Gallowgate Toon

He has a very good touch which is the basis of technique. His crossing with his left is pretty woeful but with his right, it's not too bad tbh he put in a decent one yesterday. His shooting is a bit of an unknown quantity imo he will never be Steven Gerrard but he took a couple yesterday, with 2 being decent and one being terrible, if he keeps shooting more though he may gain confidence and then i'll judge. His passing's pretty solid imo and he's not exactly in a position to make incisive passes, especially when the rest of the team stay static for most of the game, it was refreshing to see Harewood actually run on the defence's shoulder because for too long we've had 'target men' who didn't make the runs.

I'd prefer to give Ranger an opportunity with a good strike partner tbh. Andy Carroll's a beast but not a great footballer, by all accounts overall he's been pretty poor this season and if he's not winning the headers, then he isn't doing much else. At home i'd have Ranger-Harewood, away from home Carroll-Harewood.

I think Carroll was bossed all game in the air and on the deck, he barely won any headers and when he did they were to nobody.

We don't look very fit, they really ran straight through through the middle of us quite a few times today and it's a bit worrying to see us looking so leggy early on in the season. I know Nolan is a big lad and not famed for his fitness but he really is ridiculously out of shape, he should never play CM for us because after 60 minutes he's huffing and puffing and leaving huge gaps for Smith to try and cover by himself and this was massively evident tonight. Well done to Hughton for making some good subs (esp. getting Nicky Butt off) but our tactics really need sorting, just play it on the deck please Chris, we have players who can pass a ball adn we look so much more dangerous. Also, Carroll and Ranger is never going to work against the better sides because they are so static and they stand 30 yards apart, so if one does win a flick-on the other is nowhere near. I like Carroll, he tries hard and gets himself about a fair bit but when the ball is at his feet he's pretty useless and it was annoying to see Ranger subbed over him when he has the ability to create so much more. Next game i'd like to see Ranger and Harewood upfront but unortunately it won't happen.

Looked good, nice and easy debut as he couldn't have played any worse opposition from the league.

Pompey actually have some good players, where's Piquionne today? he's impressed me this season.

Yeah i'd kind of agree, Barton's problem for me is that he's always one step ahead. That wouldn't be an issue if he was playing in a good team in the Prem, but i wouldn't say we have a team full of footballing intellectuals. Whenever Barton loses the ball via a pass, it is never behind his intended target, it is always in front. Sometimes this is down to the quality of the ball, but sometimes it's actually the fault of the runner. Let's not forget he's had nothing to aim at all game in the way of pace, we've had no real wingers to run the line and Andy Carroll isn't really the type of striker to latch on to a clever through ball. He does however look a bit half-hearted but when it was 0-0 and 1-1 he was trying, he started the game brightly, and when the equalised he really did perk up. That makes me wonder as to why for those 50 minutes or so, he looked a totally different player. The only reasonable conclusions i can come up with are fitness, Hughton's tactics when we go 1 up (because all the players just seem to take the foot off the pedal) or is it complacency and arrogance? He is a very talented player, and while he's only really occasionally shone for us he has played some football that only some of our squad could dream of doing. Barton was complete crap though, to say he's one step ahead of the team and so its partly their fault is a complete insult. He can't rethink his passes? You think if Xavi was in our team we'd be saying the same things? No. Barton needs to pull his finger out because at the moment he's up there with Butt as our worst midfielder. Plus Barton has only played about three good games in the PL, why couldn't he thread decent balls through for Owen (or Martins or Viduka)? It's not the fault of his teammates and the buck stops with him ultimately. So you think yesterday that none of his passes could have been read slightly better? I remember him playing a one-two yesterday after a corner iirc and it was the right idea, but the intended receiver (Ryan Taylor?) didn't budge and it went out and Barton got the blame. Barton is a creative midfielder who DOES thread good through balls, Lovenkrands when he was called marginally offside yesterday was put through by Barton for example. I'm not suggesting that he wasn't sloppy, he was in areas, but some of our movement is terrible. The example of Xavi would in fact would strengthen my point because people seem to forget that Xavi was hardly setting the world alight until Ronaldinho showed up, he wouldn't be half as good if he wasn't playing with the likes of Messi, Henry, Bojan, Ibra etc. Imagine Xavi trying to pick out Andy Carroll and Kevin Nolan. I sure Barton would be better around better players but if he's as good as everyone seems to think he should be able to take the game by the scruff of the neck and dominate still. His teammates aren't superstars but the opposition is woeful. I wouldn't be that bothered by his mistakes either if he tried hard but his workrate is non-existant these days. I agree his general work rate is poor and he looks demotivated when we're winning, but they all look like that when we go 1 up, we go into cruise control. Like i said earlier when they equalised they all stepped up a bit, including Barton, but he's being singled out for having had just as lazy performance as the rest of them, the only difference is, they redeemed themselves for the last 20 and i bet he would of too.

