Gallowgate Toon

Who have we bought since last summer, other than Gordon, who is an athlete first, footballer second? Not a dig, just can't remember. Feels like the vast majority of purchases have been pretty technical for a while. Yeah, they need to have some athletic ability, but most of the best pressers in the squad are from the eras before - Willock, Almiron, Wilson, Joelinton, Longstaff. And I'd add that even with Gordon that I think he has underrated technique and we felt like we could work on him becoming a final third maestro who is blessed with athletic ability.

Madison is a twat and that's the reason we didn't sign him. Whether that's right or not is a different question.

Great. Nickson and Ashworth are the other 2 key votes though, along with the board.

What is a Howe player? Folks go on like we're some team of basketballers who have no actual ability. We've been one of the most prolific teams going forward for well over a year for a reason. We create well and finish well - we can be streaky, just like everyone else. Nerd lol alert but we've massively underperformed xg over the last 5 games but we're largely on target for 18 months. Howe targeted Bruno and Trippier as key signings, both excellent technicians. Isak too.

He has no individual say, there has to be unanimous agreement across the team to get the transfer in.

Rather than stay measured at 1-1, our response seemed to be push even more forward. Daft as we'd been relatively well measured up until that point, bar a few breaks. Only thing I can think is that we know we're still a bit leggy so are trying to get games wrapped up before 70 minutes.

I think we'll do something as there are financial implications to inertia as well as footballing ones. My worry is that we'll wait due to being stung by the injury situation.

One of the weirdest things I've ever seen at the game.

There are loads. We've not been top of the pressing charts for ages, iirc.

Him doing total football is class when we're on a roll but really not what's needed when we're up against it.

2 fucking great finishes.

It's the most physically intense league in the world. No team is winning without being at 90% physically, regardless of tactical approach.

A functioning right winger in that first half and I'm convinced we win.

Maybe harsh but he looked fucking tiny for the last 2 goals.

Fucking shambles second half, like. They were 2 passes and in on goal far too many times. Easy balls over the press too.

Clearly reserving fitness. A shame that wingers covering is a fucking massive thing for us.

One sweeping pass aside, god awful.

Looked back to his old self physically. Still a pleasure to watch him glide past players even when we're shite.

Massive space in front of defence is a team shape thing though. A DM doesn't magically cover 2 spaces at once. We will always be front foot against those sides, it's worked very well for nearly 2 years.

Didn't deserve to be on the losing side.

Felt like we were pretty in control for 35 minutes, bar a few breaks. We were finding loads of gaps behind them. They equalise and it all changes. Another game where we vastly underperform in the final third too.

I don't think box-to-box in itself is a problem if the team shape is good but Bruno/Miley/Longstaff is fairly powerduff from an athleticism perspective. Slow defence compounded the problem.

In short, the club need to back him this window. He's more than held his end of the bargain up until now. Talk of overly intensive styles etc. is still a red herring to me. Plenty of other sides play the way we do. We do need to work on game management though. I know he likes the Keegan stuff but going kamikaze at 1-1 is daft.

Plus, Barnes has very solid assists to his name. Miggy is abysmal in that category.

Over the last 5 seasons, Barnes has scored more goals with his left foot than Miggy has with every body part and he's not even left-footed. No idea if this is true but I bet it's not far off.