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We don’t even need to defend ‘well’ although that would be nice. We only need to defend ‘properly’, with a basic level of competence for our level, and we are 8-9 points better off. Our lack of pragmatism is criminal.

Lord no, the other night showed his weak defensive side of his game. It’s time to move on

Frustrating not to win but to put a positive spin on things, we’ve only lost one of our last nine. Obviously there have been way too many draws in that run but some of them are the kind of games we’d have lost last season. Keeping those points ticking over might make all the difference between playoffs or not come the end of the season.

You wouldn't catch Burnley defending like that! 😁

Why are you talking to yourself?! 😜

On the metro from Newcastle airport to the Central station. Come on Boro 💪

Thought Hackney was a lot better than his recent showings, which is one positive I'll take from today.

He has 8 goals and 9 assists and it’s January.

Keeps it interesting

Regarding Doak from the players perspective he must feel very settled at Boro, gets on well with his team mates and currently is part of a squad that is trying to achieve something so why on earth would he want to spoil that? I have do doubt that he will want to part of a Liverpool team once they believe he is ready to be involved so no wonder LFC are happy for him to remain at Boro. This transfer talk will be unsettling for many but give the lad some credit as I am certain he will have voiced his own opinion over links to other teams. Whilst the bright lights of London may seem appealing you need to remember he is only 19 and he could end up as a little boy lost if he moved, he does look his age does he not? Interesting links with South America surfacing but have we missed a more fruitful opportunity by not looking at say good Japanese players and inviting a robust Far East following? I am aware of Korean failures in the past but there are some decent players in the Scottish PL?

The crowd really need to chill out and accept that we can’t win every game. Booing the team off after a draw is ridiculous. How does that help?

Or an International class defender or maybe even a class midfielder in our Coaching ranks? The mind boggles at what goes on at Rockliffe.

What we really need is a viable alternative to Morris. He will be missing sometimes, that's football. It's the fact that we've fallen apart in the middle of the pitch without him that's criminal. Whatever your opinions on howson, we shouldn't be relying on him at 36 becoming more and more injury prone (which isn't just this season, it's been gradually becoming more common the past couple of years. We should have seen this coming).

Shove the xG where the sun does not shine.

Agreed. Our lack of urgency and co-ordination in the last 10-15 minutes was very disappointing. We rarely presented much of a goal threat in a game we should have been busting a gut to win. While we put a lot of effort into winning the ball and breaking up their attacks, we seemed to have no ideas when it came to going forward. Aside from Doak & ELL's burgeoning telepathy, there was so much dithering & misplaced passes.

You'd think though that reasonably intelligent players (and Fry is no rookie) would have the common sense to read the situation and play accordingly. If Carrick is really laying down the law of "possession at all costs" then that is showing a lack of flexibility. I would hope he's not that rigid in his thinking.

Part of the problem is that those errors are due to the players being asked to try and retain possession no matter what, which ultimately comes from Carrick. He needs to let them just defend sometimes and not worry about keeping the ball.

How often do we say this though... so frustrating. Other teams rarely seem to give us those kinds of gifted goals.

Like the two matches before this one?

Not Fry's best there. Damn. If your options are backheel it across your own crowded penalty box or kick it behind for a corner, you should probably concede the corner.

25 million for Doak. Jeez he’s had 4 decent months. Ridiculous.

Agree with last post to a point. IF Doak sees himself as good enough for Liverpool then really the balls in his court. He could well say no thanks to Palace or whoever has a bid accepted he doesn’t have to agree terms with them if he thinks he would rather keep developing and push to get into the Liverpool team if Salah leaves for example.

Then a few of us contacted the Burnley Forum explaining the situation, they then got in touch with Scott Parker who mused "is that the Arsenal supporting Crisp fetishist"? once we confirmed it was he said "leave it with me". Why else does anyone think they were blasting the ball over the bar from a few yards out. Josh Brownhill himself pledged that they'd ensure Glover kept the clean sheet so long as we didn't score. It's why Anthony was taken off when he did nearly score, Parker was furious with him!

Why doesn't Azaz take free kicks? Seems obvious to me.

Shove the positivity up there with the xG factor.

If Azaz had an ounce of aggression and a bit more get up and go he could be some player in this league. Unfortunately he seems horizontal.

Morris is our best midfielder IMO. Hopefully he’s back soon as seems to improve Hackneys game too

We definitely struggle with well organised teams that present us with a high press or low block. We can batter poor teams or ones whose tactics just allow us to play Carrickball effectively. But it definitely has its limitations.

We're one of the league's top scorers but I don't think we're one of the leagues best attacks If that makes any sense at all

Barlaser is an enormous downgrade from Morris.

For all the huff and puff, we've not really created many good chances this half.

Alright Steve Maclaren.

He must be mate because they all do it not even just defenders but midfielders who are back there as well. I just find it difficult to believe that they all make these same mistakes off their own backs. It has to be what they are working on in training and being asked to do to a certain extent. I don't think they ask them to make that weird attempt at a clearance that Fry tried obviously but I do think they are asked to try and keep the ball rather than an aimless clearance, and that probably messes with your thinking. I wouldn't think that Fry's first choice in a situation like that is to be mess around with it but I could be wrong.

Azaz taking an age again to decide what he wants to do, still does that too often

We started off positively in a good formation and after the goal I thought we were onto a steady three points. The cock up in our penalty area changed the game and after that we seemed to lose our mojo and urgency. The officials have been truly awful, where do they get them from, there are far better ones in the National League. And finally if only our defence was organised like Burnley, we would already have the three points in the bag😘

Clear with a stupid back heel , trying to over play out instead of putting his foot through it.

Started pretty well and scored a nice goal. Then conceded with brainfart defending. Still look the better team, just need to stay onside.

Ugh. Doak just offside when receiving the ball. Shame as ELL was perfectly placed again.

We will need to score 3 as a minimum to win this match

WTF was Fry thinking instead of putting it in row Z!

F*king clear it. Good work in attack undone by sloppy defending once again.

When Doak got the ball there I did not expect a goal. The two of them made that look scarily easy.

Kamara scores for hull vs Leeds. What a week he's had

Ah, you're one of those. Makes sense.

Villa are letting philogene go out on loan. Not sure if a championship team be their target but surely we would try get him here.

Probably Nobby.... He gets asked "Who's a pretty boy then" all the time 🙂

It seems like nothing is even being said about this forum, really, beyond the thread title. No big deal, it's not us vs. them.

If someone offered serious (that is £25m+) for Doak, Liverpool may be tempted with a buy back clause inserted. The whole point of sending Players out on loan is this exact scenario. Clearly the lad has improved and developed to the point where he has become a valuable commodity. Liverpool probably want to evaluate if he is good enough for serious consideration to their own squad but if it's a tipping point and money talks then he will go. The loan will have worked for all parties and everyone gained from it. We experienced the same with Spence not long ago , his loan exceeded all expectations and the lad could afford a cigar or two off the back of it. If we have players that nobody is interested in then we won't have been delivering the goods, we can't have it both ways. On a positive note Prem Clubs will be more than happy, even prefer, to send their young protégés here.

I'd be surprised if anyone forked out £25-30M for Doak at the moment. No smoke without fire and all that, but I honestly think he'll be here until the summer. Not sure I can say the same for Jones. I can see the appeal of a move for him and I think he's well suited to that right wing back role. I wish Forss could stay fit!

"We will work together with the management of the English team - Middlesbrough - to form the mother contract that will reach the objective of the SAD." If a foreign club wants to be sad, entering into an agreement with Boro seems like the best way to achieve it.