Boro v Bristol City 1-3 (Assombalonga)

[p_mards 683]

Just leaving this here:

[RealSlimSladeyy 382]

Coming on the forum to see people bigging up Aitor, get in 💜💜💜

[Neverbefore 2,971]

Just now, RealSlimSladeyy said:

Coming on the forum to see people bigging up Aitor, get in 💜💜💜

If you ever need a boost of someone bigging up karanka just give me a pm. I'll never not gush over him

[TAPOUT 361]

14 minutes ago, p_mards said:

Just leaving this here:

I’d love to know what really happened pre Charlton. It never really felt the same after the walkout, despite promotion. My gut feeling was that his authority was undermined and he lost the control he needed, for whatever reason. 

[RealSlimSladeyy 382]

3 minutes ago, Neverbefore said:

If you ever need a boost of someone bigging up karanka just give me a pm. I'll never not gush over him

Hahaha I’ll keep it in mind

[Rioch's Braves 565]

Karanka  time has been and gone, I'm a  big believer in once someone's left the club that's it, they very rarely have the same impact 2nd time around. Karanka was a decent manager nothing exceptional. He played a system in the PL that was never going to work, and when it didn't work he didn't know how to change it.

[TLF10 1,636]

I loved and do still love Aitor but i agree with @Rioch's Braves in that its best for him and us we dont revisit the past.

[TheJew 831]

Yea, dont revisit the past. Bring Karanka back and give him control over signings. 

He didnt want Downing or Rhodes. He had a list in January in the Prem and not one of his top 10 were signed and Gestede wasnt ever on the list.

It has been farcical since he left. When he was in charge at least we had a frickin identity.

 

[LinoJo3 756]

Gonna repeat this but I think it’s important that people understand it the right way.

karanka never ‘walked out’ he was told to go home by Gibson and sit the game out. 
On paper it’s a small detail but imo there’s a big difference in walking out and leaving people in the mire or being instructed to take some time out.

[Blanco 2,255]

Don’t know why this is being discussed on the match day thread but some people have short memories. The poor man was only given 12...... yes 12 new signings in the summer after promotion. He the proceeded to complain bitterly that he was only given another 3 in January and they weren’t the 3 he wanted. Meanwhile people think that he could improve players 🙄 Why not improve the ones he had then? Unbelievable that some people think that he should be brought back.

[Jamie-H 953]

2 hours ago, LewisBoroPalfrey said:

That's not how I remember it 

I seem to remember our attacks as possession based and maybe overly patient, work it out wide and get crosses in

We were good on the break as well

Games like that play off semi final in 14/15 vs Brentford were easily some of the best football the club's seen the past decade

We got it wrong in the prem but isn't it widely agreed that recruitment was the biggest problem for us

Oh no we were in fantastic shape for large spells under Karanka but I think people conflate the style we had in 14/15 with what we saw after that, we were a machine with the lowest individual errors leading to goals in England maybe even Europe. But that promotion season was all about attrition and Gibson and Ayala getting it off Clayton/Leadboots and launching it towards opposition corner flags for our forwards to force mistakes it wasn't fancy football that got us promoted it was organisation, coaching and quality crossing Karanka worked wonders with some of those players.

Rhodes ' goals from January and Gastons spark got us over the line we didn't canter into the Prem but Karanka built an effective unit similar to what Warnock did to Cardiff he used the pace on the break around targetmen and it wouldn't take much investment for him to build similar with us in my opinion.

[p_mards 683]

1 hour ago, Blanco said:

Don’t know why this is being discussed on the match day thread but some people have short memories. The poor man was only given 12...... yes 12 new signings in the summer after promotion. He the proceeded to complain bitterly that he was only given another 3 in January and they weren’t the 3 he wanted. Meanwhile people think that he could improve players 🙄 Why not improve the ones he had then? Unbelievable that some people think that he should be brought back.

He wanted creative players like Snodgrass, Jese and Deulofeu. Instead he got Gueudiora, Gestede and Bamford. There’s improving players and then there’s polishing turds (not including Bamford).

