After all carricks comments about mcgree I'd be astounded if mcgree doesn't start.

4 minutes ago, diggerlad07 said:

Is that correct?

No mcgree.....?

I hope McGree starts but for some reason I don't think he will. Should start instead of Barlaser so Hackney and O'Brien can be the two in midfield with Azaz in front of them.

22 minutes ago, diggerlad07 said:

Anyone got a leak of the  line up?

Want to place a build a bet tonight 

@RichAcklam2404?

2 minutes ago, Borodane said:

I hope McGree starts but for some reason I don't think he will. Should start instead of Barlaser so Hackney and O'Brien can be the two in midfield with Azaz in front of them.

That was o briens first start in 4 or 5 months, wouldn't surprise me if he and barlaser both dropped out for mcgree and howson. Doubt he can manage 2 starts in a few days.

Not sure about Engel.

He struggled on Saturday, and I'd say in normal circumstances that it's the time to bring in Thomas, but then we know that Thomas can't play on Saturday and dropping Engel now isn't going to help a player who's already struggling in confidence when he knows that the manager is only playing him because he has to against the best team in the league, especially if we won tonight and fans started to say it was because Engel was dropped (which some absolutely would).

I suppose it depends whether you want to fully focus on the team for getting the best result for tonight, without considering the weekend.

At the same time, it would give Engel a bit of a rest and he might be hungry to win back his place.

Edited February 14, 20241 yr by TeaCider24

1 hour ago, Donnyboro said:

Kieffer Moore £40k a week with bonuses. Might as well bring Garry monk back if we was making decisions like that 

Yeah. It was an auction in the end for him. So many were in aswell he was the number one target for champ clubs looking

Lol if McGree doesn't start tonight there will be some serious questions to be asked

40 minutes ago, Denzel Zanzibar said:

Lol if McGree doesn't start tonight there will be some serious questions to be asked

Even more serious than what his favourite crisps are? 😜

45 minutes ago, TeaCider24 said:

Not sure about Engel.

He struggled on Saturday, and I'd say in normal circumstances that it's the time to bring in Thomas, but then we know that Thomas can't play on Saturday and dropping Engel now isn't going to help a player who's already struggling in confidence when he knows that the manager is only playing him because he has to against the best team in the league, especially if we won tonight and fans started to say it was because Engel was dropped (which some absolutely would).

I suppose it depends whether you want to fully focus on the team for getting the best result for tonight, without considering the weekend.

At the same time, it would give Engel a bit of a rest and he might be hungry to win back his place.

Engel was arguably one of our best players against Sunderland and to be honest, was surrounded by other rubbish performances on Saturday. I've no qualms about keeping him in from his performances.

That being said, I think the point of Thomas not being available against Leicester is something worth acknowledging. I just don't know if it's worth bringing Thomas in tonight to give Engel a rest or if consistency is the best option. I'm probably landing on the former option as Thomas could do with a proper game. Bangura was getting the odd game here and there before, too. Presumably Carrick knows more about what he's getting picking one over the other but selfishly I'd quite like to see what he's capable of.

4 minutes ago, AnglianRed said:

Even more serious than what his favourite crisps are? 😜

That must be more serious, 😁

2 hours ago, BoroSmoggie said:

Only Premier League Aston Villa have stopped Middlesbrough from scoring since Boxing Day, including the two outings against Chelsea in the EFL Cup.
(9 matches).

I have been saying all along that our defence will be what ultimately cost us. Not our attack/lack of striker.

That's ok but now tell me how many goals we've scored in all those games.  I think other than the MIllwall and Huddersfield games we haven't managed more than one goal per game.  One per game isn't enough for any decent side.  You can get promoted conceding one per game, even a bit more than that actually.  But doing it averaging scoring about a goal per game is extremely difficult.  What's costing us is not our defence, it's a home record that has us scoring 17 goals in 16 games.  We've actually only conceded 18 in those games, we aren't shipping goals for fun or anything like that.  Our home defensive record is better than Ipswich, and the same as Southampton for example.  There's only a handful of teams with a better record, and of those only Leicester, Leeds, and West Brom are substantially better.  However, only Millwall and Stoke have scored fewer at home.  We have scored the same amount as Sheff Wed, Rotherham, and QPR.  That's how bad we've been.  We're at least 10 goals short of where we should be at home for just a decent side with play off chances.  To be a serious automatic promotion contender we are 15-20 goals short at home.  The difference even the 10 goals would have made to us would have likely been an extra 4-7 wins, something like that anyway.  Even 4 more wins puts us 5th.  Our problems are largely down to not being able to score goals at home even against the poorer sides - Millwall, Huddersfield, Rotherham, QPR, Birmingham, Stoke - 3 goals in those six games, and just the one win.  One win is actually half decent from that lot when you consider that with only three goals scored, we definitely couldn't win at least three of the games.

4 hours ago, MRe said:

I was a skeptic about Scott last season I admit, but as we're not on a push this season I'd say the benefits from our dealings will really come to help us make a proper push next year. We have to remember that it looks like Luton (or Everton?), Burnley and Sheff Utd are likely coming back down. We'll have a much, much easier season to make a substantial push, everything will be up for grabs and I can't wait.

It's worth remembering that Luton, Sheff Utd, and Burnley were all better than us last season, when we had a much better side than we do now.  I'm not sure it will be as easy as people think although of course we don't know how much we are going to improve in the summer.

It McGree doesn’t start tonight I think it’s fair too assume somethings went on behind the scenes, probably something which goes back to the beginning of the season when he couldn’t get a start when we were awful. Obviously if he does start then hopefully all is well.

3 hours ago, BoroSmoggie said:

Only Premier League Aston Villa have stopped Middlesbrough from scoring since Boxing Day, including the two outings against Chelsea in the EFL Cup.
(9 matches).

I have been saying all along that our defence will be what ultimately cost us. Not our attack/lack of striker.

You defend as a team though. There’s a reason we get cut wide open on the counter. Need to work on turning attack into defence when we loose the ball, and not loosing the ball sloppily when attacking in numbers. It’s not just the back 4.

33 minutes ago, BoroSmoggie said:

It McGree doesn’t start tonight I think it’s fair too assume somethings went on behind the scenes, probably something which goes back to the beginning of the season when he couldn’t get a start when we were awful. Obviously if he does start then hopefully all is well.

I think it’s already fair to assume that happened, unless we genuinely believe Carrick thought Silvera was the better option at the start of the season.