Gallowgate Toon

I used to really not rate Dummett, I might add, and I don't like him as a left back. But he's certainly looked promising enough at CB whenever he's played there over the last year or so.

Canny hilarious you actually think he's better than Taylor. Personally, I think he is. More mobile, not made of glass, reads the game well, can handle himself in duels, not thick as owt, less rash, equally as good on the ball etc. He's also a good few years younger. Dummett isn't really good enough to be a starter for us, but he's the best we've got now (IMO). Colo was 18 months back, but things have changed. Taylor is a very streaky defender, he does have periods where he looks good, but is also susceptible to runs of being absolutely rotten.

Joking aren't you? Dummett is not the answer at the back for us. Not bad as backup but to play every week, no-where near good enough. Dummett's a very competent defender. He's by-no-means the answer, but he's our best centre half, currently. Until we bring in another after Mbemba, he's the one I'd be looking to play.

This sounds good. Is he right-footed? Think he could go well with Dummett. Still need another defender in, obviously.

McClaren has mentioned full backs being important, so I'm guessing he's intending they get forward more. Haidara is quite a good crosser, IMO, he whipped in 2 delicious driven deliveries the other night. Janmaat is very decent too. I don't think we need two out-and-out wingers, personally. We still need someone to come in and compete with Aarons for that 'true' wide man slot though.

I just had a quick flick back (fuck knows why) through and it was better than what I caught this morning I agree about Anita and Colback being too similar/deep (they seemed to be doing a lot of full back covering, with Janmaat and Haidara getting quite high up the pitch), but I'm sure McClaren said they were first working on getting the players comfortable in this shape and holding the ball, then they'd look to work on being more incisive. Perhaps they're just keeping it safe to build confidence, for the moment, I hope it's not a long-term thing. de Jong's off-the-ball work needs a bit of time, he seems to be doing some energy conservation which is pretty understandable. We needed him to drop deeper when playing in the hole a little bit more to link up through the middle as an extra option. We had some good 1-touch interchanges in the previous game through the middle, we were missing that. We're certainly getting more numbers forward. I saw a few first half attacks and we regularly getting 4/5 in and around the box, but things broke down too many times with poor choices and/or touches. If they're really mainly just focusing on possession-based stuff, at the minute, that might explain the lack of cohesion. There were some good moments out wide where we upped the tempo out wide well, with Janmaat and Sissoko doing some good 1-2s and getting into good crossing positions. I did like seeing a bit of rotation between de Jong and the 2 deeper midfielders, but it's a bit pointless when it's Colback and Anita taking up that #10 role; if we get Wijnaldum in there, I can see it working nicely mind. Some of the pressing was a bit hit-and-miss with certain midfielders not always following up, but at least the instruction is there to do it.

Meh, preseason. Thought we started brightly with players getting forward, good 1-2s etc. but it just descended into a bit of a runaround, after 25 minutes. We were sloppy with touches/passes, I imagine still being in early prep (and heat?) were part of that.

I think they should perhaps just reserve it for the first game of the season or something.

To be fair to Gouffran, there was a time when he looked a useful player for us.

He might just be starting players based on their fitness and performance in training?

Moussa Would prefer to keep Sissoko tbh. Fo sho. We massively lack athleticism, getting shot of our quickest player (who's incredibly useful on the counter and actually chips in with a few goals, at the very least) would be lunacy.

Banega's a cracking player when on form, but I'd be pretty worried if we're going to be playing him as our deepest midfielder alongside Wijnaldum. Not that I think he's coming

Whenever I've seen Lens, he's been good. I reckon he'll do well there.

I watched a lot of it and felt there were some positives to take. Trying to start out from the back (but not exclusively) is a good start, we had some nice one-touch passing moves/patterns that led to genuine chances and we got plenty of bodies forward when on the attack. Encouraging to hear McClaren's assessment too, that we were poor off the ball in the first half etc. Of course, we need some quality in ASAP. A centre half, another winger and striker are an absolute must, as well as another full back. On a side note, did anyone else think the ball seemed absolutely shit? Moved like a PS2 PES floater.

Cabella will be fine if there's some legit structure around him. If we plan on playing him like we did last season, in the hope he's a maverick winger that's going to dribble past 2 or 3 players at a time, then we might as well boot him out now. Probably the biggest 'system' player we've got, along with Anita.

I think McClaren will put Sissoko wide, for some reason. Wijnaldum and Colback/Tiote in the middle, with de Jong ahead. Leaving Cabella, Aarons & Perez to fight it out for left wing. If we sign Mitrovic, I'd still be starting Cisse ahead of him.

We've got a couple of players in the squad now that have actually led their team to some silverware. It's time to get serious with this and give it to someone who's got the right experience. de Jong might've been out a lot last season, but you can just tell he's the sort of guy that you want to have as a leading example to other players.

I like Janmaat a lot, but he doesn't strike me as a true captain. He's more of a right-hand-man, IMO.

I think we'll see a quicker brand of football, this season, and that'll be a big help. Too often over the last couple of years, our wide men have (slowly) received the ball in positions where our attackers are outnumbered in the box and midfielders generally don't want to get in the mix to create more space.

I do think we'll get a few in, but it's disgraceful that we have to move so slowly. Must admit, bar the odd soundbite, I like how McClaren comes across.

In shock news, Luke Edwards suggests he's a bad egg.

Didn't we have a really successful offside trap, a few years ago? Might be trying to replicate that. I saw a tweet saying Cathro had been working on getting our attackers to press defenders

They're a quick side but are they clever off the ball? I don't watch them much but when I do, the likes of Zaha and Bolasie seem to prefer to stick out wide, isolate their man and get the ball to feet, rather than make runs for passes into space.

Punch is one of their best players too. Surely a midfield of: Jedinek Cabaye Bolasie Puncheon Zaha Is far too attacking for Pardew? I think it'd be classic Pards, tbh. He'll be in full-on ego mode after his Palace run and will be looking to tinker, as he usually did here (see his '500 passes a game' idea after we finished 5th, for example). Isn't this usually his downfall at clubs? Sets up decent teams that grind out wins (Palace are a smashing counter-attacking outfit, to be fair), gets ideas above his station to be more attacking and the teams look leaky as owt. The players then lose the confidence they had in him and he gets sacked (well, apart from here).

It's a pretty sad move, really, but I understand why he's going to make it. His eyes are firmly on the International scene and he knows he's Pardew's wet dream. It'll be interesting to see where he gets played - his best form for us was undoubtedly as an AM but they already have 'Punch the baller' there.