Bristol City vs Middlesbrough 2-1 (Crooks)

[sanddancer 1,967]

4 minutes ago, wilsoncgp said:

Not really mate, your opinion is your opinion, you continue putting your case forward as you do because it's your opinion at the end of the day.

But I also know you've had a lot of criticism in the past for those things and I think that's why. I think you're a little inconsistent in judging both the team we are and the team we've played and that perhaps shows as a little pessimistic too. I'm sure others have their opinion on how I judge our team too and that's fine.

As I said, nothing horrible meant by it, I know I maybe have been a bit harsh in the past but I've grown to value your input more and more over the time you've been an active member.

The word your seeking is not pessimistic it’s balanced. A spade is a spade. 
 

I respect your feedback as I do other posters and will take it on board.. 

[TheJew 2,938]

Connolly and Balogun up top won't get goals.

Connolly is playing levels above where he will end up - lower league striker at best.

Balogun has some nice bits of skill, but again isn't ever going to get a load of goals.

[Downsouth 6,326]

3 minutes ago, Changing Times said:

We were completely off the pace but dominated the game, dictated the flow of the game, and had more than three times as many efforts on goal as the opposition?  How does that work like? 

The game I watched today we were on the pace, in fact we were setting the pace, which is why Bristol City struggled to do much at all.  They got one goal because somebody slipped over, they got their second out of nothing while we were pushing for an equaliser.  Usually when I see a team off the pace they aren't the ones in charge of the game, that's kinda what off the pace means - you can't get near to the opposition.  We had no problem with that, what we did have a problem with was either the final pass or the finish.  No offence but I think that summary above is completely and utterly incorrect.

Apart from the final pass and finish.

Wilder will be fuming with the stats  now I would, players having off days and some being selfish.

It really is time for Tav to start scoring

[ManBearPig 1,853]

1 minute ago, Downsouth said:

Apart from the final pass and finish.

Wilder will be fuming with the stats  now I would, players having off days and some being selfish.

It really is time for Tav to start scoring

I disagree. Tav got an assist today and I’m happy with that. The issue is that our style of play relies on Crooks or the two strikers to score. When that’s been stifled or they’re having an off day we look laboured. 

[AnglianRed 6,320]

4 minutes ago, Changing Times said:

We were completely off the pace but dominated the game, dictated the flow of the game, and had more than three times as many efforts on goal as the opposition?  How does that work like? 

The game I watched today we were on the pace, in fact we were setting the pace, which is why Bristol City struggled to do much at all.  They got one goal because somebody slipped over, they got their second out of nothing while we were pushing for an equaliser.  Usually when I see a team off the pace they aren't the ones in charge of the game, that's kinda what off the pace means - you can't get near to the opposition.  We had no problem with that, what we did have a problem with was either the final pass or the finish.  No offence but I think that summary above is completely and utterly incorrect.

Probably more accurate to say their keeper played a blinder, we messed up our other chances and also defended poorly.

Other than that we were great! Bossed the game... 

Actually the game I watched Boro had a stinker of a first half. Bristol didn't do much but neither did we. We dominated for long spells in the second half, but failed to make it count.

Guess this is another example of its not how much possession you have, but what you do with it...

[Redcar Rioja 5,975]

Connolly's workrate has improved but his decision making is borderline greedy, very poor at times. He doesn't look up thus his awareness of team mates around him is a weak link. His shooting looks worse than Britt's and struggles to hit the target. Even his "goal" last week was the result of a wicked deflection that put his effort on target instead of the East Stand Away section. I had hoped he would push on after last week's win and his good fortune but he just looks like a poor man's Watmore.

Balogun needs to toughen up and has undoubted skill but so far it's clear he can't handle the physicality of the Championship. Letting Hernandez go looks like a poor decision on Wilder's part, our front line now looks insipid and weak despite Hernandez not being an out and out Striker. 

