Gallowgate Toon

The quality's f***ing abject, man. Give over. Just look at the Burnley side that won it. I agree. Huddersfield did nothing yesterday except put their team behind the ball and fight for every ball. As we've seen over the years once it became clear we didn't have a plan to break them down they grew in confidence. Still should never have lost. We beat ourselves yesterday. We did have a plan, apparently. It just wasn't followed. As someone else said, Rafa has spent the majority of his career playing against sides that sit & concede possession to his teams, he obviously knows how to get the results. If you saw a credible plan in that yesterday then you know something I don't. Our own manager said the players didn't follow 'instructions. He said they weren't doing what they'd practised in training. Ergo, I'm assuming there was a plan.

Boro just got promoted playing with 1 up top. We'll have to sign a new defence for that to work. As we are conceding some shockers so far. 2 games into the season.

The quality's f***ing abject, man. Give over. Just look at the Burnley side that won it. I agree. Huddersfield did nothing yesterday except put their team behind the ball and fight for every ball. As we've seen over the years once it became clear we didn't have a plan to break them down they grew in confidence. Still should never have lost. We beat ourselves yesterday. We did have a plan, apparently. It just wasn't followed. As someone else said, Rafa has spent the majority of his career playing against sides that sit & concede possession to his teams, he obviously knows how to get the results.

Boro just got promoted playing with 1 up top.

He's obviously brought in some better characters but the attacking spine is definitely still missing some leadership, like. Need a fulcrum.

We seem to be getting countered easily, is opening the game up going to help that? By the sounds of it, the first half today was really open between the sides and we were apparently still pretty hopeless. I'm not so convinced that going full 4-4-2 and blitzing it is going to work this time either. Teams seem a bit better than the last time we were here, especially tactically. My gut instinct is that the bigger problem is the players' mentality (not attitude) rather than Rafa's tactics - he was pretty open in his NUFCTV interview that they simply didn't do a lot of the things they trained on. That team today, 'on paper', should've still had enough to beat Huddersfield.

Having a higher line can work against you, though. If you're not great technically and playing against a side happy to sit deep and have as little space to play in as possible then you can just make it worse. Either one of two things needs to happen, IMO: forget the higher line and possession we seem to be going for and let teams have more ball or give it some time and get the right players in for it.

I nearly posted something to that effect last week, wondered whether he was regretting us lining up what was basically a load of whipping boys. I think it's one of those things that can go either way. It just looks like things were so easy and now they're struggling to find a rhythm when it matters.

i disagree. Last week 2 definte defensive CM's with another in the team. Today 2 players sitting with a hardly attacking Anita with them. Took him till hallf time at home to Huddersfield and a goal down to tell Shelvey to push on and even then he took off width to do it. I love that Rafa has made us a football club again but he's given me no confidence in 12 games. No confidence in 12 games? We spent half of those on an unbeaten run, no? Perhaps he doesn't trust his defence yet and, judging by the evidence, rightly so. They also need drilling for the new style. Don't think today was 2 sitting midfielders, Shelvey has attacking quality in this league (see the last time he was in it, tore it to pieces), he's not some sitting duck that doesn't contribute going forward. Anita I agree with, I don't like that situation - we need balance and quality on the flanks. Unbeaten run ? We beat Spurs afterwe'd been relegated and they'd exploded after losing the title. T Am I being mental here or did we not go 6 games unbeaten at the back end of last year? That's half of the current managers total games for the club, in which he's had to impart his ideas onto new players twice...

i disagree. Last week 2 definte defensive CM's with another in the team. Today 2 players sitting with a hardly attacking Anita with them. Took him till hallf time at home to Huddersfield and a goal down to tell Shelvey to push on and even then he took off width to do it. I love that Rafa has made us a football club again but he's given me no confidence in 12 games. No confidence in 12 games? We spent half of those on an unbeaten run, no? Perhaps he doesn't trust his defence yet and, judging by the evidence, rightly so. They also need drilling for the new style. Don't think today was 2 sitting midfielders, Shelvey has attacking quality in this league (see the last time he was in it, tore it to pieces), he's not some sitting duck that doesn't contribute going forward. Anita I agree with, I don't like that situation - we need balance and quality on the flanks.

