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Are people thick? He’s head of football for a team who is third in the league and in touching distance of second for context this season, he had the meeting with Carrick and co and put the club first because Carrick was under performing, then went out and secured Edwards and co and hate him or not, he had us high in the table, then when Edwards left unexpectedly he managed to get Hellberg to come in and he’s had us playing the best football in years. Wed all agree we’d be higher if our strikers could score. Do think some of his signings haven’t worked out? Yeah absolutely. Some did though 💰 and we’re better because of it He has an absolutely monumental January coming up and our end of season place will be pinpointed to this window. It’s pressure time for him but let’s not take away what a good job he has actually done apart from a few diff signings, deary me

Absolutely have to back hellberg in january. 4-0 against Southampton with Conway and Burgzorg up front imagine you give him some competent attackers

He must have been even more gutted when Archer got a hearty round of applause when he came on 😆

Whittaker now 2nd top goalscorer in the Champo with 10 (and 3 assists too) Armstrong is top with 11

Massive finger to people that were having a pop at Hellburg. Utb

Bingo. I’m not sure what people are expecting? I think for certain KS could do better but to start issuing ultimatums seems a little petulant. Over Scott’s tenure we've probably had the best ROI in the clubs history. That’s not the only part of his remit of course. His remit is to build a promotion winning squad. We’re doing that on a shoestring as @Johnmfc81 has identified. It’s not easy. We’re competing at the right at the business end of the league this season. Few tweaks in January and we’ll be good to go.

Loved his celebration after he made that block. Foreign defenders have always mentioned how they’re surprised how the crowds in England respond to a good tackle so he probably loved that moment.

Hellberg seemed to think that a lot of our injured players might be back in the next two weeks, which is a relief if he's right.

Mrs Hellberg talking to her children later on will be saying "daddy is very happy so you two are having an early night"

Ere *** Finn Azaz anyway. 4-0. Whittaker 2nd top scorer. Back to 2nd (for now). Malanda is basically prime VVD but younger and better on the ball. Cov lost. Luke Ayling is *** class. Transfer window. UTB.

Such a weak mentality. Not even the awareness to acknowledge their fans who travelled. Exactly why we were right to snatch the £15m and run. If he leaves when fans criticise him, he won’t be a Saints player by the time they get home.

'Wise men say, only fools rush in, But I can't help 4-nil in love with you!' What a second half. Goals galore and a clean sheet against a parachute team. Only downsides were Conway not scoring and them Boro lot scoring all the goals at the other end of the stadium, so I could hardly see them... and Bang getting injured of course. Malanda looks like exactly the type of player we thought we were getting. Cool as a cucumber, quick, powerful. He made their forwards look like mugs. I don't think it's any exaggeration to say I think we can just play 1 at the back from now on.

Well he is French.

Boy was this ever a desperately needed result! First half followed a depressingly familiar pattern of Boro being full of energy and effort, but being unable to create any noteworthy chances. Second half, the door Boro had been battering on finally gave way, Whittaker recalibrating his shooting radar with a fine effort to give Boro the lead. Some Route 1 stuff followed with Silvera controlling a long ball, running into the box and producing a beautiful finish to double the lead. Just a few minutes later the match was over as Morgan was fed by Morris for his second of the game. Browne tying things up with a neat bow, pouncing on a spilled ball after Hackney had a shot. Southampton for sure looked dangerous at times and Brynn had to make a couple of good saves, while the score was still 0-0 to keep Boro in the game. However, after Boro went 2-0 up, our confidence levels and performance went up a couple of gears and we never looked really threatened after that. Hope Hellberg has made detailed notes about what worked so well today. Obviously don't expect us to win 4-0 all the time (sorry Rob) but the fine margins that were eluding us in previous games - namely getting players into good scoring positions and getting the ball to them - were far more in evidence today. Also shout out to debutant Malanda. Looked very composed and technically proficient. Looks like being a great acquisition.

Does Plastic Goat appear after a good win?

Yep malanda is a beast and a footballing adonis

One last chance? That’s conveniently forgetting ELL, Rav, Rogers probably £35-40m in profit just those 3 before potentially a massive Rogers sell on.. we can accept a few low risk signings that don’t work out

I’m sure it’s been said already many times over, but Malanda looked every bit the player I thought and was hoping we were getting. So comfortable on the ball, played some fantastic line-breaking passes that really helped us play through the press, but he also showed he’s not all style and no substance by putting a couple of vital blocks in. He just seemed like he coasted through the game. An absolute Rolls Royce. And he’s come into the team under what I would consider to be less than ideal circumstances. Not played a game for 2 months, thrown into the heart of a patched up backline in a team that hasn’t had a win in their last four games, and coming up against some really tricky players in the likes of Armstrong, Azaz, Fellows, Scienza.

You are right I think. He made some vital interventions in the first half. He could be the difference between us going up and not.

