Gallowgate Toon

We lack balance in a 4-4-2 and ultimately rely on individual brilliance to pull us through, it's not sustainable. With a 3 man midfield we keep our defensive strength and are far more cohesive in attack, with multiple threats to the opposition. We're a team of technical footballers, 4-3-3 encourages their natural game. Tiote Anita/Jonas Cabaye Ben Arfa Ba Cisse This suits everyone in the majority, in my opinion.

He was brilliant on the ball but it's noticeable watching on that video that when he was picking it up from deep, there was no movement ahed of him and he so rarely got it in an attacking position himself. Great how sharp he looks though, hopefully we fully utilise him.

All things considered it's not a bad result and was always going to be a tough ask, we did make things harder for ourselves starting out 4-4-2 (in my opinion) and I hope the penny drops that 4-3-3 is the system we need to progress with, it suits so many of our players that it can't be ignored. No shame tonight however, we gave it our best shot.

So Anita should have been tracking Hazard on the edge of the the box while a CB was already marking him? That would have left us with a bit of a numerical disadvantage. Whatever way you try to gloss it, Hazard scoring a penalty has no relation at all with Anita keeping him fairly quiet in open play for large parts of the game, this isn't particularly difficult to comprehend.

One assist, one goal in one half An assist being a simple pass and the goal being a penalty? He's had the odd moment in the half but he's hardly shredded us to pieces like some are suggesting. If its a simple pass then surely he should have it covered, and it was a pen he gave away. He was canny s*** in that spell, but im not going to lose sight in that its his debut, against a good side with unknown attacking quality and he had 90mins in mad heat 48 hours ago. I don't think anyone is assigning him to the scrap heap after one game, but you can only comment on what you've seen. There's nothing wrong with tbh Why should he be covering the pass when Hazard was with the 2 centre backs on the edge of the box? Also being 'kept quiet' refers to open play not penalties, a spot kick that Hazard didn't win I might add. He nicked it off him a good 4 or 5 times and tracked him endlessly, to put it simply he did the majority of his role well and wasn't disastrous at all.

Get in Hatem.

One assist, one goal in one half An assist being a simple pass and the goal being a penalty? He's had the odd moment in the half but he's hardly shredded us to pieces like some are suggesting.

He's been fine apart from the penalty, harsh lesson but he's also tracked Hazard well and kept him relatively quiet. He's a good player and it's not been a mess of a debut.

After the Spurs result last week, we really should have started with 4-3-3 here, why would you want to give a team with so many good players on the ball the extra man to dictate? They're not the same team as last season, they've got far more movement and pace upfront before anyone brings that match up.

Anita's had Hazard, shame about the penalty.

Looks like Larsson will move into the middle with Cattermole, Johnson right with McClean left, Sessegnon central and Fletcher upfront. It doesn't offer a lot of protection for what isn't a great set of defenders, they relied on 2 banks of 4 to keep games tight last year.

When Pardew suggested we'd go 4-4-2 90% of the time with those Demba quotes, I hope this isn't one of those games. Chelsea have too much pace and penetration in their midfield and attack now and with Mata and Hazard likely to be cutting in a lot, I think it would be dangerous to go with only 2 central midfielders, especially with the likes of Lampard and Ramires also pushing forward. I know Anita played on Thursday but I think playing him and making him stick to Hazard when he cuts in would give us a real chance of a result, Anita's quick and agile enough to keep him quiet in my opinion. I saw a lot of Hazard last season and although he got 20 goals (half of them were penalties) I fear him far more as a creator than a direct threat to goal, he combines vision and dribbling very well. Either way I think we're going to get a result, even with their ridiculous levels of spending I feel there are still weaknesses there that we'll definitely exploit, like 2 defensively average centre backs. If we go 4-4-2 I think it'll be 2-2, if we go 4-3-3 I think we can sneak a one goal win.

Very good signing for them.

Pretty much everyone agrees they've improved with the signings they've made, there's just discussion on how much of an upgrade they are compared to last season, which is normal. There are still 9 better teams in the division in my opinion, I think they'll finish 10th which would be good for them.

