Gallowgate Toon

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.

I think Leazes is NE5?

We need another winger. Ritchie & Aarons as our only true wide players is no good. Not least because Aarons has shown himself to be pretty injury prone, so far.

Fulham were also giving our CMs a huge amount of space and time too. At the very least, you'd think Shelvey would help to draw opposition out because of his range.

In the heatmap he was behind Perez for a lot of the game - which must have been both in and out of possession. Really not how you'd want those two to be playing, surely?

As for the second half, lack of CB to drive out with the ball and lack of midfielder that could turn a player and break lines stunted us. Some nice moves but too many poor deliveries too - I'm assuming that was some competitive rustiness. Lost positional disicipline towards the end, which was a shame. If we'd kept up the shape when Fulham were tired and we had more attacking players on, we might have got something.

s***, I forgot about him Would like to see a Shelvey-Sissoko experiment, tbh. We'd be open as s**** but mixes technique and athleticism well. I don't think being open is necessarily a bad thing in this division. We've got more quality than the other teams and we should be looking to dominate and impose ourselves. Rather than leaving a mid back and pushing full backs up, we could just push one full back up (depending on the side of attack) and have 1 FB and 2 CBs as the 3 left. It's just a question of whether our defenders are good enough one-on-one to deal with it. Mbemba would be fine but I'd be worried about all the others. Going off Friday, Rafa seems cautious about them too.

Watched the first half back and we were better than I remembered, tbh. Shape-wise we were very decent, you could see we've worked on that. You could also see we've not spent a lot of time on the attacking side. We had some key new attackers and the lack of understanding was evident. The passes in behind for Gayle weren't too bad but mids didn't always read his runs as well as they should have. Hayden's longer balls were good, Colback largely booted his straight out, the bellend. One should've been a great chance, Perez's touch was just so bad. Him and Anita were massive drains on our play, tbh, breaking moves down in promising areas. Attacking shape was also good but you could see too many players over-thinking in the moments play needed speeding up, often then taking the safer route. I was critical of going longer but it was good to mix play up and Gayle did well what he had (he was generally very tidy, tbh), he just lacked the right support from Ayoze. I think Ayoze's shunting about from position to position has really hindered him, he doesn't seem to know how to play as a 10 very well, he vacates that key space in front of the defence far too often and that's where you want him most. It might've been tactics but he seemed to want to hit the channels too often, for me, meaning we had nobody to link in the middle. I don't think it was an intentional move, as neither deeper midfielder ever seemed to attempt to go there instead and neither wide player tucked in. Bit of a crossroads moment for Perez, IMO, he's either got to cement himself as a wide forward or learn to be a 10. He certainly has the technique, not sure he has the knowledge or mentality for the latter. I don't mind us going possession but it needs work and the right balance; everything was pretty decent up until the final third. You could tell we were a technically better side but we just haven't figured out how to make it tick.

Shit, I forgot about him Would like to see a Shelvey-Sissoko experiment, tbh. We'd be open as shite but mixes technique and athleticism well.

Sels Janmaat Lascelles Mbemba Gamez Hayden Shelvey Ritchie Diame Aarons Gayle Just need to get at these from the off and play our football. No overthinking, let's attack them, stretch the pitch and quicken the play in the final third. I believe in Perez but Diame knows this league, I think Ayoze's going to need some cameos to get used to it before he can be of use without Mitro's power. Plus, we'll need a bit of presence in the middle, as Gayle's going to need help with the physicality.

Did he say he'd made a mistake last night? I'm annoyed at him for his selection but still have complete faith, like. We'll win this league.

It'll be a problem if we try and play that way going forward. Just sounds like he thought Gayle would have more athleticism and Perez would do a better job linking through the middle, hence all the long balls & crosses, as well as the super defensive midfield. Mixing it up is a good thing, when you can, but our line up last night should've been about possession and working openings - building moves and quickening passing, rather than trying to force something we couldn't. He has to learn about his new players and how the team adapts to this situation, I guess. We might've got away with last night with Mitro, in all honesty, but he's going to have to switch it up for Gayle's next 3 and that'll need much more midfield balance.

Does Jack Colback play with intelligence, like? His attitude has sounded spot on all Summer.

I think Rafa needs to manage his ego. He sounded pretty affected by not starting at the back end of last year and seemingly put in a lot of work over summer only to be behind Jack fucking Colback for the 1st game. Genuinely think he could be vital for us, need to get him motivated.

Hayden looks a great partner for Shelvey or Diame. More mobile, can get stuck in but, crucially, is still a decent footballer.

Seems like we played to him all wrong. Rafa usually likes shorter passing, not sure why we went long so much.

The Anita thing is about as hilarious as Shola on the wing.

He'll need some carrying at times but he's our best shot at some creativity from deeper positions by an absolute mile.

Mentality might have been an issue but the lack of balance was the killer. He ballsed up the opportunity - chose to be cautious of the momentum rather than go with it. 3 DMs in this league is frankly terrible. I'm sure he'll switch it up next time.

Ritchie at RW will cover Janmaat fine. Aarons on the left and Shelvey in the middle with Hayden.

Nowt to be sorry for Can't help but feel he's overthought this. Essentially, 3 defensive mids against a shite team.