Boro v Barnsley 0-2

[Downsouth 6,326]

I know that this cup run was not high on the agenda and pretty obvious we would not get far but should we be bothered about last nights result?

Yes I believe we should.

Abject described last night 

[Neverbefore 10,937]

1 hour ago, RiseAgainst said:

Doesn't the club owe Gibson £80 million? Not defending his dismal record since Eindhoven or our woeful recruitment, but he's hardly in this for the $$$.

Yeah i find this criticism against gibson bizarre. Say what you want about his decision making, but he's never put his own self interests over the clubs.

[AnglianRed 6,320]

Glad I didn't bother trying to follow this game.

I actually thought we might win this one. Okay, it was a cup game, but we should be beating the likes of Barnsley - home or away - if we are to have a hope of a decent mid-table finish.

Again, it was a cup game, but does anyone else find it pretty worrying how we were 2-0 down at half time and again mustered very few shots on goal? BBC match article makes familiar reading...started well but didn't take chances. Managed some late pressure, but the game was over by then.

Interesting quote from assistant Ronnie Jepson:

"Quite a few players were playing together for the first time so it was a good opportunity for our gaffer to see the lads and try and get one or two up to speed.

"Sam Morsy came in and he's only played 70 minutes in the last couple of weeks so it was good to get him in.

"Overall, it was positive and I thought in the second half we grew into it a little bit and got on the front foot. The main aim was to give people minutes and give everyone a chance."

Sounds like Warnock was actually treating this like another pre-season game. No real interest in winning - just wanted to have a look at the rest of the squad.

Even so - its a bit worrying that we were so toothless...not to mention still weak defensively. As we know, the Championship is a hard league at the best of times, with games coming thick and fast in certain months...even more so this season.

We are going to need a squad that can handle a packed schedule. On this evidence, we're a long way from having one.

 

 

[Brunners 7,982]

1 minute ago, AnglianRed said:

Glad I didn't bother trying to follow this game.

I actually thought we might win this one. Okay, it was a cup game, but we should be beating the likes of Barnsley - home or away - if we are to have a hope of a decent mid-table finish.

Again, it was a cup game, but does anyone else find it pretty worrying how we were 2-0 down at half time and again mustered very few shots on goal? BBC match article makes familiar reading...started well but didn't take chances. Managed some late pressure, but the game was over by then.

Interesting quote from assistant Ronnie Jepson:

"Quite a few players were playing together for the first time so it was a good opportunity for our gaffer to see the lads and try and get one or two up to speed.

"Sam Morsy came in and he's only played 70 minutes in the last couple of weeks so it was good to get him in.

"Overall, it was positive and I thought in the second half we grew into it a little bit and got on the front foot. The main aim was to give people minutes and give everyone a chance."

Sounds like Warnock was actually treating this like another pre-season game. No real interest in winning - just wanted to have a look at the rest of the squad.

Even so - its a bit worrying that we were so toothless...not to mention still weak defensively. As we know, the Championship is a hard league at the best of times, with games coming thick and fast in certain months...even more so this season.

We are going to need a squad that can handle a packed schedule. On this evidence, we're a long way from having one.

 

 

Why is this surprising people? He literally spent all week talking about how he is just going to treat this as a game to look at some of the fringe players.

[BillyWoofs_shinpad 1,884]

Just now, Brunners said:

Why is this surprising people? He literally spent all week talking about how he is just going to treat this as a game to look at some of the fringe players.

It doesn’t surprise me, it just annoys me. Why on earth didn’t the club organise a few more pre-season friendlies and play some fringe players in those?

It’s crazy, if you lose in the cups that’s it, you are out, if we lose a league game at this stage of the season, there are still another 40 odd to go. I really enjoy a good cup run, we’ve had our fair share and it’s embarrassing that our players aren’t adjudged to be capable of playing 2 games a week when we are 2 matches into the season. 
 

 

[AnglianRed 6,320]

9 minutes ago, Brunners said:

Why is this surprising people? He literally spent all week talking about how he is just going to treat this as a game to look at some of the fringe players.

Well not all of us catch his press conferences, or wherever you heard this...

With hindsight I guess its not that surprising, but I didn't actually know this was the case.

Plus it still bothers me that our squad is apparently so weak. Getting turned over so easily by a team like Barnsley (who remember only managed to stay up on the last day of the season) is concerning...or it should be.

[SmogDane 4,055]

I have absolutely no issues with NW and his way of looking at that one game .. 

We didn't need to win that game .. It would only cause more problems for a thin squad .. 

I think it was the right descision to play this as a friendly tester of fringe players .. 