[Downsouth 6,326]

It has to change our leading goal scorer is away for two matches, we will hope that Sporar if he works hard enough might be able to score but our only real hope will be Watmore and until Connolly, Tavernier and Balogun decide to be team players then we will not score as much as we want though McGree might break that mould.

Howson McNair need to be more attack minded if this club does go for to 6.

We are in no danger of relegation but a lot to look forward to.

I am sorry but Wilder has given us the window to look through and to see how things could be.

Losing Payero is a shame but others need to do what is required.

Deflating performance all round today especially as it should have been much better

[diggerlad07 3,694]

Minor blip in the process but least we were not rolled over and continued to fight even when 2- 0 down.

Lumley is a championship keeper, like every other championship keeper, they are inconsistent at times and make mistakes - hence why he's playing in the championship. He's not great but equally he's not as bad as what people make out. He also wasn't at fault for any of the goals today.

We were the better team and I'm actually looking forward to see how we cope without crooks for the next 2 games.

I know it's going to be controversial but I personally don't think he's been at his best though an entire game since before reading home. He took the headlines because of his 2 late headers but I thought he was extremely poor in that game. Crooks is always going to be a threat at set pieces but I don't think his overall game has been excellent for the full 90minutes in a game for a while. He's a very good player and I really rate him but I just want to see how we adapt without him.

Just a shame payero picked up the injury when he did as it would of been nice to see him have back to back games under wilder to make more an opinion on him.

Bounce back much needed on Tuesday in what is a massive game to put some daylight between us and west brom who I think will come on strong at some point.

[Changing Times 12,343]

7 minutes ago, AnglianRed said:

Its no wonder we struggle to break down well organised teams.

21 shots on goal suggests that we didn't struggle to break them down.  10 on target out of those as well, only 4 off target, the rest blocked.  I've watched Boro teams struggle to break teams down plenty of times in the past, today wasn't one of those times though.  We just couldn't finish when we had the opportunity, and probably screwed up a few moves where we could have worked a better chance than we did.  It's a problem we've had for a while, and we're hoping that a couple of young Premier League reserve players can fix it for us.  Maybe they can, maybe they can't, I don't know.  I wouldn't say that either played badly today but then they didn't score so we're back to that particular problem of ours. 

As it stands we have five strikers at the club, only one of those has a record of consistent goal scoring at first team level, and that's Sporar, who has this in Slovenian and Slovakian football.  Watmore's highest goal tally was the 9 he got with us last season, if you don't count 14 he got in the Conference North with Altrincham right at the beginning of his career.  Coburn is less experienced than the two we have on loan.  Those are our options, we can use whatever combination that people want to come up with, but how likely is it that they suddenly become prolific goal scorers at this level?  We're probably hoping that at least one of the two newer loan lads clicks at this level and goes on a run.  

[Downsouth 6,326]

7 minutes ago, ManBearPig said:

I disagree. Tav got an assist today and I’m happy with that. The issue is that our style of play relies on Crooks or the two strikers to score. When that’s been stifled or they’re having an off day we look laboured. 

MBP you have just confirmed what I mentioned, if we are not too rely on Crooks and strikers then Tav needs to start scoring

[Redcar Rioja 5,975]

11 minutes ago, Changing Times said:

We were completely off the pace but dominated the game, dictated the flow of the game, and had more than three times as many efforts on goal as the opposition?  How does that work like? 

The game I watched today we were on the pace, in fact we were setting the pace, which is why Bristol City struggled to do much at all.  They got one goal because somebody slipped over, they got their second out of nothing while we were pushing for an equaliser.  Usually when I see a team off the pace they aren't the ones in charge of the game, that's kinda what off the pace means - you can't get near to the opposition.  We had no problem with that, what we did have a problem with was either the final pass or the finish.  No offence but I think that summary above is completely and utterly incorrect.

