20 minutes ago, Humpty said:

If we want automatic promotion, we have to start winning quickly. It's a shame we're playing Monday because it gives Ipswich and Millwall further opportunity to put pressure on us. By the time Monday night come around Millwall could be within a point of us and Ipswich within 3. That'll feel very uncomfortable going into kick off.

I'd argue and say we've actually performed better with that sort of pressure this season.

Every time there is pressure to take advantage of a situation, to extend the gap to 3rd place or beat a lower placed team etc. we seem to buckle. But every time there is pressure for us to get out of a bad situation where odds start going against us, we seem to find a away. Sheffield United away as an example. Possible mentality issue? I don't know.

Great time for Brum to play the Boro to regain momentum after a loss something we have failed to do twice, sadly I think the previous 4 game run without winning is going to be repeated.

However we have a decent track record at St Andrews which I am certain @Erimus74 will expand upon

@Downsouth we do have a decent record at St Andrews but heard today that Birmingham only lost 1 home game all season which is pretty impressive.

Albeit a good set of draws in there (7). 8 wins at home for them.

Huge game this one. We have quite the decent record against them although theyre looking good right now. The last 2 games were huge disappointments not only the results but I felt the level of performance was well below par for us under Hellberg. I feel I've said enough about our set pieces but I also noticed on Tuesday players getting in the box some still appeared to hide rather than actually get into good positions in the area.

Its a shame Whittaker, Ayling and Targett have been great all season but feel over the last few games theyve all struggled. Whittaker seems to have gone into his shell these last few games he really needs a goal.

That said I'd probably start with the team from Tuesday but Fry for Ayling.

On another note when is Casteldine due back and what was his actual injury. It felt like he was only going to miss a couple of weeks. Im not saying hes our saviour but I think he is one who will take a shot rather than look to pass it on to somebody else.

Talking Points

Will Hellberg make any significant changes?

He definitely needs to, but I'm worried that it will be business as usual.

I feel its time to move on from the play-through-the-middle, swarm tactics. I feel we need to be a bit more structured and use the width of the pitch more. Should also help avoid players getting in each others' way.

Instead of fruitlessly trying to thread the eye of a needle through massed ranks of opponents, why not go old-school? Be a bit more direct - focus on getting the ball out wide, have players bomb down the wings (as fast as our players can go anyway) and get crosses in before the opposition have time to get their defence organised.

This should (in theory) have the added benefit of pulling opponents out wide, creating space in the middle and opportunities to cut inside and do the usual Hellball thing.

We can't continue to be so one-dimensional and predictable and expect to win matches. As it stands, other teams know all they have to do is either high-press or low-block us and we're stuffed.

I know formation doesn't matter that much in the Hellberg era, but I hope he picks players that can play wide roles and instructs them to run at opponents and try to get in behind them, creating chances like Sarmiento did for Strelec.

Not saying we should abandon playing through the middle entirely, (that would be daft), but we need to start being less predictable and easy to defend against.

Your line-up/formation?

.....................[Conway]........[Strelec]..........

[McGree]....[Morris/Browne]....[Hackney]....[Sarmiento]

[Munroe]....[Malanda]....[Fry]....[Brittain]

...........................[Brynn].............................

Score prediction?

The last 3 games have rather drained my optimism. Birmingham have been on a good run...until they visited Millwall, who gave them a sound spanking. Think they will be smarting from that and wanting to get back to winning ways.

I worry that Hellberg will just do the same old thing and we'll have to witness another 90 minutes of Boro having lots of possession, but failing to create actual scoring chances.

Or more frustratingly, create chances but have no-one in position to stick the ball in the net.

BIRMINGHAM 2 - 0 MIDDLESBROUGH

Favourite thing to come from Birmingham? (Other than 3 points for the mighty Boro...oh god now I've jinxed it, haven't I?)

Richard Hammond (actually born in Solihull, according to Wikipedia - but its close enough).

Edited February 27Feb 27 by AnglianRed

1 minute ago, AnglianRed said:

Will Hellberg make any significant changes?

He definitely needs to, but I'm worried that it will be business as usual.

I'm not sure I agree with this. Our issue has been breaking down stubborn defences. Teams like Birmingham that are more expressive, especially at home, have been where we've had a decent amount of joy under Hellberg. That's not to say I would keep the same XI, but I do think Hellberg's usual tactics will have a bit more joy here.

I was impressed by Birmingham at the Riverside. Tough tough game this one. A loss could very well be terminal us.

24 minutes ago, Humpty said:

I was impressed by Birmingham at the Riverside. Tough tough game this one. A loss could very well be terminal us.

