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Showing content with the highest reputation on 12/28/2024 in all areas

  1. Not really transfer news but just an acknowledgment of our recruitment team going into the window and the possibility of ELL going. Find Morgan Rogers for a £1m, get 16 times ROI in about 8 months, just as he starts coming into his own. Replace him with Azaz for £2m in January, has 8 goals and 9 assists in half a season. Healthy finances. just some positivity about how far we’ve come under Scott if we do lose a player or two this window.
    8 points
  2. Not gonna lie, bit sick of the barlaser criticism when Hackney was 10 times worse than he that second half and you've not even mentioned his performance. And it's not the first time this season barlaser has played better than him.
    5 points
  3. barry bannan, was constantly giving out instructions and dictating the play for weds on boxing day, my mate said hes really good at breaking up play isnt he. thats what we miss. hes a leader always influencing the game and a good player and still gets about the pitch well. we had dan barlaser jogging about barely making a tackle. as soon as we play a team with a decent midfielder our dan stands out as being not good enough. if he plays tomorrow, we will 100% lose the game. hackney is a young lad and a good footballer, but he isnt gary hamilton, robbie mustoe, jamie pollock or george boateng. he isnt going to use his vast experience to influence his team mates(bannan). he needs howson or morris next to him. if clarke and fry start together with glover in goal and super dan in midfield we will be beaten comfortably. thats 4 dilly dally players on the ball with us playing out from the back. we will do what we do and lose the ball and concede gifts.
    5 points
  4. LB is only ever a problem when we concede a few goals, when we go on a good run nobody mentions it for weeks. Sheff we’d scored their goals from set pieces and Plymouth got 2 of theirs down our right. I’m not sure how changing things at LB is gonna solve anything tbh. Its concentration, the midfield and game management that is costing us games. Maybe against sheff wed we should have came out anticipating a back lash and rather than playing on as normal adjusted to deal with that. Maybe we weather it for 10/15 minutes and they give up then we start trying to play again. Against Plymouth could we have noticed they were getting to much joy down the wings and maybe gone for a more counter attack set up rather than just sit high up the pitch and just let it happen? There is nothing wrong with our team, the formation or any of that, we arent proactive or even reactive, we just play and hope the defenders can cope. Its not that we even have to tear it up and start again, literally just in game tweaks would seem to sort a lot of our problems.
    3 points
  5. For a different perspective I was trying to get my head around our injury list and started looking at time played. At the moment we're missing: Dieng, Brynn, Smith, Lenihan, Edmundson, Bangura, Howson, Hackney, Forss & Conway. Engel is only just back and we have McGree, Hackney, Rav & Clarke who have missed multiple games. There's been 23 Championship games and only 4 players have made every squad: Dijksteel, Jones, Barlaser & ELL.* Just one player has played in every game: ELL & he has only started 14 of them. With 23 matches that equals 2,070 minutes. Only two players have managed more than 1,700 minutes: Azaz and Hackney. That's just two players who have managed 80% of the time available. I had a look at Sunderland. They have 7 players with more than 1,700 minutes game time. Burnley have 4 with over 1,700 minutes and two more just below. Blackburn much the same. I suspect most clubs in the top 10 have somewhere between 4-7 players who have played most matches together. You could argue that given those figures, it's good work by Carrick and co to keep us somewhere in contention. I'm not sure any club can cope with that level of disruption. Given that this has been happening since the start of last season we're either very, very unlucky or we are doing something in training and how we play that is making injuries more likely. At this point, what looks like the difference between us and other top end Championship clubs when it comes to injuries is significant and persistent. *I think Doak may have been available for every game since he started.
    3 points
  6. Completey agree. Its taken the sponteneity & the joy out of football....Kinda what football is all about for me anyway
    3 points
  7. It’s waddinghams agent trying to get him out of Brisbane whilst he has value. As far as I’m aware no one has even enquired about him.
    3 points
  8. Its an insult to see Latte Lath's name mentioned in the same sentence as those players mentioned above, even when he wasnt scoring following the Ipswich refusal he gave his all, never dropped his head & his performances of late have been nothing short of brilliant Yesterday his running back to save an almost certain goal when a Sheff Weds player had broke away after our attack broke doen spoke volunes for ELL's first class attitude
    3 points
  9. We started with 3 academy players on Boxing Day and another 2 on the bench, not sure what more you want? I bet that’s more than most championship and prem teams. Coburn and Hackney will be sold for big money, like Tavenier and DJed Spence was. small fees for Kav and Coulson recently. we have Finch, McCabe and McCormack around the fringes recently also and I’m sure the next batch coming along behind.
