10 minutes ago, Bruce said:

Up front we have had several chances missed by Lath and Silvera which can be explained by the time it takes to adjust to the Championship. You might expect this to improve with experience.

The inability to hit a Cow's backside with a Banjo should not be relative to the pace of the Championship. A first touch chip over the Keeper instead of taking two touches would have seen ELL score on Saturday, that's just rank poor finishing. Regards Silvera hitting the ball ten yards wide or over the crossbar is again poor ability and technique indicating that neither are good enough at this level just now. With both it's just basic ball control and decision making being kind.

We bought cheap and then the Club are seemingly surprised that they are way short of where we need them to be. Like the others, they may come good but there needs to be one of them being bedded in, much the same way that Hackney was, not an entire team of them otherwise what you see is what you get.

I would guess that take any four or five of us lot on here and ask us to hit a ball at a goal mouth from ten yards or twenty yards out and we'd hit the target far more times than those two combined. Buying Professional Footballers who you then have to explain how to strike a ball cleanly with various parts of your boot and with how much energy beggars belief at this level. That we seemingly seem incapable of doing that is an even bigger head scratcher, there again not as bad as playing O'Brien wide left.

36 minutes ago, Redcar Rioja said:

I would guess that take any four or five of us lot on here and ask us to hit a ball at a goal mouth from ten yards or twenty yards out and we'd hit the target far more times than those two combined.

Eh - I think that would depend on whether we had a 6-foot plus keeper bearing down on us or defenders trying to block / tackle us. 😁

Without those I'd fancy myself to at least get the ball on target. Otherwise...

 

Mind you I do take your point that these are supposedly professional footballers we are talking about, who will have been through an academy system of sorts and while young and works in progress to an extent, should be capable of doing the basics at least.

We're not expecting them to be brilliant...just competent.

 

Anyhoo...if I were allowed to pick the team for tomorrow, I'd got for something like this, just for the sake of trying something different. No Crooks, Howson or McNair and leaving out a potentially disgruntled McGree too (maybe put him on the bench). Just trying to put round pegs in round holes basically (weird I know).

Edited September 18, 20232 yr by AnglianRed

Maybe Carrick should pin this on the Boro dressing room wall, with a note "come and hit me hard big boys"?

I don't know why or where this comes from, but I have a sneaky suspicion we will smash them

5 minutes ago, BoroDave4 said:

I don't know why or where this comes from, but I have a sneaky suspicion we will smash them

It's the Mushrooms from the Stroganoff you had for lunch!

6 minutes ago, BoroDave4 said:

I don't know why or where this comes from, but I have a sneaky suspicion we will smash them

Good man Dave 🙂 

We all know that when teams are in a bad run and desperate to finally get some points on the board the best team that they can play is Middlesbrough, we have allowed that to happen more times than I can remember.

I see another woeful night for all of us who will watch the game.

As a secondary note I easily managed to get Watford tickets today out of an allocation of 2100 tickets nearly 850 seats are still available dwindling interest from the normal fabulous away crowd following the Boro 

Thought about it, id go with this (old fashioned 4,4,2 to make it simple the roles) and switching to Jones after 60 mins on right for impact sub. This way we got both options upfront height and strength plus speed ability to go in behind plus Barlaser on to feed in them passes/find runners.

                 Dieng

VDB   Fry     Lenihan   Bangura

Forrs     Barlaser  Hackney mc gree

                  Latte Lath   Coburn

 

If we are winning second half but tight game go to 5,4,1 put coulson on left back for one of the strikers and put Jones on for the breaks at rw literally pick them off when they lose the ball.

Edited September 18, 20232 yr by thomas

McGree should start, for me. Crooks wasn't bad on Saturday and I really don't think it's that bad to have him playing when he does but McGree is a better player.

I don't think that every performance has been bad but I wouldn't say I've seen a convincing performance from us yet either. I wouldn't argue any of the results should have gone the other way, even though the second half at the weekend could have been a significantly more positive result by the end of it from the pressure we put on them.

After watching carricks interview I think it will be the usual 4-2-3-1 . Said he believes in his style of play and wouldn’t be the coach if went down a different route

The worrying thing for me is we’re going to see more of O’Brien in the attacking areas after carricks comments saying he’s an attacking midfielder. He’s definitely not an attacking midfielder he’s box to box 

             Dieng 

Rvb paddy leninhan bangura/

      O’Brien  Hackney 

forss    Rogers    Mcgree 

             Coburn 

is my team if bangura is fit

carricks 11 

         Dieng 

Rvb  Fry leninhan  bangura 

    Howson Hackney 

Silvera crooks O’Brien 

            Latte lath 
 

I think it’s gonna be the same as Saturday unfortunately.

47 minutes ago, wilsoncgp said:

even though the second half at the weekend could have been a significantly more positive result by the end of it from the pressure we put on them.

To be honest mate I thought it was like watching a schoolkids match, there was very little about it that impressed me at all regardless of the chances.  The game became completely stretched if anything as opposed to us putting relentless pressure on them.  They could easily have scored a couple themselves in that period as a direct result of how silly the game got.  That feels miles away from what we saw last season, which was obviously quite attacking, but also quite methodical in it's approach.  Saturday felt chaotic by comparison.

3 minutes ago, LinoJo3 said:

I think it’s gonna be the same as Saturday unfortunately.

I can't see it.  We haven't played the same line up yet so why would we start now?