No offence but I think you must have been watching Curling on BBC or something. We had no pace at all, in fact we were pedestrian. We had plenty of possession but no drive, belief or energy. We walked around all afternoon, comfortable in possession but done nothing with it. Bristol were happy to sit off allowing us to play like Pensioner's. 

If you think that's on the pace then I find that very strange, to me we never broke sweat or got out of second gear all afternoon. Bristol are a fairly poor to mediocre side and we never looked like hurting them through our ponderous football. I'd say we were in control of the game but done absolutely nothing with it to the point where the Bristol City Commentators sounded more enthusiastic and exciting than watching our build up play.

[Downsouth 6,326]

7 minutes ago, diggerlad07 said:

Minor blip in the process but least we were not rolled over and continued to fight even when 2- 0 down.

Lumley is a championship keeper, like every other championship keeper, they are inconsistent at times and make mistakes - hence why he's playing in the championship. He's not great but equally he's not as bad as what people make out. He also wasn't at fault for any of the goals today.

We were the better team and I'm actually looking forward to see how we cope without crooks for the next 2 games.

I know it's going to be controversial but I personally don't think he's been at his best though an entire game since before reading home. He took the headlines because of his 2 late headers but I thought he was extremely poor in that game. Crooks is always going to be a threat at set pieces but I don't think his overall game has been excellent for the full 90minutes in a game for a while. He's a very good player and I really rate him but I just want to see how we adapt without him.

Just a shame payero picked up the injury when he did as it would of been nice to see him have back to back games under wilder to make more an opinion on him.

Bounce back much needed on Tuesday in what is a massive game to put some daylight between us and west brom who I think will come on strong at some point.

Losing Crooks could not have come at a worse time as we play WBA who are desperate for win and sometimes results like today linger on longer than we want so no I am not looking forward to losing our main goal scorer

[AnglianRed 6,320]

3 minutes ago, Changing Times said:

21 shots on goal suggests that we didn't struggle to break them down.  10 on target out of those as well, only 4 off target, the rest blocked.  I've watched Boro teams struggle to break teams down plenty of times in the past, today wasn't one of those times though.  We just couldn't finish when we had the opportunity, and probably screwed up a few moves where we could have worked a better chance than we did.  It's a problem we've had for a while, and we're hoping that a couple of young Premier League reserve players can fix it for us.  Maybe they can, maybe they can't, I don't know.  I wouldn't say that either played badly today but then they didn't score so we're back to that particular problem of ours. 

As it stands we have five strikers at the club, only one of those has a record of consistent goal scoring at first team level, and that's Sporar, who has this in Slovenian and Slovakian football.  Watmore's highest goal tally was the 9 he got with us last season, if you don't count 14 he got in the Conference North with Altrincham right at the beginning of his career.  Coburn is less experienced than the two we have on loan.  Those are our options, we can use whatever combination that people want to come up with, but how likely is it that they suddenly become prolific goal scorers at this level?  We're probably hoping that at least one of the two newer loan lads clicks at this level and goes on a run.  

I wasn't talking about our stats.

I don't know if you noticed but we spent large parts of the second half camped in Bristol's half, but we just passed from side to side and took ages to attempt a forward pass (which usually got intercepted or cleared).

Some of our passes took so long, you could see the Bristol players anticipating where the ball was going to go and move to mark our players, or win the ball back.

Boro can be extremely static at times and this game was no exception.

 

As I said, our scoring issues were a combination of Bentley playing what will probably be one of his best games this season and our own poor passing / finishing.

 

[ManBearPig 1,853]

10 minutes ago, Downsouth said:

MBP you have just confirmed what I mentioned, if we are not too rely on Crooks and strikers then Tav needs to start scoring

But I don’t think his role in the team is to score goals. I think he is there to provide opportunities for others to score. 

[BoroSmoggie 2,710]

I don’t think Bentley made any outstanding saves tbh. Everything he did you’d expect a keeper to do at this level.