Gallowgate Toon

On my stream, Howe clearly told Hall to tell Aaron to go down

Big striker call, bearing in mind we have another onslaught of games coming up. Man U will have a go so feels like Wissa might be better to start here, Woltemade for Burnley?

Looking forward to boxing day. We've got a decent preparation period and we hopefully have some more bodies coming back. I think having 2 fit strikers going into the next crunch of games is going to be a big help for us (fingers crossed), it opens up our potential game-plan options up much more for rotation.

His movement before the first is great, very similar to Wissa's for his goal on Wednesday.

Second goal is a nasty finish.

Very unfortunate. Still an absolute player though.

Some absolutely quality crosses in.

James on Barnes after the Wissa ball is 100% a pen. Takes the man first and I don't think he even gets a touch on the ball.

Good game. We had a pretty tight turnaround after the cup game there, a real shame Nick couldn't bury for the hat trick as that would've killed it. Much improved and good to have 2 strikers now actually competing with one another. Sandro back at it. Bruno understandably out on his feet.

He's a BALLER, like.

Thought the midfield sub came late but I felt the main thing today is that we didn't take chances... And not getting a pen.

Energy levels looking much better. Maybe stirred by having competition now too after Wissa's goal.

Couldn't go today due to illness ffs We've got a decent break before Man U so the shackles have probably been released a bit. Miley is looking absolute quality.

They seem to be quite a small bunch of defenders, Tosin aside? Presuming Big Nick starts, that surely has to be a target?

His ball carrying will come - he had good numbers on this front a couple of years ago when he was playing more CM/AM. We saw a snippet of it against Leeds.

His long-term future isn't full back, I think he's too good a midfielder for it, but we deployed him in some interesting ways yesterday which I think helped us on the ball. He's also quite a clever mover into space, he definitely shows that Longstaff knack of finding that inside pocket in the box.

At the very least, he looks decently athletic.

Loved his passion for the winner. Top to see, and a decent performance too.

He's an unbelievable player. Absolute unit, pacey, really talented on the ball.

His movement is good, very sharp & willing runner.

I think it could help Woltemade too. He gets to come into the game against more tired opposition rather than having tough battles from the start.

I think he needs 45 minutes tomorrow from the start.

I do have to say that I'm worried about him now. I feel like as we've gotten more 'quality', we've become just generally more cautious. I think in his mind, we have better players so we can tune the gameplan to be more balanced & the quality will pull through but what's happened is just a load of mid. We don't do anything well anymore with any consistency, we are just very meh with a couple of really nice footballers. I worry that he looks to the likes of Arteta/Pep and their obsession with control & fine margins and he wants to emulate their boring as sin football. The risk & aggression in our game has eroded and so has the confidence. The fact we line up in this boring 4-5-1 mid-block shape a lot of the time with no pressure is so disappointing, it shows exactly what our intentions are - to contain. It's middle of the road crap, nothing like the football he often talks about. If it was the best plan available for the squad we have then I'd be more accepting of it but I don't think it is. To me, we bought more squad players to be able to play Plan A more consistently but we've not done that this season, whether that's because of key injuries or PTSD from last time, who knows, but it's rendered the summer purchases useless so far. The biggest worry I have now is about the next transition. His old guard are on the way out and there's a concern they were an absolutely massive part of our success and are therefore leaving a giant vacuum. Wilson's gone, Trippier's days are numbered, Schar & Burn are getting on, Joelinton looks knackered. Bruno aside, the front 6 just looked like a bunch of nice lads yesterday.

Some of the absolute mess involved in this

He and Gordon had one cross between them for the hour they were on the pitch? Christ, they were bloody useless.