Gallowgate Toon

Hayden sounds good again. Seems like he's got a lot more in his locker than just a DM.

I said this weeks ago and got ridiculed for it! If you say it in every thread, on every post, people may start to agree with you. I said this weeks ago and got ridiculed for it!

I said this weeks ago and got ridiculed for it!

They had a fair bit of possession, like. Seems a little strange as we’ve dominated it in the previous two. I thought we pressed pretty high last night or was it simply because we took more risks with our passing and it led to more turnovers? Wonder if Rafa told the team to the team to let them have more of the ball to draw them out a bit.

He wasn't awful at all, against Fulham. Pretty sure he was rated as one of the division's best defenders last year.

I thought it'd already been mentioned that his fitness isn't quite there?

Not sure where I saw this but I thought Rafa’s rotation was generally not in the spine of the team? He always seemed to have a core set of players through the middle, at Liverpool, but would rotate wider options a lot.

This will be tight. Reckon he'll bring Aarons in for Gouffran as there'll be more space to work with, and we'll see Diame in for Ayoze. Wouldn't be shocked if he rotated/rested Shelvey and put Colback in too (I wouldn't want that, personally). Lascelles to come in also. Fancy us to nick it 2-1; don't think we'll quite be there defensively to get a clean sheet. Diame to open his account with a zinger.

Perez and Hayden showed some nice link up for that Hayden chance. That's what I want to see from Ayoze as a second striker or 10 - dropping in and linking play. Seems this is much more like how Rafa wants us to play: pressing higher, quicker passing, more movement etc. IIRC, he said it'd take us a month to hit top level, I'm looking forward to seeing where we can go - we'll see the defensive mistakes dwindle the more he works with them, IMO. Imperative we recruit more, though; 2 wingers (one loan), a striker and a left-footed left back would be great. If we can ship out one CM for a combative box-to-box mid, I'll be delighted.

Because we need 4 centre halves? Hayden might be able to drop in there but it's clearly not his position.

We keep on making errors in the last minutes of halves, no surprise he shored it up.

Assist for Hayden

Sounds like Hayden is more of a CM than an out-and-out DM.

Let's go and smash this lot, now.

Get in. As daft as it sounds, this could be a massive moment in our season. Get some momentum going and get the signings in we need.

This is where we should probably get Aarons on. They're pushing and he'll have space to break in to.

We'll be nervous. Just need to weather the storm.

Yep. They now take momentum into the next 45. Funny how a good 5 minutes can pretty much obliterate a good 40.

Just keep it tight, man, you idiots.

Right on half time again, man. For fucks sake.

Sounds like we're playing a lot better. Encouraging

They said on the chron that we've put the most crosses in of all championship sides so far. Yet we're 17th or so for having the ball in the oppositions final third & 19th for shots. Which suggests crossing the ball to a 5 foot 9 lad continously rather than playing it through might be the very specific issue. He should have a partner either way. I'm assuming that's been Benitez's angle when he's talked about players not doing what they've been practising. Probably working on them spreading play, working openings & speeding up passing in key areas, but they're doing it so slowly it just ends up with aimless, panicked punts into the box that Champ defences gobble up time after time.

I think Gayle needs someone with presence next to him, in our current state. Someone to just make space and take defenders away. Was hoping Diame would do that the other day There's no excuse for starting Riviere, though.

Some wider comments from him after the weekend: “We have to improve in defence because we are making mistakes, we have to improve in the middle and move the ball quicker, and we have to improve in the final third because we were not precise. “We didn’t have enough good movement and the right patterns to our play. “We didn’t do what we’ve been doing in training sessions during the game.”

Even I find Wenger hugely frustrating. Just go and buy a striker and centre back, man.