Boro V Stoke 2-0 (Doak, Hackney)

[OldManGravz 1,726 5.7k]

🦁Middlesbrough v Stoke🫖 
Riverside Stadium. Saturday 28 September. 3pm

A lack of quality in the final third and individual mistakes at the back have stopped Boro from hitting the heights we all expected so far, but the xG and xGA stats tell the story of a side creating chances at the right end and limiting chances at the other - If you trust that sort of thing. The main issue seems to be that teams are lining up with a low block which we are struggline to break down - Could a senior coaching staff of Carrick(x2), Woodgate, Leadbitter and Fettis be missing experience of either coaching or playing offensive football? We had Danks last year who had been an offensive coach in the England setup and had worked with arguably the best shooter in the history of the NBA, Steph Curry. 

Still, we're doing better than last season, where we had one point after 6 games. You can't argue with a 700% improvement, can you?

The Form:

Boro - LDWDLW - An indifferent start for Boro sees them currently sat 12th in the table, with eight points from 6 games after a very easy run of games. Matt Clarke and new signing Tommy Conway are leading the goalscoring charts with an insurmountable two goals apiece at present, but last season's top scorer Latte Lath is only a solitary strike behind. Middlesbrough's last game ended 1-0 to Sunderland, but the dirty Mackems should have been playing with 10 men for 85 minutes as Trai Hume only picked up a booking for a challenge on ELL that was reckless at best. It was Hume's fourth booking in the first six games of this campaign, and I've started a petition to have him risk-assessed by the EFL - which you can sign here....

Stoke - LLWLLW - Stoke sit two points and five places behind Boro, with two wins from their opening 6 games and no draws. Stoke have scored four goals this season, with 4 different scorers, so it's hard to determine who exactly their dangerman is, but winger Million Manhoef did put the ball in the onion bag twice when they beat us 5-0 in the cup - The less said about that ***-show the better though! Stoke also have Sam Gallagher fully fit for the first time since they signed him from Blackburn.
Stoke's most recent result was under the Friday Night lights, as they succumbed to a 3-1 defeat against Hull, who were picking up their first win of the season. Stoke keeper Johansson, who they signed from Rotherham, seemed to be in a bit of discomfort during the match but I can't find anything about it now so I doubt he's injured, which is a shame for us.

The Line Ups:

Nobody is expecting us to drop any major formation changes for this game, I think we can all agree, so it's just a case of guessing who plays from the start this week. Ben Doak has looked impressive in both of his cameos so far but has he done enough to dislodge Izzy? Can Conway and ELL play together? Who would you start on the left, and will they help track back with Borges??

And of course, the greatest mystery of all - Exactly which of our players are fit this week?

Personally, I think he may go unchanged this week - we need to start settling soon and we're not gonna build up cohesion if we keep chopping and changing. 

Dieng
Ayling - Edmundson - Clarke - Borges
Hackney - Morris
Jones - Conway - Azaz
Latte Lath

The View From The Otherside:

You can find the Stoke fans talking about the game here. They're not a very confident bunch!

[BoroAbroad 333 1.7k]

Stoke will park the bus. Boro will dominate and have 75% possession and produce 5 shots at goal. 2 on target. Game will finish 0-0. 

[Erimus74 3,700 3.8k]

1 hour ago, BoroAbroad said:

Stoke will park the bus. Boro will dominate and have 75% possession and produce 5 shots at goal. 2 on target. Game will finish 0-0. 

And it'll be pouring down

Very good write up

I know Carrick has been quoted that he wont change his system of play & I can agree with that, but somehow something has to change, some aspect of our play, players etc or we could be chasing the game in the 70th minute constantly slowly playing the ball between the backs to midfield wasting more time than Stoke probably will, then like for like subs

We've had a few home wins in my time against Stoke but most of our fixtures seem to be ugly, scrappy affairs & I expect this to be similar

We've not beaten them at Riverside under Carrick so lets improve on that & a bit of payback for the league cup thrashing in August 

Sorry about my first post negative being but thats just what I expect in this fixture

Finish on a positive - Chuba was the last player to score at home against Stoke, recording our 1,000 goal in all competitions at the Riverside

 

Edited September 26 by Erimus74

[Downsouth 6,874 36.4k]

Well we know what Stoke can do against us as recently witnessed and the fans and the club will want to see a much improved Boro performance.

They seem to have the edge on us of late and like mentioned considering all things maybe a goal less draw will be the outcome.

However we should demand and expect a much improved Boro because our next two away games will not be easy.