I expect to see a better performance this Saturday .. 

I won't judge before we have played at least 15 games of the league ... 

It can't come as a surprise, that we would field a team of fringe players and youngsters ..  NW has openly said so before the game .. And Jepson said the same after the game ..  All the big PL teams do it every year, cause they want to focus on the league .. 

We haven't got enough players to play a lot of cup games and league games, so we have ofc chosen to focus on the league. 

The only thing that bothers me .. Those fringe players were not up for it .. They had a BIG chance of proving what they can do .. but didn't



 

Edited September 16, 2020 by SmogDane

[TeaCider24 12,631]

I had absolutely no issue with the team he picked, it's the formation that frustrated me.

Playing Browne as a striker and Coulson as a right back, and then taking off Fletcher to play another winger as a striker.

[AnglianRed 6,320]

1 hour ago, RiseAgainst said:

Doesn't the club owe Gibson £80 million? Not defending his dismal record since Eindhoven or our woeful recruitment, but he's hardly in this for the $$$.

I thought he wrote off that debt, didn't he?

Although I also heard he still subsidises Boro to the tune of around £1 million a month.

[sackrobson2 371]

16 minutes ago, TeaCider24 said:

I had absolutely no issue with the team he picked, it's the formation that frustrated me.

Playing Browne as a striker and Coulson as a right back, and then taking off Fletcher to play another winger as a striker.

Yes I totally agree, looking at the team on paper it looked like a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 would suit us more, but instead he went for an unbalanced option and then made strange subs which didn't help.   

[AnglianRed 6,320]

22 minutes ago, SmogDane said:

The only thing that bothers me .. Those fringe players were not up for it .. They had a BIG chance of proving what they can do .. but didn't

Thats really what bothers me too.

I agree we should be focusing on the league, but we were up against a team that did even worse than us last season and our squad players just didn't put in a performance.

I'm not annoyed that we lost a Cup game, but it doesn't bode well for the season if we can't rely on our squad against teams that are at least no better than us, if not worse.

I mean, I'm pretty sure Barnsley don't have any great Cup ambitions either.

[Barnaby 957]

1 hour ago, Neverbefore said:

Yeah i find this criticism against gibson bizarre. Say what you want about his decision making, but he's never put his own self interests over the clubs.

And as no Money is coming from the Turnstiles, I should imagine players/staff wages is coming from his own pocket,or Gibson O'neill holdings

[Redcar Rioja 5,974]

Just watched the video "highlights" again. The two goals we conceded were as a result of rank poor defending.

With the first one Bola was ball watching, drifting into the middle and left the scorer totally unmarked. That was reminiscent of his frailties last season when he often went AWOL defensively, seemingly unaware of his surroundings. It was why Woodgate had to accept defeat and send him back to Blackpool, seemingly he hasn't learnt much in the intervening period. 

For the second goal Coulson was gestured to by Fry to pick up the overlapping player who cut in and scored but was indecisive, hesitated and left the stable doors wide open. If I was Warnock there wouldn't be a tea cup left in one piece at the Riverside after those two goals regardless if they were in their preferred position or right side or left side. It was basic Sunday League Pub Team stuff, nothing to do with a Manager's intent to win or otherwise. Many of us on here have been clamouring for Coulson to be included but on the strength of that I can see why Warnock isn't convinced in his defensive abilities. As for Bola, well I doubt he will be anywhere near the first team any time soon yet again.

[Downsouth 6,326]

45 minutes ago, Barnaby said:

And as no Money is coming from the Turnstiles, I should imagine players/staff wages is coming from his own pocket,or Gibson O'neill holdings

Good to see you posting again, did you enjoy your break and was it constructive?😉

[RiseAgainst 3,792]

1 hour ago, AnglianRed said:

I thought he wrote off that debt, didn't he?

Although I also heard he still subsidises Boro to the tune of around £1 million a month.

I hadn't heard Gibson had written off the debt, thought it would make sense considering he'll never get it back. He did something similar in 2009, IIRC. And yes, I'd also heard he's paying £12 million a year to keep us afloat - and that was when we still had bums on seats. Judging by last night's picture and sound quality, MFC won't be making much money from streaming provision in the coming months.

As others have said, I don't think the starting XI was necessarily wrong last night. But the positioning of those players was inexcusable, the subs were baffling and the lack of in-game management was frustrating. Basically, we chucked it, and in the process jettisoned whatever feelgood factor we'd built up after the skunks game and scraping past Shrewsbury.

Losing is a hard habit to break. Our esteemed manager would do well to ponder that while he tucks into his fry-up today.