Gallowgate Toon

I'm starting to feel this way about him too. Has so much obvious ability and seemingly chooses not to use it.

Once again, our players prove themselves to be the most gutless and idiotic bunch in the league. So many fucking thick decisions.

Mbemba can fucking do one after today.

Another thick free kick. Fuck the fuck off.

Saivet looked decent in his last game, no? Reckon it's a more 'no risk' approach with midfield, for him.

Going for counter attacking, then.

The 'she knew what she was doing' shtick is starting to absolutely do my head in, now. Is it just me, or is it mainly girls saying it too? Seems to be that way on my social media at least.

0-2.

It's going to be very intriguing seeing what he does with the flanks for the next one. I expect our lot to be much more up for it, I think the point and situation from the weekend will provide a big psychological boost. Hopefully the Sissoko on the left experiment is done for home games (at the very least), he just doesn't look to have the qualities to play that side. What I'm slightly encouraged by is that Sunderland are probably the worst sort of opponent for us - they defend deep, they're compact, they choke space and they've got 2 really physical players in front of an already big defence. Norwich don't have that, Swansea don't have that, Villa don't have that and neither do Palace. I expect us to compete much better in the middle of the park against them and, as they're more open sides, see more space to attack. We've got some decent technical ability in the team so I fancy us to match those teams much better and it'll be those sorts of matches where we see Benitez's tactics become more prevalent. This is far from done yet, like.

We created some opportunities. Mitro, Sissoko and Perez all had decent openings, aside from the goal. Shelvey had that free kick too.

How is it at all obvious he's 'always' going to cut inside? We've already seen he's pretty handy with his right foot when crossing. I think he shows a good mixture. He's just come back from a hamstring issue and was already lacking fitness, I don't think he's going to be at full tilt yet.

He was poor because he's a player that likes touches and Kirchhoff was all over him - wasn't the right situation for him as a 10 (I think his best position is wide forward, myself) as it was just too congested. It was different with de Jong because his game is about touch and move, so their midfield couldn't really get tight like that. I have a feeling we'll see plenty of chopping and changing from RB until the very end, he obviously picks up on in-game changes very well. Ayoze's probably better as a 10 in away games, at his current level.

He's not brilliant tactically but I can't help feel his positioning is being blown way out of proportion. He's not charging around leaving gaps every 2 minutes. He occasionally leaves his post but shouldn't be the furthest back midfielder. Simple as that, really. He's still a CM through and through. He's quicker and fitter than I thought he was too, he's someone that can drive us forward if he's given license to.

Didn't seem to have a problem beating his man at all and, once again, put in some good crosses. One with his left and one with his right, in particular.

Not true. He looked very good on the few occasions dribbling through the midfield. It's something he has the ability to do more often.

Watched it back, we actually played better than I initially thought. You could definitely see Mitro had been working on movement in the box, he had much more desire and had some set moves peeling off the defender - got himself some openings against big, physical lads. Shame we were so narrow for stretches. Generally, we were OK defensively but missing key athleticism and resilience. It's hard to take much from the performance because it's such a unique situation. Keeping Townsend fit will be a big help. He was useful until he ran out of legs.

He could well grab 10 goals this season if he can get himself on a little run. Ridiculous to say he has nothing about him.

Good player with a good attitude but lacking fitness.

I feel a bit more optimistic than most, after today. 6.5. If we can win at Norwich, and I think we'll perform better in a less intense game where we're 'underdogs', then that gets us right in there and we have some very winnable games coming up.

Fuck off, you shit twat.

So annoying in the final third, but a more committed performance from him. He just looks so uncomfortable at the idea of going on his left foot

Annoyingly safe, today. He dribbled through their ranks very dangerously a few times and then just seemed to stop doing it and started just passing it sideways a lot. Wasn't great defensively, either. I'd persist with him at CM, tbh.

That striker coach obviously taught him something valuable this week

As a 10, I agree. Perez was really poor in the middle, today, just couldn't compete with more physical opponents.

They rattled us early and we just couldn't get it going, you could see our lot lose confidence straight off the bat. We were feeling sorry for ourselves and they just weren't competing in key areas - CM was a joke, in particular. Confidence was the thing, though, you could see a shift after they'd laid off us a bit. We need to take that into Norwich now. Some very winnable games coming up. Not losing that could make a huge, huge difference to us.