Boro v Hull 0-1

[kentucky 341]

Watched the highlights again , and Connelly didn't actually play too bad, he's doing all the physical work the others don't do, getting amongst it whilst getting kicked,it's always been that way the Juke wasn't appreciated yet he took a kicking , Bernie tapped in numerous goals of a CF he played off , so maybe we should see the other side of it.

[JonnyMFC 1,535]

17 minutes ago, Smoggy-in-VA said:

I think others have said this, but it bears repeating. I do not think we have a deep squad. We certainly do not have a back up for Jones. Don't get me wrong, Tav played well as RWB, but we missed him in the middle. I would expect us to recruit for Wilder's system in the summer. Why didn't we do that in January? I'm sure we did, but it is much tougher to do in January.

I still think Wilder is the best long term option for us.

I dont think that whether Wilder is right for us is up for debate, i think we all agree that he is probably one of the best managers we have had for a long time.

What you say is entirely correct though in regards to squad depth and Wilder has stated that he plays the system that he thinks he has the players for.  I think that his inflexibility comes from the the lack of options he has as much as his stubbornness to play a particular way.

[Downsouth 6,326]

24 minutes ago, kentucky said:

Watched the highlights again , and Connelly didn't actually play too bad, he's doing all the physical work the others don't do, getting amongst it whilst getting kicked,it's always been that way the Juke wasn't appreciated yet he took a kicking , Bernie tapped in numerous goals of a CF he played off , so maybe we should see the other side of it.

And what about Lee Dong Gook highly underestimated😆

[Humpty 3,260]

2 hours ago, Redcar Rioja said:

Scoring four goals against the Championship's weakest defence didn't cover up the cracks for me and I said so at the time. We looked half decent because of the quality of the opposition, not because of our quality. We have gone off the boil recently for whatever reason be it fatigue, attitude, tactics, injuries etc. and it was evident to me then despite the result.

I thought we looked as though we had another two gears to up if we needed them. There were spells where they had chances absolutely, but it wasn't a performance that worried me. Not in the slightest.

[Islander 30]

33 minutes ago, Downsouth said:

And what about Lee Dong Gook highly underestimated😆

Yes. he was.  We underestimated just how bad he was😉

[Rioch's Braves 711]

31 minutes ago, Downsouth said:

And what about Lee Dong Gook highly underestimated😆

That lad had the potential to be the Asian Robbie Fowler, we weren't patient enough with him missed opportunity, one that got away 😆

[Smoggy-in-VA 189]

1 hour ago, JonnyMFC said:

I dont think that whether Wilder is right for us is up for debate, i think we all agree that he is probably one of the best managers we have had for a long time.

What you say is entirely correct though in regards to squad depth and Wilder has stated that he plays the system that he thinks he has the players for.  I think that his inflexibility comes from the the lack of options he has as much as his stubbornness to play a particular way.

Maybe you are right...I just thought I had started to see some questioning of CW. I may be wrong because I often read posts on here quickly while I'm supposed to be doing something else. But I 100% agree with your main point.

[TheJew 2,937]

9 hours ago, JonnyMFC said:

I dont think that whether Wilder is right for us is up for debate, i think we all agree that he is probably one of the best managers we have had for a long time.

What you say is entirely correct though in regards to squad depth and Wilder has stated that he plays the system that he thinks he has the players for.  I think that his inflexibility comes from the the lack of options he has as much as his stubbornness to play a particular way.

Options that Wilder has contributed to by getting rid of Uche and Hernandez.

[TheJew 2,937]

8 hours ago, Downsouth said:

And what about Lee Dong Gook highly underestimated😆

Still better than Connolly.

[wilsoncgp 9,276]

9 hours ago, TheJew said:

Options that Wilder has contributed to by getting rid of Uche and Hernandez.

Ah yes, with their combined 4 goals between them. God forbid we keep Connolly or Balogun beyond the end of this season but if only we hadn't gotten rid of these two players who contributed even less to our team than the two players in question.

Absolutely baffled by these two constantly coming up. People throwing the arguments for forwards suiting a system of play in the bin because the two strikers we brought in in January haven't solved the scoring problem. That's a fair argument and I can appreciate that.

But it's when you bring up two forwards who also never scored enough goals for us or even particularly played well for us into the discussion that makes me wonder whether you're actually in favour of goal-scorers or better players or if you just want to moan about something.