    2 points
  10. True but when playing well he's still played better than anything Barlaser can produce, which is what I think people use to form their opinion. It's a bit of a job for Carrick and the staff though actually, trying to sort Hackney out I mean.
    2 points
  11. Even Carrick hasn't managed to lose to one of them there goals! A controversial goal perhaps? 🤔
    2 points
  12. 2 points
  13. Are you referring to my comment re Ayling? If so, to be fair to him, I don’t think he has tried any less - he is simply getting less help from his winger, and that’s down to style of play with Doak I reckon. He’s also got injured a bit this season, so it’s a bit start stop.
    2 points
  14. With the best will in the world, our midfield has been utterly dysfunctional in recent games, so I wouldn't be overly concerned about changing formation.
    2 points
  15. Not necessarily. I suspect McGree would have been sent off for his studs-high lunge and Borges would have gone for the tug back. We've had plenty of narrow escapes that VAR could have ruled against. I see nothing that suggests we're uniquely unlucky in refs' decisions. All fans think that but it's rarely true. We just tend to forget about the calls that went our way.
    2 points
  16. I think its a collective thing, but regardless without naming names surely when discussing the previous weeks game then conceding goals must have been raised again & again, you would think suggestions on addressing something to work on but nothing, we've struggled with awful defending since Carr walked through the door, it just seems the management group of either oblivious to the fact we're awful at the back or turn a blind eye hoping we'll out score the opposition I know we miss Morris but surely after two years of building, as a potential once auto predicted team we cant just rely on one player
    2 points
  17. AND I still haven't come to terms chucking away a 3-0...Its gonna take a while that...We could be breathing down the necks of Bunley but hey ho
    2 points
  18. I'm fully of the opinion that we got Azaz to replace McGree when he left in the summer. Bit like McGree was signed to replace Tav when he left. Azaz had primarily played on the left for Plymouth and looked a natural for the free roaming wide #10 role that McGree had been playing. Then, though, we lost Rogers unexpectedly and Azaz got moved central where he struggled for a couple of months. Then, of course, McGree signed a new contract (presumably because his injuries meant that no one was willing to offer him more than us) and Azaz kicked into gear towards the end of the season and is now a #10 or nothing. We did try Azaz on the left a few times this season to accommodate Conway as a new #10 but it wasn't a great success for either player. Now, Carrick seems to have reverted to an orthodox left-side forward in Burgzorg with the left back tucking into midfield which means McGree no longer has an obvious role in the team unless he plays #10 (but Azaz is unshiftable) or in central midfield if we run out of central midfielders. Half-expecting to see McGree line-up alongside Hackney if Howson isn't fit for Burnley.
    2 points
  19. No Alan, Hackney saw red against Coventry earlier this season
    2 points
  20. The truth of the matter is no one knows what team will decide to turn up on the day. The fact is no one knows if we are likely to win even at three up and 45 minutes to play.
    2 points
  21. He is certainly highly regarded by people who are better judges than me. Plays for the team currently at the foot of the table. Is he good enough to play in Europe, I hope so but I'm not a good judge of strikers. Has been linked even last season to Tottenham and more recently Bayern but how credible those links were I have no idea. All i can say is I hope for Australia's sake he turns out to be a good one, we are well and truly overdue for someone good up top.
