Gallowgate Toon

Mad how many chances we couldn't put away.

How can such a good penalty striker miss that badly? Tbh, I feel sorry for him in a way as he clearly gives a lot of effort, but misses like that from a striker are unforgivable.

Honestly, not too fussed this year - we've got enough going on. Well done, Wednesday, and a timely reminder to the board.

No shit

Needs more gametime. He had some good cameos early on in the PL and evidently has talent, imo.

Pretty much to be expected - rusty players but managed to generally keep decent control.

This'll be a tough first half, I think. They're in good form and will be well up for it while most of our lot have barely played. I reckon we'll win it in the second half.

It could be a sign that he has big plans to play him during the second half of the season...

This sounds bad on the surface but you're talking about a 1/2 minute variance at most. La Liga is the worst of all leagues for in-play time, iirc, at about 51 mins when you'd think it'd be the best considering the possession approach. It's not abnormal in football.

Yeah, they're often wrong too - bet the 43 minutes is a load of shite. Last time this stat was rolled out was against Liverpool and it was wrong. Average in-play PL time is 55 mins which is one of the best in the world.

I think Howe said this fixture would be an examination of how far we've come. Basically, we're bloody immense defensively when we get set, but we have a lot to work on going forward still. For me, the midfield balance against these sorts of teams still doesn't feel consistently right and that sets the tone going forward. I thought Longstaff was anonymous going forward & back, Bruno had moments but struggled to find space while having to sit deeper, Willock improved but his best moments came when drifting out wide rather than making things happen through the middle.

Isak coming back is potentially huge for us. Get some minutes under his belt over the cup games to prep for assaulting Fulham.

Thought he was absolutely wank in the first half but much better second half. Great outlet when he gets going, just feels like he plays within himself sometimes.

22. Bonkers.

Class. Think we could've done so much more on the ball but we're a work in progress with some limited squad resources. Arteta can fuck off. What a fanny.

We can do better than this. Need to sort that midfield at half-time because it's not doing enough.

Feels like I'm being harsh but Willock is annoying me. Seems to be ambling about when he should be physically dominant.

Miggy vs. Zinchenko could be a good way in for us. He's a good player but has never struck me as a great defender.

Midfield is a key battle, I hope Longstaff & Joe/Jo give Bruno the support he needs to be able to get on the ball in more space and get things going for us. Head says a 2-1 loss, heart says a 2-1 win.

Fucking yessssss.

I'm not expecting top 4 still, tbh, it requires lots of things going in our favour. However, the home games left against the 'big 6' gives me a lot of hope, as well as our class defence. Really hope we go bold this window.

This one stings more today. Thought our left flank was exposed a bit yesterday. Willock had one or two moments but was just way too passive in the main. We can't get those neat triangle interchanges going like we can on the right, due to personnel and balance. I actually thought subs disrupted us a bit for 10 mins and then we found a groove with Maxi again. This is also the game, imo, where you want to be able to change up the midfield by pushing Bruno up as we look for a winner.

I feel like I should be excited by Tielemans links but I'm just not. I feel like Bruno brings a lot of Tielemans' strengths to the CM role, plus his own abilities, and he's also defensively much sounder. Should be going for Kone or someone similar for a midfield position. Maddison would be class. Yeah, he's a bit of an awkward fit with our style and shape, but he's so talented. Howe would make it work.

The Perrone one is annoying because the release clause is low, but perhaps we talked to him and didn't get a good vibe/he wanted City after they made their interest known. Or our plans have changed since Shelvey got injured - the noises since have been about more established players since that came out.