Gallowgate Toon

We did try and speed it up yesterday but were absolutely shite at it. To be expected, I suppose, considering how low confidence seems to be. If only we had more players with the mentality of Daryl Janmaat, he's not always brilliant but he always takes risks, tries to be positive and is determined. Wijnaldum has been a bit disappointing in that he's been quite passive with some of his play; he seemed to get more of a grip of it in the second half yesterday so I hope that's something he can push on from.

What do you think is actually midtable about our squad? A midtable team has a solid spine, we don't. I'd say our natural position with this team is about 15th. Until we buy a proper defender, a combative central midfielder and a competent striker (as back up to Mitrovic, at the very least), that's how it'll remain.

Yeah, I think with a good manager there's enough to be around mid table. And you're twisting s*** because you only say "more than adequate" but not for what thus implying something people don't actually say or believe. Our central defence is a joke, we have little-to-no presence in midfield and we've got one striker with any physicality. Our squad isn't a midtable one.

Watching this back, we weren't as generally awful as I thought we were in the first half (still shit, obviously). Going forward, we had a couple of decent opportunities and there were good numbers in the box on occasion but our final ball was often woeful (stop floating crosses, FFS) and some of the finishing was absolutely terrible. We tried to press them a bit higher up the pitch in the opening quarter but it's a disaster plan when 2 of the 3 covering central are Colback and Colo, so slow and weak. Thauvin was better than I remembered, despite a couple of wayward balls. Wijnaldum and Sissoko were poor off the ball, Sissoko was especially bad for their first, just let his man sprint past him and only jogged back when we were clearly in a lot of danger. We were after Capoue at one point, weren't we? He was absolutely tremendous, got tackles in in key areas when we were attacking and set them off on counters for fun.

We tried to play through the middle more, yesterday, tbf, but repeatedly lost it. Capoue, someone we're absolutely crying out for, absolutely owned the lot of them in central areas.

That first goal is an utter joke. How do we go from making them pass it back to the 'keeper to then being left 5 on 5 in our own third within a matter of seconds?

A nice mixture of pace and strength between him and Ighalo. It was so simple for them in the first half, just get the ball long and it was pretty much guaranteed they were going to win it and they were very quick to link play from there.

And it's been a chronic problem for years, which is precisely my point. The whole club is rotten and finally deciding to spend a few quid on unproven players from the continent isn't going to suddenly solve all that. The culture at the club is abysmal and needs turning around. Whether McClaren is the person to do that is clearly up for debate but I don't think anyone else would have done so by now. I would much prefer to have seen some tangible improvements by now but it's ridiculously early days. The real concern is that without any flukey or undeserved wins to date we're going to be left behind in a hurry. That's why I've been advocating a change back to a basic 4-4-2 and dropping the players that aren't performing. We need to get some points on the board, f***ing about can come later. Don't think 4-4-2 is necessarily the answer but I do agree that shelving the long-term plan/philosophy for a bit and just focusing on winning some matches (by any means necessary) out of the next 4 fixtures is a must. Our players' confidence is on the floor and we need that sorted before kicking on with new ideas, now. What's really worrying is that we apparently have a fantastic motivational coach working with the group on a very consistent basis and they still come out for a game like they did today, suggests something deeper.

Where were Sissoko and Wijnaldum for the first? Surely they could see they needed to drop in there. Shearer's spot on, tbh, you could just sense they weren't up for it. The confidence just isn't there.

Anita can play a forward pass for a start, not everything is about defending, attacking the opposition can actually push them away from our goal unless Cisse is playing up front. Howay, Mick, Anita's a tidy footballer but he doesn't really do a lot of forward passing. We had very attacking players ahead of the DM, anyway, enough to perform much better than we did.

Looked like an old man.

He did some good things, tbh, and always tried to make things happen. Would be tempted to drop him for Aarons for a bit and let him get used to the pace as a sub.

It was unbelievable, like. Worst thing is, you could just feel it on the day, you knew they'd wilt.

I know he got shit for Monday but he was much better out wide today. Stuck wider, had pace and power and managed to beat his man with some consistency.

Didn't .com lick Pardew's arse when he was taking us on losing streaks etc.?

Colback's positioning was fine for the first goal, the players ahead of him lost their men. Anita's not going to stop that situation. Second goal, again, he's in a decent position but Coloccini is a joke and we defend awfully. Going forward, the problem was a lack of width with the 4-3-3, we've not got the players to consistently cut through a narrow, compact team like that - again, don't think Anita's going to make a jot of difference.

4-3-3 would have worked fine with Anita as the only deep midfielder instead of Colback. Colback cannot do the very basics in that position. It was a crazy decision. I just can't agree, man. I like Anita, he's a better footballer than Colback, but I just don't think he'd have had any say in stopping their goals - he'd be struggling to keep up. He'd give us much the same going to other way, too. Lots of possession but no penetration.

I see him out running loads. God knows what's happening there.

Our midfield doesn't come down to a choice between Anita and Colback, if it did then Anita would be the choice. I like Anita but he wouldn't have made a blind bit of difference. We'd still have been outmuscled and the defenders left to struggle with superior athletes. We had Sissoko and Wijnaldum as part of a midfield 3 in the first and they looked utterly toothless like that. Can't imagine it'd be any different if you made them a 2 in a 4-4-2 or 4-2-3-1 or whatever. Only hope we have in that area is Tiote and he's A) injured/AWOL and B) not even very good.

We don't have better than Colback? Like s****. If you mean play Anita in his place, you get pretty much the exact same problems.

Think that's the last we'll see of him. Had one put on a plate, as well, didn't he?

Huffed and puffed and managed to nick the ball away once or twice, but still totally shown up for being a dweeb.

He cant even get the most basic thing right and that's starting the best 11 players. The options really aren't any better, tbh.

The squad is horrifically imbalanced. You could see today with Watford how much difference some pace and strength in the spine of the team makes. We are generally powderpuff.

It was good to see he tried 4-3-3 and then changed it when he realised it wasn't working, and there was some improvement, but I think he just needs to concentrate on getting this team to just grind results out. Our defence is fucking shambolic, if left alone they just get ragged all over the shop by players with a hint of speed/strength. It's embarrassing.