Gallowgate Toon

Cracking player but thick as owt.

Positive Alan.

Love the Shola shimmy.

Played Fergie.

Cisse is an under-rated footballer like, plays some lovely touches.

Don't agree that players are better now than they used to be. Fitter and faster, yes, but more ability and intelligence? Not in my book, certainly not over the last 5 years anyway. The game's been going through a defensive slump in my opinion as it's tilted itself towards attacking. Just comparing the top defenders in the world right now, against 10 years ago and there's no competition for me.

His vision and passing is unreal, with his goalscoring as well he is like 2 world class players rolled into one. Take away the bulk of his goals and he is still world class with the number of killer assists he gets To be fair, he gets a lot of assists because his teammates have been brought up with an ideal which means they move intelligently and are always in space, so it's not all necessarily down to his vision and ability. Considering the majority of the attacking play runs through him in the final third, it's not really a surprise he has so much productivity in that area.

Tiote's suffered from being told to do more than he's capable of doing. He's not being used a sitting midfielder anymore, he's being played more dynamically than that, whereas Cabaye's the more static of the 2 now. They're a relatively good partnership now but if you tell Cheik to hold position and sit and let Yohan do the roaming, box-to-box stuff they'd be far better.

His performance reminded me of when Tiote was played as a true holding midfielder last year. Useful player.

He's not the fittest player anyway, he really needs to build up some 90 minute energy over the coming games. Think too much has been changed to accommodate him mind, a standard 4-4-2 suits him and our players much more and I hope Pards tries it, there's hope that he was swung round with HBA being a winger.

Lovely finish.

Interesting experiment with the formation but a little over-complicated for me. A simple 4-4-2 would have seen us be a little more comfortable in my opinion, hopefully he'll be swung round to try it as it suits out players more.

Aye, we'll win comfortably with that imo, such potential there.

Aye, see Inter since Mourinho left. Confidence shouldn't be underestimated either, Cabaye's lost a bit in my opinion, snatching at passes far too much at the minute. As for what kind of midfielder he is, a deep lying playmaker is certainly something he isn't. He's a 'Scholes', an attack minded central midfielder with an engine but has rarely, if ever, been used as one this year.

Fallen as quickly as he's risen. Glad the ugly tit's been found out.

Can do far more damage on the right, gives him more options. Ba and in particular, Cisse, are good and intelligent movers, we need him to pick out passes to them because that's a big part of their games (and his) that we're criminally under-using. Play him right midfield of a 4-4-2 against Norwich and he'll wreak havoc.

Apparently, last summer, pass and move was what we worked on.

He was a useful defender (and midfielder) but i wouldn't say he was bloody good in terms technique. He was a very good defender across the whole back 4. Certainly a better defender and better technically than Simpson and Williamson by some considerable distance. I never said Simpson and Williamson were exactly his level, just that you can carry footballers who aren't anything special as players, when the majority are very good footballers. Hughes played the game extremely simply in terms of attacking, masking his deficiencies, something I think Simpson can replicate personally. As a defender, there's no comparison obviously.

the hoof ball, when it happens is more due to lack of movement, cabaye seems f***ed, jonas's movement is crap (wouldn't be too fussed if he were replaced in the summer if we have to play a middle 4), tiote wont move forward. if any of the defenders get the ball on the deck there are no options. It all starts from the back, aka Krul and that's not been changed. His intention is to only ever punt it, he very rarely even looks for a defender, that's as clear sign as any to me that it's instructional. I doubt they're even told to move off the ball to be honest, we were meant to be working on it in the summer but I can't see any encouragement to do it, when ever HBA's on the ball for example, the majority just stand and watch.

He was a useful defender (and midfielder) but i wouldn't say he was bloody good in terms technique.

The hoofball is part of the fast, front-foot football thing, putting defenders under constant physical pressure and being relentless with it, hoping for breaks. It's not really difficult to ask your keeper to go with a shorter option more often than not, Pards hasn't changed that, it's clearly tactical. While I still think he was too negative tonight, he has some justification, a draw would have been a very good result. Contrary to what people say however, we do have a first team that are very capable of playing good football and going toe-to-toe with big teams, considering 8 of tonight's 11 starters had long term roles in previous teams that played much better football than we currently do. We played in the Champions League with Aaron Hughes (sometimes Andy Griffin) and Andy O'Brien and still produced some bloody good stuff. There's no excuse for us right now, you can carry one or two poor footballers in defence, when your other 8 have genuine and proven footballing talent.

We were horribly negative but still deserved a point, they didn't really threaten all that much.

Van Persie, big time wanker.

Play some football dickheads. Carbon copy of Manchester United away in terms of mentality.

Stop the hoof dickheads.