Gallowgate Toon

I don't think box-to-box in itself is a problem if the team shape is good but Bruno/Miley/Longstaff is fairly powerduff from an athleticism perspective. Slow defence compounded the problem.

In short, the club need to back him this window. He's more than held his end of the bargain up until now. Talk of overly intensive styles etc. is still a red herring to me. Plenty of other sides play the way we do. We do need to work on game management though. I know he likes the Keegan stuff but going kamikaze at 1-1 is daft.

Plus, Barnes has very solid assists to his name. Miggy is abysmal in that category.

Over the last 5 seasons, Barnes has scored more goals with his left foot than Miggy has with every body part and he's not even left-footed. No idea if this is true but I bet it's not far off.

I don't think we've even been that much of a high press team since earlier this calendar year. Swear our final third turnovers and distance covered had dropped. Something we employ more as a tactic now than the whole philosophy.

That header Should've had a tap-in had Bruno squared it, tbf.

He had about 4 injuries and one of the 'back ups' was Pau Torres.

We've not always played the same under Howe so it just simply isn't true that he can only play one way. We weren't a pressing machine in his first half season, we were much more counter-focused and were excellent at it.

He was fine at what he's meant to be fine at but should've been off 5/10 earlier when it was obvious we needed to mix it up.

Very shot-shy today. 28 touches, a lot of them around the edge of the box, but 0 shots. Sure he scored some pingers at Sociedad but all of his goals here bar Brentford have been smooth finishes rather than anything outside the area. West Ham lob too, I guess.

Been let down by our attackers in recent away games as well. Not even a sniff of a half chance being converted. We're definitely not playing amazing going forward or owt but creating enough to at least do better than that pitiful output. Across the last few league away games, we've amassed about 5xg and missed 8 'big chances' while only scoring 1. Compounded by lack of available rotation and we're leaking goals we can't afford to concede.

I'm so at the point of wanting to see him dropped (if we had a proper replacement at the mo), as much as it pains me.

Miss seeing this lad in full flow. Really hope we can get him to 100% over the next couple of weeks.

Possession football still requires energy, running, and speed. Creative players need others to make runs for them to actually be creative. We've blown away some teams sit back this season already. To me, it seems to be a confidence thing. The board need to back him in January.

We won in quite a few different ways for the aways last season. It's definitely in our locker.

Has a team ever had such good home but dreadful away form? It's bizarre.

Tough one - I'd have kept him on but likely just a protective move as Miley has played so much intense footy in a short span, plus playing in a 2 is a lot more work for a young lad.

I'm not sold on the DM either but at least having a proper backup/Bruno rotation would be nice. That nasty ocean-sized gap between defence and midfield massively reared its head again in the first half especially.

He looks well, well, well off it.

Maxi was very rarely ever the answer in those types of matches. He was always much better in games with space to attack. The creative player thing is, imo, a bit overrated. Our attacking numbers have routinely been very good going forward under Howe, in terms of underlying stuff and actual output. Bit of a rut this month which is kinda obvious to a degree. I do think we desperately need another wide forward now though.

Did play a fantastic cross for Wilson, tbf.

We play the ball so slowly away from home at the minute. We're trying to control tempo more but it's just too predictable. It's like watching us in January '23.

Another thing that is officiated wildly differently between ref teams as well.

The amount of shite Barnes gets for being one of the most productive wingers in the league over the last 5 seasons or whatever it is

The Brighton game was odd in that we actually had the better chances, imo, despite their superiority in general play. 2 very scrappy goals either side of a pinger. Feels like in recent away games in the league that we've had plenty of the ball so, in theory, should be in decent control of the game but we're too ambitious with passing and seem to leave gaps that are vulnerable to counter.