Gallowgate Toon

Deserves a start now.

Anita and Shola out, Cabaye and Remy in, in my opinion.

George Caulkin ‏@CaulkinTheTimes 6h If I can't get home in time for Steve Harper's match tonight, I'm going to do a poo on the KLM service desk. This is not an idle threat. Expand Royal Dutch Airlines ‏@KLM 5h @CaulkinTheTimes Hello George, we've taken notice of your tweet. Is there anything we can do for you? George Caulkin ‏@CaulkinTheTimes 5h @KLM hello! Flight to N'cle cancelled,now flying later via C'hagen. Means I miss appointment tonight but told this connection 1st available. George Caulkin ‏@CaulkinTheTimes 5h Something quite embarrassing is when an airline sends you a tweet offering to help when you've just said you'll poo on their service desk. Expand :lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:

You'd think if we can keep Sissoko, Ben Arfa and Remy fit for the majority of the season, our away form will drastically improve. All are excellent options on the counter, great combination of speed and dribbling ability.

2-2 draw. Remy and Cisse to score. Think we'll get them on the break with our pace.

He seems horrendously injury prone.

What worked well in that great period on Saturday, was Gouffran took up a striking role when Remy pulled out wide. I'd like to see us go with how we finished (Anita over Cabaye however) when we go to Villa, I think Gouff could be very effective there in a game like that.

For all the talk of his decision-making, I thought he got it spot on in the second half. He mixed up his crossing and chose better times to run at the opposition. He's shown that when in a decent team (when we finished 5th) he makes generally good decisions. I hope that what we saw in that 45 vs. Fulham continues.

Gouff's a really useful player, certainly good enough for a squad challenging for the Europa League. I'd like to see him get a proper run at centre forward but that won't happen unless one of Cisse or Remy gets injured. He seems more up to the pace of the league now, he's been taking players on more and looked quicker and stronger every time he's played. I thought it was crap that he was dropped after the City match, he was actually having a pretty decent game until Taylor got sent off.

Do agree.... the main reason i think it was ineffective was the strikers offering no movement, the more Remy plays the more we create basically. Was so refreshing to see him come to the ball, collect, lay off or turn and do something meaningful with the ball - be it run at a defender, gather some space and switch play (Ben Arfa's goal). And honestly, it's not something drastic either - it was simple football but transformed us. Sort of telling how dire our strikers have become at the general play. Remy is a top player too though, none-the-less. Yeah, he made a huge difference. People obviously focus on his goalscoring for QPR but it's forgotten how much of a good footballer he is technically. You can see why he's been compared to Henry in terms of style, he doesn't seem like an out and out striker, he's happy dropping a little deeper and getting involved, pulls out into the channels, dribbles at opposition etc.

They're not completely incompatible but they're a pretty poor match if you want to be an attacking side when playing 4-4-2. Cabaye/Anita-Sissoko is the way forward.

Fulham was hugely positive. Half of the criticisms of Pardew are that players don't get forward enough, we don't create enough chances and that we try and protect leads instead of going for it. Exactly the opposite happened in that second half on Saturday. It was more than just a goal, it was the manner of the performance against an organised defensive unit, which has been our achilles heel for a while.

If we can keep key players fit until January, i think we'll do quite well. It's a big if, though.

I actually miss Llambias. Seems he was the 'brains' behind our (still flawed but better than nothing) plan. Something must have happened between Llambias and Ashley before Kinnear came in, I imagine the hitch was after Pardew's comments about Ashley needing to admit that he hadn't been the best chairman last season.

Kinnear's comments on the top brass agreeing that our team was good enough for top 10 said it all. That's all they care about, the happy medium of earning as much as possible while not having to invest further for the likes of Europe. I remember one journalist said that the management were unhappy that we got into the Europa.

Out of interest, when does the loan window shut?

Remy was a great piece of business. The lack of others coming in is ridiculous. It's not like we even needed that many players, just 1 striker and 1 winger would have done, they didn't even need to be particularly good. We could still have a good season but we'll have to be mighty lucky with injuries. Even if we could just get a loan in.

And what happens if one of our two strikers get's an injury? We completely lack the players to play 4-4-2. Gouffran fills in, he's very capable of doing a job. I take back what I said about us finally having a forward that can play as a second striker, Gouffran has always been capable but rarely preferred for whatever reason. Our squad options don't suit 4-4-2 but our strongest eleven is a pretty good fit for it, in my opinion. Pardew has shown he'll change it up when his hand is forced. Until that time, I'm looking forward to us playing two up top, I think we've found a good balance in the team's spine. He won't. It'll be Shola. And who's on the left wing? Did Shola start as one of the two up front against City? It's not a foregone conclusion that he will automatically step in. Marveaux wide left, admittedly, I think he's a weak link but I have a suspicion he'd link up with Remy well.

And what happens if one of our two strikers get's an injury? We completely lack the players to play 4-4-2. Gouffran fills in, he's very capable of doing a job. I take back what I said about us finally having a forward that can play as a second striker, Gouffran has always been capable but rarely preferred for whatever reason. Our squad options don't suit 4-4-2 but our strongest eleven is a pretty good fit for it, in my opinion. Pardew has shown he'll change it up when his hand is forced. Until that time, I'm looking forward to us playing two up top, I think we've found a good balance in the team's spine.

We'll be going 4-4-2, I have no problem with that personally now that we have a striker that can actually do the second striker role. Actually, if Jonas is the starting left winger then I will have an issue, unfortunately, I think he's the most likely to get his spot back as soon as he's available. I really hope he's not fit for Villa, I know Gouffran isn't the ideal choice for a left sided role, I'd normally want Marveaux, but I think our best opportunities there will come on the counter, Gouffran really suits that type of situation with his pace, movement and work rate.

To be fair, it worked. HBA delivered 2 earlier crosses in the second that led to fantastic chances that should have been buried. Nothing wrong with Hatem varying his game up a bit at times, I'd like to see him run at players the majority of the time but the odd early ball etc. to mix things up is no problem.

Well, that's apparently one of the reasons as to why we were so poor. There's also the added bonus of the January recruits being settled in, the prospect of Ben Arfa having a full season and the addition of an absolutely quality striker who seemingly suits the team well.

If we can keep players relatively fit then I think we'll do OK. There is potential in our starting 11 but outside 3 or 4 sub options, we have very little.

Hope Lamela makes an appearance, never seen him play but heard he's very good.

He looked at his best, in terms of a good balance in his game, when he returned to help us finish 5th. I have no doubt that with a cohesive team around him he will improve his decision-making. Not that I think he vastly needs to improve it, players that take risks lose the ball, see Messi.