Gallowgate Toon

Personally, I'd have had him on for the last 10 minutes at least but this season so far is going how I expected for him. He'll not get properly decent minutes until the second half of the season, imo.

I thought Tonali was pretty decent. Clearly still finding legs and PL tempo for longer periods. Easy to forget that yes, he's been training with us while out, but his muscle memory will be Italian speed rather than ours. He never had a true adjustment period, he's pretty much just back into it now.

But they barely had a sniff. They wanted transitions/direct balls but they didn't get them as we controlled the space well. Other games this season, we've had 60% possession but allowed lots of big chances through poor shape and losing out on duels far too easily.

Felt like we had a lot of performances in 22/23 like that. If you can't win then don't lose type of thing.

A controlled performance that lacked a final ball/finish. Not that unexpected considering the lack of striker. I thought we had some really decent patterns in possession. Some of our best playing out from the back this campaign.

Watkins obviously bags goals but he's fairly massive to Villa as an outlet - someone who follows instructions and is very handy in general play too. He was directly involved in 32 of their 76 league goals last year. Villa's defensive numbers this season will be interesting considering their schedule will have some impact at some point. They conceded 1 less than us last year and I'd say we were defensively abject for 2 months of the season.

Probably suits Gordon more to sit mid and draw them on so he can hit spaces behind. It'd be good for Barnes as well, but then you never really want to give another team the initiative when they've got a home support that can generate some momentum. We could also try and use Gordon more like an AM to help control the possession and enable inside gaps for wingers to exploit, but I don't think he has the game in congested areas to perform that role as well. Midfield is always so important in these types of away games. I'm hoping Joelinton-Bruno-Tonali is a combination that'll stamp authority from the outset. On paper, they should have a good mix of aggression, physicality, and technical ability.

Controlled things professionally without getting out of 1st gear. Onto the weekend!

The 4-3-3 can easily flip into 4-2-3-1 in-game. It's why I'm so excited about Tonali getting a run in the team, he's a genuine option to enable Bruno to push up when we need to try it.

That game was well set up for him to be able to do something up front. Lots of space behind across the pitch for him to arc runs. We had good long ball playing from deep with Hall, Schar, Trippier, and Bruno rather than aimless punts to grapple over.

Very good point considering. Thought we actually could've gone for it a bit more as they were so one-paced in the first half but I would've absolutely taken a point before the match.

He's very tactically versatile as well as being a good athlete. Felt like he really found some of his touches as the game went on.

He doesn't sound happy with the squad's fitness. Made comments about Fulham being superior in this regard right after the game, and more noises today about having to manage the style of the play due to various factors being managed behind the scenes.

Thought this a was a pretty interesting (but long) thread, until you hear the lad talk on video. Dan Burn takes a fairly big battering

I think you could play Willock and Joelinton alongside Bruno for this one as we will likely be decently penned in for stretches - their jobs will be simpler defensively compared to Fulham/games where we'll have more of the ball, and they have good legs to get us on the break. I'd still be picking one or the other for this though as I want to see Sandro's one-time passing setting us up for quicker attacks.

He has definitely been overdoing it on occasion this season when he's had easier passes. I can't be too annoyed watching a player try something different though when everything else is so laboured (Barnes aside). He's also usually very good at it but his body looks a second behind his brain, at the moment.

It was but he was left in a fairly shite position by those not covering well ahead of him, felt like he was backing to try and bide some time for others to arrive. For some reason, Joelinton and Willock were within about 10 yards of one another miles away from where one of them should've been, and Bruno seemingly hadn't checked to cover that space either. Even if he had, he'd have been leaving a big gap in the middle, to be fair. We've been incredibly passive loads this season. Never mind high pressing, we seem to be doing a lot of 'containing' even in deep areas without taking many risks to get the ball back.

The smarter move is probably to sit deeper, narrow the pitch, and get in behind with our pace, but I want to see us get right at them. I don't know where the fuck our physicality has gone but we need to find it; it's been weird seeing some of our lot bounce off players recently.

Someone said they thought Bruno looked a bit burnt out and I agree. He's played a lot of football but he also has had so much responsibility in our team in that period too. We've relied on him massively to do a fuck load of defensive work, and take on a fairly massive mantle in build up, possession, and being creative too. It's no surprise he's covering the distances he does. Let's hope we can introduce Sandro now to take some more of that burden from him.

Some big midfield calls for this upcoming run where you expect we'll be under some big(ger) pressure against good sides. I think we have to ride it out with Bruno and get the right balance around him. Joelinton and Willock aren't disciplined enough together as the 2 either side imo but they both can offer so much running power in games where you'd think countering will be our best bet for goals. I think I'm leaning towards Willock-Bruno-Tonali is the best blend but you just know Joelinton can pull it out of the bag in these sorts of matches.

I do think it was a bit strange he didn't start, especially with Willock only just coming back from another injury. He's the only midfielder we have that can genuinely rotate in-game with Bruno - I would've thought Howe would be all over that considering all of the other tinkering he's done so far this campaign.

He showed against Wolves at home 2 years ago how good he can be at it when we unleash him but I think you're right, we're protecting him or he's protecting himself.

Still can't believe Schar didn't square it

I do think he is main character syndroming a bit rather than phoning it in. One thing that made him so good last season was he made decisions in terms of runs and passes for the team's benefit so well. I can't say it feels like that this season.

He looks like when he was injured 2/3s into 22/23. I do wonder if protecting him more while he gets through this patch would be a good move. Wouldn't be against a 4-2-3-1.