Boro V Watford 1-1 (Bolasie)

[TeaCider24 12,639]

We did manage to score against the second best defence in England, at least.

Only Man City have let in fewer.

[J.T. 640]

16 minutes ago, Blanco said:

@AnglianRedand @RiseAgainsti will reply to you both together. I think yesterday was a good performance and it garnered us a hard earned point. I say hard earned because it was. Watford are a top notch squad and we matched them all over the pitch. It was a blow losing Morsy in the first half and we conceded almost immediately after he went off. I was surprised to see Coulson replace him but even though he’s not my type of player to be fair to the lad he didn’t do too bad. One stat that stuck out to me during yesterday’s game tells me that we are actually doing very well. Watford have the best stat of fewest chances conceded (96) and we were joint third with 116. The fact that our supposed goalkeeper has the third worst stat for saves made sticks out like a sore thumb. If we had any sort of a goalkeeper we would be deeply embedded in the playoff places and maybe even be battling for the top two. 

Are you claiming that Bettinelli has cost us the best part of 20 points?

[Blanco 4,917]

1 minute ago, J.T. said:

Are you claiming that Bettinelli has cost us the best part of 20 points?

Yes. The opposition only have to shoot on target and it’s either a goal or he will parry it straight back into the danger zone where it could become a goal 

[J.T. 640]

12 minutes ago, Blanco said:

Yes. The opposition only have to shoot on target and it’s either a goal or he will parry it straight back into the danger zone where it could become a goal 

Don’t be afraid to let an agenda get in the way of reality. 
 

Granted Bettinelli hasn’t been great this season. But to claim that he’s the reason for us being 21 points behind the promotion places, or even 9 points behind the playoffs is ludicrous. There’s also been more than one occasion this season where he has pulled off vital saves to earn us points. 
 

And, let’s say, for a second, he has cost us 20 points this season... what does that say about the man who continues to choose him week after week?

 

Lets take the rose tinted glasses off for a minute Blanco... We are exactly where we deserve to be given our general play and performances.

Edited April 6, 2021 by J.T.

[Borodane 6,301]

1 minute ago, J.T. said:

Don’t be afraid to let reality get in the way of an agenda. 
 

Granted Bettinelli hasn’t been great this season. But to claim that he’s the reason for us being 21 points behind the promotion places, or even 9 points behind the playoffs is ludicrous. There’s also been more than one occasion this season where he has pulled off vital saves to earn us points. 
 

And, let’s say, for a second, he has cost us 20 points this season... what does that say about the man who continues to choose him week after week?

 

Lets take the rose tinted glasses off for a minute Blanco... We are exactly where we deserve to be given our general play and performances.

Nail on the head and just what I was about to write. We are mostly average at most of what we do. In the numbers that matter we are joint 9. in fewest goals conceded and 8 teams have scored more goals than us. After 40 games we only have a +5 GD while 5 of the top-6 teams have at least a +13 GD. We are where we are because we are a fairly average team and not because of one player. Sure Betinelli have made some blunders and usually kicks the ball into touch but our defence has made some really crap defending over the season and our attack has been atrocious in some matches. The table doesn't lie and we are where we are because of what we are; A tiny bit above average.

[Blanco 4,917]

6 minutes ago, J.T. said:

Don’t be afraid to let an agenda get in the way of reality. 
 

Granted Bettinelli hasn’t been great this season. But to claim that he’s the reason for us being 21 points behind the promotion places, or even 9 points behind the playoffs is ludicrous. There’s also been more than one occasion this season where he has pulled off vital saves to earn us points. 
 

And, let’s say, for a second, he has cost us 20 points this season... what does that say about the man who continues to choose him week after week?

 

Lets take the rose tinted glasses off for a minute Blanco... We are exactly where we deserve to be given our general play and performances.

I’m not a Warnock fan. I’m a Boro fan first and foremost. I have no idea why he is playing Bettinelli week in week out. I certainly wouldn’t pick him if it was up to me. But that’s just my opinion, if you are happy with Bettinelli, fair play to you, that’s your opinion and you are entitled to that 

[Smokedsalmon 1,247]

1 hour ago, Blanco said:

@AnglianRedand @RiseAgainsti will reply to you both together. I think yesterday was a good performance and it garnered us a hard earned point. I say hard earned because it was. Watford are a top notch squad and we matched them all over the pitch. It was a blow losing Morsy in the first half and we conceded almost immediately after he went off. I was surprised to see Coulson replace him but even though he’s not my type of player to be fair to the lad he didn’t do too bad. One stat that stuck out to me during yesterday’s game tells me that we are actually doing very well. Watford have the best stat of fewest chances conceded (96) and we were joint third with 116. The fact that our supposed goalkeeper has the third worst stat for saves made sticks out like a sore thumb. If we had any sort of a goalkeeper we would be deeply embedded in the playoff places and maybe even be battling for the top two. 

This is one of the wildest Boro takes I've seen in a while.

Bettinelli is worse than dire, sure, but to think we would be anywhere near top 2 by just replacing him is genuinely ludicrous.

Our main issue, which has been an issue for the last 10 years, is we don't score enough goals. Karanka got us promoted by keeping it tight. Pulis, Woodgate, Warnock, they have all ended up trying to defend our way to points.

Until we start taking the game to opposition teams and imposing our style of play on them, we will not be a successful team in the long run.

