1 hour ago, GrimsbyBoro said:

I keep wondering to myself “how bad is Hoppe?” We will play absolutely anybody upfront instead of him.

I was wondering myself.

Was he one of those "mistaken buys" who aren't as good as expected, does he not fit Carrick's system, or is it something else? 

I mean, the few brief appearances he's had, he's not looked anything special, but we've given other players time to come good...

Hoppe was a cheap punt and clearly hasn’t worked out, think we just need to get over it tbh.

I think a draw would disappoint both sets of fans but a defeat would be unthinkable for both sets of fans, it would leave Stoke in the clart and it would drag us down far too close for comfort to it with all the associated doubts and questions being raised. I think Carrick knows he has to produce a result more than he has to play the beautiful way, similarly to for Schumacher who likes good football. 

3 minutes ago, LinoJo3 said:

think we just need to get over it

In a kind of Hoppe, Skip and a Jump way?

Abandon Hoppe, all ye who enter here .....

I know nothing about Stoke- on- Trent but, to its great credit, it's the place where I learnt how to use chopsticks.  The waiters saw me struggling, and were kind enough to wait until I was the only customer in the place before treating me to five minutes' chopsticks basic training.  Eternal gratitude.

2-0 Boro. Forss and McGree. 

I'm not going to bother guessing where Carrick puts any of the front four, I'm sick of being wrong about it

Schumacher sacked if we beat them, apparently.

Edited March 1, 20242 yr by TeaCider24

4-0 to the stoke 

1 hour ago, TeaCider24 said:

Schumacher sacked if we beat them, apparently.

he must of been happy then seeing DZ take charge of the match day thread

8 hours ago, Fab4TT said:

I don't know whether the stats have changed under Carrick's tenure previous seasons our wins come with less possession than our opponent. I.e a counter attacking style. We don't win 'generally' with the ball. 

That's not actually true although it depends on how you look at it.  Last season under Carrick we averaged about 60% possession I believe, and we clearly didn't struggle.  Looking at each game individually, there were 6 games where we had less possession than the opposition, we won 2, drew 1, and lost 3 of them.  That included the two games against Burnley.  You'd be hard pushed to say that were either a counter attacking team last season or especially good when we had to be.  This season there is a difference however.  Firstly we only average 53.5% possession so overall we tend to have less of the ball this season.  But when we have had less possession than the opposition this season, we have won 7 and lost 4 so there is also a difference in that sense.  When you look at the opposition it's a bit of a mixed bag.  We beat Leicester twice that way of course, and we also beat West Brom at home with less of the ball but then we also lost to Coventry at home, and Blackburn away like that.  We did beat Southampton by just shading possession against them, which is interesting because they have the highest possession stat in the Championship so we were able to have more of it against them, and play well enough to win.  Personally I'd put the Southampton performance as our best of the season.  Our only big win of the season, the 4-0 win against Preston, we had about 58% of the ball.  I don't think we're a better counter attacking team as such, I think we're just not good enough to play the way Carrick wants us to with the players we have available to us or have had available to us.  Possession is a funny one though because I sometimes think the overall figure for a match might be misleading.  I'm trying to look at what possession stats are before goals are scored to see what that looks like.

5 hours ago, LinoJo3 said:

Hoppe was a cheap punt and clearly hasn’t worked out, think we just need to get over it tbh.

£2.5m was reported so not peanuts.

 

5 minutes ago, GrimsbyBoro said:

£2.5m was reported so not peanuts.

 

Yes but is it £2.5m in the same way we got ‘£16m’ for rogers?

We probably actually paid peanuts for him and none of whatever the addons were will ever get met.

7 minutes ago, LinoJo3 said:

Yes but is it £2.5m in the same way we got ‘£16m’ for rogers?

We probably actually paid peanuts for him and none of whatever the addons were will ever get met.

It’s conjecture it Possibly could be that or it could be £2m upfront with the other .5 to be added on. 

I am not sure as a selling club I would be accepting a really low upfront figure. Looking at his playing history, goalscoring record and Boro’s history I would want more up front than on some unlikely promise.

13 hours ago, TeaCider24 said:

Schumacher sacked if we beat them, apparently.

The rumour is it's Pulis to replace him. Now, that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemies.