Gallowgate Toon

Decent side

Sounds like he’ll be a decent defender in an organized defensive unit. To be fair, that is the case for the vast majority of full backs. At least he has the recovery pace needed should he be out of position. I quite like Janmaat but I doubt we’ll be any worse off with this transfer.

Think he'd be a decent signing, tbh. Reckon Rafa might turn him into a winger and have Anita & Jesus for RB.

Aarons and Perez need to start this. They've both looked a bit off the pace so far and this is a potentially good game to get their confidence up a bit, but only if they're playing with other experienced players. Think the win is more important than anything else, just got to get into the habit of it.

Have a feeling we'll get a 'foreign' winger in, perhaps on loan, to help see us through until this shit Paddy can run again. Can't help but think saying we're using the same scouting network as ever after targeting two of the league's higher bracket attacking players is a bit of a melodramatic stretch. The window isn't over either...

Yeah, it's a long season, but we'll rotate a lot and that'll take the sting out of it, IMO. Strongest available 11 for tomorrow and blast them.

Apparently we've been working on Gayle's movement in behind in training. Good to see the plans and practise coming to fruition.

We've actually played 2 up top in most games this season, at some point.

Lascelles back to his performance level from last season, by the sounds of it

Thinking about it, I'm actually really heartened by the performance. Like it or not, we're going to have days where we're absolutely shite, so seeing players dig in so much against the likes of Bristol City (no offence) is a cracking sign, IMO.

GENIUS Nah, no issue with what he's tried to do in the last two. Knows we needs results first.

Not at all worried about the performance. We've been terrible away for so long, getting a win is another monkey a lot of this squad need off their backs. Rafa's set us up to try and counter since the goal and it's worked fine. We need to grow confidence, this isn't the same team as last time.

No. They're not doing anything

We sound pretty comfy, tbh.

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.