Gallowgate Toon

Class. Fantastic to see something like that these days.

Playing Taylor would be daft, he's the one that needs easing in, we always throw him in the deep end. He's not played a minute's competitive football for months.

I hope he starts but I think Taylor will instead. They were training with Santon, Colo, Taylor and Debuchy on the same team today.

I think MYM and Gouffran will start, the other 2 will be on the bench.

Ordering Willo about in the footage from Pards' press conference

Their efforts to squirm this week have been amazing. Such a bitter set of supporters on there, literally worked every negative angle possible and not mentioned that it might possibly go well for us.

This. No mention of it from what I've read.

This feels ages away still. The weekend is going to drag.

Yeah. He has a better goals to games ratio than Fletcher over the last couple of seasons too, I think.

http://www.readytogo.net/smb/showthread.php?t=757492 Bloody hell

The passion argument is bull because pundits haven't a clue about our new players' personalities. MYM and Sissoko are great professionals and the former is a real winner in terms of mentality.

We spoke to him in October, the club tried to recruit one of the language students from Northumbria to translate.

Somebody shut these daft sods up about Gouffran. Keep banging on about 1 in 4 without realising he's been in and around 1 in 2 for the last 2 seasons.

Marveaux operates much the same way as HBA in that he consistently cuts in from the outside. We can put him out there, but we all know he'll just be a "winger-in-name-only." Our wide forwards are meant to collapse to allow the fullbacks space to get forward anyway. I'm just not sure replacing Marveaux with Gouffran out wide will produce any drastic changes in what we're expecting from that position. Another threat in the box and progressive off the ball movement. He's perfect foil for Debuchy's famed crossing on the opposite side.

Not sure there are enough goals there. It's pretty clear Only one player in the team consistently capable of getting double figures there. I don't think Marveaux is a wide man either. Not really. Considering our options, that's not gonna change no matter who you put there. Switch Marveaux for Gouffran and it doesn't change a whole heck of a lot. Unless you'd rather have Shola... One's a goal scorer, one's a creator, we need the former for balance. There's already plenty of creativity but not enough potency.

Not sure there are enough goals there. It's pretty clear Only one player in the team consistently capable of getting double figures there. I don't think Marveaux is a wide man either.

Not sure there are enough goals there.

Aye. Marv > Gouffran for me at the minute like. That's nothing against Gouffran either. Don't agree with the comparison, Marveaux's a central player for me.

There's a place for Marveaux in a lot of home games, he's a great little player.

MYM is the best footballer we've signed, and if all other reported deals go through, he'll still be the best one of the lot. Incredible player.

Anita is like a tailor - he threads everything together. Him, Cabaye and Sissoko in the middle looks to be a well balanced midfield to me - as currently we don't have a real box-to-box who can drive us forward on the ball like Sissoko can and that makes the gap between midfield and attack quite glaring, especially when bringing it out from defence. Often the onus to do that falls on Tiote and he just ends up making mistakes. They can all tackle and put a shift in too so you don't necessarily need a dedicated Tiote type destroyer in there for most games. That is a good midfield, I agree with that, but when breaking a team down for instance, I'm not sure there's enough attacking ability there. That's where Marveaux enters the debate for me, he's the only true playmaker we have (bar HBA), as Cabaye's creative abilities come from a little deeper. Marveaux has lovely feet, he can create an extra bit of space for himself in close situations and is a sublime subtle passer, he will be massive in certain matches.

Tiote is a defensive midfielder, Sissoko is not, it would be a real waste of his talents to play him as one too. Anita can play all over the midfield, but he's shone as a defensive midfielder above all else. I do not particularly see Anita as a player who breaks up play and wins the battle. Sissoko has the physical presence to do that even if he isn't deployed in a ancorman role. Anita on the other hand is the most modern midfielder we have. His passing and movement is/will be vital for our game if we actually adapt a 4-3-3 permanentley. The way in which he links defence to midfield is such a vital part of building play, I reckon he will revel with Yanga-Mbiwa/Coloccini in behind him. We could probably sacrifice Tioté who's more one-dimensional than any of the other CM's. While I think it's a common misconception that defensive midfielders need to be particularly physical, look at Makelele for example, Anita's primary roles would be to harry, cover, help us keep possession and use his good passing range to help break teams down, hence why I suggested certain games. He was excellent as a defensive midfielder for Ajax, it was the form of his life, I see no reason why he couldn't replicate that here.

I think it's more circumstantial than that, the only player that has a spot nailed down, in my opinion, is Cabaye. I think the rest are all interchangeable depending on the opposition, I quite like this squad malarkey

Tiote is a defensive midfielder, Sissoko is not, it would be a real waste of his talents to play him as one too. Anita can play all over the midfield, but he's shone as a defensive midfielder above all else.

He's solely competing against Tiote for me, if used correctly then they should both get plenty of starts with us. Anita should play games where we're looking to be the team on top, his pace can cover breaks if full backs push up, and he's a better player on the ball to help us break teams down. Tiote should be playing games where we're looking likely to have more of a battle or will be under the cosh. Simply put, if I was manager, I'd be looking to play Anita in most home games and Tiote in the majority of the away matches. Sissoko is wasted as a defensive midfielder, he's pure box-to-box and should be playing higher up. For me, he'd be competing with Marveaux and again it depends on the team we'll be playing.