Gallowgate Toon

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.

Said himself that he'd have ideally had a few more weeks to recover. He's never been mobile but he looked very, very immobile second half. I thought the shouts to play Tino LB were good but he was absolutely dreadful tonight on the right.

Not sure if there's a post on here or Tweet that already covers this but what's our supposed current FFP position? Feels like we've got the additional CL revenue coming in this season + new commercial avenues. Are we expected to have any additional wiggle room from that?

Not a dig but what can he actually do differently at the minute? We don't seem to be willingly sitting deep, it just seems to be happening naturally with the flow of games. Any tactical approach takes energy, teams press so well now that it's hard to just keep possession. The earlier away performances were much more controlled than we're seeing now.

He was class today but a lot were right at him

We know he can coach an excellent defensive unit, there are evidently other factors at play. Again, the club needs to back him quickly and get some positive momentum around the place.

Dubs

What a ball from Gordon.

Fucking hell

All over the shop from our own attack. Again.

Much better second half to that, tbf.

Bizarre decision

Getting undone by simple balls, offering very little going forward. Great.

Fucking maddening that it was such a simple pass after that great work.

Wilson is a massive problem now because there's just no respite in sight to the 'he gets injured/Isak gets injured' scenario. Now we're at a stage again where nobody can be subbed on for Isak. It's ridiculous. The club need to rectify this in January, not the summer. We're at real risk of doing longer term damage to Isak this way, imo.

It's a nice bit of analysis from Clery re: Phillips. Think it highlights part of the intended long-term defensive plan with Tonali too as he's quick for a CM - he should, in theory, be an excellent drop back in option for when Bruno roams. He got back excellently against Villa on a number of occasions. Still don't think just chucking a DM in will automatically help as it'll create other problems in our buildup. Based on the video, adding more pacey options to the backline might be a bigger deal. What was good about Phillips' stats were that he's evidently got a decent amount to his game in possession and that feels like a good addition. Good tackler as well, obvs.

So frustrating seeing how topsy turvy the league is (as always) and we've had the worst month in fucking ages.

Inspired by West Ham We'll have had a better rest for this and there's not much expectation going into it. Good that someone like Miggy only played 55 mins against Forest - he is more useful in games like this if he's in good condition to do the leg work as there'll be inevitable pressure (and space to break into). Joelinton hopefully in good shape to start and we may even have another body on the bench back for it. There's the mental aspect too - the players know the worst of the fixture congestion is over now and the requirement to hyper-manage minutes is lessened. We're not in emptying tanks territory obvs but better than before. I don't really expect anything other than a defeat really but a performance to build on is an absolute must after Forest. Expecting Joelinton and Tino to start.

If it's true, my bet is Graeme Jones.

Phillips is a good player who has been in an excellent environment for the last 18 months, he could get up-to-speed very quickly. A loan deal wou view to permanent is a fantastic option.

Having Gordon in the spots that Almiron picks up when entering the box would be fantastic. Miggy finds himself in byline areas a lot but refuses to play cut backs. We've seen Jacob Murphy look pretty good at RW so there's no doubt in my mind that Gordon couldn't be very effective there. He also had a very decent left peg to mix things up.