Boro vs Coventry 1-0 (Sporar)

[Downsouth 6,327]

Back home safe and sound and a lot of miles travelled..........................................but worth it!

 

Great to spend time with Uwe and Oscar, Wilson and BU before the game.

Will give my thoughts tomorrow

[Denzel Zanzibar 6,972]

16 minutes ago, Downsouth said:

Back home safe and sound and a lot of miles travelled..........................................but worth it!

 

Great to spend time with Uwe and Oscar, Wilson and BU before the game.

Will give my thoughts tomorrow

Can I keep my avatar now?

[p_mards 1,365]

A massive three points and we did well to dig in and grind out a win against a very good Coventry side. If they won then we couldn't have complained too much. It was one of them Championship games where fine margins, individual moments of quality and a bit of luck decide it. We were on the wrong side of it against Blackburn on Monday night, but were fortunate today. Coventry looked a far better footballing side than Blackburn. The way they cut through us at times was very impressive. You can certainly see why they're well positioned in the league.

In our promotion season under Karanka we had many of these gritty games where character and luck saw us through them, so days like today could prove vital. As we're heavily reliant on Jones to be our creative spark, it's encouraging to see us finding a way to break teams down in other ways - this time down the left with Tavernier playing Balogun in to set up Sporar. Even before then, it was his pressing that led to us gaining possession high up the pitch.

We really lacked a physical presence upfront in the game. Connolly and Sporar really didn't work as nothing seemed to stick up there when we needed it. Coventry had Gyokeres, who allowed them to do this incredibly well. Whereas nothing much stuck upfront for us. While Connolly didn't do particularly well, I find his severe criticism after three games frustrating. He's very young and has only just arrived so it's bonkers to see some write him off already. I'm glad to see Wilder fighting back in the post-match interview defending the short-sightedness of writing him off already. Sporar done well to score his "typical Sporar" type of goal.

I thought the stand out players were: Fry, McNair (especially in final 30 minutes), Tavernier, Crooks & Howson. Lumley made some good saves also. Credit again to Wilder for making the substitutes to win the points as Balogun did well when he came on. We looked a lot better when Crooks and Payero switched around - with Crooks in holding midfield and Payero at CM.

A minor point but I thought Payero looked a liability when he came on so I'm surprised he is receiving quite a lot of praise. He made a few good passes, but there were quite a few times in which he got caught on the transition being attracted to the ball and causing confusion with him getting in teammates way, which led to us losing possession and being vulnerable to a counter attack - it happened quite a few times with him around Jones and Balogun in particular. As he hasn't played played in months I can completely understand why this happened, but I just don't think he played well like quite a lot have said. Hopefully he can get more game time to get him match sharp and ready to step in when his opportunity comes.

 

[Changing Times 12,347]

2 hours ago, Borodane said:

Where are the overlapping center backs? It doesn’t look like we are trying to create a dominance in the opponents half by having McNair and Dijksteel come forward. We just hoof it too much instead. Looks like we’ve gone backwards a bit in the last few matches. 

We played like crap today to be blunt.  May as well just have kept Warnock if we're going to play like that.  Really disappointed me in all honesty, and I have no idea what we're trying to accomplish, well I do know, but it's really short-sighted in my view.  A couple of question marks about Wilder now in my mind unfortunately.  

[Borodane 6,301]

23 minutes ago, Changing Times said:

We played like crap today to be blunt.  May as well just have kept Warnock if we're going to play like that.  Really disappointed me in all honesty, and I have no idea what we're trying to accomplish, well I do know, but it's really short-sighted in my view.  A couple of question marks about Wilder now in my mind unfortunately.  

Yeah I haven’t been overly impressed lately. I thought we played well towards the end of 2021, but at the moment it’s essentially warnock ball but with two strikers. It’s just a bit too messy and panicky. 

[AllBoro10 2,235]

37 minutes ago, Changing Times said:

We played like crap today to be blunt.  May as well just have kept Warnock if we're going to play like that.  Really disappointed me in all honesty, and I have no idea what we're trying to accomplish, well I do know, but it's really short-sighted in my view.  A couple of question marks about Wilder now in my mind unfortunately.  

I hate some of our fans. So thick.

[DanFromDownSouth 1,706]

49 minutes ago, Changing Times said:

We played like crap today to be blunt.  May as well just have kept Warnock if we're going to play like that.  Really disappointed me in all honesty, and I have no idea what we're trying to accomplish, well I do know, but it's really short-sighted in my view.  A couple of question marks about Wilder now in my mind unfortunately.  

We definitely played poorly today. Much like the first half vs Blackburn. But we managed to grind a result out, which is a positive. 

The substitution of Howson for Payero was a strange one. Personally I actually think Crooks should have been sacrificed at that stage. We seemed to become very ragged (especially when they countered) once Howson was off.

What I will say however, compared to us, Coventry looked like a team that was well drilled and well versed in their gameplan. But having Robbins at the helm for nearly 250 games and a squad built around their gameplan, whereas with us Wilder is only 10 games in.

[CrazyL 2,565]

Just now, DanFromDownSouth said:

We definitely played poorly today. Much like the first half vs Blackburn. But we managed to grind a result out, which is a positive. 

