiscent of the last few years. He's got some work to do on transfers, like. No use talking about PL players, we've got a job to do here still and we need some in to get the balance right for the next 4 months. Pissed off but I'm not going to panic and overreact, we'll still win this league. Rafa will get it right. Pretty annoying when people are only chirping when we're doing poorly, btw.

He needs to decide what he's going to do with Mitrovic, like. This bringing him on for 10 minutes when he's clearly needed for longer isn't good for anyone.

Pathetic. Not even been tracking runs for simple plays. Totally deserved. Time to change.

Front 5 need to be doing more for the back 5. We're trying to work openings but there's not been enough movement to give the defenders the passing options. Colback has been pathetic - completely anonymous in every department of the game, laughable compared to Hayden being everywhere. Diame can't just rely on moments either, I felt like I saw him hiding a little too much when we were trying to work possession. Gouffran is offering nothing. Need Atsu to come on relatively early in the half to create some more space. Would also like to see Mitro on for Colback (with Diame droppping back). They're pretty much playing a flat 4-4-2, we can easily go toe-to-toe.

Far too slack. Also not being helped by the complete lack of presence and movement in the middle of the pitch. Colback and Diame have to be doing a lot, lot more.