Boro v Swansea City 2-0 (Latte Lath (2) )

[LincsBORO88 219 165]

9 minutes ago, Neverbefore said:

As expected, the ref is getting pelters on twitter again. People are so transparent. 

Genuinely thought it was one of the best refereeing performances in our games of the season, aside the obvious corner that was the linesmans fault

[pikerman 1,539 2.5k]

14 minutes ago, Neverbefore said:

As expected, the ref is getting pelters on twitter again. People are so transparent. 

I don’t understand, I thought she had a great game and never put a foot wrong

[OldManGravz 2,460 6.4k]

Ref was alright, thought she gave some weird calls to them but I'm sure the Swansea fans will feel the same, it's just a bit of bias due to the team I support haha.

Linesman on the East stand side was *** atrocious though

[Skinemrippers 1,168 1.2k]

We’ve had some shocking strikers over the years but I’m so excited by Latte Lath. Imagine how good he could be next year? We are seeing the foundations of a very good team imo. I’m quietly confident about next season if we use the Rogers/Crooks money wisely and keep a hold of our best players. I really can’t see us selling a load and starting from scratch again. 
 

And I’m even a fan of keeping Luke Ayling despite wanting to never see him in a boro shirt again after Stoke. 

[Skinemrippers 1,168 1.2k]

46 minutes ago, Neverbefore said:

As expected, the ref is getting pelters on twitter again. People are so transparent. 

Chap next to me was whinging about her before we even kicked off 🙄

[diggerlad07 4,325 2.8k]

1 hour ago, MarkT73 said:

Funny how we all see different things... I thought Thomas had a stinker again  (apart from one brilliant pull down).

So pleased for Latte Lath tho. Never hides and plays with a smile. Defo going to be a big player for us next year. 

I agree completely on Thomas. I was really excited when we loaned up but he's extremely poor.

Engel is getting managed through an injury apparently until of season where he will then have operation but he will play v Hull

[LinoJo3 5,821 13.6k]

26 minutes ago, diggerlad07 said:

I agree completely on Thomas. I was really excited when we loaned up but he's extremely poor.

Engel is getting managed through an injury apparently until of season where he will then have operation but he will play v Hull

Bangura still not fit?

[Snowblind 2,392 7.2k]

I'm going to say that, if ELL was fit all season, and we were able to keep Rogers for the season, we'd have been well in contention for the Top 6. 

I know it's very much a case of "if my aunty had wheels she'd be a bike" (SFW version), but still. 

Very, very excited to see Latte-Lath next term with a acclimatising season behind him and another year of experience.

Also - Ayling. Sign him. Bring in a young RB to learn from him. Get rid of Dijksteel and Smith. Sorted for many years to come. 

[LinoJo3 5,821 13.6k]

22 minutes ago, Snowblind said:

I'm going to say that, if ELL was fit all season, and we were able to keep Rogers for the season, we'd have been well in contention for the Top 6. 

I know it's very much a case of "if my aunty had wheels she'd be a bike" (SFW version), but still. 

Very, very excited to see Latte-Lath next term with a acclimatising season behind him and another year of experience.

Also - Ayling. Sign him. Bring in a young RB to learn from him. Get rid of Dijksteel and Smith. Sorted for many years to come. 

Agree id love to see us bring in a new rb in the same mould as our more recent signings, think someone mentioned on here we were looking at Kessler Hayden, that type of signing.

I think we could keep Smith and sign Ayling since Ayling can do the RCB role also, would cover McNair as he’s probably gonna leave.

[Snowblind 2,392 7.2k]

47 minutes ago, LinoJo3 said:

Agree id love to see us bring in a new rb in the same mould as our more recent signings, think someone mentioned on here we were looking at Kessler Hayden, that type of signing.

I think we could keep Smith and sign Ayling since Ayling can do the RCB role also, would cover McNair as he’s probably gonna leave.

Good call on Ayling as the McNair replacement.

 

And aye, I mention Kesler-Hayden. He'd be a top signing - can also play either side of the defence. Reuell Walters in the Arsenal U23s would be a great acquisition too, but I'm doubtful they'd let him leave permanently at this point. He's far too highly thought of there I think. 

[Changing Times 16,077 23.1k]

1 hour ago, Snowblind said:

I'm going to say that, if ELL was fit all season, and we were able to keep Rogers for the season, we'd have been well in contention for the Top 6. 

I know it's very much a case of "if my aunty had wheels she'd be a bike" (SFW version), but still. 

Very, very excited to see Latte-Lath next term with a acclimatising season behind him and another year of experience.

