8 minutes ago, LinoJo3 said:

I think Hackney is more likely to go than VDB purely because he’s more developed, but I’ve changed my opinion on it about 5 times this season lol. I can’t see them both leaving tho.

I think VDB will be here next season, he'll still look at it as his own development, but then he'll be too good to remain with us, be sad to see him leave but compensated withe the fee we'll receive 

7 minutes ago, Erimus74 said:

I think VDB will be here next season, he'll still look at it as his own development, but then he'll be too good to remain with us, be sad to see him leave but compensated withe the fee we'll receive 

There is one other possibility that if we could get promoted next season we might get a bit more time out of him.  If the club is making progress then he may feel he can continue here for a little while at least.  All of that supposes that he continues his own development of course.

12 minutes ago, Changing Times said:

There is one other possibility that if we could get promoted next season we might get a bit more time out of him.  If the club is making progress then he may feel he can continue here for a little while at least.  All of that supposes that he continues his own development of course.

A season with him in the prem and his price tag will pretty much double if he performs.

18 minutes ago, Changing Times said:

There is one other possibility that if we could get promoted next season we might get a bit more time out of him.  If the club is making progress then he may feel he can continue here for a little while at least.  All of that supposes that he continues his own development of course.

Hope so, he was that impressed when first meeting the clubs representatives, who laid out plans of how they see him featuring for us, that he decided there & then the Boro were the club for him, that this season has gone above his expectations & aslong as we are showing ambition & progression he'll be happy & content, hes got time on his side

11 minutes ago, LinoJo3 said:

A season with him in the prem and his price tag will pretty much double if he performs.

 

2 minutes ago, Erimus74 said:

Hope so, he was that impressed when first meeting the clubs representatives, who laid out plans of how they see him featuring for us, that he decided there & then the Boro were the club for him, that this season has gone above his expectations & aslong as we are showing ambition & progression he'll be happy & content, hes got time on his side

I don't know if we'd get more than a year out of him even at that level though if he continues to improve.  I suppose it all depends on what level he reaches though.

What a massive win that thankfully keeps our season alive. Our formation worked well yet again as we controlled the central areas incredibly well and looked comfortable sat into our incredibly effective low block. The current tactics and defensive mentality takes me back to the days of Karanka as we look a nightmare to break down. The quality of the game was obviously poor but we held our shape and had the moment of high quality in attack from McGree. It was clear that a few players standards had dropped after the tight turnaround of Wednesday, Saturday & Tuesday, with the latter two being long away days, so some of the less impressive performances like O'Brien need to be viewed in that context. The current style of play isn't attractive but it sure brings the best out of our team, especially from the likes of Ayling, Berg, McNair & Clarke. Considering our defensive performances under Carrick I can't believe that we've managed to keep back-to-back clean sheets. Hopefully we can now make the most of the break to recharge the batteries for Saturday as the starting 11 have played a lot of minutes in a short space of time.

While the current style of play and tactics isn't Carrick's first choice, I'd like to think that he's learnt a lot about the effectiveness of holding more of a solid structure behind the ball - certainly when injuries bite and the team isn't able to dominate possession as preferred. Hopefully it helps takes the edge off the bipolar nature of our form under him. At the moment we're akin to a team like Coventry City with the way we have a solid structure behind the ball but can counter-attack and grind out scrappy wins - seemingly in a consistent manner. If we can somehow scrape into the play-offs and get promoted then we'll look back at Howson's experienced reaction to Norwich's Sainz stray boot and view it as a massive sliding doors moment.

2 hours ago, p_mards said:

What a massive win that thankfully keeps our season alive. Our formation worked well yet again as we controlled the central areas incredibly well and looked comfortable sat into our incredibly effective low block. The current tactics and defensive mentality takes me back to the days of Karanka as we look a nightmare to break down. The quality of the game was obviously poor but we held our shape and had the moment of high quality in attack from McGree. It was clear that a few players standards had dropped after the tight turnaround of Wednesday, Saturday & Tuesday, with the latter two being long away days, so some of the less impressive performances like O'Brien need to be viewed in that context. The current style of play isn't attractive but it sure brings the best out of our team, especially from the likes of Ayling, Berg, McNair & Clarke. Considering our defensive performances under Carrick I can't believe that we've managed to keep back-to-back clean sheets. Hopefully we can now make the most of the break to recharge the batteries for Saturday as the starting 11 have played a lot of minutes in a short space of time.

While the current style of play and tactics isn't Carrick's first choice, I'd like to think that he's learnt a lot about the effectiveness of holding more of a solid structure behind the ball - certainly when injuries bite and the team isn't able to dominate possession as preferred. Hopefully it helps takes the edge off the bipolar nature of our form under him. At the moment we're akin to a team like Coventry City with the way we have a solid structure behind the ball but can counter-attack and grind out scrappy wins - seemingly in a consistent manner. If we can somehow scrape into the play-offs and get promoted then we'll look back at Howson's experienced reaction to Norwich's Sainz stray boot and view it as a massive sliding doors moment.

Your last paragraph is the reason I kinda liked this performance, I think Carrick will take a lot from these more ‘championship’ performances but more importantly it should give us a good platform to build off. It will be easier for the club to take that kind of system and improve it with better players and easier for Carrick to take that kind of system and tweak it to account for better players.

