Gallowgate Toon

The sheer volume of games is minging; it just makes the whole thing a war of attrition needing to be managed within an inch of its life. Barely anybody in England is playing great football even with mega squads. Arsenal will likely win something this season but it's fucking dire to watch. City have some lovely players, like, but Pep's psychotic approach to positional play still hampers them a fair bit imo. I loved the CL last time around, it's been pretty meh so far for me and, in all honesty, not worth the impact on the rest of our season. I'll probably say completely different if we go deep in the comp I have sympathy for Howe. Some of his decisions and tactical approaches have annoyed me but I feel like what we've seen this season is more of an impact of the state of the game at this level more than any other factor. I think our squad is better than some think but not quite good enough to properly compete on this many fronts.

Really wish he'd mix it up in the last 30 of these games, like. Appreciate it's hard with the stupid amount of football we have so we have to preserve players more but it's annoying to watch. He clearly didn't think it was worth risking losing control today with a more aggressive shape. Unfortunately, that feels very Arteta to me.

For me, this is the biggest frustration with our use of Woltemade. When he came in, I was looking forward to having a striker have a bit more positional freedom and be more involved in build-up at the expense of some fret. I wanted to see someone we could play off with clever touches and some out of the box thinking. Of course, you still want to stretch the pitch but with a view to creating more gaps to try and mix it up through the middle as well as wide. We are far too predictable in these scenarios. Overwork crossing angles, players (other than Bruno) too passive on the ball, passing up opportunities to shoot/cross earlier. We're scared to turn it over in case we're broken on.

I'm OK with the result, I thought it'd be a draw. Frustratingly, felt like we sussed that earlier crosses in were effective but then stopped doing that and aimed to control the tempo. Everything is just so wide. I get it, they shut the space down centrally but we have to try and play in there sometimes when we have a CF who suits that style for 1-2s. Thought we should tried 2 strikers for the last 20 as well. It's hard for a lone man against a 3.

People talk about him like he's scored 1 or something, he has 9 goals + 3 assists against top level opposition despite some fairly obvious mitigating circumstances it's been a very decent start here. If he can replicate it in the second half of the season then we're looking at a very strong first campaign for us. Yes, he should've shot earlier against City, but different strikers score different types of goals. And he's learning. Some of the arguments around him are contradictory as well. He has no instinct, apparently, but then also only scores when it's put on a plate which requires some level of instinctive positioning. Which one is it?

Also, for the calls for younger fans... The younger people who sit around me at the game are woeful, they just sit on their phones looking at betting apps (not sure how they get signal?!) and then flop off at 30 minutes for shite food.

I think it's a combination of ageing ST fanbase, expectation, lack of proactive thinking from the club around improving atmosphere, expense, and football fatigue. I certainly felt pretty flat about this game going into it and I can only think it's that last point. I was good when I got in the ground but it just all felt a bit meh around town when it really shouldn't have. Strange. I'm noticing more people around me moaning more too. I don't really know why they're going to the games.

I just think we're going to continually be in this cycle with him. Add the Isak support (petty, I know) and it starts to feel a break would be good for all parties.

Should've had 2 assists + did lots of good work in general play and at set pieces. Shame about the penna but hey ho.

He is slow but it's more that he was weak as piss for the third.

It's mad how he's a 6/8/10 all rolled into one. He does elements of each to a very, very good standard.

He reminds me a bit of John Stones. Pure BALLER.

I feel like him & (current) Tonali together compounds that technique issue. I feel like you can carry one midfielder in a 3 with those limitations, but we have two as it stands. Bruno loses the ball but he's often trying things rather than cheaply surrendering it. Feels a strong case right now that our best midfield 3 would be Miley-Bruno-Joelinton.

Murphy is our only early crosser which is especially important when playing against a back 5. Canny assist for him, all the same. Easy one for a striker to try and snatch at a quick swivel shot.

Allowed himself to be mugged off by DCL walking off. One of the weakest bits of reffing I've ever seen it was like a toddler waving away their parent.

Christ alive, what a player he's becoming.

You can fucking bet that if Tuchel asks him to play there during the World Cup then he's absolutely doing it. Weak from Howe and goes completely against his ethos around no dickheads/team etc.

Howe has confirmed in his presser that Gordon doesn't like playing RW and that's why he doesn't put him there. That's absolutely crap from both, in my opinion.

Cameos means his training time can increase as well which I think is important for him at the minute. I expect he'll start on Wednesday night.

Outstanding performance on the ball today.

Some semi interesting comments about we were crossing from too deep in his post match interview. He always wants us to work into those channels from wide for cutbacks, but teams know this. Makes it dafter that he took Woltemade off imo, he at least attracts players when we're punting it in which can create more gaps for the likes of Wissa.

Showed more forward drive than our midfield last night who were turning back far too much. Ridiculous footballer.

I thought there were some decent elements to our game tonight until the final third, but that's kind of massively important I felt it was a very perplexing decision to not even try 2 strikers for 10 minutes, he had subs to revert back to 4-3-3. Said it before but I feel he's become too obsessed with balance a la Guardiola and Arteta.

Thought that was really poor we didn't go 2 up top for the last 30.

Don't they have 2 tiny CBs? Feels like we should be trying to exploit that...