Gallowgate Toon

What's defined as an 'error'?

Carlos feels far too good to be true We need to start quickly moving to the middle selections of our targets. While signing the likes of Carlos would probably be absolutely amazing and a good longer-term investment, there's still value in getting players who are good for the situation we're in and can be squad players for the medium/long-term. Have a sinking feeling that we're waiting for things to go mental in the last week of the window and try our luck again, which will probably then lead to some panic buying.

That is a very, very small sample size. I love the idea that coaching is this thing you just flick on and everything is better. Did Rafa teach us nothing? His whole philosophy was about building up everything and that took time. Eddie Howe finished 9th with this squad. He clearly has something as a coach.

I do think Howe is trying to cover weaknesses but keep some form of foundation. I imagine Brentford is how he wants us to play but he quickly saw we couldn't handle that style defensively and has tried to shore up the space between defence and midfield since. To me, that explains his bigger focus on trying to get defensive players in this window so he can reset the shape. I think we do try and counter in a different way to before, with higher pressing and retrieving the ball in the middle of the pitch to get in on goal. Before, we sat right back and would basically run the length of the pitch to get a chance. Joelinton has been amazing at being the guy who wins the ball and gets us on the turn. But what we don't see is commitment in attack when we build play. It feels cautious and like we're waiting for someone to break shape.

For parity, Benitez also went on some pretty terrible runs of results - it can take a while to figure things out and let coaching come through. Ultimately, we need quality through the door.

He really does lack a lot of fundamentals to this game, like. He's not at all unpredictable - you know what he's going to do and he's very talented at that one thing which gets him out of trouble quite a bit. But he has no idea about movement, his passing is 'OK', his crossing technique is poor, shooting can be wayward. He's levels away from HBA in many facets. It felt like he got in the way on a few occasions yesterday but the goal was fantastic. Howe's wingers at Bournemouth were system-focused, from memory. Agile and quick but looked to beat a man and get early crosses in etc. Someone with Robert's attacking game would be perfect.

Howe really did do a good PL job at Bournemouth for a while, like. Look at the squad he got promoted with and was the core for his first two seasons - so many absolute regens. Dan Gosling was a starter in their midfield ffs.

I'm happy to reserve judgment until the end of the window. But if we're going into the Feb games with marginal improvements at best then they should absolutely be pilloried for it. I can see some sense in building up through the window, players that we really want may come available the closer you get to the deadline. But does that counterbalance the risk of maybe getting 5th/6th targets in earlier to help make the difference? I guess if the players are really, really good then yeah. Basically, they've got to pull some more Trippier-like stuff out of the bag.

We should be buying a mix. Having good league experience does actually count for something. Even really good players sometimes don't initially adapt when they join. Considering our main links are to foreign players, I'm pretty sure we aren't operating a PL experience-only policy. When we went into the window, I really wanted a CM (and still do) but I just see such massive problems at both ends of the pitch that feel more pressing. A wide forward who can operate as a second striker and scores goals would be tremendous.

I thought he was OK. Some nice touches, a couple of times he was slow to react etc. I quite liked that we didn't just try to lump it up to him and wanted to mix up build up. What I didn't like was the lack of trying to get crosses in early for someone who obviously wins a lot in the air. Got to be smarter than that.

Mad that Villa have lost more than us

We're not actually that easy to beat though. We've drawn a lot of games and are often 'competitive'.

I expected 2 more wins in the league - today and Norwich. We're playing kinda how I expected though. I think the biggest problem we have is the mentality of the squad - a fair chunk of this lot have been grinding out staying in the division for years. While final positions have looked comfortable, we know that most of the season has been tough work each year. That's not healthy for high performance and players become harder to motivate for the slog each passing year. We've been a fine margins team for a long time. The last few seasons, it's been a slight shot of fresh blood that has got things moving in the right direction again - Almiron, Willock, Rondon coming into fitness etc. Theoretically, we have the means for a massive dose of quality this time.

Easy to forget that we were poor under Rafa in his last season until he had a fit, competent front 3 to work with. Don't think he'd make much difference now considering what's available. He'd also absolutely hate Maxi. Not sure where he goes from here, tbh. He does feel a bit finished?

Wow didn't realise it was 1 win in his last 13 in the league.

Fraser is weird. His off the ball stuff is top notch - movement, pressing, tracking back. On the ball, he doesn't seem to be able to beat anyone and his crossing is often very meh. Like a high octane Damian Duff.

We've literally signed Kieran Trippier who is a genuinely elite right back

We've been on long winless runs every year since we came back up, like.

I don't think that was by design, like. Seemed like a combination of a bit of 'what the fuck do we do now?!' after the goal, players getting tired, and Watford actually trying to press a bit that had us sagging back.

Did Watford really have 18 shots? I can remember 3 of note 2 of which came from us fucking about. It didn't feel like we only had 1 shot on target but that's definitely not good enough. We had many 'opportunities' but as is always the case fucked them up. People getting in the way of passes etc. So frustrating.

If anyone's hoodwinking us, it's our players. They've had 20 or so opportunities to win a football match this season and they've won 1. Think what you like about Bruce and Howe but their win %ages in this league are not 5%.

He was good again after last week's shitshow. Time and time again, he wins the ball and gets us on our way on the break but we contrive to fuck it up.

Team defo shit itself for a bit not long after the goal but I thought we'd weathered the storm. Remember seeing Tindall trying to get players to push up.

At best, this current squad is 15th in the league. It has absolutely massive deficiencies across the whole lot and the core has had a habit of being diabolical for long stretches. That includes Rafa's time here. What would you be doing differently?

He's not a bigger problem than the squad he has available. To me, that's pretty clear.