Gallowgate Toon

This bloke's an absolute monster. I like Dubs but he's a level below Pope.

I thought he was pretty good overall. That was one hell of a fast-paced match for a player brand new to the league, like, and he hardly looked out of place.

Getting points from 'elite' teams this season is purely a bonus compared to our aim. We need to find ways to play against these sides, we'll take some humpings along the way but also nab some points the other way too.

I think this is a decent thread. If Targett is fit then I agree with the starting lineup. Would have Botman in the middle to keep on Haaland though. I think we should focus on trying to keep possession in spells tomorrow, as a starting point, and a back 3 who are all comfortable might just be our best foundation for that.

Didn't Mitro start the PL campaign a few years ago very well and then spectacularly drop off? Feel like he had 8 by December and then finished on 11.

Watford have had a torrid time with detached, demotivated players. They can't carry that weight for a promotion campaign. If he wants to go, they'll look to shift him.

Arsenal have some great players but they'll hit a patch where they need to grind results out and will flounder. Fancy them to get CL though.

Scoring 9 in a season from out wide/withdrawn in the Championship at 18 really isn't to be sniffed at, like.

Agree that on paper it looks well balanced. Gallagher is a real grafter too. Feel a bit for Willock but he's shown very little attacking instinct since his scoring run - we need that from midfield. Most of his good work since has come box-to-box.

Can't wait for the Chris Wood redemption arc.

Out of all the Chelski lot, Gallagher's the one I'd take.

Aye. It's very easy to hone in on outputs but it's hardly that indicative of the potential of a 20 year-old (and you're paying for the future when targeting players that young). I'm not saying he's going to turn into Vini Jr but, using him as an example, he'd scored 3 league goals the season before last and then had his huge upcurve. There are good indicators that Joao Pedro could become a very handy player in the right environment.

Has there ever been any real indication we're after Ramos, apart from that one journo (which then got parroted by a bunch of news curation feeds)? Seems like agent talk, more than anything, as multiple clubs have suddenly taken an interest in the lad at the same time.

Sounds like the player isn't happy about the move being blocked which I think has led to the leaks. Just looked at the highlights of their match last night and he seemed involved in the better bits of play. Got past 2 to get to the byline and put a good cross in on his left, lovely dinked ball over the top for the striker with his right. Should've done better with his chance at the end, like, but he's shown he can score goals in that league. Seems like he was playing all across the front line at various points? His style makes it look like he's a lot older than 20.

I don't think we're going to see anymore through the door until the last week of the window.

Got Vini Jr development vibes about him

I think our attacking ability is now on the verge of being a bit underrated, like we outscored other good teams last year like Wolves and Brighton, contenders for our top half aim, and that was with some pretty big mitigating factors for the season. We're not wholly useless. I don't think it's a stretch to say that with another year of Howe coaching we could reach the 50 goal mark without any further additions (as long as we keep certain players fit) while retaining our defensive balance. That said, we should still be looking to strengthen, obviously. If we want to compete for 6th then we should feel comfortable in the ability to score ~60.

Brighton have done the exact same to top 6 sides at home as they did against us, like. It's really not going to be the barometer of our season. E.g. when they played Arsenal last season at the amex, they had 60% possession and 20-something shots etc.

The performance wasn't a wake up call at all at this point. We didn't have Wilson or Bruno for games last season and still won. It's the second match of the season, plenty of teams put in inconsistent performances in the opening ~6 games are so. We've played better against better. You could easily say that 15/16 teams in the league would be much worse off if their star players aren't performing/available.

Didn't mind City pre-Barca as a footballing outfit but find them incredibly boring under Guardiola. It'll be a shit game where we have about 30% of the ball and lose by a few goals. Don't care about the score, in a way, just want us to have a go and have proper spells of pressure.

One of the reasons Brighton are so good at keeping the ball but score little is because they're largely a team of midfielders who pack the pitch well and hold possession. I can't say that it looked like Bruno was too flustered bar the odd moment or two. What was weirder was that so little play ran through him when it looked like there were plenty of opportunities to get him on the ball. Seemed to spend a lot of time cycling possession rather than trying to progess like he normally does.

He was out for a while, tbf, he's only played a few proper games since he got back to full fitness.

I've got some concerns about Bruno as the deeper lying midfielder against certain sides, like. When we're struggling to keep the ball in the opposition's half, I'd much rather he had the ability to get on the ball higher up and allow us to build pressure.

Yup. Easy to get lost in a crap performance but it's not like we've not played well against better sides under Howe. The XI today is much more capable than they showed. Not a good one, sometimes it happens.

It's game #2 and it feels like Brighton always start seasons well so not going to get too wound up about it but this has been a really disappointing midfield performance. Sloppy, no intensity, poor effort to get a grip on the game. In tight matches like this, you at least want your physical players like Joelinton and Willock to make it hard and get in faces. Utterly passive.