Gallowgate Toon

The meaning of 'struggled' meant that Cardiff must have had a fairly substantial amount of chances, and most of them must have come in correlation with Colo's mistakes. In truth Cardiff really didn't have many chances and Colo made one mistake just like 2 of his other defensive colleagues.

I think this season is going to be a great education in English football for Colo, and if we do get promoted i think he'll do much better in the Prem than he did last season.

I think the reason we played poorly was because of the starting line-up. Hughton should have kept it the same as the last game with Barton and Smith in the middle, and Guthrie out wide. Barton wasn't great today like, but he was the only one who actually picked out some decent creative passes, not all came off but they showed intent and some of them were real quality, i like Guthrie but he doesn't quite have the vision that Barton has. Point is keep Barton central, he will create a few opportunities a match and really stretch our opponents. It's really annoying when we play 'hoof', it could well have been a tactic implemented to save energy for the midweek game but it was terrbile. We have a great ball playing midfield for this league, both Barton and Guthrie are good passers of the ball, and to an extent so is Smith yet we mindlessly punted to Ranger, who won a fair few but had zero support, it was ineffective and we could have been much more comfortable at the end. Defensively we were solid, thought Colo played really well and as a unit we were disciplined, organised and very effective.

Thought things were looking up for Quaresma this season, or at least that's the impression i got off Mattis?

Looked really good in the Bundesliga so far, tore Wolfsburg to pieces.

Maradona is by far the one of the worst managers I have ever seen. He epitomises cluelessness, his team selection and tactics are baffling, and its not like he's got a pile of shit to work with.

Drop Taylor and put Guthrie RM. Guthrie keeps the ball better, is a bit quicker and is just a better player, Taylor's good back up though.

Rather have Smith in the middle over Guthrie atm but bench Taylor and put Guthrie RM and you have a good enough first team to earn promotion.

This. We had some players last season who could have made it into top-half Prem sides, 2 of them even moved on to play Champions League football. We still have 5 players in the current squad who could make Premiership sides imo and it's excellent for us, if we do get promoted to still have that Premiership core of players, it makes survival and progression much easier.

Don't know about this myth to do with Enrique and his passing, it's pretty good in my mind. Especially in the Keegan days, Jose played lovely balls up the line to Oba all day, he has a tremendous eye for a pass. His crossing is a bit hit and miss but he has put a lot of brilliant balls in there over the last 2 years, and he's still at an age where it can be improved.

Hamburg beating Wolfsburg 3-2 now, Oba has looked pretty sharp since he's been on though.

I'm not having a go at you personally Gallowgate so apologies if it appears that way. But. Seriously what the f*** has Lua Lua done to justify being near the first team bar scoring against Blyth and a bunch of Northumbria Uni students? He looked horrendous against Reading. I'd rather give Haris a go, or try signing a right winger on loan. Lovenkrands even . I only really had him there to justify the formation of the midfield tbh. I think he's one for the future and he needs to be given more of a chance but in all honesty i couldn't think of anyone else to put there.

On the midfield debate, at home i would be tempted to go for a 4-3-3 when Barton, Guthrie and Smith are fit. Smith Barton Guthrie Lua Lua Jonas Ameobi At home i think that would be a great formation and if we were promoted i would try and keep it that way but i'd have a better quality striker leading the line (Shola is at his level now imo). The midfield above is perfect for the Championship as it has the pace, the creativity, the vision, the skill and the grit to win this league. I don't think it would look out of place in the Prem either, all 3 could at least play for a mid-table side especially Barton who has the ability to play in Europe imo.

Sounds like he did well today, maybe his selection in the Argie squad has boosted his confidence?

In the first ten minutes we played the ball on the deck and looked to have left off like we did against Reading, then for some reason we went far too route one and although Shola got a goal it was extremely unsuccesful for the rest of the time. We have a ball playing Midfield but we don't use them and it was infuriating to watch. Thought everyone but Ryan Taylor was ok (he's not a winger, couldn't skin anything if his life depended on it). Don't know why the subs were made so late on, we looked exhausted in the last 20 and the team have to play more games this season, so it's vital we keep them as fresh as possible. Overall it was tough, but we shot ourselves in the foot a bit by not playing to our strengths.

you mean either one of his simple passes to the wing that Guthrie does all the time too? He can do the simple stuff but he is also one of the very few players we have who has the vision to pick a pass that splits the opposition defence. Because he's been out of action so much we've not often seen him at his best. He was getting there under Keegan although playing out of position. You are obviously not convinced that Barton is the club's best player. So who is your nomination? A brilliant example of his vision and passing was when we played Liverpool, and he put Lovenkrands through one-on-one with a beautiful little dink pass, something Guthrie could only dream of doing.

Although he was hardly playing against the world's greatest strikers today, i think he deserves some praise. He finally showed something he has been so desperately lacking, confidence. He looked wobbly in the first 10 but after that he looked a classy centre half, snuffed out a lot of danger, won some headers, very comfortable on the ball, he wasn't ball watching either saw him sprinting flat out to make key blocks on a few occasions and he marshalled the offside trap well on a couple of occasions too (seemed much more vocal in general). Good on him for knuckling down and it was especially nice to see him celebrate with Shola for the second goal. There is a good player in there, and today he actually showed why he was highly rated in La Liga, more of the same please Colo.

Yeah he did for the second, ran the full length of the pitch and jumped on his back iirc.

Northumberland lass, IIRC. Peter Barrett's daughter.

Should be CM, or even playing behind a striker. Thought by his standards, he played an average match but still looked a lot better than anyone else out there.

Chris Hughton in his post-match said they thought he'd just got a kick and it was a bit bruised, said Barton was much happier when he saw him after the game.

For a 4-4-2 Jonas should just be on the right when Duff's playing, but if Kazenga plays i'd keep Jonas on the left because he does work well with Enrique and it's probably better for Colo to have those 2 near him etc. I don't think Jonas' best position is winger tbh, i think he'd be much more effective playing behind 2 strikers as his short passing is pretty good and he'd open up a lot of space for the strikers with his dribbling.

Looked to regain some of the lost confidence in the second half like he showed in the early stages of last season, which can only be a good thing for us. Don't know why everyone is saying he was so shit because he wasn't really, he looked dodgy in the first half granted but i thought he had a pretty good second half, winning a few in the air and put in some decent tackles.

Think we'll sneak a 1-1, just with a Barton pen in the last 10 mins or so. Barton is going to be key this season for me, because he is the only player out of this current bunch, who is truly below his station in the Championship. He may be a reckless idiot but he is a good footballer, and i can really see him running the show this season.

Ashley taking the cheap option again until he can sell it for real it would appear.