Gallowgate Toon

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.

Ashley Williams has always struck me as quite small for a physical CB. Wiki says he's 182cm.

Thought the laughing bit was a pisstake but I've just been shown it.

Not sure about that, we didnt confirm(and by that i mean the other clubs confirmed) our tour til 1 June or something. SMc was all but nailed on manager from late April. He must have had some form of input His interview after Gateshead(?) suggested that he didn't really want the team to go there. Said it wasn't ideal with the travelling and he'd have preferred Europe. Didn't sound like it was in his hands.

I don't see this 'no change' stuff - you can clearly see we get more numbers forward, there's definitely more orchestrated attacking movements (wide men are constantly pulling back post for crosses etc.), more one-touch play going forward, more pressing. Of all the games we've played so far, this one looks to be the least indicative of things to come, in the sense that I think they're more concerned about preventing injury and giving reserves a run out.

Which pleb booked a pre-season game on an artificial pitch?

Doing a bit of Wise scouting, he seems like a surprisingly well-rounded footballer. Good physicality, relatively mobile, decent with the ball at his feet, some link-up vision etc.

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.