Gallowgate Toon

He was far better on the ball than recent games but I'm finding his positioning choices when we're attacking a bit weird at the minute.

Simply needs to improve his plans for these games. Midtable sides with some quality can come here and have a solid plan to pounce. I'm not including Bournemouth in that list. I really don't think he should've sent Joelinton out for the second half. It was clear he was having a stinker and was struggling physically.

Unacceptable performance with very similar hallmarks to the Bournemouth game. Slow play, not winning second balls anywhere near enough, consistently pipped especially in midfield.

A great character & representative for our club. Hope mini Miggy stays a Geordie

That is absolutely incredible business by Villa.

Would be interesting to see his distance covered a game. For me, he seems everywhere, but not because he's got an amazing engine (he does) - it's his positioning, reading of situations, and acceleration.

'Oliver Gill' working at the Chronicle feels like a fake AI reporter profile they've created.

Absolutely chuffed for Anderson.

Beefcake Miley does feel like an interesting option as the season progresses. I was surprised Willock was on over him yesterday. I think Howe felt we needed legs - not untrue but we also needed more cuter thinking to get forwards in the game. Willock hasn't shown much of that at all over the last few months.

One of the biggest statistical differences between the teams yesterday was long balls, interestingly. They played twice as many and were successful with them. I felt they played really good angled balls to the wingers quite a lot. Semenyo was almost like a wide target man and Tino looked lost at how to play him when this happened. I can't remember us playing many successful diags or balls over the top. It was all short & safe a lot but often played into trouble when they hit the press. Felt like we were going long more in desperation than as a tactical thing.

I thought he was the worst of the 3 midfielders, tbh. He was very loose with the ball (either holding on too long or passing to nowhere), not effective with his physicality, and capped it off with poor finishing. A fantastic player but you see his technical limitations against well organised pressing sides.

Tough day for the lad, looked like the August version of him had been transplanted in today. He'll be fine, all part of his learning. We really missed his distribution. Not having him or any other defenders on their passing game was a big problem.

I don't think today was fatigue, more likely that we just tried to over-manage the game and/or got complacent. It was like there was no urgency or sense of danger in anything we did. On the rare occasions the pitch opened up, it all felt like it was being done at .50 pace. Everything just felt seconds slower, both attacking and defending. I suspect we were wary of their transitions and wanted to manage the pace of the game, especially with their 'weakened' bench, but it became too safe & too predictable. It then was a case of pressing for us to make mistakes - we made plenty. Weirdly, it was all so crap that I don't feel too bad - feels more like you can put it down to a bad day for all and move on.

Same. Gordon is weird in his choices. Up against a CM at RB but 90% of the time keeps cutting in.

Thought the strategy second half was poor but it's somewhat immaterial when you've got 8 players insisting on playing relentless hospital balls.

That West Ham game absolutely knocked something out of him.

They did look a bit juiced bunch of whippets about the park.

Always awful to be outworked at home, like. Some baffling decisions from players and management, but it happens. Felt a bit like the Villa game in 22/23 - everything went wrong.

Major props to him. I still feel he's quite a limited player but he's maximised his strengths brilliantly.

Almiron out, Dibling in would be amazing business if there's a sniff it can happen this window.

Big traits of DM, CM, and AM all rolled into one. He's such a unique player, like

I hope it all times so that he gets a proper send-off on Saturday.

Plays in slippers half the time but then turns on the thrusters effortlessly. It just looks so easy for him.

Felt like we simply managed that with an eye on Saturday. Far easier said than done, mind - that's exactly the thing we just couldn't do a couple of months ago. That Bruno pass was unreal, regardless of the defending.

Their prick of a manager should be embarrassed that he's reduced a very talented, expensively-assembled squad to effectively play like a rugby team. Also, I've never judged Declan Rice to be anything more than a good player. It's absolutely farcical squad management that he cost more than Tonali + Guimaraes combined (and then some) imo.