Gallowgate Toon

Don't mind Colo as a backup, but he shouldn't have a guaranteed starting spot. Nor should he be our on-pitch captain. Really wish we'd just pay Williamson off and bring another centre half in.

It's totally crap. I just expect that's what we'll see for the first few games.

Anita's played more preseason minutes than him, hasn't he? Interesting if that's the case. Think we'll initially see Colback-Anita but will quickly be phased out for Wijnaldum to drop deeper.

He's just solid. Decent squad player, if his role is minimised to a simple one. Shouldn't be a starter. He did OK in a couple of spells, last year, but he's generally just too passive to be a main central midfielder.

If Taylor and Williamson are to start any of our games, Pelle and Gomis are good opposition for them. I'd have Mbemba in with Taylor on Sunday, myself. I'd also go with fuck the DMs - Sissoko and Wijnaldum interchanging, Perez and Aarons swapping wings with de Jong behind Cisse. Mitrovic to come on and fuck some shit up.

Mick Lowes still texts Alan Pardew, the freak. Really hope that bloke fucks off soon.

No way he'd walk in ahead of Cisse, like.

He's just too lax and looks lethargic - like there's no explosiveness to him or something. He's obviously a decent footballer but seems to have fallen into a yoyo club trap and stagnated. M'Vila was mint when I was living over there so if he can recapture his Rennes form then that's quite a signing, even if he's not what they really need. He is a supposed mentalist whose attitude was actually questioned when he was the big thing in Ligue 1, though, so can't see him lasting there too long.

I have a feeling Wijnaldum's going to be a cracking CM, tbh. Better suited to the league and just as effective in clutch moments as Cabaye. Obviously totoally unproven, just a hunch.

We've seen nothing in pre season to suggest Wijnaldum will play in the two with De Jong off the striker. It looked pretty good in the last 20 minutes yesterday but all signs point to Anita and Colback with Wijnaldum in front of them. Pretty worrying. I think we'll see it. It's probably not happened because he's been uber/overly cautious with fitness. It might not be the case next week but I'd imagine Wijnaldum will be playing CM after a few games.

How's he being safe? He's played some experimental teams, hasn't he? I don't see what's so bad about him giving players a shot to prove themselves, it'd be pointless coming in and saying it's a fresh start and then just cutting people, his job is to manage people. Besides, he's been told to assess the squad, which is clearly what he's done with so much rotation. The only reason Williamson has got so much time is purely situational too, a failure to purchase (surprise, surprise).

Big Al was in The Diamond the other night for Dec's pre-wedding do. Along with Simon Cowell, Holly Willoughby etc.

I think it's easy to forget that it'll be a building process and the refined attacking stuff will most likely come last. I know Derby are a division lower but, by the majority of accounts, he played some really excellent stuff with them. I'm confident we'll be looking much better after a few games into the season, on that front. Some of the tactical stuff was really interesting to see, someone said in the other thread that there was no organisation today, but I totally disagree, you could definitely see a structure and patterns forming. Perhaps we even tried one too many different things. Gladbach are an excellent side, defensively, they were very well drilled.

I think it'd be fine if you don't have a central midfield of Anita Colback. It's imperative we have a midfielder that looks to get forward when we've got 1 up front, Wijnaldum fits the bill perfectly. He was very impressive in patches today.

I thought de Jong looked good when he came on, personally.

2-2. No idea what the team will be.

Looks a good footballer!

Has Mbemba played any preseason games? They might simply think he's not got the fitness to start yet (even if he'd started today) so focused on having the two they know will be ready to get as much playing time together? If they'd had this shit wrapped in early July, I doubt we'd be in the stupid position we're in with Williamson.

Thought that was quite an interesting match, even though it wasn't very entertaining. We tried a few different ideas in different phases of the game - some really good pressing in the latter part of the first half was when we looked most dangerous. I think we'll see much more of that next week. They played some good build up but I didn't think they looked that dangerous, if anything, we created the clearest openings (not that we were particularly great at it, mind). We seem to be focusing a lot on building up out wide which I hope isn't their only tactic. Judging by a few press snippets, they're teaching tactics incrementally and I'm hoping they're just trying to get as much practise as possible with deliveries. Not a fan of Anita-Colback at all. They protected the defence well enough but neither is dynamic enough going the other way. Wijnaldum instantly took up better positions and had much more drive - he got a little lost in their midfield when he was CAM. I hope the Anita-Colback thing is just there for protection while players get better used to the system, they were both doing a lot of full back covering. Might just be because the coaches don't have much confidence in the back two. Good to see a bit of positional fluidity towards the end of the first half too. Full backs got high and wide and the front 4 mixed their positions up much more. Daft defending for their goal. It's good we're trying to play out more but there's a time and a place to just clear it.

When was the last time Obertan started for us? First USA game?

Seems to be playing his cards very close to his chest, like. He loves de Jong so I don't see why he'd not play him if this is his genuine starting team. Something seems amiss behind the scenes (LOL) if he's being this protective about fitness etc.

He said it wouldn't be full strength, didn't he? Sure I read that in the Chron. No idea why.

Don't think Wijnaldum was a true 10 last season, played more box-to-box.

Isn't that where he played for Tenerife? Wide forward-type spot.

Heard the delay was because he'd been having problems trying to chancel his gym mbembaship. All sorted now, though, obvs.