SouthernSmoggie

Play offs are gone even if we switched manager. So the questions have to be: A) Can Carrick keep us up. And can he do so without it getting toxic. B) Do we trust Carrick to do better next season with a better squad? C) If we think the squad will be equally bad or worse next year, who would do a better job? Surely we'd have to turn to a pragmatist.

Not sure many managers could get this group of players to finish above upper mid table especially given the injury disruption. But we should not be flirting with the bottom three either. The concerning thing is Carrick doesn’t seem to learn from mistakes and cannot adapt to the cards he's been dealt. We are getting visibly worse. If you're played off the pitch by Stoke and Plymouth, where are the wins coming from?

Don't think he'll be sacked tonight but it puts Gibson in an awkward position. I think everyone was prepared for a transition season but nobody saw things getting this bad.

Does this mean Pulis is available?

We're arguably the worst team in the league on current form. Absolutely unacceptable even with the injuries.

Six points off the drop. We are in the relegation picture now.

We've gone from being frustrating and inconsistent to outright dogsh*t.

Everyone ready for the second?

Ayling you effing 🤡 This really is our level, hard to see where wins are coming from now.

Thank god for that string of wins before Christmas because we could easily be down there with this lot. Two very limited teams.

Should be losing. Shocking miss. Gifted by us in a central area as usual.

One of my most hated parts of football. And we have two of the best in the business - Jones and McNair. It's down to the refs though. Have the balls to stop giving them for a few weeks and they'll stop doing it.

If he creates chances and plays well all game then I'm open to changing my mind! But seen more bad than good to date.

Is Engel injured? Thomas has looked poor to me, no idea why he keeps starting.

That last point is interesting, as I agree stats don't always tell the story of the state of our games and how they progressed. There have been some games where afterwards the narrative has been "We had so much possession and so many shots. They had 2 shots and scored them both! Our xG was way higher!" But the opposition were 2-0 up in the first half with two of their first meaningful attacks. So they sit in to protect their points and say come and break us down if you can. We have all the ball and rack up a ton of half chances without scoring.

As far I'm aware we've only set up that way against Leicester and Chelsea, so doubt he'll do it v Stoke. Interestingly Carrick said the Plymouth defeat was 'on him' though, so I expect we'll see something different in terms of personell. To be honest he could just play our usual formation with players in their best positions and that would be an instant improvement.

Big game for us. Lose and things will be as toxic as they've been under Carrick. Being away seems to suit us, so there's that I guess. Anyone could start, don't why we even bother trying to predict it. For what it's worth, I'd go: Dieng Dijksteel - VDB - Clarke - Engel Barlaser - O'Brien Forss - Azaz - McGree Lath

Call me cynical... But feels a bit like PR after a bad few weeks on and off the pitch. Nothing concrete, just unconfirmable 'positive vibes' about everything we as fans would like to hear.

Yeah I don't think he'll be panicking. Plus it's not like he's miles above our level right now anyway, he's as inconsistent as the others. Higher ceiling than most of our players, sure, but he's still improving and learning his trade. If we're this bad again next season, he might rethink whether this is the best place to learn and grow his game... But hopefully things are better all round and he can shine in an improved side.

I don't think it's too bad. Not on the scale of last season, where we lost five starters from our best XI. Howson will likely sign a short term deal? If Forest stay up I reckon we could sign O'Brien. Either way we need to strengthen centre mid. Paddy is a loss but we have four good centre halves for this level, plus he's probably not in our best XI. Thomas is sh*te, Greenwood and Ayling are bang average, Jones hasn't even played - wouldn't want any of them here next season tbh.

I'd add that we shouldn't throw the baby out with the bathwater when it comes to loans. Yes, we were caught short trying to replace our loans... But we also almost got promoted and played our best football in years thanks to making the right loans. I don't think a non-parachute club can afford to do everything through permanent transfers. We need a couple of Premier League quality players that we couldn't normally afford in the starting XI.

It's something I thought very early in the season, but why don't we just ditch that no 10/second striker role, whatever we want to call it. We caught lightning in a bottle by finding the perfect position and system for Chuba - it can't be replaced. I'd love to see us set up a bit more compact and play on the counter more - maybe drop Azaz back into a midfield three with Barlaser sitting in a quarter-back role. If O'Brien or Azaz want to carry the ball then we can keep the other two centre mids behind the play and not get constantly caught out. Full backs can still bomb on to support McGr

Slightly off topic but I'm certain there wasn't this endless culture war around identity politics and race 10/15 years ago. Seems like things were in a pretty good place and now it's all way more tense. My personal tinfoil hat theory... The public got a bit too close to realizing who's really oppressing them after the '08 banking crash with occupy wall street and similar movements. Identity politics has been pushed hard ever since then to keep ordinary people at each other's throats instead of being angry about the fact a tiny handful of elites have more money than everyone else put toget

Just personal experience but I've never heard racism at a Boro game. I've been to a fair few away games and a handful of home games over the years, so a lot less than some on here mind. I've heard homophobic abuse from a very drunk and strange man away at Brighton... Everyone was looking at him like the moron he was, and the police were stood filming it which he didn't seem to care about 😬

Yep, there's too many variables and questions right now. Will the Rogers money be spent? Will Hackney go, and for how much - and how much will be reinvested? Have we got some decent deals semi-lined up in the background or will it be panic stations? Any more surprise outgoings like Crooks? How big is the rebuild? Will we rethink our loan strategy? Personally I don't think we can afford to go without a couple of Premier League quality loans again. We can't rely on loans as much as the season before, but we're missing a trick by loaning in crap like Ayling and Greenwood from