The substitution of Howson for Payero was a strange one. Personally I actually think Crooks should have been sacrificed at that stage. We seemed to become very ragged (especially when they countered) once Howson was off.

What I will say however, compared to us, Coventry looked like a team that was well drilled and well versed in their gameplan. But having Robbins at the helm for nearly 250 games and a squad built around their gameplan, whereas with us Wilder is only 10 games in.

10 games is plenty though isn’t it? We should be the finished article by now. Wilder out I say. It’s no better than Warnock to be honest (apart from all the  points)

[Oslo_Syd 320]

I think our shaky last two games have got everything to do with the absurdity of transfer windows. They have now been around for about 20 years, so a lot of OneBoro members will not remember a time when they didn’t exist. Let me remind you that before the 2002-3 season clubs could buy sell or loan players whenever they wanted. This had a few advantages – there was no mad scramble and panic buying but, most importantly, you did not see a sudden influx of players that disrupted teams.

Before 2003, it was almost unknown for a club to bring in four or five new players in the space of a month. Having brought in said players, you are duly obliged to play them – and sometimes you HAVE to play them for contractual reasons.

This might make sense if a team is doing badly and radical changes have to be made but in the case of a team that is doing okay but might be even better, a sudden influx of new players always seems to have a disruptive effect. IMO, this is what is happening to Boro now. Discounting the FA cup match, for obvious reasons, we were doing very well with the “old” team up to the Reading match and playing excellent, fluid football. We struggled against Reading, who are a pretty dysfunctional side, with no disrespect. We won the match, but only in the last few minutes and after new player Connolly had been subbed.

Since then, we have stuttered. I’ve seen this year in year out, particularly after the January window. I know that nothing is going to change and that the transfer window system is here to stay, but I bloody wish it had never been introduced.

[TLF10 4,497]

Hoping Payero, Balogun and Watmore start v Utd. Dont think them starting weakens our starting 11 but does give them vital minutes and more match sharpness. Rest one of Crooks/Howson and also Sporar and Connolly. 

[DanFromDownSouth 1,706]

4 minutes ago, CrazyL said:

10 games is plenty though isn’t it? We should be the finished article by now. Wilder out I say. It’s no better than Warnock to be honest (apart from all the  points)

I think Wilder's done an incredible job, in terms of the results and some of the performances we've put in. 

I can understand the concerns to a degree but that said I think it's way too early to judge our play style as it stands. If the game today becomes the norm then I'd be pretty annoyed.

[Foogle 2,104]

Coventry are a possession based team and we've usually attacked these sorts of teams with Long Balls under Wilder.

Whether that's how Wilder wants to set up going forward as a way to beat possession based teams or he thinks the current squad isn't good enough to go toe to toe with one is up in the air it seems.

We're not sending the Centre Backs forward as much as Sheffield did, but they mainly did that when they were dominating possession, could be something that Wilder is waiting till the summer to drill into the squad whilst trying to get his fundamentals in place at the moment. 

[Changing Times 12,347]

33 minutes ago, CrazyL said:

10 games is plenty though isn’t it? We should be the finished article by now. Wilder out I say. It’s no better than Warnock to be honest (apart from all the  points)

I'm not expecting us to be the finished article after 10 games, but I'm also not expecting us to do an about turn with our style of play after 10 games either.  We were crap today but we won.  We were crap quite often under Warnock and we won sometimes, we even managed it under Woodgate on occasions.  We've been poor for a few games, and I'm actually less interested in results right now than I am in how he's going to develop this team.  Today was no better than a lot of what we've seen the last two years, and for a decent chunk of the Blackburn game we looked clueless.  I'm not sure this group of players, under any manager, should look clueless, and I'm bloody sure I'm not interested in watching us play like we did today.

[Changing Times 12,347]

6 minutes ago, Foogle said:

Coventry are a possession based team and we've usually attacked these sorts of teams with Long Balls under Wilder.

Whether that's how Wilder wants to set up going forward as a way to beat possession based teams or he thinks the current squad isn't good enough to go toe to toe with one is up in the air it seems.

We're not sending the Centre Backs forward as much as Sheffield did, but they mainly did that when they were dominating possession, could be something that Wilder is waiting till the summer to drill into the squad whilst trying to get his fundamentals in place at the moment. 

Then play Ikpeazu and drop the pretence of us being a footballing side.  You can't have it both ways or you get performances like today where we are playing a way that doesn't suit the players we've picked.  If he believes this current squad isn't good enough to go toe to toe with Coventry then frankly I don't know what the hell we're doing.  If that's negative then so be it.  

[Downsouth 6,327]

For your entertainment!

We struggle against decent "quick" teams and Coventry reminded us why they had beaten us at their place easily we can't cope with a pacy midfield and only poor finishing allowed us the victory.

So Boro need to be a bit more savvy and street wise and clever against similar teams. All need to be on the same page and up to speed Connely from what I saw yesterday is well under par, for his sake he needs to toughen up and be more of a team player rather than the individual.

Not going right for him atm fingers crossed that will change soon