Gallowgate Toon

Remy is mint. Best forward we've had since Big Al. If we get him in, that's a massive leap forward for our survival hopes. For all the shit McClaren gets, if we'd had a striker relatively on his game with his finishing all season, we'd be nowhere near the relegation spots.

Why even bother trying to go for that? They'd have had over an hour to equalise. No guarantee he'd even have scored.

Dude, they look pretty toothless today. They might have had a good goalscoring season but they've been powder puff this after and should try and mix it up.

I hate slow build up. But going forward Everton will score. Just don't smell danger at all at the back. Sure I've seen Neil complain about them having to break teams down. They should be getting it into Lukaku much quicker on occasion.

Everton could actually mix up their game far more, here. Too much slow build up.

I don't think Stones is all that, like. Good on the ball but I don't think he's great at actual defending.

I'm not sure any of those 3 man marking could be described as playing it safe . Still smarter than letting one of the most in form and quickest strikers in the league to move freely into a very dangerous area of the pitch. They know he's a brilliant mover, they should have looked to get deeper with him considering Watford barely had anyone forward. Made a rod for our own back.

Why play an offside trap when you're 3 against 1? Just man mark and play it safe. We're not in a position to take risks like that.

The goal when Ighalo was offside and when Lascelles was our last man? He looks directly at Ighalo before the ball is played and doesn't make any effort to get near him. Just a lazy step up instead.

Played a very tight diamond. Even Deeney was dropping back in, though. It was all congested. Aye, so a decent manager would have spread the play wide, reacted to the situation and taken advantage. We just banged our heads against the same wall for 90 minutes. Tbf, Sissoko was pretty much a winger for the second half after Perez came on. Still needed more balance, though.

He couldn't be arsed for that first goal. It's just basic defending.

Played a very tight diamond. Even Deeney was dropping back in, though. It was all congested.

A more experienced striker puts that chance in the back of the net, like. It's an awesome opportunity.

He shouldn't be saying that, like, even if he's not wrong.

Interesting that they got in twice as many tackles us. Mitro had no joy with aerials either - so not many outlets as we struggled to keep it. Saivet got most tackles in for the game, out of both sides, somewhat encouragingly.

I agree but I think McClaren would've got just as much stick for playing Mbemba LB and starting Lascelles. But he had limited options. I think it would have made perfect sense. He had to play Lascelles anyway right? Besides Aarons starting today seemed very optimistic, especially ahead of Perez, and in a wing back position. Really disappointed in the manager today. All the time we were stinking it up earlier int he season he never tried this system, and now we had put together some good performances he starts messing about with it. Mbemba had never played FB before he came here. I would've had him there today, tbh. Yes, he has played full back before. He said after the game he played FB that he'd never played there before.

Even Championship sides in England will shut down space and press you. It seems a bit pointless spending millions on players if they can't cope with the opposition trying to win the ball. Stretching the pitch is pretty important, like. They might be internationals but most struggle when there's a lack of space.

It ended up too central, like. Not quite sure what our final team actually was

I agree but I think McClaren would've got just as much stick for playing Mbemba LB and starting Lascelles. But he had limited options. I think it would have made perfect sense. He had to play Lascelles anyway right? Besides Aarons starting today seemed very optimistic, especially ahead of Perez, and in a wing back position. Really disappointed in the manager today. All the time we were stinking it up earlier int he season he never tried this system, and now we had put together some good performances he starts messing about with it. Mbemba had never played FB before he came here. I would've had him there today, tbh.

Our shape wasn't that negative, tbh. Both Aarons and Janmaat's average positions were in their half and only Saivet was near the back 3. We just couldn't find a rhythm, Watford shut down central space very well and pressed us.

Quieter than last week, but I still thought he did some good things. As has been mentioned, he was asking for more forward movement at times as he obviously wanted to play the ball quicker.

Some good, some bad. He's going to need time which is why Tiote shouldn't be sold if we're to have a competent DM between now and the Summer.

