Gallowgate Toon

Christ, we look good. I know it's 10 and all that, but still.

It'll be interesting to see us without Shelvey dictating. Got lots of creativity down both wings, though, for once. They should compensate.

Good team, bar Colback.

Quick look on RAWK and quite a few seem to prefer Gini.

Sounds like Shelvey is taking the absolute piss again.

Gerrin.

Easy. Think Rafa's trying to save legs as much as possible for this fixture run.

Ritchie said pretty much the opposite, a few weeks back - in his words, Rafa's encouraging the players to read situations for themselves.

They were absolutely s**** on Wednesday I only listened on the radio and we did seem to batter them, but they did go 3-1 up. They are a very good team at this level, they seem to know how to play and how not to play. We are finding our feet for me. Their fans say they've not been playing well at all. They've had an easier run than us, & others, too.

Alreet, Neville Southall.

Wasn't he getting praised to the hilt, pre Wolves, for some excellent performances? He certainly put in what I thought was the best shift to date, out of any of our defenders.

He'll be back in at some point.

Mitro did more good than bad, easily. He was trying to win a corner with the cross. That aside, his hold up and link up play were good, I thought.

Proper Captain's performance, that.

Professional performance. Really solid, apart from a couple of potshots and some lumps into the box. Pretty easy, tbh.

Atsu is Championship Messi

Bloody lush. Should be tearing this league to bits, tbf.

Lovely from Atsu.

Meh, they've been a lot of bluster. We've had the best chance of the game.

Looks like we've given uo on Lazaar after one game. No idea why Colback starts ahead of Hayden when he played on Wed and was downright awful by the sounds of it. Diame in the team too, I'm starting to question some of these selections by Rafa, doesn't make sense to me. Didn't you just say on Wednesday you wouldn't doubt Rafa anymore?

We've played some pretty good attacking football with Diame in the side, like. He's not been good but he's obviously not a massive hinderance and we should still comfortably handle this one. Rafa probably sees this as a chance to get his confidence up. Colback can do one, though.

Sprays incredibly incisive passes around with absolute ease.

Cabaye was an excellent attacking midfielder but he was really patchy as a centre mid. Shelvey isn't very mobile or a great tackler, just like Cabaye, but his passing range is actually better, IMO, and he's got an extra bit of skill in his locker. He's obviously not been to that standard for us, yet, but I think he has the talent to surpass.

Big, big game. Begin as we did against Villa & Norwich and we’ll win comfortably. If we get the ball rolling here, it really gets the momentum going for the next 10 games. Wouldn’t be shocked to see Gayle start on the bench and a Mitro/Perez combo, Diame needs to be dropped. Hoping to see Atsu start too, especially if Lazaar isn’t ahead of Dummett. Would also bring Hayden, and possibly Mbemba, back in.

Think that this is a huge moment for the squad’s development, like. We’re certainly a grittier outfit than years gone, as evidenced by the dogged performances against the likes of Bristol f***ing City, but I’ve not been able to shake the feeling that the slight disconnect between the fans and club that still exists was throwing them off a bit when at home. It’s a young squad, after all, to which most have never consistently played in an environment like this before. It always sounds cliché as f*** to say but this group of lads are also still learning to play with one another (whilst being taught a shitload of new tactics, by the sounds of it). I don’t like the ‘Rafa’s defensive’ stuff that keeps on getting regurgitated, it’s a lazy stereotype. Even last night when we conceded 2 & 3, they were a result of us having bodies pushed forward, combined with lethargic defending (I don’t think that second goes in if Hayden’s on the pitch, btw). He certainly goes to counter more often than not, though, probably because we’re not the most clinical and we did look defensively excellent in that 5 game streak. But it’s simply not doable when we’ve got a big ginger-coloured weak link in the spine of a side that’s trying to be physical and stay compact. It might sound an oversimplification but watching the goals (their only chances, seemingly), he was just f***ing diabolical in both when he should be the key player – I’m sure Benitez will have learnt from it. Basically, whoever partners Shelvey needs to be good defensively when we look to counter more, Colback isn’t. So we’ve come out of our toughest run of the season looking pretty good. I know we’ve not put together consistently complete performances but we’ve generally played some absolutely excellent stuff in major periods of games against some of the division’s toughest opponents - absolutely penning in two of the best teams (on paper) in the league to the extent that we should’ve been out of sight after 30 minutes and they could barely get out of their half. Their responses have been to nowhere the same quality. That’s the biggest sign, for me, that we’re going to win this, even if we’d lost last night – we’re a level above. Once we add that extra bit of consistency and clinical finishing to the platform that’s already there, which we certainly will, we’re going to run away with it.