Gallowgate Toon

Not defending these two but part of this is due to the tactics - two deep centre mids almost on the toes of the central defenders every f***ing game gives the opposition midfield free reign to do as they please in the middle of the park. We didn't start deep, though. We tried to push higher and were getting absolutely torn through. We only looked vaguely competent when the team moved deeper, closer together and tightened gaps. It's obviously hard for a midfield 2 to play against a 3, but especially hard when your two aren't even good in the first place. Central midfield is our absolute achilles, it effects how we defend and attack so much.

Shelvey would be great, like.

Just seen our two big chances back. The clearest cut of the day, imo. Mitro's header in the first was an excellent one too.

And drop Colback? Seriously though, I would have thought he'd have tried this by now if it was seriously being considered at all. It has been tried. Looked woeful but probably worth another go.

His finishing has been very hit and miss. He's on his heels too much too, sometimes. Great ball in in the first half that he attacked but was late to because he didn't anticipate it well enough.

They played the extra man in midfield so well for the first quarter. Sliced us open very impressively. Midfield were absolutely lost.

Elliot made 2 really good saves. The rest were pretty routine, weren't they?

Thought it was an even game after the first 20 and we looked to have more ideas towards the end. Our weaknesses really showed in the opening period mind, tried to play higher and the midfield were exposed terribly. Perez and Mitro are very green, in that instance, always leaving the spare man and going towards the ball rather than the space - much better when they dropped in. Everton had a fair few pot shots, like, not arsed about that one stat. Possession was poor but we play a direct game now (short term, I imagine) and it's where we look at our best. Didnt think we deserved to lose. Another game where we've missed some good openings.

Wijnaldum and Sissoko are absolutely useless at doing anything physical and with our rubbish defence we simply can't afford to have people in there that won't compete in physical duels in a crucial area of the pitch. Anita and Colback might be utter shite but they get involved in that side of the game and offer something (even though it's still not good enough), whilst allowing Wijnaldum and Sissoko (two of our best players this year) more freedom to attack. We're also not in a position to piss about with formations any more, we've only looked remotely solid playing this shape, this season, everything else has been crap (and it's not like a few different formations have been tried). Of course, he's a 'disgusting' 'coward' for going for the only thing that's ever looked decent for us in the last year with this lot of players and trying to allow his attacking players more freedom... The thing he does deserve stick for was still sticking with Cisse and de Jong up top for Villa. One of them should've been dropped, IMO, but I have no qualms about how he handled the situation a few weeks ago. We needed a change and he freshened up the one area we have competition in.

If this is the case then why persist with it game after game? We could play a midfield three of Anita, Sissoko and Wijnaldum with Anita holding and Sissoko going box to box but over and over again we play this stupid 4-2-3-1 with Colback playing hide and don't seek in the middle. We've tried 4-3-3 a couple of times this season, with Gini and Sissoko in midfield, and it's looked awful. Watford being a prime example.

Class goal.

Colo is 6" dead on, isn't he? Mitro's definitely bigger. He's about 6"2 and a big unit, he should be getting more change out of a 33 year old Lescott.

Gestede is about 4ft taller than Mitrovic like. 4cm

He also played, IIRC, everyone's choice of team against Watford and we still got ripped.

I know we've got weak-as-piss centre halves but I'd have liked to see Mitrovic show the same desire as Gestede (a no-mark player, IMO) to win more aerial 50/50s. Some of his link up on the deck was good but I felt we needed more from him when we went longer.

Really hope we sign a proper CM in January so we can shift the balance of the team better and see this pleb out the side. Sick of his dawdling. Takes 3 touches too many, every time.

Would consider giving him a run out at 10 and popping Perez on the left against Everton. Perez tends to move a bit wider anyway and looks more comfortable trying to beat a player in those areas. Then again, Gini's goal threat seems to largely be because he ghosts in from the left so who knows

Of course there was enough there today to win that, we had 3/4 gilt-edged chances to do it and didn't. It's not like the other alternatives really are much better, Perez aside - don't start saying Wijnaldum as a CM either, we're piss weak in the defensive spine of the team as it is. Hasn't someone already pointed out Anita was injured? We're not exactly in a position to start fannying about with tactics, we did that at the beginning of the season and were getting stuffed. He's found something that works better in the only shape we've got results and has stuck with it, hardly sacrilege.

I thought it was OK dropping him to switch things up a few weeks back, but he really should've been back in after Spurs. He should definitely be on from the off, next week.

The team he selected was only on the pitch for 30 minutes. Personally, I thought he made a mistake not starting one of Mitrovic or Perez, especially the latter, and wanted to see Thauvin start, but there was still enough there to put this side to the sword. We had the opportunities but didn't take them and that's because we're not very good.

And yet we were the ones to have consistently good chances...

He's the only one to blame? Not the players that missed, and I mean totally fluffed, easy chances? Yes but a good manager makes all the difference in how well they perform on the pitch. Bar 15 poor minutes, the performance was fine. Not the most exciting but we are what we are: not a great side missing key components. We still had more than enough opportunities to finish that game off and didn't, that one falls at the doors of those who missed.

Seemingly, like a lot of sides in the league, we're a bit useless when the onus is on us to create chances. Would be interesting to see home/away win ratios compared to 10 years ago.

He's the only one to blame? Not the players that missed, and I mean totally fluffed, easy chances?