    2 points
  22. Boro vs Burnley Riverside Stadium, 8pm, Sunday the 29th of December in the year of our Lord 2024 I’ll be honest – the match day thread you’re currently reading isn’t the first version I prepared. The first one was full of expletives and the second seemed too negative even to these jaded eyes. So here we go again. Take three, and action. If I start ranting, I’ll say ‘cut’ and start afresh in the next paragraph. I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas, and enjoyed a relaxing Boxing Day with friends/family/secret lovers, right up until Boro managed to self-destruct in a half of football as hard to watch as you’re ever likely to see. In no particular order, our second-half Riverside Video Nasty starred three unnecessary goals against, two injuries and a highly questionable red card for one of our few fit defenders. Talk about a punch in the [cut] At the time of typing, I'm apparently not alone in feeling rather deflated by yet another missed opportunity. If Boro can’t win a game when we're three-nil up at half time, at home, in a packed stadium, against opponents who hadn’t laid a glove on us up until that point, we have next to no chance of finding the resolve to claw back a goal deficit away from home in a nervy play-off semi-final second leg. There's huge potential in the squad, and there are plenty of nominations for 'the best half of football so far this season' (for me it'd be the second half against Leeds in the cup), but consistency has been notable by its absence; it's impossible to say which Boro will turn up even as they emerge from the half-time tunnel. We don’t just concede the odd goal here and there – when we fall apart (which is often), goals against us seem to arrive in a [cut] This is particularly frustrating because - once again - we showed some marvellous moments of football in the first half on Boxing Day. When it works, Carrickball is a pleasure to witness, and on Thursday Wednesday simply couldn't live with us. On the right wing, Ben Doak resembles Adama Traore with more end product (though less upper body strength). Finn Azaz has deservedly turned into the first name on many people's teamsheets. Conway was pivotal in the first goal, and Latte Lath's point-saving defensive tackle at the end was emblematic of his wholehearted contribution to the team. I was attempting to build a Lego transporter for my son and therefore couldn't pay full attention to the match on telly, but Boro looked dangerous and incisive every time I glanced up. And the transporter is awesome. It’s claimed success has many fathers whereas failure is an orphan, but I’d argue the failings which have dogged us this season have a rich variety of DNA in their genes. While people will rightly question Michael Carrick and (in particular) his assistants and coaches for their part, I reckon our greatest failing this season has been a lack of on-pitch leadership. I looked around on Thursday and I saw no motivational speakers or bollockers-in-chief – just individual players operating in their own siloes. How we’ve missed Darragh Lenihan – an imperfect defender, but far more vocal than his replacements. Even Tommy Smith was prone to the odd outburst of finger-pointing and man-management, whereas the likes of Dan Barlaser wouldn’t say boo to a goose even if he was a finalist in the World Booing Championships and found himself up against a gander who’d taken a vow of silence and had its beak stapled [cut] On top of everything, like the Ghost of Christmas Past, the Curse of the Boro Injury has returned once more. In the space of 103 minutes on Thursday, we lost Conway, Borges and Brynn. Given the fact our only other recognised striker’s agent claims he’s already signed for an amalgam of London clubs, and our only fit goalkeeper appears to have fists of ham and fingers of butter, it's going to be a busy January. In Kieran Scott we trust to spend incoming revenue wisely, having hopefully already identified more Rogers/Lath-type signings for short-term contributions and long-term profitability. Form guide It’s a mixed picture, to put it mildly. We’ve drawn our last two games 3-3, in different yet equally bizarre circumstances which do not speak of a side ready for the Premier League in eight months’ time. Burnley, meanwhile, look like they're already there. They've beaten Norwich, Watford and Sheffield United in December, while their three most recent November performances saw nine points collected against the cities of Bristol, Coventry and Stoke. View from the other side No MDT live on the Burnley forum at the time of writing, but the Up The Clarets forum does include threads with titles like “23 league games without conceding more than 1 goal” and “Masterclass : One of Our Best Championship Wins For A Long Time”. Pure, unstoppable power. Kneel before your master. The UTC forum is here https://www.uptheclarets.com/messageboard/viewforum.php?f=2 if you’re brave enough to look. Speaking of being brave enough to look, this match is live on Sky Sports Football in Ultra HDR, so you can enjoy extra blackness both on the screen and in your heart when the door marked Automatic Promotion finally closes. Cut. Back to the studio. Questions for the audience: 1. Who makes your starting XI? 2. What's your score prediction? 3. Did you get anything nice for Christmas? 4. Now we're halfway through the season, how would you sum up our promotion prospects using song lyrics? (I’d nominate this effort from Every Time I Die: “It's almost unbearable. Honestly? Terrible.")
    1 point
  23. I agree CT. We need to bring back Pulis to teach them that kind of tactic.
    1 point
  24. I don’t think he pulled out. He was trying to flick it over their player and keep possession of the ball to come away with it. It’s the tippy tappy way of playing the game nowadays. Loads of risk, very little reward. I thought you were a fan of that type of play?
    1 point
  25. Just to back up what I was saying earlier about Hackney- honestly think if howson or barlaser do this it's being talked about for months on here but it's barely mentioned because it's Hackney. It gets to me most because he's very clear favourite and he lost out not because of a poor decision or a misplaced pass with the right intent, it's because he's complete and utterly pulled out and let the man past him. So so unacceptable. If either of our midfielders deserved dropped after that game it's him.
