Boro V Millwall 3-0 (Watmore (2) Tavernier)

[marvin 128]

Middlesbrough V Millwall 12th December 2020

Kick off: 15:00

Location: The Cellnet 

"The great battle of the teams with a Lion on the badge"

This Saturday sees the Neil Warnock's Warriors return home following a sorry defeat on the road at Deepdale. Preston made Warnock's Warriors look lame. Less said about that the better I think.

Millwall visit the Cellnet on a 9 match winless run which includes three losses and an impressive November where they either drew 1-1 or 0-0. Fingers crossed we can make that a 10 game winless streak for them and rediscover some of the fight that had us winning games.

Millwall fans seem like an angry bunch so I've not sought their opinion of the match. I'd guess they will be terrified about losing and wondering where a goal will come from. This is one of those games where the first goal will win it... Heard that a lot recently haven't we.

FOOT IN BOTH CAMPS:

Uwe Fuchs, Boro Legend and possibly the best name any Boro player ever has had, signed for Millwall after gaining cult status on Teesside. He didn't impress Bryan Robson enough to earn a permanent move here and ended up at the Den scoring five goals in his one season there. I'll never forget reading his name on Teletext when he signed...

There are a few others worth a mention: Colin Cooper, George Friend, George Saville... and Justin Hoyte

TALKING POINTS:

Who has the superior Lion on their badge?

Who will score first (and win)?

Would we be top of the league if Ashley Fletcher was fit? (He gets better in my head the longer he is out injured...) 

What should the line up be?

 

[RiseAgainst 2,327]

33 minutes ago, marvin said:

Who has the superior Lion on their badge?

Who will score first (and win)?

Would we be top of the league if Ashley Fletcher was fit? (He gets better in my head the longer he is out injured...) 

What should the line up be?

 

1. Millwall's lion is better. It's throwing a punch. Ours looks more like a dragon.

2. They will, because our strikers seem to have lost their way very badly.

3. Not only would we be top, we'd already be mathematically guaranteed promotion. Ditto if Roberts had started every game he was available for,

4. To be honest, you might as well put everyone's name in a tombola and pull out eleven names at random. I'd love to see Stojanovic, Roberts and Watmore given a run in the team, with two strikers up front because playing one on their own is doing absolutely nothing for us. Given Wednesday night's debacle, I'd suggest a 4132 formation with Morsy holding, Tav and Watmore on the wings and Roberts behind Britt and Chuba. Hey, we might get battered, but we got battered at Preston being defensive, so I'd rather lose with a positive formation than a negative one.

[HoyteForLeftBack 175]

59 minutes ago, marvin said:

 

.. and Justin Hoyte

 

 

The effing mega legend that is*

[DurhamRed 1,462]

Glad we are back at the Riverside our away form is horrendous. Hopefully Dijksteel is back to restore confidence in our defence. 

[TeaCider24 5,873]

No surprise but Howson is missing tomorrow and could be out for a month or more.

Nathan Wood is self-isolating.

[Neverbefore 4,820]

It will be interesting to see what he does without howson. He was so important to the game plan that he got ran into the ground and now we're forced to have a rethink. 

I wonder if he'll bring wood in and move McNair to that shielding role. I think that's the most like for like switch we can do. Otherwise he's going to have to put something a bit more attacking out there. Maybe sav more defensive and tav in. 

[wilsoncgp 6,711]

I was thinking more likely Morsy shielding the defence.

[Neverbefore 4,820]

Just now, wilsoncgp said:

I was thinking more likely Morsy shielding the defence.

He tends to use two though, normally howson and morsy, so I was thinking more along the lines of who would join morsy in that job.

[TeaCider24 5,873]

No Howson, no Wood, it sounds like he'd be daft to risk Dijksteel.

Wing's getting another chance.

[Neverbefore 4,820]

What's wrong with wood? Is that us down to fry and McNair as our only centre backs? Rough

[TeaCider24 5,873]

1 minute ago, Neverbefore said:

What's wrong with wood? Is that us down to fry and McNair as our only centre backs? Rough

His girlfriend has coronavirus, so he has to self-isolate.

[AnglianRed 4,050]

16 minutes ago, TeaCider24 said:

His girlfriend has coronavirus, so he has to self-isolate.

Bloody women...always causing problems! 😁

Sorry... 😔

 

[TheJew 1,169]

Expecting a comfortable day at the office for Millwall. Boro to be beaten and the melt down commences.

 

[wilsoncgp 6,711]

3 minutes ago, TheJew said:

Expecting a comfortable day at the office for Millwall. Boro to be beaten and the melt down commences.

 

[AnglianRed 4,050]

Who has the superior Lion on their badge?

I call it a tie. Millwall's is obviously more realistic, but I think Boro's is more artistic.

Maybe Roary and Millwall's mascot (Denny?) should have a fight to decide the winner? 

 

Who will score first (and win)?

I predict a goalless draw.

 

Would we be top of the league if Ashley Fletcher was fit? (He gets better in my head the longer he is out injured...) 

Nope. He's good, but not that good. All strikers need support and service from the rest of the team and we just haven't been doing a good job of that lately. Plus our defence has become alarmingly leaky.

 

What should the line up be?

Won't happen, but given our defensive issues, I'd go 4-4-2.