West Bromwich Albion v Boro 0-1 (Hackney)

[OldManGravz 1,726 5.7k]

🛍️West Bromwich Albion v Middlesbrough 🦁

The Hawthorns. Tuesday 1st October. 8pm

Sorry this is a bit late, hard to gauge exactly when to stop the discussion around the win and start the discussion about the next game with such a quick turnaround. I'll format it better when I'm on my laptop too.

We travel to the West Midlands tomorrow to face the current league leaders, West Brom. Please be aware there'll be a minutes silence before the game as one of their fans was taken ill during the first half of the Sheff Wed game and later died in hospital.

The Form:

Boro -  WLDWDL - Isn't it funny how one game can lift the mood massively around here? Boro looked much better at the weekend and scored two more goals from open play, with young loanee Ben Doak nabbing his first goal of the competition before Hackney fired a rocket into top bins with around 15 minutes left to secure the points. Injuries to our top scorers, Clarke and Conway,  were only confirmed when the starting line up was announced, but Boro looked much more assured up front as McGree returned to the starting line up and played that inverted LW role like nobody else has been able to. McGree returning allowed Azaz to move central, where he impressed, and Borges at LB also looked more comfortable. Rav van den Berg made an appearance from the Bench for the Boro, and hopefully will be back in full contention midweek. Boro moved up to eighth in the table with the win, two points off the playoffs and four off top. And speaking of the league leaders....

WBA - LWWWWD - A late goal from Sheffield Wednesday substitute Anthony Musaba consigned West Brom to their first defeat of the season at the weekend. The Baggies had fought back from being 2-0 down at half time, with goals from Josh Maja and former Boro loanee Alex Mowatt cancelling out an own goal from right back Darnell Furlong and a 23rd minute strike from Josh Windass, son of former Boro striker Dean Windass. The only other team to take points from WBA this season has been Leeds, who left the Hawthorns with a point following a 0-0 draw in August. The Baggies have conceded the same amount of goals as the Boro this season but have scored four more - Maja has seven already in the league and Mowatt is their second top scorer with three.

The Line Ups:

I think the only change may be Rav coming in for Dijksteel for this midweek game - Both of the changes up front seemed to positively affect our attacking  play so I would hope Carrick doesn't revert to what we had before, but the patch up job we currently have at the back means that an unchanged side is probably unlikely unless Rav isn't back to full fitness. Apparently, Ckarke and Conway will probably be out until the International Break, and I'm not sure on any of our other injuries.

Dieng
Ayling - Rav - Edmundson - Borges
Hackney - Morris
Doak - Azaz - McGree
Latte Lath

The View From The Otherside:

Couldn't find any proper discussion regarding the game yet but I did find them making predictions on the score here. It's a fairly mixed bag although leans towards WBA, which is to be expected

[Humpty 3,976 9.5k]

I think the team picks itself. Really intrigued to see how we compete but my worry is that plenty of lesser coaches have had our number tactically. Carlos Corberan is incredibly astute and tactically excellent... he SHOULD have Carrick tied up in knots.

[Erimus74 3,700 3.8k]

19 minutes ago, OldManGravz said:

🛍️West Bromwich Albion v Middlesbrough 🦁

The Hawthorns. Tuesday 1st October. 8pm

Sorry this is a bit late, hard to gauge exactly when to stop the discussion around the win and start the discussion about the next game with such a quick turnaround. I'll format it better when I'm on my laptop too.

We travel to the West Midlands tomorrow to face the current league leaders, West Brom. Please be aware there'll be a minutes silence before the game as one of their fans was taken ill during the first half of the Sheff Wed game and later died in hospital.

The Form:

Boro -  WLDWDL - Isn't it funny how one game can lift the mood massively around here? Boro looked much better at the weekend and scored two more goals from open play, with young loanee Ben Doak nabbing his first goal of the competition before Hackney fired a rocket into top bins with around 15 minutes left to secure the points. Injuries to our top scorers, Clarke and Conway,  were only confirmed when the starting line up was announced, but Boro looked much more assured up front as McGree returned to the starting line up and played that inverted LW role like nobody else has been able to. McGree returning allowed Azaz to move central, where he impressed, and Borges at LB also looked more comfortable. Rav van den Berg made an appearance from the Bench for the Boro, and hopefully will be back in full contention midweek. Boro moved up to eighth in the table with the win, two points off the playoffs and four off top. And speaking of the league leaders....

WBA - LWWWWD - A late goal from Sheffield Wednesday substitute Anthony Musaba consigned West Brom to their first defeat of the season at the weekend. The Baggies had fought back from being 2-0 down at half time, with goals from Josh Maja and former Boro loanee Alex Mowatt cancelling out an own goal from right back Darnell Furlong and a 23rd minute strike from Josh Windass, son of former Boro striker Dean Windass. The only other team to take points from WBA this season has been Leeds, who left the Hawthorns with a point following a 0-0 draw in August. The Baggies have conceded the same amount of goals as the Boro this season but have scored four more - Maja has seven already in the league and Mowatt is their second top scorer with three.

The Line Ups:

I think the only change may be Rav coming in for Dijksteel for this midweek game - Both of the changes up front seemed to positively affect our attacking  play so I would hope Carrick doesn't revert to what we had before, but the patch up job we currently have at the back means that an unchanged side is probably unlikely unless Rav isn't back to full fitness. Apparently, Ckarke and Conway will probably be out until the International Break, and I'm not sure on any of our other injuries.

Dieng
Ayling - Rav - Edmundson - Borges
Hackney - Morris
Doak - Azaz - McGree
Latte Lath

The View From The Otherside:

Couldn't find any proper discussion regarding the game yet but I did find them making predictions on the score here. It's a fairly mixed bag although leans towards WBA, which is to be expected

Good post. Feel for Dijksteel who may miss out, he had a cracking first half, along with McGree & Doak as standouts

[Bruce 2,022 1.7k]

I wonder if Carrick might try and spring a surprise. Admittedly, by Carrick's standards a surprise might consist of having whole milk in his coffee rather than semi-skimmed. Seriously, though, every manager this season has known exactly how Carrick will set up the team and how it will play. Maybe it's time for him to be the one that asks the questions for a change. 

He does occasionally go to three at the back and/or man-mark a player. So maybe we'll see

Dieng

Ayling - Rav - Edmundson 

Jones - Hackney - Morris - Borges

Doak - ELL - McGree

A little hard on Dijksteel who hasn't let anyone down and depending on fitness I could see him starting at RCB if needed. McGree's fitness is also at question. Might see Azaz, Burgzorg or Hamilton there.

Loads of pace down the right. ELL likes to run the left channel so you could see McGree breaking into the centre of the box from the left. Pretty much all of our attacks will come down the flanks rather than through the middle. Ayling might also get tasked to man-mark Swift as Swift, despite his name, is not the fastest and Ayling can chunter away in his ear.

I don't think this will happen but perhaps something like it *ought* to. 

Hard to see past a WBA win but they'll be a little rocked by losing on Saturday and Corberan's results with them have tended to go off the boil from time to time so we *might* catch them at the start of a dip. 

[RiseAgainst 4,146 3.6k]

We had a fine result at the weekend, but against a team who didn't employ the low block. Corberan is smart enough to do that out of possession, which could eliminate the space we seem to need to play into. When Leeds gave us space all over the pitch, we looked like world beaters - when other teams park the bus, we repeatedly bang our heads against it.

I'll be relieved to avoid defeat in this one. In fact, a second good performance in a row is more important than the result for me. If we play poorly but somehow win, I don't think it would do as much to build confidence among the players and supporters as a positive draw might achieve.

[Dan1234 1,140 3.1k]

Personally I'd be starting Djiksteel over Ayling. I think taking away his solid pass for Conways goal the other week he's been quite poor. 

Hopefully Doak/Mcgree are fit enough to start again. VDB starts if he's fit. 

[Humpty 3,976 9.5k]

2 minutes ago, Bruce said:

I wonder if Carrick might try and spring a surprise. Admittedly, by Carrick's standards a surprise might consist of having whole milk in his coffee rather than semi-skimmed. Seriously, though, every manager this season has known exactly how Carrick will set up the team and how it will play. Maybe it's time for him to be the one that asks the questions for a change. 

He does occasionally go to three at the back and/or man-mark a player. So maybe we'll see

Dieng

Ayling - Rav - Edmundson 

Jones - Hackney - Morris - Borges

Doak - ELL - McGree

A little hard on Dijksteel who hasn't let anyone down and depending on fitness I could see him starting at RCB if needed. McGree's fitness is also at question. Might see Azaz, Burgzorg or Hamilton there.

Loads of pace down the right. ELL likes to run the left channel so you could see McGree breaking into the centre of the box from the left. Pretty much all of our attacks will come down the flanks rather than through the middle. Ayling might also get tasked to man-mark Swift as Swift, despite his name, is not the fastest and Ayling can chunter away in his ear.

I don't think this will happen but perhaps something like it *ought* to. 

Hard to see past a WBA win but they'll be a little rocked by losing on Saturday and Corberan's results with them have tended to go off the boil from time to time so we *might* catch them at the start of a dip. 

I feel like you'd have Ayling, Jones and Doak all occupying the same areas. I don't think that would work personally.

[Borodane 6,836 26.5k]

Please not wingbacks. It's not something you just switch to occasionally.  It's a very specialist tactics that you really need under your skin to pull off. I think if we switch to that we'll look disjointed and fail. Rav coming in for Dijksteel is likely the only change, unless Carrick thinks that it's tough a game for Doak to start in which might favour Jones.

[TLF10 4,969 6.6k]

Dieng

Ayling VDB Ed Borges

Morris Hackney

Doak Azaz McGree

LL

I can also see howson returning to bench in place of McCabe

[Erimus74 3,700 3.8k]

1 hour ago, Humpty said:

I think the team picks itself. Really intrigued to see how we compete but my worry is that plenty of lesser coaches have had our number tactically. Carlos Corberan is incredibly astute and tactically excellent... he SHOULD have Carrick tied up in knots.

Dont say that Humpty, im living on the positivity of saturdays win & everything is rosy in the garden, 😞

[Erimus74 3,700 3.8k]

39 minutes ago, Dan1234 said:

Personally I'd be starting Djiksteel over Ayling. I think taking away his solid pass for Conways goal the other week he's been quite poor. 

Hopefully Doak/Mcgree are fit enough to start again. VDB starts if he's fit. 

I tend to agree, my concern is when Dijksteel has been called upon he's put in a solid display, Leeds was a classic example then dropped, not saying it could affect his thinking if dropped again, though to be brought back in again knowing how good he plays he'll be dropped can play on his mind

[TeaCider24 14,161 18.9k]

Probably be a 1-1 draw this.

We'll concede first, but equalise and miss a bunch of chances to win it.

[Humpty 3,976 9.5k]

5 minutes ago, Erimus74 said:

Dont say that Humpty, im living on the positivity of saturdays win & everything is rosy in the garden, 😞

A positive performance and i think it'll turn my uncertainty into optimism. A win against a Stoke side in transition isn't enough to do that on it's own. I can acknowledge that we can only beat what's in front of us and the Stoke result is still a positive result in its own right.

[edinboro 1,030 1.7k]

I'm always intrigued by good people think Corberan is. If he was so good WBA wouldn't be in the Championship. He's busy and his teams can look very good. But then they always run out of steam - like his Mentor Bielsa's teams do.

It will be a good game for sure. I think the difference Doak and McGree make is huge. As long as those 2 and hopefully Rav stay in the team I think we will get results. 

The team most are picking is almost nailed on I think. Along with others I think Dijksteel has been excellent but Ayling will play because he's the leader on the pitch at the moment.

[Robin Johnson 814 1.1k]

53 minutes ago, TeaCider24 said:

Probably be a 1-1 draw this.

We'll concede first, but equalise and miss a bunch of chances to win it.

Agree on the score. We can get a result here - if employing the right tactics with the right team!