    1 point
  26. Not so much Bournemouth as I think they gambled and made it stick. But Brighton and Brentford were both early adopters of using data to help identify players and bought into the idea of selling a player at the right time and relying on their scouting processes to find the next one and to build from there. For example, Brentford sold Ollie Watkins for circa £30m (after buying him for about £6.5m) and Benrahma for circa £20m (after buying him for about £1.5m) and already had Mbeumo (£6m from Troyes) and bought Toney for £5m to replace those players along with having money left over to strengthen other areas. Brighton do it every year, like selling Caicedo for over £100m after buying two years earlier for like £25m, then bought Baleba in to replace him for about £25m then had money left to splash out on more expensive players in other positions.
    1 point
  27. Gutted for him mate, he was looking the part for me
    1 point
  28. I think we may tell ELL and his agent to forget about a move in January, but with an agreement he can leave in the summer
    1 point
  29. Yeah Hackney was the worst of the two although neither were particularly good. I suspect the issue is that we know Hackney can play better whereas Barlaser has a level and he's not going beyond that. Still unfair to criticise him more than Hackney on Boxing Day though.
    1 point
  30. That’s totally correct. Problem is we haven’t sorted the lack of defensive support out now Izzy isn’t starting. That’s down to Carrick
    1 point
  31. You do make a compelling argument in fairness but I am pro VAR it is getting better in our football.
    1 point
  32. Izzy partners with his fullback far better than Doak.. but on the flipside Doak is far more dangerous
    1 point
  33. Also, even if vdb had clipped him, which he didnt, it was not even close to being a yellow card, it was in an innocuous position in the pitch with the player surrounded by our players going nowhere. It wasn't an aggressive or desperate action, just a coming together.
    1 point
  34. ELLs price will be quadrupled as well. Vdb, God knows how many times his initial fee well be getting. It really is great and so much better than we've been for years. However, where he has struggled so far is to give us a fully rounded squad with great options in every position. I'd say right now we have gaping hopes (quality wise) at lb, rb, centre mid and number 10. We have average championship players at best in the first two and have excellent first choices no no depth in the latter two (at least none that Carrick trusts given the lack of appearances from gilbert). Given his tenure length so Far I'd have hoped for a better rounded squad. Though you really can't argue with his individual signings, not many clubs will have made so much money back on signings over the last few years. Doesn't get us promoted though.
    1 point
  35. I don't think we need another striker to be honest But we do need A BEAST at the back Maybe a beast in midfield too
    1 point
  36. Would agree to an extent that perhaps Carrick's tactics are causing some confusion. But would disagree about needing to be mentally strong to make it in pro football. It might be tough on kids to get through an academy...even tougher on the ones who don't make the grade. I guess being loaned out due to lack of first team opportunities isn't ideal either, but at least its a way to continue your development and career. But you only have to look at some of the antics they get up to on the pitch, even from so-called senior pros, to see many examples of questionable behaviour. Maybe not specifically weak-willed, but doing stupid things that get them booked / sent off, "checking out" or losing focus because of interest from bigger clubs, or they've fallen out with the manager. Even going AWOL and not turning up for training or matches. Football players can get away with some incredibly unprofessional behaviour and still somehow manage to have lucrative careers. Cantona's kung-fu kick, Zidane's headbutt & Suarez' biting to name just some of the bigger ones. Then look at guys like Merson & Gascoigne. Addiction and mental issues they needed years of help for. While making it as a pro footballer certainly isn't easy, I wouldn't say they are especially mentally tough. Obviously there are some model pros, but you do see an awful lot of crap that would get other people fired from their jobs. Anyway, I'm rambling. In a nutshell, I'd agree the coaching could be causing some confusion, but given how we seem to be making similar basic errors in so many games, I'm putting at least some of the blame on the players. Regardless of what the manger says, it shouldn't be that hard to stay alert to what opponents are doing around you. To me it seems like a few of our lads are prone to major lapses in concentration. At the back is definitely where our teamwork seems the weakest. If one player isn't able to stop a cross going in, there should be someone marking the guy(s) in the box waiting for the ball. Too often we do neither.
    1 point
  37. I thought I couldn't hate a kickoff time more than a Monday 8pm, but I think this one is worse. *** Sky.
    1 point
  38. Think the lack of replies is a forlorn sense of apathy creeping in after the 3-0 surrender. The half empty lot can't even be bothered and the half full contingent are struggling for positives.
    1 point
  39. That's the attitude I am taking as well, they are streets ahead of most teams including us so anything from Burnley is a bonus
    1 point
  40. Introduce him to ELL's agent could do wonders for the lad
    1 point
  41. Yea it feels like we got a bit nonchalant with the midfield area. I mainly thought we needed cover for Hackney but maybe we just need a replacement at this point. I was watching a few YouTube analysts talking about city’s problems and how important Rodri was to their whole system working. Maybe we’re suffering a similar thing?
