Gallowgate Toon

He's absolutely fantastic, someone got laughed at on here for saying he was already better than Colo, I think he is. The fact he's only 23 is frightening, he's so good at so many aspects of defending, and is excellent on the ball too. The sky's the limit with him, I hope he achieves that potential with us.

I fancy us to win this one, in theory, this is the type of game that should suit our current set up most. I think this will be an end-to-end match, they like to get forward but we've got tremendous pace and ball carrying on the counter. Sissoko should be in his element. 1-3 - Sissoko, Gouffran and Cisse to score.

Says we went 4-4-2 in the second?

The 'abuse' he's received this season has been deserved, to an extent. He's a great character but he's put in some awful showings, that's not been completely his fault mind, he's clearly not a winger. Great tonight however, he's always looked useful in that midfield role, hopefully Pardew sees him as just that.

Not really a surprise he's not hitting the heights of Christmas, he's not exactly been treated well since the new players came in. There's a quality player in there though.

Winning ugly is simply a necessity in games like this, we'd have been foolish to not be wary of their pace on the break and they did a good job of stifling us too. Cracking result, Cisse continues his renaissance

Cisse Gouffran HBA Marv Cabaye Sissoko Would be a very interesting experiment, I reckon it would work for those Stoke-type home games.

Too right. Christ, the first half of the season was such a shambles from management

Just confirmed what we saw the other day, some games he suits being no. 10, in others he'd be better off deeper.

Goalscorer, just needs service. Fantastic run.

He'll get plenty with another supply line in HBA, his movement coming from outside is brilliant.

Mapou doing a Cruyff turn in the box I also recall him wriggling between 3 players and spreading the ball out to Debuchy. Outrageous player.

People are simply underestimating how hard it is to break a team like Stoke down, as if it's as simple as saying 'we should pass and move more'. We have a very physical team, who are brilliant on the counter attack but are lacking in the creative department at present. We have 2 genuine flair players in the squad, who can open compact defences up with close control or a pass, but one of them's out injured at present and the other has deficiencies to his game. This tiki taka talk is rubbish anyway, it's not an infallible style of play, just as we saw last week at Swansea, and you need a certain style of player to execute it. We shut Swansea down for long periods because of our physicality, Stoke did exactly the same to us yesterday, they executed their game plan very well.

Playing Perch at home to Stoke would be a monumental waste of time. I don't agree with Tiote starting matches like that, but at least he has a degree of ability on the ball, the same can't be said for Perch, as much as I think he's a very useful player.

He's missing a true wide man at the minute, his movement in and around the box is brilliant, he just needs someone else other than Cabaye to supply those dashes in the final third. He'll score plenty with HBA in the team, but it just shows how much we need some alternative wide options.

He's been hitting the byline recently but didn't try it yesterday, disappointing as he's been getting some joy out of that.

Usually when he went on a run yesterday, he'd burst past a few but there just weren't enough players around him. Only Cisse, and Gouffran occasionally. I think if he'd have been played a little deeper, those marauding runs would've been more effective with more options around him, instead the lack of options meant some form of killer ball had to be played, which invariably played into their defensive system. It may have been a different story if Hatem were fit and starting instead of Jonas (who seems to get increasingly deeper) mind, but I'm not convinced he suits AM every single game. The beauty of our midfield is the sheer amount of options we have, we can truly set up for a variety of different matches.

Struggles from deep when his passing options have been shut down due to a lack of space.

I'd play Sissoko where Tiote plays and Marv where SS plays. Quite agree. We have options in midfield, it should be horses for courses.

Perhaps the opposition were just very good at stifling us today? We have good footballers, yes, but it's not that simple, as different players suit different scenarios and styles. I'm not convinced Sissoko suits the AM role in matches like that for example, I think he's an excellent player, but his talents don't always lend themselves to such tight scenarios. I think he'd have had more joy running from deep with more options ahead of him. My only criticism of Pardew today was keeping Gutierrez on over Gouffran, in fact starting Gutierrez at all.

Should be starting matches like today, best option we have out wide currently (bar Gouffran), despite not being a wide man.

They came with a plan and executed it well, but we played into their hands a little bit. It's matches like that where Gutierrez just isn't necessary, Marveaux came on and provided something that wins football matches, attacking ability. He should be starting games while Hatem's out, not away from home but definitely on our own patch, I thought it was harsh on Gouffran to go off. Pardew did well with who he brought on though, it was great to see him try and get a result without the usual Shola move. A great win, these kinds of ground out games simply happen. Chuffed for Cisse too, that's what happens when you give him service on the edge of the box.

We'll have to be very careful next week, they're obviously very dangerous on the counter with Eto'o's pace, Traore's quick too.

It would have been very hard for him to be exposed in games where we've been so defensive. We'll see how good he is positionally when he's required to do more. He will be very good, excellent athlete and good footballer, but he's not quite Santon's level yet.