Leicester v Boro 1-1 (Ayling)

[LinoJo3 7,394 15.6k]

2 minutes ago, BoroDave4 said:

Well we deserved that point at an absolute minimum. We battered them. The problem was for about 60 minutes we created next to nothing again. Once McGree and Nypan came on we started to unlock them a bit, which was primarily down to Riley. He was floating around, finding spaces, he's such a clever player. I really hope he can stay fit, because he's probably our best attacking midfielder. 

Read through all the discussion about Conway. What I'd say is that over the last half dozen games or so I can think of 4 guilt edge chances he's missed. I dunno if he just needs one to go on off his backside or something but there's no part of me that thinks he's going to score right now. 

I've been his biggest fan and defend him against what I think is undue criticism. But Hackney had a crap game again tonight. Not a clue what the hell was going through his mind for the penalty. I imagine very little. 

I thought Brittain got much higher up the pitch as well tonight which I've been desperate for. Thought Morris played quite well. Burgzorg shouldn't be starting. I'm sorry but he's not good enough. He has some moments but that's just not enough. I think despite signing so many players for the three behind the attacker, we're weaker there than last season. 

I'm still concerned with our general creativity, but the last 20 minutes or so today was much better. Now we need to do that from the start. 

Mcgree totally transformed the game for us and I’m just hoping he can start vs Birmingham. What I liked is as you mentioned he was buzzing all around the box playing 1 twos with players and working space etc, something like that could really kick start our forwards.

I know it won’t go down well but I’d be tempted to keep the forward line the same and swap out Strelec for McGree and give him the same free role as he had tonight. Maybe the others will look better with him on the pitch 🤷‍♂️ 

Or we could go with McGree behind Conway and Strelec and put Nypan as a #8, see if we can get some link up play going.

[Erimus 63 674 3.3k]

Extended Highlights.

[MarkT73 1,216 1.2k]

7 hours ago, TeaCider24 said:

 

Love super Sol appearing from nowhere... Little bit of justice finally done 

Another shocker of a ref

Mcgree is Back and looks desperate to be a part of it 🤞💪👍

[gordy1000 84 103]

7 hours ago, TheJew said:

McGree has to start. It really is that simple. Will probably help the entire front line. A plodder he is not.

He really made a difference. Sene has to start too, playing through the middle, he brought physicality to our game up front after he came on. 

[Downsouth 8,792 40k]

I see highlights are up thanks for that saves me doing them

 

[gordy1000 84 103]

7 hours ago, Dynamo Kev said:

conway missed 4 really good chances in one game vs sheff wed, tonight he was through one v one and fluffed it. hes been shocking infront of goal this season. strelec has created way more than conway to. trelec is clearly a better player imo. just needs to ind his feet in the champo. big change in tempo for him to adjust to. 

our main trouble is poor finishing when we get good chances and missing the chances to create far more by plodding our way up the pitch. 

leicester have been quite dominant in possession this season but we were imo clearly better than them. if we can sort our attack straticy out we will be rolling over teams mot weeks like cov are doing. 

brum this weekend, they will come here and try and dominate. i think they will be set up nice for us to open them up. think we'll beat them. after a couple of big wins teams always slip up. 

I've been saying for sometime that Conway and Strelec can't play together. Conway is bang out of form and isn't fast enough or physical enough to play through the middle. 

[Redcar Rioja 9,930 9.6k]

To me Conway would work better in Mogga's split Striker set up. He isn't physically big enough or skilled enough to operate as a No.9.

When he was at Bristol (admittedly didn't watch him that often or closely) but my memory of him was coming in from wide rather than being the main man. I could be wrong but just don't see him as having the attributes to play up top.

That said his composure like many of his team mates leaves a lot to be desired. There are too many now all snatching at shots or guilty of rash decisions.

With Strelec I think the poor bloke is lost and confused and doesn't know where he's supposed to be playing or how or who to link up with and where. The Coaches have had ample time to work out a strategy and devise a plan but we look further away from having one now from when they first arrived.

[SouthernSmoggie 5,738 7.4k]

I'm not surprised at all McGree looked good in that number ten spot. 

But are we seeing the pattern yet? Every week, desperate subs are thrown on to rectify the situation and we clamour for whoever came on to start the next game. We can start McGree, Hansen, Sene v Brum and I guarantee Conway, Burgzorg, Strelec will come on and 'improve' us when we're chasing a stretched game. 

I don't know... The attack still feels miles away to me. All these players can't be crap and we're seeing the same issues whatever the combination. 

[Denzel Zanzibar 8,867 16.6k]

Some absolutely bizarre takes on Twitter, including one goon posting a photo from the away end of the lads celebrating titled "Robbed" which seems to have gone slightly viral.

We were the better team throughout, Leicester got a penalty that wasn't (and against the run of play) on the stroke of half time, and that was about it. Don't remember Brynn making any meaningful saves, and we dominated nearly the entire second half. A point was more than fair!

[PayeroAndParty 344 377]

4 hours ago, Erimus 63 said:

Extended Highlights.

no thankyou once was enough 

[Rob 7,421 11.3k]

11 hours ago, HolgateHero said:

Ah, no wonder we struggle, we have league 1 players.... again! It's such a nonsense thing to say, as evidenced by people saying it about Morgan Rogers / Azaz.

Maybe offloading Azaz wasn't so smart, those goals and assists would come in handy rn.

We're just not creating that many chances and while Strelec and Sene are struggling TC seems to have gone backwards although his work rate is phenomenal. He and Strelec were at each other inside of 5 minutes, but they both need to channel that aggression and be stronger on the ball. There is a player in Strelec for sure, he needs to get a lot fitter though and on the weights.