Difficult to call maybe we should simply expect much of the same as of late 

[BoroNBred 38 82]

Burra 4-1, we’ll smash em….we have to

[TLF10 4,969 6.6k]

Dieng

Ayling, VDB/Ed, Clarke, Borges

Morris Hackney

Doak Conway McGree

LL

 

[Neverbefore 12,504 26.8k]

-------------------dieng---------------------

Ayling--edmundson--clarke--borges

------------barlaser--morris---------------

Doak------------azaz----------------jones

--------------------conway--------------------

Mcgree in for Jones if fit. I don't even think ELL has been that bad, but I think he could do with a week or two out coming on at 70mins fresh. Hackney produced a proper droppable performance at the weekend but I wouldn't be too devastated with him given another chance to redeem himself. 

[Neverbefore 12,504 26.8k]

Just now, Neverbefore said:

-------------------dieng---------------------

Ayling--edmundson--clarke--borges

------------barlaser--morris---------------

Doak------------azaz----------------jones

--------------------conway--------------------

Mcgree in for Jones if fit. I don't even think ELL has been that bad, but I think he could do with a week or two out coming on at 70mins fresh. Hackney produced a proper droppable performance at the weekend but I wouldn't be too devastated with him given another chance to redeem himself. 

And also mcgree instead of Jones if he's fit

[Rob 5,371 8.3k]

4-0 to the boro

[Erimus74 3,700 3.8k]

2 minutes ago, Neverbefore said:

-------------------dieng---------------------

Ayling--edmundson--clarke--borges

------------barlaser--morris---------------

Doak------------azaz----------------jones

--------------------conway--------------------

Mcgree in for Jones if fit. I don't even think ELL has been that bad, but I think he could do with a week or two out coming on at 70mins fresh. Hackney produced a proper droppable performance at the weekend but I wouldn't be too devastated with him given another chance to redeem himself. 

I actually like Barlasar, mentioned on here a few times, he's probably the best passer of the ball at the club & for me, Hackneys done nothing of late to warrant keeping his place

[Erimus74 3,700 3.8k]

1 minute ago, Rob said:

4-0 to the boro

KTF Rob, 👌

[Micksyd 139 255]

The new Aussie manager in his first interview said one of the things he noticed was that the ball movement in the recent qualifiers wasn't fast enough, feels like the same applies to Boro, too much indecision.

Fingers crossed also that McGree is fit enough to come on at some point. Think he really makes a difference when he's on the park.

Hopefully the real Boro are ready to step up and be counted this weekend.

[Blanco 5,166 6.9k]

1 hour ago, Downsouth said:

Well we know what Stoke can do against us as recently witnessed and the fans and the club will want to see a much improved Boro performance.

They seem to have the edge on us of late and like mentioned considering all things maybe a goal less draw will be the outcome.

However we should demand and expect a much improved Boro because our next two away games will not be easy.

Difficult to call maybe we should simply expect much of the same as of late 

A goal less is not a draw Alan. It's a loss 🙂 🙂 🙂 

[edinboro 1,030 1.7k]

I cannot think of a worse game for us at the moment. A Burnley or Leeds would be best. 

I want to be excited by what Carrick has to say today and I want the players to play like it really matters on Saturday.

I've had a bad week - daughter broke her and ankle and folk getting made redundant at work - I need Boro to cheer me up. Pretty please lads.

[Bruce 2,022 1.7k]

Feels way too early in the season to be stressing much but if we're a serious about a real attempt at promotion this season, this really is a match we must win. Not just for the points because no matter how good you are, you will fail to win some home games against poor opposition but also because of the signal it sends. We've had a mediocre start so far. It hasn't been a disaster and we are still struggling with a ludicrous number of injuries but given the amount spent on the team over the summer, we've misfired so far. You can't argue that we have had to bed in a lot of new players because our 1st 11 has been mostly the same as the 1st 11 from the end of last season: just Morris for Howson with Hackney returning from injury. More recently Conway has come in.

There's also the Stoke factor. Yet another new manager and managing to concede 3 goals to Hull who, prior to that, were the only team to have scored fewer goals in open play than us. Not winning at the weekend will turn the low-level grumbling into something significantly louder. 

I'm sure everyone's expecting no changes in tactics from Carrick and probably no personnel changes except for maybe McGree returning. 

That means, right now, every manager has seen the template for how to beat us. Give us the ball, block up the middle and wait for us to make a mistake. If Stoke's new manager takes the pragmatic approach and copies that template then the match takes on extra importance. If Stoke win by beating us the same way every other team has recently and we show no sign of being able to solve that puzzle, there'll be the first real, loud complaints about Carrick. On the other hand, if Stoke play that way but we win and it looks like we have found a solution (bar a last minute penalty or a lucky sending off) then all will be well, until the next game at home versus a poor team.

I suspect the new Stoke manager may have a bit of an ego and want to show that he can set them up to attack us to "make a statement". So I am going to predict an old-fashioned 3-1 to us.

Pretty sure Carrick will stick with his usuals on the basis that he reckons support from him will turn things around. So I expect.

Dieng

Ayling - Edmundson - Clarke - Borges

Hackney - Morris

Jones - Conway - Azaz/McGree

Latte Lath