Also - Ayling. Sign him. Bring in a young RB to learn from him. Get rid of Dijksteel and Smith. Sorted for many years to come. 

If ELL was good all season, and if Rogers was good all season, then we'd have been in contention for the top 6 is probably a more accurate statement.  However, neither was the case so we weren't.  Latte Lath is in a good run of form but he's gone from missing sitters to putting everything in the back of the net, and I'm not sure if either is likely to be an accurate picture of the lad.  I think part of what's happening with him, and with us actually, is a reversion/regression to the mean.  We've gone from conceding more goals than we 'should' have been, to hardly conceding at all, even in a game like Southampton where we should have conceded more, and getting that 'luck' of a man being sent off against us for Norwich when they were completely dominating the game.  Similarly, we've gone from not scoring as many as we 'should' have been, to scoring with relative ease - last week getting an own goal, and a deflected shot by way of an example, or even the first goal today with Latte Lath scoring from a rubbish spilled cross which he then hit with his left foot through a crowd when he couldn't finish a one v one on his left peg earlier in the season.  We're not playing well at the moment but we're getting results.  We'll know when we're properly back on track when we are doing both.  As for Ayling, he's having a purple patch clearly but again I'm not sure if that's any more than that.  He's obviously played better as we've played better, which can be said for several players at the moment, but whether that's something that you can rely on for 40 odd games a season I don't know.  I reckon we'll end up signing him though.

[OldManGravz 2,460 6.4k]

25 minutes ago, Changing Times said:

If ELL was good all season, and if Rogers was good all season, then we'd have been in contention for the top 6 is probably a more accurate statement.  However, neither was the case so we weren't.  Latte Lath is in a good run of form but he's gone from missing sitters to putting everything in the back of the net, and I'm not sure if either is likely to be an accurate picture of the lad.  I think part of what's happening with him, and with us actually, is a reversion/regression to the mean.  We've gone from conceding more goals than we 'should' have been, to hardly conceding at all, even in a game like Southampton where we should have conceded more, and getting that 'luck' of a man being sent off against us for Norwich when they were completely dominating the game.  Similarly, we've gone from not scoring as many as we 'should' have been, to scoring with relative ease - last week getting an own goal, and a deflected shot by way of an example, or even the first goal today with Latte Lath scoring from a rubbish spilled cross which he then hit with his left foot through a crowd when he couldn't finish a one v one on his left peg earlier in the season.  We're not playing well at the moment but we're getting results.  We'll know when we're properly back on track when we are doing both.  As for Ayling, he's having a purple patch clearly but again I'm not sure if that's any more than that.  He's obviously played better as we've played better, which can be said for several players at the moment, but whether that's something that you can rely on for 40 odd games a season I don't know.  I reckon we'll end up signing him though.

Isnt that just the old adage of luck evening out over the course of the season though? Weve been extremely unlucky in some games weve dominated and weve had that slice of luck back recently. You cant just say "all the recent results are down to a slice of good luck" without acknowledging theres points we dropped where it was a case of bad luck.

Also, it's a bit ingenious to say we would be in contention for the top 6 if xyz happened. As it happens, we are in contention for the top 6 this season, albeit marginally, despite our issues.

[JCWamma 538 306]

Worth saying that in terms of where we "should" be, we're 6th in the xPts table. Our xG is higher than the number of goals we've scored, and our xGA is lower than the number of goals we've conceded. Even after this run of 7 games.

On Latte Lath specifically, he was already outscoring his xG prior to this game. I don't know exactly what his xG was for this game, but given our team's entire cumulative xG was 1.35, I'm going to guess that with his two goals he outscored it again. Latte Lath underperforming is not the reason why we're not in the playoffs right now, unless you blame him personally for getting injured.

[BallymenaBoroBoy 3 3]

7 hours ago, Smogzilla said:

Absolute dog's anus of a game. 

 

But a win is a win.

Beautifully put Smogzilla and couldn’t agree more 🙂 

Woeful in first 10 minutes - maybe flat after the Norwich Ipswich result 

[Dynamo Kev 1,819 6.4k]

3 hours ago, Skinemrippers said:

We’ve had some shocking strikers over the years but I’m so excited by Latte Lath. Imagine how good he could be next year? We are seeing the foundations of a very good team imo. I’m quietly confident about next season if we use the Rogers/Crooks money wisely and keep a hold of our best players. I really can’t see us selling a load and starting from scratch again. 
 

And I’m even a fan of keeping Luke Ayling despite wanting to never see him in a boro shirt again after Stoke. 

yes after being really bad for us, hes picked up, not really being exposed for pace like he was or making the individual errors anymore. really pleased for luke as he seems like a nice guy to.