Gallowgate Toon

Always comes across so well in interviews - evidently a very switched on lad. Interesting comments around mental fatigue.

Nobody will care about finishing 7th once we lift the FA Cup!

You sure this is true? To my knowledge, only one of our sports scientists has ever worked with Howe before. We've got a few that were hired before he arrived, iirc.

Wouldn't be surprised at all to find out he's still playing through something.

Positive that he's graduated to first sub

I do seem to be getting more irrationality angry at the injured players, after each defeat

Thought he was great, his energy was so impressive. Seems to be using his right a lot more now, after that comment about a coach punching the stand

It was a massively overcooked problem until the injury crisis, as our defensive record proved at the time. Teams who attack leave gaps. City are a fantastic side and it's happened to them plenty.

For any folk going on about the gap between defence and midfield today, they very often tucked Foden and Doku well in to massively overload the middle while massively stretching their FBs out. One 'DM' isn't doing much against that. Unless our FBs man marked them across the pitch, there's very little we could do about it other than sit even deeper & narrower as a team. We took some chances for better counter options until we couldn't any longer.

City played that second half perfectly. Set up to dominate possession expertly and wait for our counter options to tire out after 20 minutes. It's so fucking tediously boring to watch though.

It's tricky with Longstaff because we do seem to have played our best stuff with him in the side. Joelinton and Bruno were by far our most prolific midfielders last season for defensive work, iirc, they got through more tackles, interceptions, clearances than anyone else in that area and they cover distance as well. I'd say Joelinton isn't positionally sound though, his great defensive work seems to be winning duels in central and wide areas but good teams have found him wanting when his back is turned and he's not sure what's behind him - bit of a hallmark of him not traditionally being a mid perhaps. Bruno is great defensively, imo, apart from when covering breaks. Longstaff seems to do the better positional covering than Joelinton and has a bit more athleticism than Bruno, but he's obviously a lot weaker on the ball (does have his moments, tbf).

I still think he's going to finish this season strongly, or at least much better than we've seen to date. Howe has mentioned a few times that we've simply not had training time as a squad - that isn't conducive to a good environment for a young player learning a new position/system and fully explains the lack of trust, so far.

Teams didn't have it that figured out before the injury crisis. We had a mini wobble for a few games after Villa and then we were one of the most in-form teams until December iirc. Any type of football requires the necessary energy at this level, regardless of tactics. Rafa nailed it with the short blanket expression.

A very sobering day for them - the clubs are currently oceans apart in every way.

Playground shit for him today.

Class. To be fair, he'd absolutely take the piss out of that league.

60 good minutes out of Bruno, Gordon, and Isak should put this game to bed, like.

Christ, that actually feels very sad to watch now. He obviously wasn't as good in the games after (although, he still had some good moments) but I had no doubts that he'd have been well adjusted by now and delivering that type of performance on a regular basis.

I thought we were the ones that sold our soul?

Word on the street is that Silverstone is a bit frustrated at the team he has at his disposal currently but we are incrementally improving that side of the club. On the flipside, the club (and industry) doesn't pay that well compared to alternatives so it's kind of their own fault

I'm pretty concerned about injury recurrence in a few of those players, like Some have also missed big stretches of gametime and will take a good few games to get up-to-speed too.

He is feeling more & more like a no-brainer at the minute, like. Used to having to play midfield on his own as well

Aye, as much as I'm desperate for us to make some signings, I can't help but feel the reward for it this season is paltry and the board would rather keep the powder dry. Winning the FA Cup and/or qualifying for one of the lesser European competitions isn't very lucrative. On the more optimistic flipside, similar to Gordon, they might view this window as a headstart for next season and will take a few punts.

He's not played for months & is likely conscious of his knee still, it's going to take him a few more games imo.

I care very little for the derby itself, mainly due to the fact that I seemingly never have to deal with mackems. I'll be much more pissed off to be out of a cup that we could actually win if conditions are right.