Gallowgate Toon

Some lovely comments from him on the official site.

Agree with you Nut. Can understand his set up so far but we have some very good footballers in the team, particularly in midfield but we've not utilised them anywhere near enough yet.

City are playing some good stuff as well. Silva is just a beautiful player.

We've been very protective/cautious so far. I think for Pardew, considering all the negative pressure that's been around for the majority of the summer, he's been determined to get off to a decent start and aimed to get 2 points from a tough opening couple of fixtures. I think, most likely when the window's shut, we'll take the shackles off and become a bit more adventurous and play a system that suits our players.

Especially with only 8 fingers. Inbred gimps.

I don't think Pardew has implemented our new style and system to the team yet. We've started out with 2 tough games, coming off the back of a questionnable pre-season and I feel he's gone with a very protective approach to make sure that we get off to a solid start. To his credit, it's worked but I'm looking forward to him taking the shackles off a bit with certain players, like Cabaye.

Think it was either the Guardian or Times that gave him MOTM last week. He deserves recognition.

They're an impotent side. Haven't got a clue where their goals are going to come from. Can see them being one of the lower scoring sides again.

Get Barton away from centre midfield, he's a liability there.

Seriously, what is this utter bullshit? The team setup is awful. Barton in the middle? Fuck off man.

Missing is the last thing I think he'll be. He'll show his class today, he's a step above anyone else in that area of the pitch in terms of quality and ability.

Can sort of see the logic in Pardew staring Shola ahead of Ba. He's constantly repeated this week, that Shola's experience, knowledge and passion for this particular game is key. He's not the better player, by a long stretch but he's used to the pressure of it all.

Spot on.

We've got the personnel to play a good game on the deck but having Shola in the side completely negates that as he's always on his heels and lacks any form of mobility. Would really like to have seen Obertan playing behind Ba for this, very dangerous combination considering the passing talent we have in Joey and Cabaye, playing behind them.

We'll be relying on Cissokho to put a request in and kick up a fuss so we can get him for a couple less million. He does have the most potential sell-on value after all.

Their midfield is crap man, completely shocking. As long as we have a left back in place, as weird as this might sound, we'll control the middle of the park. Our superior ability in that department will be on show this weekend, no doubt in my mind about that. I'd say we have a more balanced midfield than Liverpool FWIW, much better mix of guile and craft imo.

Didn't The Times report a couple of days ago that he's put in a request? Sure I read that on here.

All we need from him is to be mobile and get into goalscoring positions and to obviously be able to finish some of them (15 last season goals says he can). Shayno despite not rating him much, says this is the case. We've got the makings of a very creative midfield who can supply even the most average of strikers, like I said, we just need someone who'll make necessary movement.

Needs the ball on the deck to be effective. Simple as. He's a good header of the ball ironically but he's not that bully type, he's quite creative in his build up play but again the ball needs to be at his feet. Will be great, we just need to play to his and Cabaye's strengths.

It was lovely technique but the marking was horrific.

Not too worried about this. Their midfield is pretty weak and don't see them causing us too much bother up top as long as we have a left back. I think we'll control possession and have more chances while they nick a scrappy goal on the break. 1-1.

To be a success he's going to a) need the ball and b) have some movement. We are a pretty static side and last night showed it. Shola is immobile, Jonas rarely makes an off the ball run and neither does Barton. Tiote's job is to stay behind Cabaye. Only Ba and Obertan made attempts to move off the ball last night and they weren't even on the pitch at the same time. He's a great passer but it's a useless if only 1 player makes the effort to make the space.

On the 'Suarez' type of player front, we do actually have that kind of player, unfortunately he just keeps on getting injured.

Krul - 6 - Was dependable enough when called upon. Erratic kicking. Simpson - 6.5 - Played well, didn't do his usual backing off trick. Taylor - 7 - Very solid. Colo - 8 - Some fantastic reading of the game. Great player and MOTM. R.Taylor - 6.5 - Not as bad as I was expecting, played alright. Credit where it's due. Barton - 5 - Poor set pieces and wasn't involved much bar the drama. Cabaye - 5.5 - Some lovely snappy passing but wasn't utilised anywhere near enough. Tried hard and kept his position well enough. Tiote - 5.5 - Off the boil with his passing, got some good tackles in. Jonas - 7 - Did a fantastic job protecting Taylor but didn't get forward enough but that's most likely down to our tactics. Ba - 5 - Some good, some bad. Didn't really play to his strengths at all. Shola - 5.5 - The lad is just always on his heels and behind the play. Caught offside a fair bit too. Held the play up well at time. Best - 6 - Ran around a bit and nearly sent through, would've been a great chance if he'd reacted quicker. Obertan - 7 - In and out of the game but looked skillful and quick. The back heel was great. Loven - 5 - Didn't do much. I thought it was obvious that Pards went for the 'something is better than nothing' approach. We were very disciplined, which was great to see but we made very minimal effort to attack. Some players were more concerned about not breaking shape and didn't move forward but I fully expect Pardew to have told them not to. It made sense with it being the opening game (against tough opposition) and us having a very patchy defence. We frustrated them by not pressuring them and plugging the space they like to exploit, it was pretty effective and limited them to half chances and crosses which they were never going to win. Nevertheless, a solid start. Let's see us play to our strengths next week and knock the ball about, feeling optimistic about our chances.

Barton's were terrible like. Found it very interesting that he was taking the majority of them mind.