    1 point
  42. Tbf in this case, if the rumours are true, he's wanted as a number 2 for a prem team, which in this day and age is pretty much the "cup keeper" so I'd say it would have an impact.
    1 point
  43. Takes a lot longer to recover from a bruised ego than it does a dislocated shoulder apparently.
    1 point
  44. With regards to ELL I would imagine the talks in August with him would have centred around him joining Ipswich then coming straight back down while Boro replace them in the Premiership at the end of this season so it makes sense to wait until January and let's see where we all are. Considering that we are doing our best to scupper any hopes of promotion I reckon that ELL will be off and good luck to him. The Club collectively have failed to deliver their part of the bargain and in a way so have Ipswich, West Ham however would be a no brainer. The desired "Model" won't work unless all parts are working in unison, a bit like having a 500bhp V8 with the timing out and a fuel filter that was skimped on it's last service. All fur coat and no defence as my dear Grandmother would probably have exclaimed!
    1 point
  45. I think Burnley is a free hit but Hull and Cardiff I imagine have now become non negotiable.
    1 point
  46. I'll fondly remember those 7 minutes. The Thomas Waddingham era.
    1 point
  47. Regarding cente mid... I think everyone was understandably expecting Hackney to be one of our best players. He's turned out to be one of the weakest links - more than a few absolute stinker performances. Then with Morris picking up a medium term injury, we're up sh*t creek all of a sudden in a very important area.
    1 point
  48. You were right on the right wing side too tbf 👍 Not sure you were the only one though, I was adamant we shouldn't have signed howson again as he'd just end up playing more games than we wanted him to play and would just hold us back.
    1 point
  49. Actually sadly we do or hazard a really good guess
    1 point


  • Latest Posts

    • Fair, except although far too casual for my liking Dieng wasn't that bad, glover definitely has the most honkers - except Joe Lumley of course, the jury is out on Travers, the attacker pulled his arm in the jump, although the first goal was definitely a honker from him, just smother it lad. What happened to keepers taking everything including the kitchen sink? Ryan Giles is good at getting crosses in, and he's got a few good crosses in, and also won a few shoulder barges in defensive areas, but he was never going to fix the defence so we can't blame him for the three massive honkers he's pulled in 3 games. It's like he's our honker specialist, brought in at Carrick's express and relentless desire. I was secretly hoping we wouldn't sign him because I could see as clear as a couple of smoky single malts (not too smoky - such as Laphroaig or Lagavulin for eg ) that Ryan Giles' ferocious swinging balls alone would not be enough to get us bang smack back into the playoffs race, we need him to not play for now, Borges was doing alright, Carrick switches the starting line up too much and there's no consistency, except for the continuous stream of gigantic honkers we produce. On the pitch they've even started ironically banging their heads together, as if to mock Carrick with postmodern artistry.  Oh the honkers we've conceded this season. it makes me as sad as when we bought George Saville (no offence George). When you think about all those honkers we've conceded this season it's really hard to feel proud of the team, you know we're going to shoot ourselves in the nuts at any given opportunity, from what I've seen at least. Ultimately it's down to the manager, although it's seriously rough for him to keep losing really good players and he's on a hiding to nothing, he needs to get a settled back four - and why it doesn't include fry when fit I've got no idea, especially when you watch edmundens honkers reel. I swear dael fry doesn't get picked because he's not very good at honkers or whatever. I can see why people are feeling the Boro malaise, makes every single parmo taste increasingly bitter and not enough chips on the side anymore. Regardless 'm definitely not bringing football up in any social scenario at the moment. TLDR: After losing LL Carrick has a mountain to climb, it's an incredibly tough environment for a new manager to exist in, but it's encouraging we are setting those standards as a club, surely there is a manager that can make this model sing, Carrick get your singing trousers on lad.   Utb          
    • That's not what you said though, is it?  The tactics make us weak that's why Engel didn't last and even a decent experienced defender in Borges has been largely written off. They're all destined to fail
    • And until this week we were ahead of two of those clubs.
    • I refuse to believe the likes of Blackburn, Bristol city, sheff wed have a better squad than us, Westbrom yea maybe but probably debatable.
    • “He got carried by *them players*!” “Orrr I wouldn’t have *them players* back, they’ve been sh1te since they left!”

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