Gallowgate Toon

He's a fucking freak. What a player.

I think we're banking on it. Isak to kill the game off.

Almiron is usually very decent in his possession play, tbh. He'll sort it.

We're slowing the game down to manage the crowd and have been a little lax in general play with it. We're always at our best when we go for it and force things to be open. Feel like we've been relatively comfortable still, tbh.

Liverpool will draw with one of Villa, Spurs or Brentford. Fancy Leicester to hold them in a high-scoring draw too.

Really think we should go for Hickey. He's as 2-footed as they come so can play either FB position if needed, great athlete and attacking runner, decent defensively with plenty of room to grow there under good coaching.

It's going to depend on outgoings as well. I'd expect a GK, LB, CB, 2 mids (one more defensive, one more attacking), and a striker who can play on the wing. Team spirit really is an important part of our current success so this summer is going to be a test. I think the majority of this summer's incomings are going to be young players who can play in the first XI but wouldn't necessarily expect to start straight away. At least 1 or 2 will be of the elite ilk though.

Yeah, their big Achilles heel is their lack of depth. I imagine they're going to find the final stretch tough with so many games and little options to rotate. They do control possession very well but their game does require real energy.

I'm still in absolute awe of that pass, like. It's a work of art.

There are moments and games where you don't want him as the 6 still but he's absolutely fantastic there the majority of the time.

Today's pass had my hands on my head in disbelief. It was Iniesta-like. What a fabulous footballer he is when on form.

We're almost always shit here. Would love a win.

He played about 3 roles today and was fucking class at each one.

After the first couple of goals is the loudest I think I've personally heard the Gallowgate. It was immense.

I thought that but then can't shake that we seem to do things in streaks

I think this'll be a draw too. The nature of us getting battered a bit last week might see a knocked confidence hangover.

I was reading somewhere that Rice struggles with opposition that press high. Personally, I've not seen that myself, but that'd be a flag for our style if true as I think Howe will want us to improve in possession next year. I don't think we'll ever become like City under Howe but I'd be very surprised if he doesn't want us to manage the ball better in certain situations.

Feel like Ugarte would be the best fit for our style. While more defensively-minded, he's technically good enough to be able to rotate with Bruno in games and play 6/8 when needed, covers ground well, pressing mentality, got the feet to get past pressing opponents.

Pretty sure the road Bruno is on is between The Badger and Rotary Way in Darras. Probs just picked them up from training and heading home - ne panic.

I feel like rather than focusing on dropping deeper in certain games, Howe will primarily want to work on ways to make our press more effective. I think there are definitely games where we can settle into more of a mid while keeping our strengths intact, personally.

Brighton are so good at baiting, I think they're the worst match-up in the league for us with their build-up flexibility and pace - it's the game I'm least confident about this season. Villa handled our press so well but seemed to struggle with Chelsea's - I guess that's just the risk with these high risk-reward strategies on both sides. Howe's desire for us to push up every time is largely great and many teams are going to struggle to deal with it even when they have knowledge to bypass. I'd really like us to explore Isak in a free role more than we currently do.

There are a couple of teams for Liverpool to play who are a tricky fit for them. West Ham, Brentford, Fulham (who I think will pick up a bit of form again now), and Villa are all teams that have styles to cause Liverpool problems and at least get draws.

As long as we can keep players fit now, I think we'll get 5 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss. I'm not feeling that fearful of Arsenal anymore but feel like Brighton will be a problem for us with how they play. Hopefully, it's all sewn up by then.

Someone said they thought he went for it too early and, watching it back, I think I agree. After getting killed in behind for much of the first half, we had a better measure of the spaces for the first period of that second and then we seemed to become massively open again leaving huge gaps by committing forward (combined with rubbish tracking back). I feel like we've been decent at knowing when things aren't going our way this year and becoming more compact & upping the game management to try and reset. Not sure if we've been a bit unsettled by all of the media questions about dark arts but none of that was to be seen. It felt like we doubled down instead... maybe because of our recent form. Overall, a bit of a strange showing from everyone involved which makes me hopeful that it was largely just an off day with some good tactical learnings about the squad.

Watched some of the game back and he was all over the shop and rarely tracking runs (even very simple ones rather than rotations that'd be difficult to keep up with). Wonder if he's carrying a knock as he looked canny slow.