Gallowgate Toon

Gutted, was looking forward to seeing him. Thought he was just getting himself into the game when the sending off happened, couple of nice bits of interplay and hold up etc.

interesting, thought we had about a good 30 seconds then they took total control until the sending off Think I'm just in fuming mode Certainly remember some promising moments from us before the sending off. They were obviously getting more possession but I wasn't too worried about that. Will have to watch it back.

Thought we started fine, tbh. Got stuck in, created a good opening, some good moves. We were just getting into our rhythm when Arsenal decided they didn't like being touched.

With Sissoko back, I'm not too bothered, tbh. Sissoko is tailor-made for these games, Wijnaldum is highly flexible positionally (which we'll need today) and we need Thauvin's delivery for Mitrovic. Perez is an excellent option off the bench, along with Aarons, de Jong and Cisse.

Good team for this game, IMO. Best balance between defensive cover and attacking ability, as well as counter-attackers that can play some possession football.

What match are you thinking would be? We're at home to the essentially possession winners of the league. We need a dude like SDJ in the squad. Games where we're going to be the ones dominating possession and needing to break teams down.

Don't think we can afford to bench Sissoko for this, btw, he'd be the most physically imposing player on the pitch by a mile.

Don't think this is the game for SDJ. Would be happy to see Sissoko-Wijnaldum-Thauvin for this (behind Mitrovic), they'll cause all sorts of problems on the counter.

Think he's going to be vital in home games where we need to break opposition down. You'd like to think his movement, along with Wijnaldum's and Perez's, will create massive problems for teams.

Perez out wide means he can drop deep and make runs ahead, think it's the best place for him as he has most freedom. He'll make an excellent wide forward.

More than enough there to win this.

Think Arsenal would've won that pretty comfortably with one of AO-C/Walcott starting in the right forward position (or at least come on far earlier). I know why Wenger likes Ramsey in games such as that, a player with good ability to link play in tight spots but he takes it a player too far. Could've done with someone who could open the game up a little bit both positionally and as an individual. Should've kept Giroud on too. To be fair, they made enough chances to win it, IMO, just think they'd have made life easier for themselves. Reduces the impact of good playmakers when they compress space in the attacking third so much and lack runners.

I thought for that Shaw thing he slowed down to decide what to do. That's more of a league adjustment thing, IMO.

He seems in much more suitable shape for his style now than his last season or two with us. He was too muscly, IMO.

That graphic will include that 2 second phase of headers and when he has to wait for the ball to drop to start the counter. He jogs towards their box too, after a 70m sprint or so.

Thauvin and Aarons must start. Perez will play next weekend so don't think he needs to be in there. SDJ behind Cisse too. Might as well go for it and play Wijnaldum and Sissoko behind the front 4. Back 5 of Janmaat, Taylor, Mbemba, Haidara and Darlow, for me.

I do think he'll get Wijnaldum deeper after 10 games or so. He's probably mindful that if he drops him into CM now that it'll currently be alongside one of Colback/Anita, who don't really have the capability to carry someone that's getting used to the league. He's seemingly being very cautious with de Jong's (and Aarons') fitness - which, to be fair, is probably the right thing to do after all the shit that they went through last year - but I reckon we'll see de Jong come in after a little while too as his pre-season comments suggested McClaren thought an awful lot of him. Perez is a tricky one, I really do think his best position in a 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 is in a wider role. Not sure how suited he is as a 10. If we can supply his movement as a wide forward, I think he'll have a tremendous season and bag 10+ goals.

Hopefully he'll be swapping sides with the other winger a lot. Between Aarons, Perez, Thauvin and Sissoko, we've got players that are all comfortable enough going inside and out, we should be fluid enough to mix that up. If we continue with Wijnaldum as a 10, the 3 behind the striker could all be rotating heavily. Personally, I think we should play 4-3-3, with Aarons, Perez, Thauvin and Obertan competing for those wide spots.

That touch was lovely, like. Saw it straight away and weighted it perfectly. Helps that Wijnaldum has lush technique too

Ben Arfa wasn't that fast over distance, IMO. It was all about his acceleration. I saw Thauvin play for Bastia once and he seemed similar. Not quite as explosive but still very quick off the mark, certainly no slouch once he got going and one of those that looks faster with the ball. He'll take some time to adapt, I think, but I reckon the nature of this league will really get the best out of him (based on little ).

BT showed an angle from the linesman's perspective, Rooney was half a yard offside.

It was either his Radio Newcastle or general BBC interview. Just said he had great technical ability (followed by that's why he believed we should've been better on the ball, because we've got players of such quality) and that he was productive with it too.

I think the passing it out from the back is what McClaren was on about when he mentioned 'belief'. He probably saw that it rattled us a bit so went for the safer long option - which, to be fair, is much more viable now we have Mitrovic. It's good that we tried it but it just doesn't seem like something we're quite ready for, yet (not against a better side away from home, at least). We're on a tough run so I can't blame a manager for going for the result and preserving the confidence of a team that is clearly brittle.

Tbh he's right, as well as we did there was times when we gave the ball away far too easily. Of course he is, I was just delighted to hear him say it. He knows we're a big club and had laid out expectations for the players. It shows he's got a good mentality that he's not just satisfied with that, plenty of other top level managers would be.

Good praise for Perez too, think that's him now edged into the starting XI.