Gallowgate Toon

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.

Perch is class.

Suicidal like, Santon hadn't been doing THAT bad.

We've done alright but could be doing a bit more to keep possession. Cabaye is very impatient with his passing at the minute, always looks for a difficult ball straight away.

The hoof to Ba has had its usual success.

I no hit the crossbah

Too impatient, need to work them about a bit.

I love you.

Don't mind Obertan being available for this one, his pace will pin them back a bit imo, which will be useful as we'll be seeing less of the ball. Pretty nippy starting 11 we've got there, could do something here.

Getting raped...

Get the fuck in.

I hate the phrases and words they come out with. Must have seen 'rattled' posted about 1000 times on there in 3 days, makes me cringe along with the overuse of 'classy' and the infamous 'green with envy'. Horrible little mongs. They're not obsessed though, they've only had about 200 threads about us since Sunday.