Gallowgate Toon

Midfield options

We had these exact types of performances then too though. Second game that season was Brighton away and we were well beaten in general play while looking very leggy.

Thought he looked weirdly heavy today.

Aye. Seemed we set up to counter for some reason - looked like we didn't want to get into a firefight with them which doesn't feel a ringing endorsement of Howe's trust in the current state of the squad. 4-4-2 can't work with Gordon and Isak though as they're both weak - when you inevitably need to knock it longer, they can't do much more than just get in the way or maybe scrat the odd lucky second ball. We had such a poor platform to try and control the game.

I think our general change of shape and Barnes helped just as much. Tino is a good dribbler but passing needs to improve - somebody a little more technically secure than Longstaff ahead of him will help.

No issue with him not starting today. We need to be really careful with his fitness.

He'll be class. Midfield setup fucked him, tbh, and others.

Appreciate we're managing returns to fitness etc. but he's paid the price of a very poor starting setup. Whatever he's doing with Gordon needs to stop - he's a menace in space, don't plonk him in packed areas. If he's not fit enough to do the yards out left then don't start him.

Stop fucking about between him and Gordon and play both.

For everyone referencing 22/23, we were absolutely battered down Brighton at this stage and got lucky there as well. We paid the price for a very poor setup first half. Poor shape, poor approach to building play. We looked a lot better last 30 as we had better players on - it's not complicated.

Aye, I usually see sense in his tactics but this has been almost fearful.

Absolutely baffling setup, tbh. No LW while we're playing a defensive left back? Why are we so obsessed with going for killer balls if we're so scared of them countering?

Why are we playing counter 4-4-2 against Bournemouth?

He'll get plenty of minutes this season. Think this is the right call for today.

Got a nagging feeling that we're so calm about this due to Chelsea who are surely going to be the masters of this coming week. I'm expecting a decent chunk of that bomb squad are going to move in some capacity which would likely unlock a fairly massive domino effect.

Do Brighton have anyone to consistently score goals?

Score draw feels about right. We've got some very decent options off the bench though, if the lineup is as expected.

With our current wide options, he and Gordon should both be starting in a fluid front 3 with Isak.

3 games for a head lean in a contact sport. Ludicrous.

No way a loan should do. A sad end to his time here, I felt he would've retired here and moved into coaching with us. Feels like a case of things in his personal life could be driving this more than anything else.

Very much doubt it'll happen but I think a 3-5-2 here would be an interesting shout with Kelly slotting in LCB, Tino/Hall as wing backs, and Isak-Gordon up top.

I'm all for trying to get A1 players etc. but there's more than one way to build a squad if that route isn't available. If anything, PSR has introduced more chess playing that you should be doing to maximise the game, as shit as that is. If we don't get any additional competition for at least either CB or RW by the end of the window then it would be very poor - no other way to spin it.

The sample size from Saturday was so small, like. It's very rare that a team dominates proceedings for 90 minutes - even last year's awful promoted sides gave Arsenal/City some tough matches. An awkward pressing shape (which we'd have adjusted to not long after the sending off imo) and some rust seemed to be the main issue - between 5 & 15 minutes, we lost the ball a fair bit through taking extra touches - Schar, Burn, Hall, Bruno, and Gordon all being offenders in that period. Schar and Hall being in that mix wasn't good for us as they're our main distributors directly from defence. I thought the strategy once we went down was spot on. We knew we were carrying some ringrust and they didn't have much to really hurt us with so we sat narrow and waited for counters which is something we're very suited to, while still mixing in some pressing. It felt like we controlled the space very well bar one or two moments.

Mitchell's job is to build strategies to meet the club's goals. He's not going to implement the same exact blueprint at every club.

I love that he almost always tries to build play but he definitely did go a bit far trying a no-look backheel to Bruno on the edge of our box