Gallowgate Toon

Also, while Krul was fantastic against Spurs, I've not been massively impressed with him this season, mainly controlling his area and his distribution. I thought he could've done much better with the 1st and 3rd.

I appreciated this post in the match thread: I don't believe anyone demands it for 90mins in every match against every opponent, but there's just so little to enjoy about our football IMO. Even when we do find form the manager draws it back. I think that second one's a bit harsh, we've played some pretty nice stuff, this season. Nothing amazing but some enjoyable spells and good movement. That's the point though, we're clearly capable of it. Even the manager's capable of it. We're so needlessly negative. Aye, but it's a bit OTT to say 'there's just so little to enjoy', isn't it? We're playing just as well as we are nervily, considering we seemingly perform in halves.

I appreciated this post in the match thread: I don't believe anyone demands it for 90mins in every match against every opponent, but there's just so little to enjoy about our football IMO. Even when we do find form the manager draws it back. I think that second one's a bit harsh, we've played some pretty nice stuff, this season. Nothing amazing but some enjoyable spells and good movement.

Bit of a strange one, tonight. I didn't think his initial 'hit 'em on the break' approach was wrong, but the execution was terrible. Strikers weren't picking up the extra midfielder and our central players seemed a yard off the pace, literally letting people run past them. He shouldn't have changed the whole shape of the team, we seem to be horrifically leaky with a midfield 3. Changed too much, way too irresponsible in the second and I thought some of the players' commitment and work rate was poor, a tad complacent, perhaps. Bad all-round, we'll just have to pick ourselves up for the weekend.

Time to come up with something new. This is getting rather boring. Is he wrong ? Wullie is 100% Perhaps it was just me but I thought there was a pretty extended period in that second half where we had more of the ball and looked more likely to score, they seemed happy to sit back and try and hit us on the break. Hasn't that been our gameplan for the season? Although, we've often sat back after a 2 goal lead, not 1 (which isn't very good but saying it's with a one goal advantage isn't true, IMO). We looked likely but we never seem to make clear cut chances, it always seems to be scrappy second ball hits. We never seem to slice team open. Bugs me that like. Not disagreeing with that, we're not a really creative side, although, Remy's chance (the handball) was a really good one. I just didn't think Swansea really tried to take it to us after the break, we settled down and they withdrew a bit and hit us on the break, which worked as we were all over the place in the middle. After the second goal, their tails were up and we were unforgivably abject, heads shouldn't drop like that. This is a common theme. I think the players are as aware as the supporters that "falling behind = defeat" in almost all circumstances. I very much doubt there's any time spend doing anything other than working on Plan A, for which the mantra of "DO NOT CONCEDE FIRST" is everything. We go too offensive but lack a plan, we just push up and throw bodies forward. There was no contingency for them breaking, unless Tiote was back to thinking he was superman.

Should've been the first player off, he was absolutely terrible.

Time to come up with something new. This is getting rather boring. Is he wrong ? Wullie is 100% Perhaps it was just me but I thought there was a pretty extended period in that second half where we had more of the ball and looked more likely to score, they seemed happy to sit back and try and hit us on the break. Hasn't that been our gameplan for the season? Although, we've often sat back after a 2 goal lead, not 1 (which isn't very good but saying it's with a one goal advantage isn't true, IMO). We looked likely but we never seem to make clear cut chances, it always seems to be scrappy second ball hits. We never seem to slice team open. Bugs me that like. Not disagreeing with that, we're not a really creative side, although, Remy's chance (the handball) was a really good one. I just didn't think Swansea really tried to take it to us after the break, we settled down and they withdrew a bit and hit us on the break, which worked as we were all over the place in the middle. After the second goal, their tails were up and we were unforgivably abject, heads shouldn't drop like that. I was getting really annoyed at them dominating the middle, while Pardew changed it, he still left 2 in the middle which was suicidal against these. Such poor management. Especially when as you said we were all over the place in there. Yeah, I couldn't believe how thick some of the play was. I was fuming when some players were just letting their men go and run into acres of space. After the commitment and discipline we've recently seen, tonight was terrible. Tiote was abysmal and just seemed to leave the areas front of the defence constantly. Just too gung-ho, could've been avoided.

Time to come up with something new. This is getting rather boring. Is he wrong ? Wullie is 100% Perhaps it was just me but I thought there was a pretty extended period in that second half where we had more of the ball and looked more likely to score, they seemed happy to sit back and try and hit us on the break. Hasn't that been our gameplan for the season? Although, we've often sat back after a 2 goal lead, not 1 (which isn't very good but saying it's with a one goal advantage isn't true, IMO). We looked likely but we never seem to make clear cut chances, it always seems to be scrappy second ball hits. We never seem to slice team open. Bugs me that like. Not disagreeing with that, we're not a really creative side, although, Remy's chance (the handball) was a really good one. I just didn't think Swansea really tried to take it to us after the break, we settled down and they withdrew a bit and hit us on the break, which worked as we were all over the place in the middle. After the second goal, their tails were up and we were unforgivably abject, heads shouldn't drop like that.

He shouldn't have been brought back in anyway, he hasn't played consistently well all season, MYM had put a decent run together.

Time to come up with something new. This is getting rather boring. Is he wrong ? Wullie is 100% Perhaps it was just me but I thought there was a pretty extended period in that second half where we had more of the ball and looked more likely to score, they seemed happy to sit back and try and hit us on the break. Hasn't that been our gameplan for the season? Although, we've often sat back after a 2 goal lead, not 1 (which isn't very good but saying it's with a one goal advantage isn't true, IMO).

High line with Mike and Colo, absolute recipe for disaster. Although some of the midfield's work was diabolical.

Some really thick and lazy defensive work tonight. Basic things like tracking runs and not leaving the middle of the pitch wide open. Really disappointing.

Yeah, you only have to think back to 6 weeks ago for the last time he changed a winning team.

I thought he had to be within 6 months of his contract ending or something like that. Not if they have agreed a fee. Radio said 7 million euros. Can't believe so many fell for that.

McManaman looking positively Patrick Bateman.

He's probably just picked up a minor injury.

How the tables have turned

Like that weakling Ashley Williams? Williams is the same height as Colo, think Shola could get the better of him for the 60 minutes he's able to properly play. One things' for sure, he'll get less joy out of Vidic.

Rather Shola played here than at Man U. Their centre halves are quite small, IIRC, and I think the Remeobi combination could cause them a lot of bother.

Interesting. These are the sorts of insights should be talked about more, not Alan's latest meaningless drivel which really shouldn't be taken notice of.

One was excellent for us, the other is excellent for us and I couldn't choose between them. They are both obviously very good strikers, no doubt. But, I know if I was looking for a player who could do more than score, Remy is the one I'd pick. Ba has been the better goalscorer for us, his consistency was outrageous.

depends on the day, he had days when his control was evostik-like, when whatever came to him stayed there, other days he could control it 10yds. That's one of the main differences between Ba and Remy, for me. Ba was capable of sublime control (as is Cisse, to be fair) but it wasn't much of a shock to see him completely miscontrol it either. It's very rare that Remy doesn't have the ball where he wants it, his touch is really smooth and it sticks, the majority of the time.

There's just no way Ba slays Remy at anything in terms of general play. Remy is just a better technical player and has shown some real intelligence outside the box in his time here, he's a class act. You could put him pretty much anywhere along the frontline and he'd be effective.

He's a much footballer than Ba. We'll see if he's as consistent a goalscorer, I think he'll prove himself to be.