Gallowgate Toon

Campbell will go on loan if we get strikers in, won't he? He needs regular football.

We've named a good price there, all things considered. I can understand Aulas' need for more cash but he's really not in a position to be too picky.

@CaulkinTheTimes: Told today by good source #Nufc now "close" to signing Gomis. Also seen French reports about impasse with Lyon which doesn't exactly fit.

Caulkin has a source who says this is 'close'.

Interesting comments. Where does Sissoko fit in then? Could we see something like this? Sissoko Cabaye Tiote Ben Arfa Gouffran Cisse

Also if we get both of them i wouldn't buy Bent, but instead a genuine winger. Remy, Gomis, Cisse and Gouffran would be the best set of strikers we have had in ages no need for Bent. Remy, Gomis and someone of Sinclair's ilk would be fantastic for us.

Remy and Gomis would be the best we could hope for with our current personnel. Both offer something we're missing. Bent doesn't.

I'd love to see him play central midfield but I can't see it happening for a while. I think he'll take that AM spot and even though there are 3 players I'd much rather see play there first, I don't think Sissoko will be anywhere near as bad as he was towards the end of the year. I think he was given too much of a creative role in the absence of HBA and it didn't work, he was made the hub of the team after a couple of great performances and went from someone that looked to pass to someone that didn't, instead he just got on it and ran without thinking. With the pressure off him to be the main creative player, improved fitness and him being more used to the pace of the league, I think he'll do better.

He never really takes players on. Yeah, that's what's holding him back for that left forward spot. I've seen him take players on a couple of times with some success but it's clearly not his natural game.

We've got a decent first team, to be honest, it lacks a little bit of balance but it's not a million miles away from being dangerous. I'm intrigued to see how the French lads do now they've settled in and we've obviously started to get the fitness sorted, Gouffran's in particular was a joke and I think he could be a really useful player for us this year as long as said fitness issues are rectified. I have high hopes for Sissoko, I think there are a few reasons why his performances dipped towards the end of the season and he'll be much improved come the start of the campaign. Get Remy in for that left hand side and we'll be a big threat going forward.

Our first team is still quite good IMO, enough to challenge around 10th but it's more the squad that's dire. Bring in Remy and Gomis without losing any big names and we could be challenging 8th. We'll see, I don't think we'll be finishing 16th though.

RE: Taylor's comments on fitness, Jonas has also commented that training was too light because of the Europa League. Makes sense that we were so inconsistent between halves.

Good news.

What a deflating read. The only good thing about that was Taylor saying we need to kill teams off, the fitness work is obviously good but will most likely be ultimately pointless unless we get some bloody forwards in.

It was definitely 4-2-3-1, the heatmaps on whoscored.com showed how we set up. In my opinion, a big factor in that being a success was Jonas, he had the ability to take the ball and get out of a tight situation and move it forward. Neither Cabaye nor Tiote are good at that, they're not box-to-box players.

Tiote and Cabaye isn't an ideal partnership but they'd be OK with 4 players ahead of them willing to move about and take control of a football. Sammy and Shola are nowhere near the level required and Sissoko shouldn't be on the wing, he doesn't move enough to get himself in the game from there.

Lots of ifs though..... i would just scrap it altogether and switch to 4-3-3 or 4-3-1-2. ( we played 4-3-2 in the second half so it must be in the back of his mind at least) Lots of ifs indeed, but we'd be 1000 times better than tonight. We'd have 3 players capable of dribbling with a football in tight spaces and doing something with it and a striker with some movement and the ability to link up with team-mates.

We actually played 4-2-3-1. Jonas and Tiote played behind Cabaye.

4-2-3-1 with Remy on the left, HBA on the right, Marveaux in the middle and Cisse/Gouffran up front would be good. Not with the Ameobi dicks taking up 2 spots and Sissoko on the wing though.

Nice to see both full backs bombing on but it was probably due to the formation change. I hate proper sendings off in friendly matches, just put subs on.

He's got some good skill on the ball but very little else. Couple of times today where he beat someone and then ballsed up simple passes.

Hard one to read with it being pre-season, us having this 'fatigue' training regime and the sending off. I thought Gouffran was good, he provides intelligent movement and that's pretty special with our current squad. Santon played well too. As has been known for some time, we need at least 2 attacking options in, a striker and someone who can play wide left, too often we have possession of the ball but no idea what to do with it due to the lack of good players in the final third.

Tiote being a dick.

No bloody invention whatsoever. That's not an ounce of creativity in that team right now.

Some really minor improvements: Cabaye playing further up than Tiote, we've tried to keep the ball and when we've broken/got forward more players have been trying to get in the box. Ultimately, our lack of attacking quality is hugely telling. Only Ben Arfa of that current front 4 is good enough, the jury's out on whether Sissoko can play behind the striker. Ameobi and Ameobi just have no place here.