Gallowgate Toon

We should definitely only view Howe's tactical ability from the last few months while in exceptional circumstances, certainly not the 2 years prior. There are some fantastic videos out there about his systems and tweaks with us while managing some canny limited players. A fairly massive part of tactics is having the right combination of personnel to fit, you can't force things that aren't there or consistently magic up some grand tactical wizardry to make up for big personnel deficits. Seems to me like he's felt he's had to just go with acceptable risks while he's not had loads to work with while trying to work towards our next evolution as a club. Saying things like 'we should just drop deeper' forget that doing that creates impacts elsewhere and isn't just some silver bullet. Also, Howe seems to want to win and entertain. I personally love that as a platform far more than most of the alternatives in modern football.

City-Arsenal is just cancelling out from two control freaks. Klopp is a bellend but his MO is always to attack which led to some pretty excellent encounters.

Have we scored as many as City so far in the league? That's absolutely mad, considering context.

Disagree with this. Some of the stuff we played between Milan away and Chelsea home is the most balanced football I've ever seen from us and, imo, looked a step up on last year.

Our move for the equaliser was class and it appeared coordinated and not just excellently executed. I actually think it's one of my favourite goals of the season by us. Bruno and Longstaff making the box shape opening up space ahead of the midfield, perfect positioning of Barnes and Gordon to pick up striker positions as Isak dropped in, followed by excellent runs. Good width provided by Murphy and Anderson too in case needed.

Really, really like Kudus. Proper turn on a 6-pence player. Hall did really well against him second half but it looked like Kudus had gassed out a bit to me - not sure if that's common with him. Also, Paqueta is so fucking annoying I feel like he's canny over-hyped as well - absolutely a good player but not a great one.

Did have Jo vibes how he went barreling in and charging all over. He's a strong lad. Not sure how sustainable it is for a full game, especially considering his injury history, but it was great to see as an option.

Defensively, we were generally fine in general play yesterday imo. Poor for the first but the other 2 were set piece errors mixed in with some dodgy 'keeping rather than anything structural. I thought West Ham were a relatively poor threat considering they have some real attacking talent at their disposal. Most surprising was how shit they were defensively though - we played through them a lot. More confidence in the final third and we could've had 6/7.

Isak dropping in should be absolute gold dust for someone like Barnes, a 1-2 maestro.

Sitting in the sun on the quayside drinking that in. Magical stuff.

There's absolutely not boring about the goals he can score. I could watch him smash in curlers all fucking day, man.

Loved he did the fist pumps

Nah, he's not that bad at all, but he'd be absolutely fantastic with a bit more speed. Still, loads to work with.

Was he wearing moulds? Fell owa about 10 times.

We ballsed up 4/5 really good opportunities as well with horrendous passes.

Aye, Sean needs taking out of the firing line. Anderson showed some real snap today in his tackling/pressing and was excellent with his decision-making on the ball. It's a shame he's not more of an athlete.

Aye, I agree with this. It's annoying as he's really decent on his left and when he goes outside. Really liked him on the right and roaming.

Thought his general play today was the best it'd been for a while. Missed some decent opps but still so much good. Ice man on pens.

Loved the finish for his first more than the second. He's sensationally lethal.

I think we need to be a bit careful around expectations with him still but his time has come to get in the XI. Playing wing back against City and coming on against a West Ham with, imo, some questionable fitness is one thing. He's undoubtedly a very talented footballer though. Really, really looking forward to seeing more of him.

Not convinced, like. He referenced his family again in an interview about Bayern recently, iirc, talking about how moving young kids a few times in a short space of time isn't ideal. Would seem strange to mention that if his plan was to do it in 4 months' time.

What a ball from Rom.

Nice work from Mainoo there.

We didn't know how good Gordon was last July. Some rays of hope but he'd ultimately had a very mixed start.

Decided to depress myself and watch some of our highlights from earlier in the season. Ah man, how I miss us.