[TheJew 2,937]

35 minutes ago, wilsoncgp said:

Ah yes, with their combined 4 goals between them. God forbid we keep Connolly or Balogun beyond the end of this season but if only we hadn't gotten rid of these two players who contributed even less to our team than the two players in question.

Absolutely baffled by these two constantly coming up. People throwing the arguments for forwards suiting a system of play in the bin because the two strikers we brought in in January haven't solved the scoring problem. That's a fair argument and I can appreciate that.

But it's when you bring up two forwards who also never scored enough goals for us or even particularly played well for us into the discussion that makes me wonder whether you're actually in favour of goal-scorers or better players or if you just want to moan about something.

It's not as simplistic as that. The forward tur over effectively restricted our style of play and formations.

Uche would have been useful to chuck on in some games, especially the ones where we have hoofed it to the forwards.

Hernandez was a threat and could play wide.

My thoughts on Connolly are clear. I'm sure he will rock up on league 1 or 2 in a few years time with a 1 in 6 goal ratio.

[JonnyMFC 1,535]

2 minutes ago, TheJew said:

It's not as simplistic as that. The forward tur over effectively restricted our style of play and formations.

Uche would have been useful to chuck on in some games, especially the ones where we have hoofed it to the forwards.

Hernandez was a threat and could play wide.

My thoughts on Connolly are clear. I'm sure he will rock up on league 1 or 2 in a few years time with a 1 in 6 goal ratio.

I would argue that Coburn offers almost the same as Uche, a bit less physically, but is a little more mobile.

As for Hernandez, well he came here from Norwich with the reputation of being great at getting past players but then offers little in terms of service, often making the wrong decision with the ball or not offering any end product at all..........it didnt change when he came to us, or when he went to Birmingham.

Im sure if we wanted players just to fill a position to warrant a change in formation then we could play Sol Brynn as LWB with the same outcome.....my point then being that CW is only playing the formation/s that his players allow him to.

[Leesider 1,076]

17 minutes ago, TheJew said:

It's not as simplistic as that. The forward tur over effectively restricted our style of play and formations.

Uche would have been useful to chuck on in some games, especially the ones where we have hoofed it to the forwards.

Hernandez was a threat and could play wide.

My thoughts on Connolly are clear. I'm sure he will rock up on league 1 or 2 in a few years time with a 1 in 6 goal ratio.

1 in 6 ratio would be significant improvement from him, I just cannot believe he starts every week, Baffling.....

[wilsoncgp 9,276]

3 minutes ago, JonnyMFC said:

I would argue that Coburn offers almost the same as Uche, a bit less physically, but is a little more mobile.

As for Hernandez, well he came here from Norwich with the reputation of being great at getting past players but then offers little in terms of service, often making the wrong decision with the ball or not offering any end product at all..........it didnt change when he came to us, or when he went to Birmingham.

Both these points are spot on.

We don't need Uche for a target man if that's what we wanted to play with because we have Coburn. But we don't want that, we don't want someone to hold up the ball or hold up the play very often. We don't slowly break out even when we do play direct so we don't need a striker to take a ball down and wait for players to get up the field very often.

We tend to loft a ball up to Crooks for the flick-ons if that's the way we want to get up the field but that's only really from set-pieces deep in our own half if we can't play it short. If we're lumping the ball forward in open play, we're either looking for a runner in behind or we're happy for them to be the first man to touch the ball because it creates a pressing opportunity if they are in any way stretched.

You don't have to win a header from a long ball to get anything out of it. If anything, the person who tries to hold up play in this team needs to take the ball into feet and work his way out of challenges on the floor rather than just hold off challenges. Connolly has actually done somewhat well in this respect once or twice a game. It doesn't take away the rest of his performance and where we really need one of our strikers to step up and take responsibility with goals scored but he does have his moments of good individual play.

[Neverbefore 10,933]

One aspect of Connollys play that goes under the radar is that although hes not winning the ball in the air because he's 4ft nothing, he's causing the defenders problems every single time by niggling at them and forcing them into errors and the second ball often drops to our midfielders or full backs as a result. I think this is why we persist with those tactics at times. I'd prefer us not to, but I can see why wilder tries it at times. 

 

Uche won the ball more often (though in all honesty not often enough given his physical attributes) but it almost never went anywhere after that. He's playing league 1 football or sat on another teams bench in this league next season, whereas Connolly will be championship above.