Aided by a fair amount of s**** on the pitch. All he had to do was make one f***ing change. Jesus. And then what? Our centre halves still would've been mugged off by Deeney and Ighalo being able to out-muscle them. So might have been an idea to play to our strengths then rather than rely on a defence that got raped by the same front pair at St James. The f*** are people watching? The same thing but trying to view it with more balance, maybe? Balance. Christ. Have you actually criticised any players today, by any chance? Or is it just your usual McClaren rant that you've been regurgitating every single week for about the last 7 months? We're back to the Pardew days again are we? Manager gets it all wrong so lets blame the players, or perceived lack of them. Last week was McClaren, I don't recall anyone taking it away from him. Today was McClaren too, f***ing s***. Every decision wrong just like most of his time here or we'd have more points. Why do you only view this as one way or the other? That's my point, I only ever see you criticise one person out of the staff in our whole mess. Because we go through players like a hot knife through butter while holding onto managers for years. It's simple stuff to me. Get a better manager the players will play better. Today was the worst I've seen of McClaren, basically Pardew vs Reading levels of absolute s****. You blame whoever you want but I said before the game started we were beat with that formation and selection and that's how it turned out. And you don't think there's a decent chance we'd have been beaten in a 4-2-3-1 with 2 physically poor CBs against 2 of the most direct forwards in the league? I think today was reminiscent of early this season with Anita playing at 3rd CB so things looked good until everyone realises we had no attacking intent and we lost. I really don't think I'm alone in thinking if we'd played the same formation as WHU with Aarons at LB we'd have given a much better account of ourselves. You praised the Anita thing and gave him pelters when he stopped doing it Meh. This won't go anywhere. We didn't look very good going forward today even when people were in their more conventional spots. The only time we looked threatening was that opening 20 which was with a 3. Excuse me? Ah yeah, total nonsense. Cheers. Not total nonsense at all. I vividly remember us having a discussion a few months back and you definitely criticised him for stopping the Anita dropping back thing. You pretty much said every decision McClaren made was shit and the only good thing he'd done, get Anita to drop back and pick up the ball, was something he'd abandoned.

That was the oddest bit. We've got some decent technical players and surely the midfield being closer together should've seen us able to keep it better.

Aided by a fair amount of s**** on the pitch. All he had to do was make one f***ing change. Jesus. And then what? Our centre halves still would've been mugged off by Deeney and Ighalo being able to out-muscle them. So might have been an idea to play to our strengths then rather than rely on a defence that got raped by the same front pair at St James. The f*** are people watching? The same thing but trying to view it with more balance, maybe? Balance. Christ. Have you actually criticised any players today, by any chance? Or is it just your usual McClaren rant that you've been regurgitating every single week for about the last 7 months? We're back to the Pardew days again are we? Manager gets it all wrong so lets blame the players, or perceived lack of them. Last week was McClaren, I don't recall anyone taking it away from him. Today was McClaren too, f***ing s***. Every decision wrong just like most of his time here or we'd have more points. Why do you only view this as one way or the other? That's my point, I only ever see you criticise one person out of the staff in our whole mess. Because we go through players like a hot knife through butter while holding onto managers for years. It's simple stuff to me. Get a better manager the players will play better. Today was the worst I've seen of McClaren, basically Pardew vs Reading levels of absolute s****. You blame whoever you want but I said before the game started we were beat with that formation and selection and that's how it turned out. And you don't think there's a decent chance we'd have been beaten in a 4-2-3-1 with 2 physically poor CBs against 2 of the most direct forwards in the league? I think today was reminiscent of early this season with Anita playing at 3rd CB so things looked good until everyone realises we had no attacking intent and we lost. I really don't think I'm alone in thinking if we'd played the same formation as WHU with Aarons at LB we'd have given a much better account of ourselves. You praised the Anita thing and gave him pelters when he stopped doing it Meh. This won't go anywhere. We didn't look very good going forward today even when people were in their more conventional spots. The only time we looked threatening was that opening 20 which was with a 3.