Even though it was a defensive system it was easy to see how it could have been more attacking with better decisions and ball control. We did put some good moves together but most of the time a player was a yard to slow, the pass was rushed or went to the wrong player. 
 

It was a frantic game and our players couldn’t quite control the ball at that pace so we ended up looking pretty ragged. With better players in certain positions we control the ball and possession a lot better. It was one of them games where we needed to knock the ball about a bit and let them chase and tire them out, but we kind of played into their hands and kept making the risky passes and often losing the ball.

Good result but hard on the eye but not putting to bed by scoring more than one goal often results in a bite on the ass!

Had Brum levelled in injury time we would have been aghast about that but really we did not look like we would score again once subs were made and that in itself is a real area needed to improve.

Anyway a win is a win so enjoy watching Cor blimey O'Rileys goal once again

https://www.skysports.com/football/video/30998/13093594/birmingham-0-1-middlesbrough-championship-highlights

40 minutes ago, Downsouth said:

Good result but hard on the eye but not putting to bed by scoring more than one goal often results in a bite on the ass!

Had Brum levelled in injury time we would have been aghast about that but really we did not look like we would score again once subs were made and that in itself is a real area needed to improve.

Anyway a win is a win so enjoy watching Cor blimey O'Rileys goal once again

https://www.skysports.com/football/video/30998/13093594/birmingham-0-1-middlesbrough-championship-highlights

The area we have to look to in the summer, IMO, a busy & interesting spending summer, with plenty of departures & incoming players 

I'm delighted with the new practical approach. It's yielding results and after all it's a results business. UTB

9 hours ago, p_mards said:

What a massive win that thankfully keeps our season alive. Our formation worked well yet again as we controlled the central areas incredibly well and looked comfortable sat into our incredibly effective low block. The current tactics and defensive mentality takes me back to the days of Karanka as we look a nightmare to break down. The quality of the game was obviously poor but we held our shape and had the moment of high quality in attack from McGree. It was clear that a few players standards had dropped after the tight turnaround of Wednesday, Saturday & Tuesday, with the latter two being long away days, so some of the less impressive performances like O'Brien need to be viewed in that context. The current style of play isn't attractive but it sure brings the best out of our team, especially from the likes of Ayling, Berg, McNair & Clarke. Considering our defensive performances under Carrick I can't believe that we've managed to keep back-to-back clean sheets. Hopefully we can now make the most of the break to recharge the batteries for Saturday as the starting 11 have played a lot of minutes in a short space of time.

While the current style of play and tactics isn't Carrick's first choice, I'd like to think that he's learnt a lot about the effectiveness of holding more of a solid structure behind the ball - certainly when injuries bite and the team isn't able to dominate possession as preferred. Hopefully it helps takes the edge off the bipolar nature of our form under him. At the moment we're akin to a team like Coventry City with the way we have a solid structure behind the ball but can counter-attack and grind out scrappy wins - seemingly in a consistent manner. If we can somehow scrape into the play-offs and get promoted then we'll look back at Howson's experienced reaction to Norwich's Sainz stray boot and view it as a massive sliding doors moment.

Couldn't agree more.

At this stage of the season, even though the play-offs are once more within reach (albeit still a long shot), I think its more important to build team cohesion and understanding of roles.

Playing 2 games a week will take it out of the players, so we can't expect brilliant football game after game. Think this was a perfect example of grinding out a result, even though we were below par. Keeps our momentum going and builds confidence & morale in the team. Play to our strengths, even if it isn't always pretty.

Does seem as though Carrick has had some sort of epiphany. Whatever, this run of results is giving us all reason to be hopeful for the rest of the season.

I would probably only play with one striker in the next game as we lacked control in possession of the ball. Both of our strikers aren't great technically and don't really seem to have any chemistry with each other / don't compliment each other. Would prefer Azaz and McGree as the two AM's and choose one striker which would also give us a chance to swap them if it's not working or one of them is tiring.

Considering the injuries we've the whole season & thecstriker situation it's amazing we're still in contention at all
IMO, Latte Lath has shown what a difference a recognised striker can make, I'm hoping, maybe, been naive, that we looked at signing a striker in January but the prices we were quoted were ridiculous & so along with the war chest available in the summer meant we'll go with who we have & go for it in the summer ready for next season

18 minutes ago, Blanco said:

I'm delighted with the new practical approach. It's yielding results and after all it's a results business. UTB

I thought you might be missing the "fannying around at the back"

6 minutes ago, Erimus74 said:

Considering the injuries we've the whole season & thecstriker situation it's amazing we're still in contention at all
IMO, Latte Lath has shown what a difference a recognised striker can make, I'm hoping, maybe, been naive, that we looked at signing a striker in January but the prices we were quoted were ridiculous & so along with the war chest available in the summer meant we'll go with who we have & go for it in the summer ready for next season

I'm sure thats exactly what happened. There wasn't much available at the right price so why waste money on a dwight gayle or someone of a similar ilk? 

Fingers crossed there's a target or 2 in mind for the summer.

Edited March 13, 20242 yr by Smogzilla