What an amazing result that is especially given the circumstances around our squad. I dont think i can add much more to how outstanding we were that 2nd half. Its amazing how key moments can impact on a game. Southampton missing 2 gilt edged chances in the 1st half which could have been key given our run of results. We finally got the luck on our side today. What impressed me was Malanda commanding Brynn to cover the left side for one of those chances and Malanda cleared it. But his presence was a different class today and if thats the standard we can expect hes going to be worth a fortune.

Imagine adding a competent striker in this window as well, Strelec and McGree back on top of new signings will be so big for us

So important to get back to winning was before the break. Fair play to everyone out there today, they’ve put a shift in. Malanda made the difference making us such a solid base to build from. Rolls Royce! Just to check, was Malanda a Kieran Scott signing? *Thierry Henry smirk gif *

That really will upset a few 😂

You cannot argue about the effort we are showing, but the lack of class shown by Silvera, Conway and Burgzorg is there for everyone to see

There are two things that have come out re: Azaz 1) The negative comments from the boro fans, which KS revealed in his interview (which I was surprised he revealed) 2) The comments he made when he left about Southampton being a premier league team These are two separate things, not to be confused with each other. I can understand how some folks are melding the two things together but I agree with CT that Azaz didn't make any comments about boro or boro fans. The only thing we know about that is from KS' interview. He also posted a nice thing on X about his time at Boro. I've got nowt against the lad - set up and scored some good goals for us. We've moved on now. Fine to goad him today, no problem, that's part and parcel. Yes it was a shame re: his response - he clearly lets negative feedback impact him, and he was obviously gonna be unhappy after being on the losing end of a 4-0 defeat. There's nowt wrong with being impacted by negative comments - he's only human. We have someone in our ranks now who has been impacted by similar stuff, but is now doing well and scoring goals.

I fully believe this first sentence. The guy is a genius.

Law played for 2 teams now so I’d think more likely Kante could go out on loan

It's a funny old game, if only we'd taken our chances in the last 4 we'd probably be top by now. Hopefully we can keep Hellberg for a few seasons, sure there'll be blips along the way but I've never had as much respect for a manager as I have for him. Even if we don't go up this season with two transfer windows I reckon we'll be an absolute machine, just please get KH to sign a new contract with like 15m buy-out in there, the PL clubs will be sniffing soon enough.

Malanda was colosal, what a block from Armstrong when it looked all for the net to bulge, he just oozes calmness, asily my MOTM What a ball from Ayling for the second 4 class goals with a brace from Whittaker for his 10th goal of the season With Alan Browne playing a totally aluen position scores our 4th, his first & now we have 14 different goalscorers

Exactly this it has been embarrassing to read some of the comments from our so called fans trying to blame him because the forwards he inherited couldn’t hit a barn door

Yes I've already appeared if you care to check. An excellent win and nobody saw it coming. Malanda made one hell of a difference. Let's hope we can hang on to him. There a superstar in there. A four nil win with two forwards who couldn't a barn door with a banjo. Now let's get some decent trailers in. Credit to Browne coming on as sub.

Malanda...bloody hell! He's everything we hoped he could be! Think Kim has done unbelievably well to get that performance out of us today if you look at our attacking players. Praying for two genuine attackers of Malanda-like quality this window and we can still seriously aim to push Cov and Ipswich all the way

Malanda looks like hes got the lot. PL player in waiting.

Could feel the weight lift off the team once the goals went in. Lovely stuff

Looking forward to all the Scott haters explaining Adilson Malanda 😂

[Plastic Goat has left the conversation]

Don't look on SimonDisadoyle.com then in that case mate 😬

RE: the Azaz saga, I can’t help but feel like there has been some revisionism. I don’t think the stick he got as a boro player was anywhere near what the likes of Whittaker, Conway, or Barlaser have had. And tbh even the likes of McGree I would say has taken more stick because of his fitness problems. I think what got his back up was that he probably felt like he was above some of the criticism because he was one of our better players.

Talking of Whittaker I liked him in that #10 role he played, seemed to have more influence on the game popping up in all different areas. Not sure he’d have the presence to do that role fully but he seemed to enjoy the extra freedom.

Wow. Just wow. What a brilliant second half and we finally took our chances. Credit to Kim and the players. Gives us a very good bounce back after some hard games.

Very very pleased and Hellberg must be chuffed to bits with this and his family at his side!

Don't tell me what to do. You're not my real Dad.

Is browne a viable option to play rb while brittain is out going forward do we reckon?

Can we reallocate some of them to the last four games?

Not only has Malanda been exceptional, he was badly needed. If he hadn’t signed our back 4 today after Bangura went off would have had a very different feel.

Also, we did this when he played for us and it didn't work!

Everyone said it would be way more competitive this season and it's never been more open. If our strikers could finish simple chances, we'd be miles clear.

Booooooooooooooring - muted 🔕

Finally getting Jese done