If that team and formation is right will this be the first time we are seeing Rodgers start out wide?

Also is Coulson injured? He didn’t perform badly at the start of the season certainly far better than Engel has performed since.

Really not a good sign that the team is being leaked hours before kick-off again.

7 minutes ago, Denzel Zanzibar said:

Really not a good sign that the team is being leaked hours before kick-off again.

Worrying signs really...

9 minutes ago, Denzel Zanzibar said:

Really not a good sign that the team is being leaked hours before kick-off again.

Yeah, cut it out, Diggerlad. 👊

Edited September 23, 20232 yr by TeaCider24

Bad defeat and do we reckon it's over for Carrick?

I feel the writings on the wall with that line up. I'm gutted as I really thought we had a gem with Carrick but he's lost the plot if that's the team.

 

5 minutes ago, SouthernSmoggie said:

Bad defeat and do we reckon it's over for Carrick?

Nah, be a bit more positive. I reckon we'll get a good defeat today!

19 minutes ago, TeaCider24 said:

Yeah, cut it out, Diggerlad. 👊

Sorry 🤣

I was posting to help out the accumulator lads on here like myself who stupidly backed the Boro!

2 minutes ago, diggerlad07 said:

Sorry 🤣

I was posting to help out the accumulator lads on here like myself who stupidly backed the Boro!

Never back the Boro on a coupon it's criminal, Southampton 2/1 on the other hand 👍

55 minutes ago, SouthernSmoggie said:

Swap Crooks for McGree and I don't hate that line up. He's taken out the worst performers in Silvera and Engel - and he can see Lath missing big chances was absolutely killing us so I get trying Coburn. He's starting Jones who was the brightest spark last game.

I don't think he's given up. That lineup is more indicative of a manager who knows we're crap and is desperately hoping changing personel will fix it. He thinks the system is fine and the players aren't delivering, and is obviously willing to die on that hill.

Compare it to Wilder's final team... Which was basically a f*ck you to the board and fans.

I agree, I don't think it's a FU from Carrick. To be honest, I think a manager trying to get himself sacked with a team selection happens more in fiction than fact. Even Wilder's last team was I think him just losing faith in the defence and trying to tighten up. Smith had been playing wing-back for Stoke but it turned out that he had lost what little pace he had.

Today, the team selection makes sense from one angle. We have 3 left backs and 2 right backs and they appear all to be injured (or have completely lost form.) He is used to playing with an attacker as a left back anyway (with Giles) so O'Brien at left back makes a kind of sense if you look at it with your eyes mostly closed. He tried it with McGree so it's been on his radar.

Every manager has their comfort blanket player and for Carrick, that's Howson. Crooks is another one. He didn't start much last year but he was always the player Carrick called on to fix a problem.

Fry struggles with injuries and playing two many games in short succession so this is likely to be fitness related as much as anything. 

McNair's the last senior player left standing to play at right back.

Rogers at left wing is, according to his record, his best position. There's clearly an issue with McGree. Jones has earned a start as has Coburn. Got to assume Forss is injured. 

Each decision on its own makes sense but when you put them together it looks a mess. Crooks is simply not a #10. O'Brien is potentially our best midfielder playing at left-back. Huge pressure on Coburn. Howson has been off-form all season. The whole unit has almost no pace and very little creativity.  So we're bound to win 3-0.

 

Feel sorry for Coburn, he's going to be feeding on scraps again today.

Edited September 23, 20232 yr by Denzel Zanzibar

2 minutes ago, Denzel Zanzibar said:

Feel sorry for Coburn, he's going to be feeding on scraps again today.

Yea the obvious thing against a team that has a billion percent possession but gets countered on and concedes for fun like Southampton is pace, but somehow Lath is left out while Crooks starts again.  

25 minutes ago, Dan1234 said:

Yea the obvious thing against a team that has a billion percent possession but gets countered on and concedes for fun like Southampton is pace, but somehow Lath is left out while Crooks starts again.  

One positive is he links up well with Jones. But I agree it does seem daft to go without Lath today. 

Rogers and Jones might be enough... but they'll be easy to mark without attacking fullbacks or any pace through the middle.

Alan Nixon has a story on us tomorrow 👀

If that team is true reminds me of the Wilder selection against Cov!

 

Writing is on the wall it feels like.

 

some strange reason we’re actually favourites to win this with Skybet