Gallowgate Toon

We're awful defensively and need to start picking up away points. If there's a time of the season to forget pretty football and just do what needs doing, this is it. We've not played pretty football away from home, all season! It's just the same rubbish which has gotten worse by the month. There's zero gameplan, belief or determination. Too many simply going through the motions, with one eye on their next move and of course, backed by an impotent and clueless coach. We've approached games more openly and been cut through with alarming ease.

We're awful defensively and need to start picking up away points. If there's a time of the season to forget pretty football and just do what needs doing, this is it.

Fuck off David Craig.

The last couple of away games have seemed very complacent. I know we don't have a team of grafters, like, which we probably need a better balance of away from home, but it appears a little like some of them have taken their foot off the pedal because we've got some new players in and they can pick up the slack instead.

We'll agree to disagree there. A better manager wouldn't have us near the bottom three. I'm pretty sure of that. It's irrelevant like. Same here, I just don't get it, we've had s*** managers for 5 years yet some people can't or won't look past the players. Perhaps there's no goals and a leaky defence in part because the coaching and tactics are s*** as well? The idea that people think Mitrovic, Perez, Wijnaldum, Sissoko, Shelvey, Townsend & Aarons aren't good enough to be firing us out of the bottom three is beyond my ability to comprehend. Aye, we've not had any strikers in the last 5 years that have scored plenty of goals under crap management. Even this season Mitro should have close to 10 already but has missed plenty. You can only blame coaching on so much. We've got some nice technical players, yes, but there's an overall lack of clutch between them. We could be in the early stages of making a good side but there's still a long, long way to go. Any mid-table side worth their salt should, at the very least, have a solid defence. We just don't. I blame all parties for the mess we're in, they're just as culpable as one another. Nobody should escape blame. Edit: we shouldn't be bottom 3, btw. Lower, lower mid-table is where we should be.

McClaren isn't very good but the idea that this team should be comfortably mid-table is a very misguided one. Not enough goals and a poor defence.

Setup might be one thing, but it sounds like he's consistently having much less of the ball than his team mates when away from home. That'd suggest it's more an individual thing than a team issue.

There'll be plenty of twists and turns yet. The mackems put together a mini run a while back too and then sunk back again. That'll be the general pattern for most clubs around us until the end of the season.

Just look tat Derby, if you want to look at the credit he should get for us playing good stuff. They've got a fantastic squad for that league and their fans are openly saying the football isn't as good as it was under SMC. It's not as simple as saying, better footballers = automatically better football.

He's meant to be a massive pisshead, no? They've been dropping down a while but surely, if it was for footballing reasons, they'd have given him longer.

Gerrin.

I think the biggest thing is style. McClaren seems to want him to play risky passes and express himself, I got the impression at Swansea there was an expectation to be more considered in his approach.

Sissoko also doesn't tackle. He's better in more space on the flanks.

Whoever plays alongside Shelvey is going to have a big responsibility. It's fairer to let Saivet adapt first, by slowly integrating him into it. He looks a handy footballer, to me, good CM competition.

He did what a winger generally does. Some good, some frustrating but, overall, he created opportunities and was always positive. Very solid.

Last 2 home performances have been great and are traditionally the sort we fuck up. He's done well to make us more competent as a side that can break a team down. Just needs to get the formula right away from home.

I have a feeling we'll win and put in a similar performance to the West Ham game. I'd start Doumbia, like, with Sissoko, Wijnaldum and Perez behind - movement will win us this as West Brom will sit deep and counter (didn't we used to be good at that?). Townsend, Aarons and Mitro can come on against tired legs.

Decent. Should have been better.

Mitrovic was 1 in 2 previously and he's scored in the champions league and it's not happened for him here. Exactly why are people so blinkered honestly it just puzzles me. Aye, there's not guarantee at all, his record is impressive. But like you say he's failed at the only step up he's had. His record at the highest level of club football is pretty excellent, like. That gives me hope that he at least has the basics we need. Italy's a funny league. If he had come in the summer, pre season and had games to adapt I'd not the concerned particularly, but we don't have time for that now. His CL record is very good, but the majority of his goals are in the swiss and russian league. Remy came over and scored straight away, despite being injured and barely playing for the previous 6 months. We'll see. We're fucked if this lad gets injured, though.

Mitrovic was 1 in 2 previously and he's scored in the champions league and it's not happened for him here. Exactly why are people so blinkered honestly it just puzzles me. Aye, there's not guarantee at all, his record is impressive. But like you say he's failed at the only step up he's had. His record at the highest level of club football is pretty excellent, like. That gives me hope that he at least has the basics we need. Italy's a funny league. He's a gamble though and at this stage like Mitrovic it's not what's required. He is a gamble. But it's disingenuous to say he's failed at the only step up he's had - consistently scoring in the CL generally means you can play to a decent standard. Pelle came here despite being minging in Italy and has scored a solid amount, just what we need from our main forward.

Mitrovic was 1 in 2 previously and he's scored in the champions league and it's not happened for him here. Exactly why are people so blinkered honestly it just puzzles me. Aye, there's not guarantee at all, his record is impressive. But like you say he's failed at the only step up he's had. His record at the highest level of club football is pretty excellent, like. That gives me hope that he at least has the basics we need. Italy's a funny league.

He's definitely signed. He was at the stadium yesterday getting his photos taken etc. It'll be announced tonight, I bet, if things don't pan out this afternoon.

Didn't someone say he played no more than 500 minutes for them?

Doing some of that reliable Dennis Wise scouting, there's like a 15 minute video of his goals and there's some great finishes in there. He seems to pick up positions well which is desperately what we need right now.