Boro vs Norwich 0-1

[Changing Times 12,347]

1 minute ago, SmogDane said:

And he should have passed or shot after 2 touches

He did pass didn't he?  The run he made across their box, he ended up passing to one of our players inside the penalty area.  I think his intention was to cut inside and shoot but his touch as he dribbled past the first defender was too heavy and it meant that their other players were closing him down when he got to the ball, so he jinked again and ended up moving across outside the area.

[Downsouth 6,327]

7 minutes ago, Changing Times said:

Roberts does know what he's doing, he's sitting on the bench so we can have as many defensive players on the park as possible.  He came on with about 9 mins left today and had 5 touches.

Sadly all along the edge of the box trying to find a shooting chance when he had many as he drifted accross the box

[KRISM82 1]

Can’t believe some people think we deserved to lose. Obviously didn’t bother watching the game or the highlights!

dominated it start to finish just can’t score as usual! 

was saying to my pal the other night can’t remember ever leaving the stadium before the final whistle or switching the TV off before the game ends But the last five years it’s become the norm! Since Warnock came in though the passion is back and I’m starting to believe again - a dangerous thing with the Boro 🤣 we could be top if we finished our chances and that is fact! If we can sort this evergreen issue out we’ll be play offs at least. How we do that I don’t know! Assambalonga is an enigma used to be prolific till we got Our hands on him. Never ever thought of say this but we miss fletcher! 

[Changing Times 12,347]

Just now, Downsouth said:

Sadly all along the edge of the box trying to find a shooting chance when he had many as he drifted accross the box

Which ended with a pass to one of our players in the penalty area!  He still only had 5 touches in the game so how could he have been more influential?

[sanddancer 1,967]

5 minutes ago, Redcar Rioja said:

We shot ourselves in the foot today, Reading threw away a two goal lead, Brentford could only draw 0-0 with Wycombe, Forest despite their impressive squad (and Chris Hughton) got beat yet again this time by Barnsley. Its a marathon, not a sprint, we will lose games but we are still credible for a Play Off spot which idealistically is the best we could have hoped for with what Warnock has to work with.

The lack of of goals is a worry but I'm pretty sure that Warnock sees the lack of finishing ability the same as we do. He won't want 4-3 thrillers like Stoke witnessed today but he will want tight 1-0's as it was today but in the wrong direction unfortunately. Fix the Jaffa's up front and things will look better, if he doesn't or can't then they will drag him back down to where he found us and I can't see that happening.

Yep only a quarter of the way in and we are now only four draws from the playoffs.😂. It’s a long way with a small squad but there are lesser teams to play yet, but we must start scoring. 

[wilsoncgp 9,283]

Think Fry probably earned the MOTM award today so I agree with Johns from the Gazette on that. I notice he didn't give Ronnie Jepson a rating, though.

[J.T. 640]

29 minutes ago, SmogDane said:

And he should have passed or shot after 2 touches

He was actually trying to make something happen, unlike any other player in a Boro shirt. Just as well Mahrez, Salah, etc don’t play for Boro. They spend a lot of time coming inside, running across the area, looking to make room for a shot. Sometimes they make room for a shot and score, other times they have to recycle the ball. 
 

I’d much rather that than have Spence and Johnson predictably running down the wing to cross and hit the first man every single time. But it’s okay, because they are fine defensively. Because that’s the most important part of a wingers role (according to Neil Warnock)

[BoroSmoggie 2,710]

Funny how on another day, Tavs penna goes in, and Coulson doesn’t stick his leg out. We get 3 points against probably the beat team in the league and go 12 unbeaten with yet another clean sheet. Everyone is buzzing on there Saturday evening. Such fine margins.

[Old Codger 3,064]

If someone had said that after our opening twelve games, we would be in a position to be challenging for the playoffs this season knowing that would had lost most of our most experienced players, I would probably have disagreed with them and  I thought we would be lucky to average a point a game. I was wrong. It is obvious some of the players are sort of learning on the job, but there are at least for or five players that look far better than they did last year, we have played most of the season without our best forward, our main defensive signing and for the last few games, without our most combative midfielder and we are still being competitive. The two games we have lost have been against teams that have much better players than us and we haven't been slaughtered in either of them. Maybe a negative way of looking at it, but our performances in the next few weeks are the ones that will give a truer picture of the teams possibilities as in the majority of them, we should have the upper hand. Young players will make errors more often than experienced pros and while people have every right to point them out, dwelling on them doesn't help and hopefully they learn and eliminate the mistakes. Tavernier is becoming more consistent and his forward runs created most of the opportunities today, as McNair seemed to get walloped a couple of times early on and didn't impose himself on the game to the extent we have come to expect this season. In a way, it is encouraging that we are thinking that we are losing points rather than gaining them, but to me, we are on the way to becoming a decent outfit and the confidence that the younger players are beginning to develope is good to see. If we can hang onto our key players, I can see a decent future for this squad, though I think it would not necessarily be a good thing to try to do it all in one season.      

[Changing Times 12,347]

It's funny isn't it?  Fry is playing well, McNair is brilliant apparently and Dijksteel is a 'beast'.  And yet we can't possibly risk playing attacking players in attacking positions ahead of them?  Instead we have to have layers of protection in front of them and lots of people don't see that as the central issue 🙂

[TheJew 2,938]

18 minutes ago, Changing Times said:

It's funny isn't it?  Fry is playing well, McNair is brilliant apparently and Dijksteel is a 'beast'.  And yet we can't possibly risk playing attacking players in attacking positions ahead of them?  Instead we have to have layers of protection in front of them and lots of people don't see that as the central issue 🙂

I actually think our back 4 of Djiksteel, Fry, Mcnair and Bola are as good as anything in the league.

We need to be playing Roberts, Tav and another attacking player though. As well as a striker.

[BoroJake 2,345]

I miss Ashley fletcher

[Uwe 3,545]

22 minutes ago, BoroJake said:

I miss Ashley fletcher

Forgot about him. How far away is he from coming back. ?

[smogsterking the Inspirati 2,490]

The thing that is frustrating yet could potentially be encouraging is we have been competitive in every game this season and could have got results in each game. The problem is we just haven't been scoring the chances albeit they are few and far between we have missed some gilt edged chances in each game. This league is wide open this season and think we are capable of pushing for the play offs but we need to start creating more.

[BoroJake 2,345]

47 minutes ago, Uwe said:

Forgot about him. How far away is he from coming back. ?

Around january time I think