Yeah i'd kind of agree, Barton's problem for me is that he's always one step ahead. That wouldn't be an issue if he was playing in a good team in the Prem, but i wouldn't say we have a team full of footballing intellectuals. Whenever Barton loses the ball via a pass, it is never behind his intended target, it is always in front. Sometimes this is down to the quality of the ball, but sometimes it's actually the fault of the runner. Let's not forget he's had nothing to aim at all game in the way of pace, we've had no real wingers to run the line and Andy Carroll isn't really the type of striker to latch on to a clever through ball. He does however look a bit half-hearted but when it was 0-0 and 1-1 he was trying, he started the game brightly, and when the equalised he really did perk up. That makes me wonder as to why for those 50 minutes or so, he looked a totally different player. The only reasonable conclusions i can come up with are fitness, Hughton's tactics when we go 1 up (because all the players just seem to take the foot off the pedal) or is it complacency and arrogance? He is a very talented player, and while he's only really occasionally shone for us he has played some football that only some of our squad could dream of doing. Barton was complete crap though, to say he's one step ahead of the team and so its partly their fault is a complete insult. He can't rethink his passes? You think if Xavi was in our team we'd be saying the same things? No. Barton needs to pull his finger out because at the moment he's up there with Butt as our worst midfielder. Plus Barton has only played about three good games in the PL, why couldn't he thread decent balls through for Owen (or Martins or Viduka)? It's not the fault of his teammates and the buck stops with him ultimately. So you think yesterday that none of his passes could have been read slightly better? I remember him playing a one-two yesterday after a corner iirc and it was the right idea, but the intended receiver (Ryan Taylor?) didn't budge and it went out and Barton got the blame. Barton is a creative midfielder who DOES thread good through balls, Lovenkrands when he was called marginally offside yesterday was put through by Barton for example. I'm not suggesting that he wasn't sloppy, he was in areas, but some of our movement is terrible. The example of Xavi would in fact would strengthen my point because people seem to forget that Xavi was hardly setting the world alight until Ronaldinho showed up, he wouldn't be half as good if he wasn't playing with the likes of Messi, Henry, Bojan, Ibra etc. Imagine Xavi trying to pick out Andy Carroll and Kevin Nolan.

Yeah i'd kind of agree, Barton's problem for me is that he's always one step ahead. That wouldn't be an issue if he was playing in a good team in the Prem, but i wouldn't say we have a team full of footballing intellectuals. Whenever Barton loses the ball via a pass, it is never behind his intended target, it is always in front. Sometimes this is down to the quality of the ball, but sometimes it's actually the fault of the runner. Let's not forget he's had nothing to aim at all game in the way of pace, we've had no real wingers to run the line and Andy Carroll isn't really the type of striker to latch on to a clever through ball. He does however look a bit half-hearted but when it was 0-0 and 1-1 he was trying, he started the game brightly, and when the equalised he really did perk up. That makes me wonder as to why for those 50 minutes or so, he looked a totally different player. The only reasonable conclusions i can come up with are fitness, Hughton's tactics when we go 1 up (because all the players just seem to take the foot off the pedal) or is it complacency and arrogance? He is a very talented player, and while he's only really occasionally shone for us he has played some football that only some of our squad could dream of doing.

I can't really decide because Villa has set up some great goals, and shown a lot of skill for Valencia. I think Drogba and Ibra look better in open play because they're big and strong and to an extent play the target man for their teams, so they're more involved in that aspect. I'd say out of all of them Villa is the most talented striker and player as he really can do everything plus he has done it at International level too a la Euro 2008.

David Villa has been consistently the best striker in the world for the last few years tbh. If you're looking at goals to games ratio Villa's in the last 4 years has been phenomonal with 104 goals in 170 games.

It took them to score for him to look interested.

Although we won, and the subs made a difference, i still think Hughotn got it wrong, and against a better side we wouldn't have had the same result. Barton may have playing poorly but so was everyone else, after they scored i thought he looked much better, he was livelier and played a great pass into the box and thought he was unfortunate to be taken off after that. I would have taken Nolan off, he may be papering over the cracks with some goals but in every other department he's useless, he's far too unfit to play CM for a full game and he's not what i'd call a playmaking type, i can't recall a single other thing he did in the game apart from lose his man but luckily Plymouth fluffed up the chance. Glad Hughton got rid of the 4-4-1-1/4-5-1 formation though, much more balance. Next game i'd like to see: Guthrie Barton Smith Lovenkrands, and then up top have Ranger and Carroll. What i do think may work when Jonas is back however would be Barton, Guthrie and Smith in a midfield 3, and then have Jonas and Lovenkrands as Wing Forwards playing off Carroll/Ranger.

This was always going to be the problem with Hughton, his lack of authority, Kevin Nolan said that they all still call him 'Chris'. This is the problem with the player democracy which we currently have, the leaders basically pick themselves, and Chris doesn't want to upset the tight morale the team have formed, so he plays individuals over a team, which is never going to work long-term.

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.