Gallowgate Toon

He was decent, but, if he really wants to progress as a player, he needs to improve his decision-making.

Should've won that one, missed some great chances, fluffed some really dangerous situations and made a daft mistake that cost us. How on earth the situation for their goal came about, I'll never know, that was just amateur. Wasn't really impressed by them, they were neat in possession but lacked cutting edge, well organised though. Good to see us counterpressing in the first half, not really sure why we changed shape after scoring though. Tiresias made an excellent tactical point in the pre-match thread, we should've kept the 2 up top going until half time, at least.

Do you have some knowledge of this? There were quotes over the Summer, from players, saying training was easy last season and we weren't as fit as before, Jonas and Taylor spring to mind. I'm also sure either Pardew or one of the backroom staff were quoted as saying that we rested players a lot more due to the extra games.

We struggled with injuries because we didn't train properly. Ironically, with spending dominating most of last season's talk, it was probably the lack of investment in the back room staff that caused us the most bother.

Disagree actually, their high press leaves a lot of their men up the pitch and so keeping pressure on their back line with 2 strikers and a bit more direct will keep them more cautious. Playing 3 men risks leaving a single striker isolated when they press so high. Having said that worry that playing 2 men in mid will cause trouble I would consider (may get pounced on for this) playing a 4-2-3-1 as such Shola Remy HBA Sissoko Tiote Anita Santon Colo Willo Debs Krul Make diagonal balls over their high press to Sissoko and Remy on teh wings while Shola provides a constant presence in their CBs with Ben Arfa exploiting the spaces left from Remy and Sissoko's wide runs. Tiote and Anita making sure we're not dropping too deep and keeping the ball. Gouf as super-sub I agree with going 4-4-2. We know how to deal with 3 man midfields when in a 2, it was just at Swansea where the strikers weren't doing their jobs. Don't think I'd play Shola though, their high line might be better for pace to exploit. Hopefully, this will see the best of our lot. Soton's high press should leave some good space for our quick players to work with, we'll need to play at pace.

Fair play to him. Didn't think he deserved to be in the side but he was excellent today.

They're generally way too slow with the ball. He should be getting them counter-pressing and really having as little passes as possible when trying to get in on goal. They're full of speed and athleticism, his current ideas for them too often negate their strengths.

Ridiculous contrast to last season our away form. Amazing what can happen when you add some pace and power to the team for counter attacks. I think it's more than that, although, they're obviously a pretty big factor. The team's work rate has been absolutely fantastic over the last 6 weeks or so, much like the season before last, and that can only be a good thing considering the technical calibre of some of our players. We've sort of turned into a poor man's, Premier League Atletico, solid, hard-working but with genuine attacking ability.

Fair play to him, like. He started the season trying to play a more open game, it achieved mixed results and post-Everton has seen a more hard-working approach. We've been heading towards the right balance over the last month or two, I hope it continues. 5 wins in 6, well done, Alan.

Think that might've been this season's version of his mackems game in 11/12. Looks sharp and understands what the manager wants from him. Don't think he'll start next game but will be making his case over the next couple of weeks.

His attitude is outstanding. He's in great form.

Much better, showed good intelligence for when to run/pass.

I think most of the haters have said that almost from day 1, it's not going to happen. There have been brief signs of it in his tenure, it's more likely to evolve into the above rather than properly going for it. But, you're right, unless it becomes highlighted in the media, it most likely won't ever change while he's around.

He needs a proper plan for when we go two ahead, he's never going to go for it but there's no reason why we can't properly pick teams off. We always sit far too deep and let the opposition have the ball wherever, rather than letting them have the ball where we should want it. Even if he just had some pressing instructions (depending on the team), that would see an improvement. Right now, it's very much contain and wing it, but, with the players we've got, we could be a ruthless team, quickly squeezing sides in the right areas and catching them out.

You can still be a counter-attacking side if you defend from the front. Mazzari's Napoli were great at it.

That is true, although, having better players will naturally lead to a more incisive team. I thought a big difference from 11/12 was our pressing, we were happy for them to keep the ball in certain areas in that game but we pressed at really good times, usually in higher central areas. We didn't do that yesterday, it was much deeper and we were letting their deepest centre mid have as much of the ball as he wanted, they managed to start some good quick combinations from him.

Not a good move, Dave. Things have changed with Moyes around, a more aggressive strategy would be better.

I don't believe countering is necessarily showing someone respect, I think you play to your strengths. I thought it was a reasonable approach to go with considering their players and philosophy compared to ours. I think our starters are at their most effective when on the break, they naturally suit that type of game. That doesn't mean I advocated sitting back as much as we did in those opening stages, or surrendering as much possession as we did. I wanted us to have a lot more control, hence why I said we executed it badly.

Robson built a team that could counter-attack, it wasn't our only tactic, it was an option. Of course, but it was a heavily-used option and the team was at its best, in my opinion, when hitting someone on the break.

As opposed to your over-simplification in that post and your extremely simplistic view that counter-attacking football is automatically negative? Robson made an absolutely fantastic countering team here, with the right players, organisation and energy, it's a bloody excellent way to play against teams that have a possession-based style. It's not at all negative if done right and it can lead to some really exciting football.

We came to counter but our organisation and energy was crap, cue a formation change after 12 minutes. They had the majority of possession but looked largely toothless until Krul made a poor clearance and our sleepy defenders didn't react to Dyer standing alone in the box. We came out well enough in the second but were far too open, they looked dangerous on the counter and got a flukey goal out of it. Our heads dropped completely, mix that in with some daft subs and you've got a third goal, which Krul could've done better with. Our lot looked generally sluggish on the night and our gameplan after going behind was a load of s***. Our game plan before going behind was a load of s****, that's why we went behind. Going to Swansea with a counter approach is not shit, it's what got us the win there 2 years ago. We've got players that are well-suited to it and it can lead to some excellent and effective football. Executing it is a different matter, both on the attacking and defending fronts, we were poor, especially the latter.

We came to counter but our organisation and energy was crap, cue a formation change after 12 minutes. They had the majority of possession but looked largely toothless until Krul made a poor clearance and our sleepy defenders didn't react to Dyer standing alone in the box. We came out well enough in the second but were far too open, they looked dangerous on the counter and got a flukey goal out of it. Our heads dropped completely, mix that in with some daft subs and you've got a third goal, which Krul could've done better with. Our lot looked generally sluggish on the night and our gameplan after going behind was a load of shit.

Feel the same way. I think tonight was just an off night, there was more to it than just Pardew.

Wouldn't be playing a 3 man midfield here either, we generally look way too leaky like that. We've shown some good signs with the fluid 4-4-2, just requires some tactical flexibility and high work rate.

This will be an interesting one, intrigued to see what he'll do. I think we'll be far more energetic than tonight, probably be a hard-fought loss. 2-1.