Gallowgate Toon

So happy he's getting some redemption now.

He can easily be very effective on the right imo. Maybe not all the time but definitely for in-game switches or tactical tweaks at the very least. He's intelligent enough to be able to pick up inside pockets or go down the line and has 2 good feet.

Would love to see us go for it from the start. They've been leaky defensively and I feel we could really capitalise if we score early. Ideally, we'd see Gordon, Barnes, Anderson, and Willock from the start imo. I think he'll want to be extra careful with Barnes having done a full 90 so likely Gordon/Murphy. Similar with Anderson doing decent minutes, so probably Willock/Longstaff anchored by Bruno.

Any chance of an emergency deal has hopefully been wiped out now.

He was class, like.

Aye, 2 very high quality bits of play from him tonight. Easy to forget he's still working his way back to full fitness as well.

Had multiple chances to put that to bed and didn't. Had the feeling of our December games where we knew we'd have to manage legs during the second half. Fucking Paul.

Thick.

We should definitely only view Howe's tactical ability from the last few months while in exceptional circumstances, certainly not the 2 years prior. There are some fantastic videos out there about his systems and tweaks with us while managing some canny limited players. A fairly massive part of tactics is having the right combination of personnel to fit, you can't force things that aren't there or consistently magic up some grand tactical wizardry to make up for big personnel deficits. Seems to me like he's felt he's had to just go with acceptable risks while he's not had loads to work with while trying to work towards our next evolution as a club. Saying things like 'we should just drop deeper' forget that doing that creates impacts elsewhere and isn't just some silver bullet. Also, Howe seems to want to win and entertain. I personally love that as a platform far more than most of the alternatives in modern football.

City-Arsenal is just cancelling out from two control freaks. Klopp is a bellend but his MO is always to attack which led to some pretty excellent encounters.

Have we scored as many as City so far in the league? That's absolutely mad, considering context.

Disagree with this. Some of the stuff we played between Milan away and Chelsea home is the most balanced football I've ever seen from us and, imo, looked a step up on last year.

Our move for the equaliser was class and it appeared coordinated and not just excellently executed. I actually think it's one of my favourite goals of the season by us. Bruno and Longstaff making the box shape opening up space ahead of the midfield, perfect positioning of Barnes and Gordon to pick up striker positions as Isak dropped in, followed by excellent runs. Good width provided by Murphy and Anderson too in case needed.

Really, really like Kudus. Proper turn on a 6-pence player. Hall did really well against him second half but it looked like Kudus had gassed out a bit to me - not sure if that's common with him. Also, Paqueta is so fucking annoying I feel like he's canny over-hyped as well - absolutely a good player but not a great one.

Did have Jo vibes how he went barreling in and charging all over. He's a strong lad. Not sure how sustainable it is for a full game, especially considering his injury history, but it was great to see as an option.

Defensively, we were generally fine in general play yesterday imo. Poor for the first but the other 2 were set piece errors mixed in with some dodgy 'keeping rather than anything structural. I thought West Ham were a relatively poor threat considering they have some real attacking talent at their disposal. Most surprising was how shit they were defensively though - we played through them a lot. More confidence in the final third and we could've had 6/7.

Isak dropping in should be absolute gold dust for someone like Barnes, a 1-2 maestro.

Sitting in the sun on the quayside drinking that in. Magical stuff.

There's absolutely not boring about the goals he can score. I could watch him smash in curlers all fucking day, man.

Loved he did the fist pumps

Nah, he's not that bad at all, but he'd be absolutely fantastic with a bit more speed. Still, loads to work with.

Was he wearing moulds? Fell owa about 10 times.

We ballsed up 4/5 really good opportunities as well with horrendous passes.

Aye, Sean needs taking out of the firing line. Anderson showed some real snap today in his tackling/pressing and was excellent with his decision-making on the ball. It's a shame he's not more of an athlete.

Aye, I agree with this. It's annoying as he's really decent on his left and when he goes outside. Really liked him on the right and roaming.