Considering he's not as good a player as Ben Arfa, no he wouldn't.

http://www.readytogo.net/smb/showthread.php?t=725098 And so it begins...

I think we'll buy one more, hopefully it's either Debuchy or Douglas and that'll be us. I'd be happy with that personally.

Still got 7 goals in his last two seasons despite being a bit part player for Man City. Also has more pace than you give him credit for. He's not slow but he's not particularly quick either, so he doesn't really fit in with O'Neill's philosophy there. There were also comments that he has poor decision making too. Larsson got 7 goals last season and he wasn't playing for the best team in the division, checking last season's 6 in the league for Johnson, they don't really look great all things considered, all came in thumpings against poor opposition (http://soccernet.espn.go.com/player/_/id/55814/adam-johnson?cc=5739). The mackems are a different ball game that require far more input, something he's been noted to not do. To put it simply, he's 25 and has never consistently proven himself at a Premier League club, I don't think he's as significant an improvement as people make out.

I really just don't get the level of hype Johnson has, he's 25 years of age and all he has to show for it is a good half a season in the Championship and some goals and assists as a peripheral substitute at City, in what way does he deserve a 10 million pound price tag? It's interesting reading Blue Moon and speaking to City fans compared to opinions on here. The majority acknowledge that he has good technique but is lacking in other areas, he doesn't work hard on or off the pitch with an apparently poor attitude, he has questionable fitness, is too slow, disappears out of matches and has been easily nullified since opposition have figured out what he's all about on that right hand side. He just strikes me as a player who has the odd moment but overall flatters to deceive, a luxury player. Adding to that, he really doesn't seem to fit in to O'Neill's philosophy either. It's interesting looking at who he's going to replace too, which looks to be Larsson, an inferior footballer no doubt but someone who produced well in terms of goals and assists last season, in my opinion it'll statistically be a like for like swap. Fletcher is someone who I think will improve them though, yes they've paid over the odds but he offers what Bendtner did in terms of overall play and has a higher goal threat as well as being a hard worker. I think with him on board they'll snatch a top half finish.

Fletcher's an alright player and fits in with O'Neill's philosophy of working hard and whatnot but the fee is pathetic, as has been mentioned. Johnson's a strange one for MONg though as his work rate has seemingly been one of his biggest criticisms in his career to date, I can't see him getting away with not putting a shift in, it seems they already have to carry Sessegnon in that department.

Taking Ba out of the equation, Johnson still wouldn't be an option to fill a wide left role because he's never performed there at the top level, he does pretty much all of his damage on the right. Someone like Moses would be ideal, if Ba wasn't here.

I definitely would have had Anita in there on Hazard, he's got the pace to keep up with him and then there's the added bonus that he looks very good in possession too but I think it'll come too soon taking last night into account.

In no way did he play well in the second half. He was just less terrible than in the first half.His crossing is terrible, I keep hearing that he's allegedly super skillful but he only ever runs in a straight line and is incapable of completing anything but the simplest pass. I'm pretty sure he created our 2 best chances with his 'terrible' crossing... Alright, I've had several beers and the wife spent the entire match trying to talk to me about shoes, but from the little I can coherently recall the crosses he put in were s***, but their sunday league defence flapped all over the place and the ball dropped kindly. Against any team with even the merest semblance of competence, his crosses would have yielded nothing apart from jeers. Let's not praise him too highly for what were effectively a couple of floated, lofted chips that broke loose in the box. (I reserve the right to retract the above opinion in the light of any evidence that I wasn't paying proper attention due to excess beer / shoe related discussions. It's been a long day.) His crosses were fairly decent in my opinion but I was more impressed that he actually chose to take on his man more than anything. He was finally knocking it past and using that speed and if we can harness it, it will be an incredibly useful tool. The lad's not a bad footballer in terms of technique and ability but he's lacking in other areas, I hope tonight is a turning point for him. He's not good enough to be a league starter for us, that's for sure but as a sub and cup starter he could be very handy indeed.

What a load of s****.

We'll definitely score, they've looked poor at the back so far. Think we could do them on the break a la West Brom.