Gallowgate Toon

Think it's unfair to level at him that he doesn't change things. Maybe not radical shape changes, no, but FourFourTwo did a great video on us last season about how we progressed our pressing game midway last season from all-out to mid-block etc.

It's seemingly fashionable to batter him at the moment but I thought he was clearly the best of the mids today. He only lost possession 8 times (only once more than Joe and Tonali despite playing more minutes), highest pass completion, most tackles, and set Isak through with a great pass. Nowhere near perfect and some poor positioning but he always puts in work.

A specialist 6 isn't going to stop multiple players tucking in though. E.g. City, Bruno already had a man marked but Foden ran off Joelinton. We'd effectively have needed 2 DMs there not just one.

Aye, good point to remember Howe is a streak machine. I think it makes sense as his football is quite ambitious - when it comes off and confidence is flowing then it feels effortless. Opposite when things aren't firing.

It's definitely the biggest problem at the moment. It should be monstrous and full of energy but it's doing very little.

I'd agree that we don't need to rip things up and start again. Maybe trying a 4-2-3-1 isn't off the cards but I think the next logical point is to keep the system but make a few changes to light a fire. We achieved a lot of what we did last season due to mental approach.

Aye, the calls for DMs now seem a bit weird considering we were very successful without a true DM last season.

Aye, it's an absolutely pointless discussion at this point and entirely predictable. Crop of a few who will jump on despite being dead wrong about the last 3 windows and tell us we've fucked it all and everything is bad.

Not been feeling Isak these last few games but I'd still keep him in the team, wasteful today and anonymous previously. Got to start Wilson though so let's try and get them both in.

We're always shite here. Feels like we can barely a pass a ball. Had a sinking feeling after the first few mins when we fluffed easy openings. The team's mentality feels really off to me at the moment - isn't there a bonus dispute? We're seeing so little resilience or invention. Confidence just doesn't feel there at all. I actually think it's a worse Brighton team 'on paper' than the one we won 4-1 against only a few months ago.

Ultimately, we're a point down on last year based on relative fixtures but the last 135 mins have been very poor. The team feels similar but also weirdly quite different at the same time. Almost passive.

This has been abject. Brighton haven't even been that good.

Disagree. Joelinton has been wank though and looks half fit.

I think he's looked poor in general today.

Look like a team feeling sorry for ourselves. Some very odd decisions from Isak in the final third.

Honestly, I think we're well matched to all of them Gutted Messi has left PSG.

Don't think I've ever been more sure of anything in my life than us getting Milan in the group stages. It's the way football always works.

That'll be class, man!

Joao Pedro would've been a great option for us.

To be fair, there are lots of things we've not tried that we did last season - I'm sure that'll be down to the squad not being on a level playing field yet for fitness/sharpness/tactics. Barnes is new to our way of playing and missed preseason games so will be short of fitness. While Gordon looks in good shape, he's a player that's historically gassed out at about 70 mins so they might be trying to build up that extra level of fitness for him to stay on and move to another position when we look to make subs.

It's a very early and a small sample from this season to definitively say that Howe's only plan for 2 relatively big purchases is that they won't play in the same team together. He's referenced Gordon's versatility when he signed him as well: "He will give us a lot. He's a young player with huge attributes, huge potential, to have a big impact on our season. A very quick, dynamic player, who's versatile and can play off both sides. The best is yet to come from him." Miggy's place is by no means locked down which we saw that at the back end of last season. Barnes is too specialist for the right I think but I don't see any reason why Gordon wouldn't ever be in the mix.

Played on the right for his apps against West Ham (away), Brentford, Leeds and Man U. Took up central spots vs. Chelsea & Liverpool which were more enforced. Edit: played AM against Bournemouth as well.

You can't really apply shoulda, woulda, coulda here though, can you? The only thing we know is that VVD is last man on the edge of the box and takes Isak out. His only route to getting the ball at that time was to go through him. Making cases about what might've happened if he didn't make the challenge is kinda endless; lots of things could've happened but it's very reasonable to assume that he makes the move then because he knows he's been beaten.

Gordon played 3 different positions for us last season. If Barnes joins the squad earlier then I don't think we see him eased in either. Feels pretty situational to me which has just been exacerbated by Gordon's start to the campaign.

Howe hasn't bought Gordon and Barnes to exclusively fight for one position - I think Howe is pretty happy with the wing options he has and there's tactical flexibility there for when he wants to explore it. Whether that's right or wrong will be proven over the next few months but he's dropped/rotated Miggy before and will again as his limitations don't suit every match. If we played Sunday's game halfway through the season with the same squad, I don't think Miggy plays the full 90 either.