Southampton v Boro 1-1 (Sene)

[Plastic Goat 978 1.4k]

The new players have yet to fully get adjusted to this League. I think Strelec will find being a striker in the Slovakian League is a lot easier than the Championship.  A pact winger would be very welcome in January.

[BearSmog 2,166 4k]

14 minutes ago, Plastic Goat said:

The new players have yet to fully get adjusted to this League. I think Strelec will find being a striker in the Slovakian League is a lot easier than the Championship.  A pact winger would be very welcome in January.

Why? We don't play with wingers...

[Donnyboro 1,495 1.8k]

15 minutes ago, BearSmog said:

Why? We don't play with wingers...

We could certainly do with some pace out wide.

[Guffie 2,021 3.3k]

We have Hansen who is rapid. Sene looks quite fast. We just don’t seem to play that way, our wing backs do the width 

[Bruce 3,777 2.8k]

1 hour ago, ladyspite said:

I cant realy remember but I feel the goalscoring was not the problem under Carrick but I might be wrong?

Initially, no but the longer it went on the worse it got. 

1 hour ago, ladyspite said:

But yesterday it realy felt like we where say Milwall visiting Riverside under Carrick

Absolutely not. We're playing away against a team that wanted to dominate the ball and we still ended up 45/55 on possession in a game where we weren't at our best. In general we're either dominating possession against weaker teams or staying close to level against stronger teams. Yesterday was the first time all season that we "lost" on xg but again, there are two teams out there and Southampton went all out to try and steamroller us. Despite us not being completely at it, we hung on in the first half and shaded it in the second half, conceding against the run of play. 

I would say we play a hybrid of Wilder and Karanka. Like Wilder, we prefer to play high up the pitch and where we can, control the game. Like Karanka we have an extra defensive player and can soak up pressure. 

And at this point we are still integrating a lot of overseas attacking players who tended to arrive late in the window. It's no coincidence that the Championship ready, experienced players (Jones, Brittain, Targett, Browne) have all come straight in where the players who need to adapt (Strelec, Sene, Hansen, Kante, Nypan) are being eased in bit by bit. Edwards and co had to do a huge overhaul of the squad from a late start. Smart to focus on experienced, ready players for defence and midfield so now it's all about putting the attack together.

 

[AnglianRed 8,136 18.6k]

2 hours ago, Ogbeche173 said:

We’ve scored in every game this season and every new forward signing (Sene, Strelec, Hansen) has scored and we can now score from set-pieces wouldn’t exactly call that “toothless”

Very good point.

While we have struggled for periods in some of our games, at least our subs bench has usually proven effective.

We also spend less time fannying about, passing out from the back, or aimlessly recycling possession in midfield. I think we also press teams better and win the ball back / defend better.

Overall thats a hell of an improvement over the Carrick era.

If the only thing thats missing is that our attacking play still needs some finessing, I'll take that any day.

[LinoJo3 7,394 15.6k]

Yea I’m not on board with just writing off the attacking, if we want to try and stay in and around these positions it’s vital we find a front 3 that works, it’s the only piece of the puzzle that’s missing imo. I do think it will come and the coaches will be working on it but I’m not gonna be thinking everything is rosey in the garden until we start to see it consistently. 

[Robin Johnson 2,081 3.1k]

One issue yesterday- especially in the first half- was how deep Hackney and Morris were playing. Allowed Saints to dominate midfield due to how deep they were as a pair.

[RiseAgainst 5,396 4.3k]

4 minutes ago, Robin Johnson said:

One issue yesterday- especially in the first half- was how deep Hackney and Morris were playing. Allowed Saints to dominate midfield due to how deep they were as a pair.

This might be an unpopular opinion but i think Hackney has been quite poor in recent weeks. Since that bug went round the squad, he's been sloppy and very error prone. It's getting to the point I'd consider starting Browne for some solidity.

I'm sure Hackney will get back to peak form soon, at which point he's a guaranteed starter, but I've lost count of how many times he's lost the ball lately. A game off might not hurt.

[Robin Johnson 2,081 3.1k]

8 minutes ago, RiseAgainst said:

This might be an unpopular opinion but i think Hackney has been quite poor in recent weeks. Since that bug went round the squad, he's been sloppy and very error prone. It's getting to the point I'd consider starting Browne for some solidity.

I'm sure Hackney will get back to peak form soon, at which point he's a guaranteed starter, but I've lost count of how many times he's lost the ball lately. A game off might not hurt.

I agree. And Morris, a player I admire, has developed a tendency for some suicidal passes when defending deep.

[SzilardNemethsCurtains 4,953 5.4k]

8 hours ago, ladyspite said:

I dont realy think they pressed that good. Preston press was a lot better. We where just sloppy....

I was not impressed by Southampton one bit. One of the poorest sides we played so far in my opinion ( I dont care about their names on the paper) thats why it annoyes me we dident realy turn up... 

I think it was how high they were up the pitch rather than the press but it was certainly effective, I do think a lot of that was self made issues but we couldn't get out in the first half

[Erimus74 5,966 5.9k]

Another accolade for Edwards, the quickest time for Boro players to reach 10 different goalscorers in only 6 games, amazing in itself

2012/13 There were 9 different players who scored before the end of September over 8 league games 

[Australianboro 14 25]

9 hours ago, Erimus74 said:

Another accolade for Edwards, the quickest time for Boro players to reach 10 different goalscorers in only 6 games, amazing in itself

2012/13 There were 9 different players who scored before the end of September over 8 league games 

I reckon his been fantastic with his recruiting and management great signs 

[Whoppy 1,302 2.1k]

As Maddison said post Southampton, no chance Hackney is taken out based on the last couple of games. Outfield, I'd still bet he's the first name on the teamsheet for Stoke - watch him be benched now and me look clueless! 

[sackrobson2 506 1.3k]

I don’t see any chance of him being dropped tomorrow but he has had 3 poor games for him after 4 excellent games.