We need midfielders who can hold and progress the ball through the lines of the field, we need creative attackers who can thread a final ball or have clever movement, and we need a striker who doesn't take 10 shots to score 1 goal. We've lacked all of these since Karanka's squad fell apart, and even then we struggled!

[AnglianRed 6,320]

1 hour ago, Blanco said:

@AnglianRedand @RiseAgainsti will reply to you both together. I think yesterday was a good performance and it garnered us a hard earned point. I say hard earned because it was. Watford are a top notch squad and we matched them all over the pitch. It was a blow losing Morsy in the first half and we conceded almost immediately after he went off. I was surprised to see Coulson replace him but even though he’s not my type of player to be fair to the lad he didn’t do too bad. One stat that stuck out to me during yesterday’s game tells me that we are actually doing very well. Watford have the best stat of fewest chances conceded (96) and we were joint third with 116. The fact that our supposed goalkeeper has the third worst stat for saves made sticks out like a sore thumb. If we had any sort of a goalkeeper we would be deeply embedded in the playoff places and maybe even be battling for the top two. 

Whoa, just hold your horses right there laddie!

Sure Bettinelli has been a bit of a disaster this season, but you can't reasonably pin our current situation entirely on him.

The whole team has performed well below where we expected them to.

Defensively we're weak and disorganised. We panic when teams run at us and get in behind us. Classic example being that hoofed clearance that went straight to the Watford player, whose deflected shot gave them the lead.

Our midfield struggles to control games. Sure Warnock and the coaches appear to have drilled them to break up the opposition's play (which works sometimes - like on Friday) but against better teams they're left chasing shadows and struggle to create anything for our strikers.

Both defensively and in midfield we dither on the ball and are conditioned to a "safety first" approach, meaning the ball goes sideways or backwards far more than it goes forwards.

Last but by no means least, our strikers typically can't hit the side of a barn...never mind the door. The only mitigating factor being they get very little decent service in the first place.

 

[TeaCider24 12,639]

We'd be 30 points better off if we played someone other than Bettinelli and Spence.

[SmogDane 4,055]

To be fair, I can think of at least 15 situations where the majority of ppl on here agreed that a goal was conceded because of Bettinelli and most other keepers would have saved... 

Let's be more fair and reduce that down to 10 goals ...  Or maybe 7 points. I'm guessing.

Then let's leave all things out except the Blackburn game ..  Even the Swansea game we leave out ..  So we could have 3 points more ..

Then let's find out what injuries to Tav and Fry has cost us? Let's be totally fair and say only 3 points 

U have not been greedy here, and it's still 13 points .. 

Play offs should at least be within reach.

Again, I don't think we play marvelous Ricky tacky ball .. But with the players we have, we have done ok in  Spells .. yes we have also had rotten spells ... But every team has that .. look at Swans now

 

 

[Neverbefore 10,941]

It's funny how people on here can only focus on the things that have gone against us while refusing to acknowledge that every single team in the league will have similar stories and that we've had slices of good luck too.

Across 46 games you end up where you deserve to. And we're well outside the top 6 teams in the league. If you don't agree with that then you may as well be saying that the league is lying after taking the *** out of woody for saying just that. 

[SmogDane 4,055]

It's funny how everything is Warnock's fault and never the players abilities or lack there of.

A manager is important, but it's still the players who have to play ...

Btw, tongue in cheek .. Woody has apparently learned a lot since he was here, since he could batter the more experienced manager good Friday... 

One year ago the more experienced one came and saved the club from the one who could never win with any team

[AnglianRed 6,320]

10 minutes ago, SmogDane said:

It's funny how everything is Warnock's fault and never the players abilities or lack there of.

A manager is important, but it's still the players who have to play ...

Btw, tongue in cheek .. Woody has apparently learned a lot since he was here, since he could batter the more experienced manager good Friday... 

One year ago the more experienced one came and saved the club from the one who could never win with any team

Seems its not just ex-players that are a jinx for us...its ex-managers too.

I reckon Satan had scribbled it on his To Do list to have Bournemouth do us over, after he met Woody at a crossroads at midnight (and was wowed by JW's PowerPoint presentation). 🤪😈

 

[Neverbefore 10,941]

22 minutes ago, SmogDane said:

It's funny how everything is Warnock's fault and never the players abilities or lack there of.

A manager is important, but it's still the players who have to play ...

Btw, tongue in cheek .. Woody has apparently learned a lot since he was here, since he could batter the more experienced manager good Friday... 

One year ago the more experienced one came and saved the club from the one who could never win with any team

That argument falls apart considering Warnock has signed 11 players since being here. Our worst performance of the season against Bournemouth, 8 of the 11 players have only signed since he's been here. This is his team. 

[AnglianRed 6,320]

Anyway, while we're mulling over how much Bettinelli is to blame for our very average season, I found a site with some stats (for those who like that sort of thing).

https://fbref.com/en/comps/10/keepers/Championship-Stats

A few highlights:

Saves: 74 (13th)

Save %: 65.5 (28th)

Shots on Target Against: 113 (11th)

Goals Against (90 mins): 1.07 (14th)

Clean Sheets: 13 (6th)

Clean Sheet %: 32.5 (14th)

Like our season, seems very average...apart from the save percentage.

Interesting to note Wycombe's keeper has better stats...well higher number of saves and save percentage. Guess it shows you need a good keeper AND a good defence.