Bristol City vs Middlesbrough 2-1 (Crooks)

[TheJew 2,938]

Look, we didn't play bad but we look powder puff up top.

I personally wouldn't have got rid of Coulson or Uche. I know Coulson got sent off today, but he's the most natural lwb we have and I can't help feel he would flourish and offer balance.

Bottom line is, we are playing good football. Didn't win today but were the better team. Some of the football and chance creation was good. Its just the final decision and the quality was lacking

McGree looks decent. 

[GrimsbyBoro 1,968]

 

I thought the first goal looked poor but watching again we don’t learn lessons on leaving people free.

highlights (kind of) seems to have another match stuck in the middle

https://www.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/football/competitions/championship/12546361/bristol-city-2-1-middlesbrough

 

 

[Downsouth 6,327]

One thing is for sure we are too reliant on Jones if he has a quiet time then we do not click

[Downsouth 6,327]

8 minutes ago, Changing Times said:

It wasn't long ago that Jones wasn't up to either in your opinion.  You wanted him out of the side.

You're like a dog with a bone these days for whatever reason, not just about Tav but with everything.

And I was the first to say what a turnaround and a bit ott with regards to everything.

Like you I state what I see especially to opinions about where goals are coming from.

If I am over reacting to other things then perhaps I have reasons to be like that r maybe I do not😉

[BG93 39]

8 minutes ago, ManBearPig said:

I’m not saying that Tav shouldn’t ever score, but it seems that it’s not his primary focus. If you look at how we set up and think back to when Wilder has come in, Tav just isn’t in clear cut shooting positions anymore as a tactical choice. His role is to set up other people and get the ball moving in midfield. 
 

You could argue that it’s a problem with a plan B. When we don’t go through Jones, what are we trying to do? And where are the goals coming from? 

Think this is partly because under warnock he was his main man and had a free role to do whatever he liked, wilder has probably spoke with him i would imagine and drilled that out of him, which for me has worked been one of the best players since he has come in.

I still think his decision making lets him down when in a goal scoring position mind.

[Changing Times 12,347]

28 minutes ago, AnglianRed said:

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.

 

No you were talking about the game.  In the game we had 21 shots.  The stats aren't independent of the game, they are a reflection of it.  Does that suggest that we had a hard time breaking them down cos it doesn't to me?  Yet somehow we only passed from side to side, and took ages to find a forward pass that usually got intercepted or cleared 🤷‍♂️  Please explain to me how it works, cos I'd like to know?  We couldn't get forward but we had lots of shots?  Were we shooting from the halfway line perhaps?  I watched the game, we were able to play through them quite nicely.  Yeah at times they had just about everyone behind the ball and it slows a team down, so then you have to try and play your way through a congested defensive third.  I think we did that well enough by and large although we could have done better with some of the finishing and some of the final ball decision making.

This place is absolutely barmy at times, we were the better side today by a margin, but we lost for the same reason we have dropped points previously - that we aren't particularly clinical in front of goal.  We actually played better today than we did last week, although I'm sure there will be a few outraged by that statement.  The difference is that the opposition didn't score one for us today, they didn't deflect a shot going wide into the net for us today, or gift us another goal by fannying about with the ball practically on their own goal line.  We had a lot of luck last week, we didn't get that luck this week, and we weren't good enough in the final third to overcome that unfortunately.  What I saw today was a team playing good football who lack a true cutting edge.  If we keep doing what we're doing we will end up being a good side.

[Redcar Rioja 5,976]

10 minutes ago, Changing Times said:

Yes I watching the Curling, you've got me.

Learn what off the pace means, then figure out what it is you're trying to say.  Off the pace means you can't match the opposition, not that you have slow build up play.  Man City often have slow build up play, they aren't off the pace though.  We were able to move the ball well against Bristol City, to the extent that we had 21 shots.  Only 6 of those were outside the area, which isn't very many.  Generally, if a team is struggling to break down the opposition, I'd expect fewer total shots and a higher percentage from outside the area, precisely because you can't play through them, and you end up getting desperate and shooting from anywhere.  If we were pedestrian then they'd have found it easier to shut us down, which they actually didn't. Our finishing, and sometimes our final ball or one before the final ball, were the issue today.  If they'd stopped us from playing we wouldn't have had 21 shots, 13 corners, and whatever else.  If you're saying that they got a goal out of nothing and were happy to defend then I could see where you are coming from but I don't think they had much of a choice either way because they couldn't actually stop us from playing through them. 

But I guess we're back to the "We lost, therefore we were rubbish" analysis of games 🤦‍♂️

 

Off the pace literally means falling behind the leader, but is well used in footballing and other team sports parlance as not being as good as usual or below expected standards of performance but I'll put it down to your unique semantic ways. We looked lacklustre and off the pace all afternoon despite all the Stats showing lots of possession (hard not to given how long we strolled around and probed going nowhere with the ball and eventually trying to walk it into the net). We had shots but they were pretty feeble and never looked like scoring and never cut our opponents open with pace, agility or speed. We weren't rubbish, just disappointing and fell short, I'd wager than Wilder thinks the same.