It’s no disgrace for a manager to get promoted from the Championship and then get relegated in the next season. Sean Dyche and Daniel Farke have done it, yet both are still good managers. It’s incredibly hard for newly promoted teams to avoid relegation in the first season, especially when you factor in our key player Ramirez stopping performing in January after his off the field issues, our failure to sign a quality wide player/#10 and also our shambolic signings of Gestede and Gueudiora. I think Karanka kicked up a fuss in late January 2017 because he knew that, much like the majority of Boro fans, we weren’t good enough to keep up - largely due to the factors listed above.

We’ve been on a downward spiral for the 3 years since Karanka was sacked. His spell here was the only sustained gradual progress we’ve experienced in well over a decade. Aside from that we’ve been a shambles.

Edited July 12, 2020 by p_mards

[Neverbefore 2,971]

57 minutes ago, Blanco said:

Don’t know why this is being discussed on the match day thread but some people have short memories. The poor man was only given 12...... yes 12 new signings in the summer after promotion. He the proceeded to complain bitterly that he was only given another 3 in January and they weren’t the 3 he wanted. Meanwhile people think that he could improve players 🙄 Why not improve the ones he had then? Unbelievable that some people think that he should be brought back.

Were always gonna disagree with this, but just a point that several of the players signed for the prem season were still here when your man pulis took over and only adama was considered good enough for the championship never mind the premier league - and he was never good enough for the prem at that stage. 

[Neverbefore 2,971]

1 hour ago, Jamie-H said:

Oh no we were in fantastic shape for large spells under Karanka but I think people conflate the style we had in 14/15 with what we saw after that, we were a machine with the lowest individual errors leading to goals in England maybe even Europe. But that promotion season was all about attrition and Gibson and Ayala getting it off Clayton/Leadboots and launching it towards opposition corner flags for our forwards to force mistakes it wasn't fancy football that got us promoted it was organisation, coaching and quality crossing Karanka worked wonders with some of those players.

Rhodes ' goals from January and Gastons spark got us over the line we didn't canter into the Prem but Karanka built an effective unit similar to what Warnock did to Cardiff he used the pace on the break around targetmen and it wouldn't take much investment for him to build similar with us in my opinion.

I dont think you're remembering this right at all to be honest. What you seen was very different from what I seen - particularly with regards to your claim that we punted it up the field in our last season in the championship.

 I remember us being very tidy on the ball and very patient with our play, and a very quick look at stats back that up. For example- average possession through the karanka years -

13/14- 48%

14/15 - 50%

15/16 - 53%

You dont get 53% possession playing the kick and rush football you described.

[Redcar Rioja 1,670]

4 hours ago, Neverbefore said:

Were always gonna disagree with this, but just a point that several of the players signed for the prem season were still here when your man pulis took over and only adama was considered good enough for the championship never mind the premier league - and he was never good enough for the prem at that stage. 

I agree with that, those Prem signings were a pretty abysmal and dysfunctional lot. A crocked Danish wonder kid who hadn't made it but might someday, a crocked Columbian CB who wasn't fit and available for several months, a disruptive crocked Keeper who hadn't played in two years complete with an ego as big as the Transporter and another Keeper who was nicknamed "Bad" instead of Brad by his previous Club's fans who had just been relegated. Boro fans even urged a Referee to send him off as we figured ten men without him would have improved our chances!

Then there was the BOGOF deal that included Barragan who couldn't defend or take throw in's and that's before we got to January when it was realised that those signings weren't good enough and up rolled Gestede and Guedioura to save our season! Bamford was a good signing but not for that Premiership survival battle and certainly not at that point in time. Negredo done his best while isolated in a struggling team with nether service nor support, de Roon went on to better things but didn't influence games at Premiership level for Boro back then and loanee Chambers done OK.

Overall those signings were the footballing equivalent of Industrial sabotage, a disjointed incoherent mess if ever there was one. We had gone from a well drilled, organised unit with synergistic understanding to an eclectic collective rabble with no buy in from the four corners of the world and no intuitive understanding between any of them.