Boro v QPR 2-3( Ikpeazu, Crooks)

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1 hour ago, DevKWat said:

All the talk of Howson by the way, what on earth was taking Ikpeazu off for Akpom?! He bullied them all night long 

Cos he did next to nothing while he was bullying them all night long.  I get that he puts more into a game than Assombalonga, but he's not a good footballer.  He loses the ball an awful lot for a target man.  He lost it plenty tonight again and it's like people ignore it.  If that's the only thing that he can do then he needs to be bloody amazing at it, and frankly he isn't in my opinion.  He should be no more than a back up striker for us, a bit of bulk for chasing a game perhaps, but not a striker to try and push a team towards promotion.  I know how harsh that sounds for a bloke who has scored twice, and absolutely gives it a go every time he's played for us, but other than the tap in and the penalty, can you remember him looking like scoring a goal in any of the games?  That's not just down to him in fairness but he is part of it.  If all you want is a big bloke to try and hold the ball up then fine, but we're playing at a decent level here, and I would guess most defenders would prefer the big bloke, to the skilful one, or the quick one, or the lethal finisher one, cos you at least know how to defend against that one.  It's just a battle ultimately.

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1 hour ago, Brunners said:

1 hour ago, BoroJake said:

Think I saw it mentioned on here that some journalist has said that there is a championship manager furious because a signing from abroad for big money has come in.

If you could find a source for that I'd love to see it; wouldn't be surprised if that was NW tbh.

I do remember seeing that as well.  Someone put it on here on the transfer thread and said that there was only us and Fulham who had signed a bit money player from abroad.  I have no idea if that's actually true though 🤷‍♂️

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1 hour ago, TeaCider24 said:

I don't think it's even anything to do with not liking Payero, Howson was avoiding being dragged off for most of the second half of last season despite often being dreadful.

He's somehow became undroppable.

Yeah bit of a weird one.  As much as I don't rate him I do think that least some of it is how we play.  Probably unlucky with the own goal tonight, at least in the sense that he had to try and get to the cross, although he did give the ball away to begin with I know.

[BoroBoy1989 229]

1 minute ago, Changing Times said:

Cos he did next to nothing while he was bullying them all night long.  I get that he puts more into a game than Assombalonga, but he's not a good footballer.  He loses the ball an awful lot for a target man.  He lost it plenty tonight again and it's like people ignore it.  If that's the only thing that he can do then he needs to be bloody amazing at it, and frankly he isn't in my opinion.  He should be no more than a back up striker for us, a bit of bulk for chasing a game perhaps, but not a striker to try and push a team towards promotion.  I know how harsh that sounds for a bloke who has scored twice, and absolutely gives it a go every time he's played for us, but other than the tap in and the penalty, can you remember him looking like scoring a goal in any of the games?  That's not just down to him in fairness but he is part of it.  If all you want is a big bloke to try and hold the ball up then fine, but we're playing at a decent level here, and I would guess most defenders would prefer the big bloke, to the skilful one, or the quick one, or the lethal finisher one, cos you at least know how to defend against that one.  It's just a battle ultimately.

I disagree with this, but it’s all about opinions. Personally, I feel like assombalonga generally lost possession for us a hell of a lot more than Ikpeazu has so far. I don’t think defenders enjoy playing against Ikpeazu myself.
 

Either way, it’s clear we need more strikers 

[Brunners 7,982]

Just now, Changing Times said:

I do remember seeing that as well.  Someone put it on here on the transfer thread and said that there was only us and Fulham who had signed a bit money player from abroad.  I have no idea if that's actually true though 🤷‍♂️

The fact that it's believable that it could be us is bad enough really.

 

59 minutes ago, BoroBoy1989 said:

Ikpeazu, Jones, and crooks were excellent. Spence did well too. 

Good first half display. Second half was a case of shambolic defending, and one of the worst performances I’ve seen for a long time in howson. 
 

Lumley getting pelters (rightly so for 2nd goal),  but frys defending for the 2nd and 3rd was nowhere near good enough either. 
 

An infuriating night, all in all 

He's playing left CB again where he happened to be playing during his *** poor year under JW. Last year he bounced back playing centrally/on the right. Now I'm not saying they're definitely related, but I sure as *** think they are.

[SmogDane 4,055]

 

[Skinemrippers 895]

11 minutes ago, J.T. said:

I agree with this but my biggest fear is that the players we, as a club, should be basing our future around won’t be given the minutes. 

We know that, where possible, Warnock will stick with the players he trusts. He did it at the end of last season when we had very little to play for so there’s next to no chance that will change now. 

Is this true though? When he first came in, Warnock didn’t play Tav regularly but he’s played well and become a key player, Warnock is desperate to have him back. He’s developed Dijksteel and Bola, thinks highly of Spence (don’t forget Woodgate also dropped him towards the end of his tenure) and has thrown Jones in. The only young player he doesn’t seem that keen on is Coulson.

I’ll be gutted if Jones is bombed out straight away when new signings come in but he’s pretty much undroppable right now. 
 

[NWBoro 7]

Watching the highlights again and it was the most frustrating game ever, great game for Jones, and Crooks goal, was struck so cleanly. It was just bad defending that cost us. 

2nd and 3rd goals had 3 QPR players with 6/7 Boro players in proximity, just ball watching and not pressing straight away.

This needs to be sorted asap otherwise, it's gona be another mid table finish. 

 

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33 minutes ago, Whoppy said:

Agreed. Haven’t seen a Boro player look so exciting in a game for a long time. It was almost Traore like excitement. 

He reminds of Downing when he first broke into the team.  I mean different kinds of players of course, different preferred feet as well for that matter, but that instinct to attack his man whenever he gets the ball.  Downing did that right at the start, he became a better football after that, but gradually he lost a bit of that real go get em instinct.  Make it simple for Jones, you're quick, you've got a bit of skill, so whenever you get the ball just take your man on.  I really hope he continues to get lots of game time this season.

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20 minutes ago, BoroBoy1989 said:

I know where you’re coming from, first half though we were overall in control (despite their spell of possession) 

Second half, like you say, we did what we did 😔

I can see that side of it.  They had a couple of ok chances that Lumley had to save but we kept them mostly at arms length, just not sure we had them all over as such.

[Skinemrippers 895]

Warnock is right about one thing - McNair is a excellent CB but a pretty average midfielder. Can’t understand Morsy not get a game - I don’t think he even warmed up once tonight. 

[CWC 383]

Warnock’s reaction to the officials at full-time is slightly more understandable now. Surely Austin will face action for this?

[boro-unger 3,870]

5 minutes ago, Skinemrippers said:

Warnock is right about one thing - McNair is a excellent CB but a pretty average midfielder. Can’t understand Morsy not get a game - I don’t think he even warmed up once tonight. 

Morsy did warm up two or three times for what it's worth. I agree though, i would like to see him playing

[Skinemrippers 895]

3 minutes ago, boro-unger said:

Morsy did warm up two or three times for what it's worth. I agree though, i would like to see him playing

Ah, I didn’t notice him. I thought the game was crying out for him 2nd half.  Hopefully he gets his chance on Saturday. 

[SmogDane 4,055]

Scumbag v bumbag