[Duvel 2,446]

I'm not massively worried with one defeat after we've had such a good run, hopefully we'll get back on track against WBA. We're never going to win every game. 

[Redcar Rioja 5,976]

14 minutes ago, Duvel said:

I'm not massively worried with one defeat after we've had such a good run, hopefully we'll get back on track against WBA. We're never going to win every game. 

Had we been played off the Park it would have been more worrying, as it was we were architects of our own downfall. The game just highlighted deficiencies that most of us realise exist, we need to stop giving away soft goals and be far more clinical at the other end of the pitch.

In fairness our goals against column is still pretty good, despite our Lumley reservations only three Championship sides have conceded less. Our goals for however is only 12th best and that is where the biggest gains can be made. WBA however are one of those three sides that have conceded fewer goals than us. With our profligacy in front of goal we will need to see a huge upturn from Sporar, Balogun, Connolly and Watmore midweek especially since our top scorer is now sitting out a ban.

[JTG 2,267]

Is anybody else sick to death of seeing goalkeepers play out of their skin against us?

Bentley today, Marshall last week, Travers just before Christmas. I'm not for one minute blaming Lumley for the result today, it's more just a general grievance. I can't think of many games where I've gone away thinking he's been outstanding. If we're being honest he's probably lost us more points than he's won us.

I just find myself thinking back to how many points Randolph won us each season and I really think we need to properly invest in a quality shot stopper in the summer.

As an aside, does nobody else find it strange that both Lumley and Daniels have looked suspect at times and yet Stojanovic never really had a look-in before being sent out on loan, and neither has Sol Brynn after being recalled from a seemingly successful loan spell in Scotland.

[notjade 1,174]

1 hour ago, BoroSmoggie said:

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

In comparison to Lumley though

I seriously doubt that when the time finally comes to get shot of him that he'll get a championship move.

[AnglianRed 6,320]

58 minutes ago, Changing Times said:

No you were talking about the game.  In the game we had 21 shots.  The stats aren't independent of the game, they are a reflection of it.  Does that suggest that we had a hard time breaking them down cos it doesn't to me?  Yet somehow we only passed from side to side, and took ages to find a forward pass that usually got intercepted or cleared 🤷‍♂️  Please explain to me how it works, cos I'd like to know?  We couldn't get forward but we had lots of shots?  Were we shooting from the halfway line perhaps?  I watched the game, we were able to play through them quite nicely.  Yeah at times they had just about everyone behind the ball and it slows a team down, so then you have to try and play your way through a congested defensive third.  I think we did that well enough by and large although we could have done better with some of the finishing and some of the final ball decision making.

This place is absolutely barmy at times, we were the better side today by a margin, but we lost for the same reason we have dropped points previously - that we aren't particularly clinical in front of goal.  We actually played better today than we did last week, although I'm sure there will be a few outraged by that statement.  The difference is that the opposition didn't score one for us today, they didn't deflect a shot going wide into the net for us today, or gift us another goal by fannying about with the ball practically on their own goal line.  We had a lot of luck last week, we didn't get that luck this week, and we weren't good enough in the final third to overcome that unfortunately.  What I saw today was a team playing good football who lack a true cutting edge.  If we keep doing what we're doing we will end up being a good side.

But as you well know stats don't tell the whole story.

Did you actually watch the game?

Your apparent blindness or inability to recall certain parts of it make me wonder.

Yes we had a lot of shots at goal. About half were off target. All but one of the ones that were on target were a mix of great or easy saves.

They also came during spells of pressure in front of goal...which wasn't something that happened for the whole 90 minutes.

There were large spells of the game where we weren't doing very much at all (and in some cases neither were Bristol).

I don't know why you're waffling on about getting lucky with own goals and other stuff in other games. Thats irrelevant. I'm talking purely about this game.

You're writing an awful lot but not making much sense or putting up much of an argument.

If you read my original after match comment, you'll note I did say Boro did a lot of good things today, but were let down by our inability to convert the chances we created, coupled with poor defending.

We could and should have won this game, but the Bristol keeper played a blinder and we lost our way after conceding the first goal, for most of the first half. Second half we tried to make up for that and could have scored 3-4 goals with better finishing (or worse keeping). But we also were annoyingly pedestrian at times and spent too much time playing safety first in front of Bristol.

I really don't know why you're getting so riled up about this.

 

[Aphex_Boro 1,444]

8 minutes ago, notjade said:

In comparison to Lumley though

I seriously doubt that when the time finally comes to get shot of him that he'll get a championship move.

He might but it will be as 2nd choice, which he should be for us at best.

Seems a decent guy but he just isn't good enough to be a 1st choice keeper at this level.

[Dynamo Kev 1,557]

its just a shame that all our big chances fell to the worst and least composed finishers in the team, the strikers.

[Dynamo Kev 1,557]

wilder giving it big talk when he got here about players that dont play for the team will be out. will he give balogun and connolly more time because all i see is two very selfish players playing for themselves.