Our constantly shifting backline isn't helping, you kind of have to give up on Fry and Lenighan now so we're hoping we'll get some consistency with Malandra.

Burgzorg and Whittaker need to do more from the wings also, who knows with a few dangerous balls across the box Conway, Strelec or Sene are bound to get on the end of one. 

We are incredibly weak in the air upfront too, at half time we'd won 22% of aerial duels which is one out of five so we're basically just handing over possession if we knock it up to them in the air. 

This may be the most open championship in years (and fortunately it seems to be happening quite regularly) but it looks like we are going to fall short unless we can unlock our attacking potential in epic fashion.

Still, we were candidates for relegation before a ball was kicked after offloading a lot of talent and recruiting league one players, so at least that won't be a thing this season.

All said and done I'm still hopeful our obvious attacking talent can click, once that blue touch paper is lit things could get exciting.

 

UTB 

I think if Azaz wanted to stay we wouldn't of sold him tbh

10 hours ago, LinoJo3 said:

It’s clearly a confidence issue with him, he’s just playing like a wet flannel, once he adapts he will look transformed. Maybe there’s a bit of culture shock going on, he’s probably questioning his own ability aswell since he commented about how he doesn’t want a repeat of his move to Italy, he will feel like it’s happening again.

The one thing that stands out is he always seems to arrive onto or try’s to move the ball half a second too late, he’s just struggling to keep up with the pace of the game. 
 

He hasn’t been good and some of the things I’ve seen him do make you cringe a bit. But other times you see him more in the flow for a second or 2 and you see the quality. 

yeah I think he is going to need a quite a bit of pitch time invested in him to get used to this league, might be a uphill battle at the moment, but does seem like one that is worth sticking with. 

 

[GrimsbyBoro 2,478 3.1k]

1 hour ago, SouthernSmoggie said:

I'm not surprised at all McGree looked good in that number ten spot. 

But are we seeing the pattern yet? Every week, desperate subs are thrown on to rectify the situation and we clamour for whoever came on to start the next game. We can start McGree, Hansen, Sene v Brum and I guarantee Conway, Burgzorg, Strelec will come on and 'improve' us when we're chasing a stretched game. 

I don't know... The attack still feels miles away to me. All these players can't be crap and we're seeing the same issues whatever the combination. 

The attack are all very similar not so much in playing style but that each one might do a job might do something coming off the bench but you wouldn’t want to rely so lowly on them for a season. They are all very Burgzorg like. 

We will have odd flashes where everything aligns and they hit a bit of form together but then each one will be quiet for 8-10 games.

It could be a settling in thing but it just looks like e have sign a bunch of Marvin Emnes’ (don’t know what the collective noun for that would be - a Keiren of strikers?)

[Humpty 6,204 11.2k]

Ordinarily a good point away from home but its telling that i'm disappointed not to have left with three. 

We dominated possession and territory. No mean feat away at an ex-Premier League club. We did the same at Watford too. We were unlucky with the penalty too. 

I think we've found a set up that works best. 4231 seems to ensure we dominate a lot of the ball. Get the right personnel in the right positions and we'll start scoring. I have absolutely no doubt in that. McGree is the key. He's energetic, has a good football brain and knows where the goal is. He has to start when fit because he's soo important. 

I genuinly feel like we're very close to clicking. 

I don't know where we go with Strelec. He has had one of the most disappointing starts to a Boro career that i can remember. When you spend that kind of money on a player you really need them to take off from the start. Granted he hasn't been helped with the tumultuous formation changes but his general play and fitness has been incredibly disappointing. Fingers crossed a link up with McGree can bring out the best in him.

 

I also thought we showed incredible character. We fought all night and right until the last seconds. Those kind of late goals make a differene not just in points gained but team morale. They'll be buzzing oing into Saturday now.

Edited November 5 by Humpty

[BoroDownSouth 558 4.3k]

18 minutes ago, Humpty said:

Ordinarily a good point away from home but its telling that i'm disappointed not to have left with three. 

We dominated possession and territory. No mean feat away at a Premier League club. We did the same at Watford too. We were unlucky with the penalty too. 

I think we've found a set up that works best. 4231 seems to ensure we dominate a lot of the ball. Get the right personnel in the right positions and we'll start scoring. I have absolutely no doubt in that. McGree is the key. He's energetic, has a good football brain and knows where the goal is. He has to start when fit because he's soo important. 

I genuinly feel like we're very close to clicking. 

I don't know where we go with Strelec. He has had one of the most disappointing starts to a Boro career that i can remember. When you spend that kind of money on a player you really need them to take off from the start. Granted he hasn't been helped with the tumultuous formation changes but his general play and fitness has been incredibly disappointing. Fingers crossed a link up with McGree can bring out the best in him.

 

I also thought we howed incredible character. We fought all night and right until the last seconds. Those kind of late goals make a differene not just in points gained but team morale. They'll be buzzing oing into Saturday now.

Agree with you here Humpty - especially the last point, there were some positives last night and some negatives but I think that kind of late goal and the feeling it gives you is huge in a season where you want to achieve something - echos of that Forshaw goal vs Reading in terms of feeling, or Nugent v Wolves or Hull was it?

I think Strelec will come good - but he has to play games and has to be stuck with, I think a front 4 of:

Sene 

LW? Strelec McGree

Not sure on LW mainly cause I am at work and cant think properly at the moment haha

[Humpty 6,204 11.2k]

I do think Strelec will benefit from playing alongside McGree. He's very clearly got a high ceiling and we're going to need him to reach that ceiling if we're going to achieve anything of note this year. As bad as he was last night, i'd start him against Birmingham but only if McGree starts.