Boro vs West Brom 1-1 (Jones)

[Changing Times 12,344]

Just on Giles again, not to pick on him (honestly) but this was the good chance that they had with Wallace (I think?).

Blue arrow is Giles, red arrow is Howson, yellow arrow is Wallace.  Howson switches off all the time as I've put on here so in this case it's a bit of a bugger that Wallace is in between those two because neither goes with him as you can see in the second picture.  And we are talking about one of the oppositions most dangerous players, which makes it even worse arguably.

 

[Brunners 7,982]

20 minutes ago, Changing Times said:

I bet you didn't even read it, Brunners.

Read every word!

[Changing Times 12,344]

12 minutes ago, Crackers said:

Are you Andy Gray or Richard Keyes? 

I'm Anthony Vickers.

[Changing Times 12,344]

8 minutes ago, Brunners said:

Read every word!

You can't even read that many words 🙄

[JonnyMFC 1,535]

Just watched back the highlights and for me both goals came from mistakes by defenders.  For ours it was their RB, Furlong I think? he brought the ball out and lost it which left him well out of position and he never got back, nor did he really try. Dont get me wrong it was a really good goal from us and in typical Boro fashion we failed to put a team away when we were on top.
For their goal Lenihan stepped up from the halfway line to tackle the WBA player and miles too late rather than dropping off and defending, this left us 3 v 4 and with the quality they have you have to expect the worse, shame really because it tainted a great performance bar that. 
Akpom didnt play to bad tbh and as a link up player he might shine, but I really dont think hes the answer to our goal scoring woes. Forss is keen as mustard and got stuck in and showed that hes not scared of having a crack at goal which is refreshing.  
McGree, i thought actually did ok, no hes not Tav, but i think he was asked to play that role in his absence and didnt do a bad job when you consider hes been playing a more advanced role during pre season., expect more from him once we strengthen in the middle.
Steffen, well let me start by saying hes a vast improvement on what we had, if Lumley had tried to save that shot from Wallace he would have knocked it onto the underside of the bar, the ball would have bounced down and hit Lumley in the head and gone in.  He needs to work on his long range distribution a bit as a few kicks out from him were short of the mark, I noticed this a little in the OM game too, hopefully he will improve and he gets comfortable with playing every week.
Bola just isnt cut out for for the LCB role and Bruce identified that at half time and he got found out in the second half.
Giles, OMG Giles! going forward he is different gravy and once we get someone who has a knack of being in the right place he going get a fair few assists.

Overall I think we showed a lot of promise with a threadbare team and despite the fact that we only got a draw, it was a cracking game against a good team 1-1 isnt a bad start even though  I came away thinking we should have had 3 points.

[Borodane 6,301]

Just finished watching the game. But disappointed to get a draw but fair in the end. Terrible miss by Watmore and offside again. Shows he should just be 4th choice at best. McGree isn’t a Tav replacement as it’s a massive drop in quality. We need a direct replacement for Tav. Up front we know we need at least two better players. 
Also a bit incredible just how little Forss did after coming on. Did he touch the ball more than than wild shot😁

And Fry needs to be the central defender when fit. But plenty to build on. Get those reinforcements now. 

[Foxtrot Oscar Colin 607]

4 hours ago, BoroDave4 said:

Sounds like I'm in the minority here, but second half I thought Lenihan looked suspect. Caught high a couple of times, and he's not the fastest across the ground. He didn't fill me with the same level of confidence that Fry does

I was working so could only see the highlights tonight so I can't really comment on his overall performance but what on earth was he doing for the goal? A poor header really straight to a man on the half way... wouldn't have been that much of an issue if he drops back in and we can hold our shape but he went charging out to a close a man down in their own half and then they just knocked the ball through and we were wide open really. Howson shouldn't be having to cover the CCB there and obviously swift then had acres of space in the box because we were left 4 on 3 because he was nowhere near recovering in time.

I made the point in earlier conversations on here about his aggression not necessarily being a good thing at times in our formation and that sums it up in a nutshell for me it was a very poor decision. 

Also we looked defensively vulnerable on the left pretty much all their chances came down that side which with the loss of Tav I was thinking would be the case but hoping it wouldnt be quite as glaring for even Bruce managing to see it.

On a positive note from what I seen of the first half some of the football looked good and obviously there should be new additions soon to sort some of the issues. Steffen looked excellent. Giles and Jones looked a real handful. Good assist from Akpom and hopefully that gives him confidence going forward.

Edited July 31, 2022 by Foxtrot Oscar Colin

[boroie 484]

3 hours ago, Changing Times said:

I thought Lenihan looked decent in the first half, but maybe less so in the second half, and I didn't realise quite how slow he is.  If you want someone to attack a ball played forward then he's your man but if teams start sliding passes into the channels then that could be a bit of an issue for us as he just doesn't have the pace.  

Thats why he is fine for the central def slot but wouldnt be suitable for the LCB or RCB slots, too slow. Thought he did well enough mind but in the 2nd half after they scored the entire team seemed to loose their composure. Its at that point you want your leaders to step up and take charge and that didnt happen. 

[boroie 484]

On 7/29/2022 at 7:17 PM, boroie said:

3-1 boro. Lenihan, McGree, Coburn. I'm guessing 18th minute, header from a corner! 

 

14 hours ago, boroie said:

If you cant be ridiculously optimistic on the first game, then when can you be?

Typical boro

[kentucky 341]

It was a penalty on Mcgree , the guy played the leg , Mgree should have just went down instead of kind of diving

[Foxtrot Oscar Colin 607]

2 hours ago, kentucky said:

It was a penalty on Mcgree , the guy played the leg , Mgree should have just went down instead of kind of diving

Mcgree kicked the defenders leg if anything for me. It was good defending really but yeh going down like that just made it look like he was looking for it anyway.

[Downsouth 6,326]

https://www.skysports.com/watch/video/12662450/middlesbrough-1-1-west-brom-championship-highlights

 

For your enjoyment

[Denzel Zanzibar 6,972]

11 minutes ago, Downsouth said:

https://www.skysports.com/watch/video/12662450/middlesbrough-1-1-west-brom-championship-highlights

 

For your enjoyment

Whatever you do don't go on twitter...endless comments by morons moaning about a woman doing her job commentating on a men's football match.

I mean, how very dare she 

[Downsouth 6,326]

7 minutes ago, Denzel Zanzibar said:

Whatever you do don't go on twitter...endless comments by morons moaning about a woman doing her job commentating on a men's football match.

I mean, how very dare she 

Were we a first in terms of a Championship match being commentated by a non male commentator?

[KeithLambsFaxMachine 727]

10 hours ago, Changing Times said:

Even with our goal, if you look he is actually walking back after we've lost the ball, and it's only a really bad touch from a Norwich player that sends the ball to Howson, and gets us back on the attack.  Opposition players won't always do that

I would imagine if we’re hoping for a bad touch from a player from a team we aren’t playing to get us out of trouble, we’re not getting it often.