Gallowgate Toon

It's a kop out excuse and one that managers lean far too heavily on, a good manager brings his own fresh ideas and doesn't rely on much investment to keep things ticking over. Whatever happened to simply being a little creative? Producing good football isn't difficult and we have the personnel to pull it off, this is a young and hungry squad, there's no issue with their motivation/desire.

We can start calling him s*** when he plays poorly in his actual position.

really? Do you? Or are you going to continue to highlight a very vague Cabaye incident? The movement around the lad is horrendous. To clarify I'm not on the HBA is s***/not a team player side of the argument, but how about when we broke and he had Demba Ba to his right (movement around him) for a relatively easy set up and he overhit it towards the corner flag? So he passed the ball then? That's not an example of not being a team player, that was just a poor piece of play.

really? Do you? Or are you going to continue to highlight a very vague Cabaye incident? The movement around the lad is horrendous.

He's the smallest part of the problem lunchbox, he's created a lot of opportunities for others this year and did so last year too. I don't recall him having many passing options at all today and with the way we've been playing he should be encouraged to do something different because the 'simple game' for us has been tragically bad so far and created nothing. I thought he had a good first half but a poorer second one.

Krul Santon Taylor Williamson Ferguson Tiote Anita Cabaye Ben Arfa Ba Cisse

We use this excuse to,protect our favourites so often. A top player will show his class whether he's in a 2 or a 3 I'm the middle. Cabaye has been cack most of the season. He's a French international and to repeatedly excuse his lame performances on others doesn't hold much water as far as I'm concerned. This kind of comment baffles me. He is not an all-round central midfielder and is often chasing shadows for us due to being in an outnumbered 2, this will have a massive effect on a player, especially when he's expected to create on top of that and from deep areas. The players can't really be entirely blamed when they're not being used correctly, I'd be slating Cabaye if he'd been putting these types of performances in if he was playing in his preferred position but he's not, so can in some ways get the benefit of the doubt. It's the manager's responsibility to manage, I doubt Cabaye had played league football in a midfield 2 for years and for good reason, it's dated.

Spot on.

We're a top 7 team IMO but think we'll finish around 9th with the way things are going.

The least of our worries and anyone trying to make him a scapegoat needs seeing to.

It's not really that simple though, how the hell were Cabaye and Anita going to compete with Diame today? You actually need really well rounded players and some organisation in attack, not 2 specialist midfielders chasing the ball and not knowing when to make a move forward. We just don't have the personnel for it, even with Tiote.

No and it's fucking laughable that he insists on playing it. Our 2 central midfielders don't even have designated positions, Anita was further forward more than Cabaye today, why? One's clearly a defensive player while the other is offensively minded. Disorganised shambles.

Absolutely dominated in the centre yet again, this is basic stuff here and Pards has even mentioned it in interviews. Anita and Cabaye are good players in their own right but are NOT 2 man midfielders. The centre today provided little protection, little imagination, no attacking penetration and didn't even pick up second balls. It's an absolute shambles, Diame ran us ragged for 70 minutes and they happily passed it around us too, meaning our 2 men were chasing shadows, we're simply not physical enough for it. This has been our biggest problem all year and a massive reason as to why we've been so poor, it makes us so predictable.

Great finish.

Most fans were great but one or two just took it too far. While waiting to walk to the stadium in Zand square, one lad walked into the group by the fountain with his dick out and just pissing. I dunno if he actually 'hit' people but i'm not sure how he could have missed as he was walking through/between groups while doing it.

I thought for the little amount of football he has played over the last 18 months, he didn't do too badly at all. His touch is fantastic and he created some good opportunities with some excellent passing, I think we'll see him on Sunday.

Is looking more and more confident in our colours. He played a lovely ball out to Obertan too just after his goal. He will be an excellent player for us, put him where he was against Liverpool, a defensive midfielder, and we'll see the best of him.

Me and my two mates are in that, proud. I'm in that shot too I went over with the mentality of not going for the match, as I didn't have a ticket (there was 6 of us and 2 tickets) and was fine with that but I won our little raffle and got in, so glad I did now as it was brilliant. Fantastic trip, got the ferry back to Hull and have just landed home. Loved Brugge too, brilliant town.

Generally agree apart from the last bit, I think he seemed more committed defensively earlier on in the campaign. We would get more out of him by having a more attack minded style but there's definitely a bit of snap missing from his individual performances, people are saying it's his pace but I think it's more his agility which is looking a little tired.

Anita played really well in midfield yesterday, if we go into the next match playing the same formation, I'd have Anita any day. 4-4-2, then fair enough as we need the physical presence.

Reflecting on his recent performances a bit more, I think it’s either in-game tiredness (both physical and mental) or a slight dip in motivation. He has tried some, let’s say, lazier attempts at taking players on of late but also his defensive game has gotten worse too. In the first 6 games or so, when he was tracking back he was winning tackles regularly and getting plaudits for it but ever since that Man U second half, we mostly see a lazy attempt at sticking a leg out or something along those lines and the opponent more often than not glides past him. He still makes sure he’s back in his ‘zone’ and tracks well enough (he made an excellent defensive headed clearance yesterday) but overall it’s not at the standard it was, much like his attacking play. I don’t think anyone should really be getting on his back too much mind, he’s still producing some real moments of magic a game, even if it isn’t quite as much as before.

Decent result, thought with a bit of tweaking we could have won. Perch looked positionally clueless before he had to go off, Anita came in and did his job excellently. He guarded the space ahead of the defence, nicked the ball a few times and kept a cool head when in possession, Makelele-esque. I thought we were in control after that opening 10, we managed to pass it about a bit which will no doubt be forgotten because we played negatively in the second. I can see Pards' thinking, it's a very English manager thing to do, 'keep it tight for the next 10' but we end up naturally going too deep and running ourselves into the ground, we're always shagged by 75 minutes. I thought Ba and Cisse were fine, HBA was a little hit and miss but again he created our goal with excellent skill, he might not be playing his best at the minute but he's ALWAYS a threat. It was a little concerning to see him so deep at times however, whenever we lost the ball in the second he moved within 10 yards of Simpson, he did look very leggy in that second half. Cabaye has been much better of late, he looks way more comfortable in that 3 man midfield and supports attackers much better as a result, we lost a bit of bite when he went off (I thought Fergie was a poor choice to come on). Quick word on our Argentinians, I thought Colo did a lot of things right today but they were overshadowed by the negatives, the sending off was unfortunate in my opinion. Jonas was poor, his pass to Cisse was woeful, such a lazy attempt. Overall, not too bad as they're not a bad side by any stretch. We're getting there, hopefully we stick with the same formation for the next league game, some of our players look so much more comfortable for it.

Thought he was alright myself. Nothing special but some nice passing and whatnot.

Not a red, a supposed stamp yet he's not even looking at him and completely misses? Silly tackle certainly but only a yellow for me. Just reckless.

Made for the 3 man midfield and was excellent there. His positioning was top notch compared to Perch who seemed to forget to sit back in his brief display. Also showed a bit more confidence to do something a little different and express himself.