Gallowgate Toon

Whoever plays alongside Shelvey is going to have a big responsibility. It's fairer to let Saivet adapt first, by slowly integrating him into it. He looks a handy footballer, to me, good CM competition.

He did what a winger generally does. Some good, some frustrating but, overall, he created opportunities and was always positive. Very solid.

Last 2 home performances have been great and are traditionally the sort we fuck up. He's done well to make us more competent as a side that can break a team down. Just needs to get the formula right away from home.

I have a feeling we'll win and put in a similar performance to the West Ham game. I'd start Doumbia, like, with Sissoko, Wijnaldum and Perez behind - movement will win us this as West Brom will sit deep and counter (didn't we used to be good at that?). Townsend, Aarons and Mitro can come on against tired legs.

Decent. Should have been better.

Mitrovic was 1 in 2 previously and he's scored in the champions league and it's not happened for him here. Exactly why are people so blinkered honestly it just puzzles me. Aye, there's not guarantee at all, his record is impressive. But like you say he's failed at the only step up he's had. His record at the highest level of club football is pretty excellent, like. That gives me hope that he at least has the basics we need. Italy's a funny league. If he had come in the summer, pre season and had games to adapt I'd not the concerned particularly, but we don't have time for that now. His CL record is very good, but the majority of his goals are in the swiss and russian league. Remy came over and scored straight away, despite being injured and barely playing for the previous 6 months. We'll see. We're fucked if this lad gets injured, though.

Mitrovic was 1 in 2 previously and he's scored in the champions league and it's not happened for him here. Exactly why are people so blinkered honestly it just puzzles me. Aye, there's not guarantee at all, his record is impressive. But like you say he's failed at the only step up he's had. His record at the highest level of club football is pretty excellent, like. That gives me hope that he at least has the basics we need. Italy's a funny league. He's a gamble though and at this stage like Mitrovic it's not what's required. He is a gamble. But it's disingenuous to say he's failed at the only step up he's had - consistently scoring in the CL generally means you can play to a decent standard. Pelle came here despite being minging in Italy and has scored a solid amount, just what we need from our main forward.

Mitrovic was 1 in 2 previously and he's scored in the champions league and it's not happened for him here. Exactly why are people so blinkered honestly it just puzzles me. Aye, there's not guarantee at all, his record is impressive. But like you say he's failed at the only step up he's had. His record at the highest level of club football is pretty excellent, like. That gives me hope that he at least has the basics we need. Italy's a funny league.

He's definitely signed. He was at the stadium yesterday getting his photos taken etc. It'll be announced tonight, I bet, if things don't pan out this afternoon.

Didn't someone say he played no more than 500 minutes for them?

Doing some of that reliable Dennis Wise scouting, there's like a 15 minute video of his goals and there's some great finishes in there. He seems to pick up positions well which is desperately what we need right now.

I know Whoscored can be very ropey but his apparent strengths are finishing and dribbling. Sounds like he'd be a decent short-term option, to me.

Lower league opposition, aye, but Berahino's finishes yesterday were great. Just what we need.

Dembele is talented but not that great, imo. Total cock too, he actually 'shushes' players that try to tell him what to do on the pitch.

I don't think Ba had everything, either. Brilliant predator in the box, aye, but not a huge amount out of it. Inconsistent first touch, not particularly skillful, ran out of legs after an hour, not a great dribbler. He only scored one from distance too, iirc?

Ba might've been the better striker, although not IMO, but Remy is definitely the better forward. He'd get goals from any attacking position and is a very good footballer, in general.

Good post, Disco. Personally, I think the lad can be a decent squad option, in the long run, and he'll just about do as genuine first team competition for the rest of this season. He's always struck me as a talented footballer and decent athlete; just pretty dumb which hampers him. We can work with that

Remy is mint. Best forward we've had since Big Al. If we get him in, that's a massive leap forward for our survival hopes. For all the shit McClaren gets, if we'd had a striker relatively on his game with his finishing all season, we'd be nowhere near the relegation spots.

Why even bother trying to go for that? They'd have had over an hour to equalise. No guarantee he'd even have scored.

Dude, they look pretty toothless today. They might have had a good goalscoring season but they've been powder puff this after and should try and mix it up.

I hate slow build up. But going forward Everton will score. Just don't smell danger at all at the back. Sure I've seen Neil complain about them having to break teams down. They should be getting it into Lukaku much quicker on occasion.

Everton could actually mix up their game far more, here. Too much slow build up.

I don't think Stones is all that, like. Good on the ball but I don't think he's great at actual defending.

I'm not sure any of those 3 man marking could be described as playing it safe . Still smarter than letting one of the most in form and quickest strikers in the league to move freely into a very dangerous area of the pitch. They know he's a brilliant mover, they should have looked to get deeper with him considering Watford barely had anyone forward. Made a rod for our own back.

Why play an offside trap when you're 3 against 1? Just man mark and play it safe. We're not in a position to take risks like that.