Gallowgate Toon

I think he's great but you can see he's a number 10 as he's very passive. He floats in and out of games and doesn't impose himself enough, and when he's on the ball he is very economical but rarely drives the team forward. Norwich saw he was our dangerman and did a good job on him.

He'll make a big difference to us in the coming weeks, I assume he'll either be in a 2 man midfield or playing as a loose number 10 as Pards said. I don't think he's at his most effective in either though, put him in Anita's role today, with Vurnon taking Perch's place and we'd see a more balanced midfield.

So our only option is to go completely the opposite way? First half we lacked structure in the midfield and they found it easy to get balls through. We just had to make sure Perch positioned himself a little better and we'd have looked more solid while not giving up our entire attacking threat.

He had no support whatsoever. He was always about 20 yards away from our other players.

That would be funny if it weren't true! It's depressingly predictable. That whole Everton stuff with Shola starting (and not coming off) means he's going to play both of them together.

Got the point and clean sheet that he wanted, I think he'll be delighted with the result. Next match Shola's back so we can go back to 4-4-2.

We need his ability to actually drive at teams. Marveaux is too chilled and Jonas is shit.

Finally, a bit of penetration and drive.

Midfield protection poor again, they're getting balls through on the deck too easily.

Woeful lack of options in the box there.

Better.

Our central midfield marking is shocking, it doesn't help that Pards' version of high press is shit. Pretty much negates the 3 man midfield when the likes of Perch and Marveaux are pressing too high.

Honestly, the midfield's positioning is just weird. Where's the protection?

That's the kind of stuff we need to be doing.

We're either all too high or all too deep.

Williamson is a shit cunt.

What is Williamson's problem? Aimless punt.

Anita's an interesting shout, he's surprisingly vocal, i often notice trying him to get players going again after the opposition have scored, and he has a fantastic attitude, he acts like a proper winner. Ultimately I don't think he has enough presence to really nail it though. Hatem or YoCabs for me.

Amazing what happened to him.

Hatem used to drive a Merc. Wasn't it said on here that he had an accident and was found to be uninsured?

I'd start Debuchy and Cabaye but I think Taylor might need a bit more easing in, considering his record. Cabaye won't play the full 90 obviously but if Jonas is back too, he can come on to provide legs for our midfield 3 in the second half. I'd prefer to have Marveaux in the middle but with our lack of options, I'd play him on the wing and put Cabaye in as the attacking midfielder, with Anita and Bigi playing behind. I think we can get a result but that's probably wishful thinking, they're a very decent side

Completely agree with comments made earlier today regarding instilling some confidence in the young players and his crap man management. His style and mentality is so negative when we don't have certain players available, this obvious lack of faith in the young players' ability to win playing football will come out in them no matter what sound bites he gives when in public. The lack of recognisable style is also unforgivable, what are we trying to achieve in the long run here? He seems to have completely gotten muddled tactically of late too, losing the basics that he seemed to grasp in previous seasons. Playing long ball crap in a 4-3-3 with no runners, no movement and a useless lump of a striker? Make up your mind man, instead of constantly swapping and changing styles and shapes every 2 seconds. I care that we lost today but I wouldn't be so annoyed if we'd actually given it a proper go, instead of letting fear take over and putting in an incredibly half-hearted performance as a consequence. They were like rabbits in headlights today, completely left hung out to dry by their boss.

Regarding covering full backs, Everton had a really good system to compensate for when Baines or Jagielka pushed forward. The wingers would work as hard as they could to cover but more often than not, it would be Phil Neville filling in gaps and sort of acting as an auxiliary defender. Certainly the type of job Anita or Tiote could do for us but our midfield has been too fluid of late, there's not been enough solid cover. In fact Everton are a great example of why we could play a midfield 3 of Cabaye, Anita and Marveaux. None of their defending midfielders (Fellaini wasn't back a lot) are particularly physical but work unbelievably hard and have excellent positioning to compensate for their lack of physicality. We could easily do the same.

I think he'll be solid for them, but won't pull up any trees. I don't think he'll ever be the main striker there either, even if Torres goes in the summer.

Pardew's cited he's an excellent addition because we've been lacking quality in defence. There's no chance he'll be playing as a right midfielder after comments like that.