Gallowgate Toon

Are there any currently or recently successful teams/clubs that don't currently have a DoF?

Howe is tweaking things in-game every game at the minute, like. I'd actually suggest he's potentially overdoing it with the midfield more than anything - Bruno/Miley/Longstaff all played one another's positions for decent chunks on Saturday, as an example. Sometimes 3-2/2-2/3-1 defensive to midfield structures etc. Switching Up front, Gordon/Barnes/Murphy all played at striker for decent chunks too There isn't a magic formation bullet while keeping the current style of play imo - the short blanket will always remain and fan frustrations come to the fore in other ways. His options are to regress approach for a short-term so we're closer to 21/22 where we sit deeper as a team and break or look for solutions based on the system he's been evolving for 18+ months & beyond but accept it'll be messier while we're down on personnel.

Got a feeling that we won't look to fill this position for a while and go back to pre-Ashworth for the rest of the calendar year at least & see how things pan out. Maybe rejig some of the structure around the academy/NUFWC to cover some of the development angles off more.

It's not out of the realms of possibility that he would've been given some serious shit, along with others, for Tonali considering how big that fee was in relation to our now-obvious FFP situation?

Find Jake and his pal very tough on the ears but this was a good listen I'm ALL IN.

The interesting part here is if they restricted his role at some point during his post or from the outset - feels like these rumblings of discontent have been happening since the summer. If true too ofc.

The comment about Joe White felt very pointed.

I don't think Isak's in-game work has been much this season. His defensive work per 90 in the league this season is way down on last campaign, and I'd wager the amount of sprints & general distances are down as well. Maybe it's down to half-fitness skewing the numbers but, even in games 2/3/4, there were comments that our pressing intensity from the front seemed less iirc.

Is he involved at all at the academy, womens, and sports science levels?

Chunky injury lists have been pretty consistent across the leagues this season, no? Iirc; ourselves, Bournemouth, Spurs, Brighton, Chelsea have all at points had more than 10 players out for at least decent amounts of the year. Liverpool & Villa creeping up now. Man U too.

Solanke is having as good a season this campaign as Wilson ever has imo, maybe even better. Fantastic output and a grafter as well. Biggest worry with him is that it's an outlier.

Don't think we'll win at all but I doubt this'll be as bad as predicted. We're better off being more of a sitting team at the minute and we should have some decent bench options with Isak and Willock back in the frame.

Those 2 shots are sitting nicely in my brain this morning The Gordon one, man.

The owners, rightfully, aren't kneejerk and are long-term thinkers. They've never shown any signs of veering from their plan when they've had chances, and they allowed the documentary footage to go out about teams suffering in Europe to reduce expectations for a reason. There's still tonnes to play for this year but it feels to me like there's not much pressure on it either way. Just an acceptance that we're in a transition for now and we'll properly regroup in the summer.

Felt in-stadium, or at least in the Gallowate, it was extremely noticeable that folks were frustrated at how deep he was positioned a lot. I agreed in that he looked very tentative when deciding whether to come out or not on quite a few occasions.

Thought he was our best player for most of that and balanced work off the ball really well with his usual moments of passing quality. Think the rotation of him as DM is clever too considering how he usually gasses out.

Great pen. I had no faith in him for some reason

I fancy us a lot more currently in tougher away games, at the moment. We're naturally more compact and tactical.

Aye, it was absolutely terrible. I couldn't tell if he was in a huff or saving legs due to knowing Barnes only had an hour in him but the work he's usually class at was also not there for long stretches. That usually offsets a lot of his braindeaded-ness.

Tbf, you wet yourself in 21/22 and 22/23, like. Convinced we were down on the former, wrote off top 4 last year by February.

My row in the Gallowate has officially turned on Miggy

For those calling for 3 at the back, we already play like that in possession anyway. Howe is right to stick with his principles for the long term benefit of players imo. It's chaos now but it won't be in future. Just a phase we're in. He's clearly managing some half-fit players too so quite a few can't go full pelt. Burn is the main thing you can dig him for today but, tbh, I thought he adjusted well after 20 minutes and then the goal came. Still, I'd be looking to introduce Tino now for home games at least with a look to next season regardless.

Harvey Barnes/Anthony Gordon interchanging masterclass. 3-1 win.

Not bothered in the slightest now and just want some resolution. Yeah, the optics of going to a 'bigger club' aren't great but this happens between other top clubs as is with execs moving about. For Ashworth himself, his role is meant to mitigate 'single points of failure' and over reliance on individuals. This is obviously an art in itself but him leaving shouldn't really leave an immediate hole and, if it does, then there's potentially some blame at his door for not setting that up.

I'd agree if he was under 30 but he's not and his injury record will likely worsen from now-on-in. Perhaps a bottom half side will think reduced games will mitigate that and take the gamble.