Gallowgate Toon

Think de Jong will be useful when he's up to speed in terms of fitness, I like his movement.

He's a defender, man. It should be instinct to track a man better than that.

Santon's tracking

Don't really think this Arsenal side really suit Ozil. There's not much quick, intelligent movement going on between the forwards.

Hazard's intelligence and willingness to use his vision is what sets him apart from HBA. Ben Arfa could be nearly as good (IMO) if he had a better mentality/more of a brain. Hazard is generally great at knowing when to run, pass etc. Quite an unselfish player considering how much talent he has.

I'd like to see him in a 4-3-3. Just let him do his box to box thing, he'd benefit from having more forward options when he's on a run, he gets into cracking positions because of his own good work only for there to be a lack of players, which seems to make him uncomfortable.

there may be some truth to that but i'm not buying it all, the hoofball to shola was obviously very planned, considered and deliberate - it was f*** all to do with composure imho and it's what cost us the game, not big vurn mistiming a tackle I think that was definitely part of the tactics but I think there's a case to be made that it became as integral as it did because he'd failed to instill the right mentality in the players.

Looking at his comments post-match, it sounds like he lost control of the squad rather than told them to hoof all game. It wouldn't come as a shock if what Wullie said was right, he got them too fired up, encouraged them to make it a frenzied game and, as a result, they lost all composure. It also wouldn't shock me if the squad were disorientated because our manager was sulking after the window debacle, I didn't think we'd win after hearing he was subdued in the press conference. Whether it was tactics or his managing of temperaments, he failed big time and showed why he's an average manager.

Cazorla's been shit.

Not sure if WOAT but Nigel Walker has died this morning aged 54.

sound familiar? we've been f***ing s*** at home for ages man, we look OK against the better teams but anyone coming to keep it tight and do us on the break it's nothing but an utter struggle and we've been very lucky to win some of the ones we did Yeah, it does sound familiar. I'm not defending Pardew, man, I just don't think Poyet's all he's being cracked up to be.

They played well yesterday but they've not exactly been that good under Poyet (performances wise). They try to play the right way but have still looked pretty terrible in the couple of other instances I've seen them. They look much better away from home, IMO.

Starting Shola was shit but it was the use of him that was fucking astonishing. We literally bypassed midfield and took every opportunity to hoof it up to him, it mightn't have been so bad if he was used more as a focal point for our midfielders to interchange with or a target for crosses but he was pretty much told to win possession and do something with it. We lost control of the midfield and game, as a result.

His movement was actually impressive, if we'd have actually bought a no. 10, he might have had more effect. He's not going to do too much outside the box, IMO, seems the type to keep it simple with passing and moving. If he's a decent finisher, he'll do OK here.

It wouldn't have been so bad if we'd just used him as a focal point around the box or as the occasional outball but this useless twat was our whole game plan. We didn't build play, we just pinged it at him. Utter farce.

We changed our whole plan because he was gone. It's not his fault, though, the manager should have the intelligence to realise playing the game we did was an atrocious idea that never would've worked. The upheaval wasn't necessary.

Using him as a battering ram today Fuck off.

I think today was his thickest showing as manager. Absolutely moronic.

Thought he was alright, just rendered useless due to fucking long ball shit.

Shouldn't have even been in the side.

Our tactics rendered him useless. His best quality is to keep things ticking over and he needs possession, he's not much kop at scrapping around for second balls against physically better players.

What a joke that was. Couldn't get a grip of the ball due to constantly playing it long, then, instead of trying to get a proper control of the midfield in the second half, we went 4-4-2 and gave them even more space to have their way with the ball. Sat off too much and generally made it piss easy for them. We had players missing but that doesn't excuse that completely clueless showing. Played into their hands, O'Shea and Brown could handle that all day.

He was shit because we made no attempt to control the game. He spent most of his match time watching the fucker sail over his head.

I like the look of him. He was rusty and not fit but showed some great movement off the ball and had an Anita-esque approach to one-touch passing.