Rafa has always been a fairly cautious coach who thinks there's no point attacking till the defence is sorted. I think basically the defence isn't holding up as well as they hoped and suddenly that's throwing the whole plan. Our midfield was unable to impose themselves in the premier league and I guess the hope was they could at this level, they can't and we need a new one (Hayden shouldn't need to settle since he's played this level, but he seems defensive minded and then reliant on Shelvey). Shelvey is not the answer, he is way too unreliable and he can look good but sorry he's spent years in premier league teams always able to turn in a motm performance and then 10 anonymous ones, he's not likely to change now. We really should have bought McCormack, guaranteed goals at this level and that's invaluable. I'm not massively worried yet, Rafa will get the backline organised and that'll get us plenty of points, BUT we need goals and we need creativity so badly. I do think anyone expecting Rafa to get us playing mad attacking footy are deluding ourselves, if he gets us working it'll be 1-0s and 2-0s all the way. Rafa is cautious, yes, but his teams have generally always been high-scoring, IIRC. Think we just need the right quality and a bit of time to get it to work. The former being the really important bit.

Trying to be completely objective about it: we've had a team that've gone from expecting to lose every week to now being expected to win each week and also playing a style that we've failed miserably at over the last decade. Add lots of new players into the mix and there will be a transition. I'd argue preseason was too easy and might've exacerbated an attitude some had that we would walk the league. Rafa should probably be looking to implement things a little bit slower than he has, in all honesty, but it's going to take some time either way. He's made it hard on himself with his selections but he's dealing with some key enigmatic players. Perez has been poor, Aarons doesn't seem settled, Gayle seems to be adjusting to a new role etc. Frankly, we need players in ASAP. A quality winger and striker are musts. We can carry an unproductive set of central midfielders but the flanks and other attacking central positions must be addressed. Ritchie is quality and is a good PL player, we need another winger of his ilk (preferably two) but with a more direct style. I don't think it's really a formational issue, if Rafa can implement his style having a 10 is better than 2 strikers, IMO. He pretty much played Perez as a striker alongside Gayle last week and we still looked garbage and struggled to stretch a deep defence. There are selection and balance problems, certainly, but quality is the biggest of them all. Big week for us. A win and 2 new players through the door can transform the situation. I can certainly see why he's making comments about players needing to relax, just need to get a win or two under the belt, even if they're scrappy, to get it going. What he said about 'unusual' movements was interesting, reminded me of the time a journo said he was perplexed as to why players were doing things completely against instruction when we played Leicester. Suggests panic within the players.

I was fuming after last week and obvs not happy today but some of the reactions are ott. Can't fall into the trap of getting too pressurised through negativity too soon.

He was poor at inter and madrid, no doubt. Won things everywhere else, though, post valencia.

He is working with some poor attackers, but he's only made things worse, so far. We need to not overreact.

Wow. Need recruits, asap.

Need a winger and striker in, desperately.

Had 3 good chances, apparently.

Journos on Twitter have said he's been good?

Sounds like Shelvey is playing well.

Not sure how Shelvey is a sitting mid? He barely defends He'll get forward plenty.

I think it's enough. Diame and Shelvey are huge additions to the team. Aarons will make a difference too, not least for more immediate width. I can see why he's gone for Anita for Ritchie and I think it'll be OK for today.

I'm certain Ritchie will play, he probably just had a knock so they gave him the day off. The yellow bib side from last week was nearly spot on - Aarons for Anita the only change. I'm pretty sure the side he'll play tomorrow will be: Sels Janmaat Mbemba Lascelles Dummett Ritchie Hayden Shelvey Aarons Diame Gayle I'd be pretty delighted with that, tbh. Think it's our strongest side, apart from Jesus for Dummett. I don't mind having a slightly more defensive full back behind Aarons, allows him to stay higher up the pitch and focus on breakaways, and he provides width on his own. If Shelvey takes left CM then he'll move up into that left forward area anyway. I think this will be a big year for Ayoze but I'd happily play Diame behind Gayle for this one. Gayle needs someone alongside him with a bit of presence, especially until Perez gets tuned into the league. Diame's a good focal point and we missed having someone dropping in front of the opposition defence against Fulham. Hope Ritchie starts right, if he plays. Him and Janmaat have the ability to tear this league up. I know Shelvey is seen as a luxury but, the more I think about it, he's pretty imperative this year, IMO - without him in the spine of the team, there's literally nobody else who has much passing ability or vision. We'll struggle to break teams down without a good passer.

He was

He's just such a fucking idiot Played this so badly. Just looks like a total arsehole to other clubs.