Smokedsalmon

We look horrific here. 5 yard passes going out all the time.

I think Clarke coming back will help our back 4. He will be a lot better not having to play the stupid overlapping role Wilder was trying to get him to do. He's tall and good in the air. I'd even stick him at LB as nothing more than an extra body in the back line because Bola offers nothing and Giles should be higher up the pitch. A lop-sided back 4 with 1 tucking in and one going forwards is how Arsenal & Newcastle both play and they're both ripping it up this year.

I think January will be a watershed moment for Gibson because there's only one way out of this situation and that's to spend big. We can carry on being safe with our transfers and signing projects, or we can go out and buy 1) An Ayala 2) A Gaston 3) A Leadbitter and stay in the league. If we don't get 3 players in that mold I think we are gone.

You've got to feel for him. A draw here and the mood would have been so different. He's been let down big time by the soft *** in that defence. Wonder if there's an argument to go full Pulis with the back. Clark LB, Dijksteel RB, sit on that halfway line and do not budge over it. Grind out some nasty draws and 1-0s until we can get the Big Boro Revamp 50th Edition underway again next summer.

We absolutely did not miss Crooks at all, Howson and Hackney were fine, the problem was Giles not overlapping, Jones having another stinker, McGree not really being a wide man, Muniz not getting involved, and the defenders being abysmal. Probably the first game all season where central midfield wasn't the problem so I guess Carrick's actually done some decent coaching there.

The issue we're facing now is that we've spent 2+ years signing players to play 3-5-2 and now the manager wants to play 4-2-3-1 we haven't got any natural wingers apart from Jones (who, I fear, is total ***). We basically need to somehow hit the World Cup without being cut adrift and then do the most un-Boro thing ever; sign some technical wide men who can beat a man, pass, and score. We're ***.

Dael Fry has had a complete *** stinker. I'd hook him and drop him next week. Cost us a goal and losing the ball constantly.

He's had the ball pinged into him maybe 2-3 times and his touch hasn't been great because he's literally not in the game. Jones has had the ball far more and dont absolutely nothing, he's been poor for a long time.

What's he meant to do when we don't sustain possession or pressure in their half and give him anything other than scraps to feed off? Weird that it's always the striker people blame for offering nothing and not the shower of *** in midfield behind him.

What the *** are we doing bringing Woodgate back? He got sacked from managing half of these because he was an out of his depth rookie and now he has to support a new rookie in doing the same job? That has put a massive red flag over this appointment from the start.

Ultimately, I agree with you. Gibson is absolutely not the right man to lead this club anymore and my gut tells me this appointment is not going to be the right one just like you. But I think if we abandon hope in the Scott project then there's really nothing left to be supporting here. We're a club that gets it wrong so very often that we need to cling to the little ray of hope that we are (trying) to improve the way that the club is run.

Why does it seem that way, out of interest? How do we know Scott isn't happy with it? Other than Warnock being bitter he got sacked + ITK murmurings there's been absolutely nothing concrete to suggest Scott has been "sidelined" at all.

Nobody can say if this will go well or not. Nobody can say if this is a "Gibson appointment" or not. Rookie managers... Toss of the dice. Let's hope it works out.

I feel 100% confident in making the statement that this football club will never become an established Premier League side again under Steve Gibson's ownership. Don't think the appointment will make a massive difference in the long run; club's owner still thinks its the 90s, and so in the 90s we will stay. But I am excited about Carrick. Total curveball, not a clue if he's utter *** or good, but it will be interesting to get a bit of a fresh buzz about the place. Plus, he might not play this *** 5 at the back system.

Is it on the red button, does anybody know?

Typical meltdown 😂 we're only 22nd ffs, get a grip and give your heads a shake, as long as we have high xG I guarantee we will be absolutely fine, if Muniz scores one of his chances it's a different game and we all go home happy - people need to stop bedwedding and trust in Wilder! Top 2 by Christmas!

Had a pretty good night down in Brentford in one.

Ultimately, we could debate this back and forth for a long time. If we're putting together a run of 3-4 wins in a row in a months time and starting to look on the up then I'll (very very happily) eat my words and accept I was wrong. I wish I shared your positive attitude & belief but sadly the last 5 years have left me pretty jaded about football.

Alright then fair enough, season's still on!

100%. If you lose the odd game where you've dominated and had high xG and been done over by a team that sits in and knicks a goal - fair enough, it happens, you chalk it off and accept it was a statistical anomaly. Being 22nd (potentially 24th if games in hand go against us) after 10 games does not represent a statistical anomaly. There are no points for winning the xG League. No points for winning the Possession League. Anyone watching this side right now can see that they are shot of things that statistics can't cover; confidence, belief, arrogance, and nastiness. Four things

What he wants doesn't matter; he agreed to take a job under a Director of Football. He knows what that means. Do you think Gibson & Scott promised him transfer oversight & to build a squad entirely in his image when they interviewed him for the role? Did they suddenly turn around after and go "Psyche! Here's a *** American from Mallorca LOL, enjoy!"? He knew the situation he was coming into. He got what he's given. Work with it. If he isn't capable of doing that, walk. Simple as.

This "the board hasn't backed Wilder!" excuse is bizarre for me. The guy's had 11 new players. Eleven. That's an entire starting line-up. Find me a manager in this country other than Pep who gets given everything he needs in a single window. You do not take over a club like Middlesbrough - financially independent, locally-owned & ran, with an upper mid-table Championship budget - and expect to be given a whole team of promotion candidates over night. If you're a proper coach, you make players into promotion candidates. Mowbray & Karanka turned George Friend (100k, D

Worst thing is this little "fightback" gives him more time and justification for this dogshit system he's got us glued to. He needs to cut the bullshit and do some coaching. Players getting worse by the week and his tactics were found out, er, when Sheffield United got relegated. Is he capable of tweaking it or is all the tactical knowledge stuck with Knill and not him?

You're 100% right about the midfield and the movement. What I notice a lot of the time is when one of the CBs has the ball, Howson makes absolutely no effort to get free of his marker. He stands behind him and points wide. I think the game-plan is clearly to build through the wing-backs/wide-centre-back because the 2 wide centre midfielders don't drop in to receive the ball either, they both push high when we build from the back. You'd think Wilder would be onto it if he didn't like what he saw, and he keeps telling us he does like what he's seeing, so it's clearly intentional. Which is a

Another Yorkshire boy for us to keep *** playing for 46 games without them deserving it to join the other pair.