Yup, starting to feel like we need a win as soon as possible. Coventry are off and away and Ipswich are just slowly plugging away behind us.
Running out of games and points quickly now.

2 hours ago, smogsterking the Inspirati said:

Huge game this one. We have quite the decent record against them although theyre looking good right now. The last 2 games were huge disappointments not only the results but I felt the level of performance was well below par for us under Hellberg. I feel I've said enough about our set pieces but I also noticed on Tuesday players getting in the box some still appeared to hide rather than actually get into good positions in the area.

Its a shame Whittaker, Ayling and Targett have been great all season but feel over the last few games theyve all struggled. Whittaker seems to have gone into his shell these last few games he really needs a goal.

That said I'd probably start with the team from Tuesday but Fry for Ayling.

On another note when is Casteldine due back and what was his actual injury. It felt like he was only going to miss a couple of weeks. Im not saying hes our saviour but I think he is one who will take a shot rather than look to pass it on to somebody else.

It's about time someone told Whittaker to man up and become a nuisance to opposing teams but well really for a player that likes to wear gloves so much he really does come across as very timid in his demeanour.

He has to start creating his own chances by sheer hard work and determination.

Ok maybe I am being harsh towards him but that is how I see it

35 minutes ago, DanFromDownSouth said:

Yup, starting to feel like we need a win as soon as possible. Coventry are off and away and Ipswich are just slowly plugging away behind us.
Running out of games and points quickly now.

Mentioned before but I feel a draw will probably be the best we can do as we are in a slump

1 hour ago, Tom said:

  1 hour ago, AnglianRed said:

Will Hellberg make any significant changes?

He definitely needs to, but I'm worried that it will be business as usual.

I'm not sure I agree with this. Our issue has been breaking down stubborn defences. Teams like Birmingham that are more expressive, especially at home, have been where we've had a decent amount of joy under Hellberg. That's not to say I would keep the same XI, but I do think Hellberg's usual tactics will have a bit more joy here.

Or conversely Birmingham will have seen that the last few games have seen us frustrated by a low block and us being unable to be a serious threat as oppose to what happened at Brammall Lane.

11 minutes ago, Downsouth said:

Mentioned before but I feel a draw will probably be the best we can do as we are in a slump

I don't want to jincks (still not using "X"), but our record vs Birmingham has been strong in recent years and St. Andrews has been a bit of a happy away day for us. Hopefully we can shake off this slump starting Monday!

1 hour ago, AnglianRed said:

Talking Points

Will Hellberg make any significant changes?

He definitely needs to, but I'm worried that it will be business as usual.

I feel its time to move on from the play-through-the-middle, swarm tactics. I feel we need to be a bit more structured and use the width of the pitch more. Should also help avoid players getting in each others' way.

Instead of fruitlessly trying to thread the eye of a needle through massed ranks of opponents, why not go old-school? Be a bit more direct - focus on getting the ball out wide, have players bomb down the wings (as fast as our players can go anyway) and get crosses in before the opposition have time to get their defence organised.

This should (in theory) have the added benefit of pulling opponents out wide, creating space in the middle and opportunities to cut inside and do the usual Hellball thing.

We can't continue to be so one-dimensional and predictable and expect to win matches. As it stands, other teams know all they have to do is either high-press or low-block us and we're stuffed.

I know formation doesn't matter that much in the Hellberg era, but I hope he picks players that can play wide roles and instructs them to run at opponents and try to get in behind them, creating chances like Sarmiento did for Strelec.

Not saying we should abandon playing through the middle entirely, (that would be daft), but we need to start being less predictable and easy to defend against.

Your line-up/formation?

.....................[Conway]........[Strelec]..........

[McGree]....[Morris/Browne]....[Hackney]....[Sarmiento]

[Munroe]....[Malanda]....[Fry]....[Brittain]

...........................[Brynn].............................

Score prediction?

The last 3 games have rather drained my optimism. Birmingham have been on a good run...until they visited Millwall, who gave them a sound spanking. Think they will be smarting from that and wanting to get back to winning ways.

I worry that Hellberg will just do the same old thing and we'll have to witness another 90 minutes of Boro having lots of possession, but failing to create actual scoring chances.

Or more frustratingly, create chances but have no-one in position to stick the ball in the net.

BIRMINGHAM 2 - 0 MIDDLESBROUGH

Favourite thing to come from Birmingham? (Other than 3 points for the mighty Boro...oh god now I've jinxed it, haven't I?)

Richard Hammond (actually born in Solihull, according to Wikipedia - but its close enough).

I love the “swarm tactics” comment it sums our play up nicely at the moment. I also agree that we have to use the width of the pitch to get dangerous crosses in as what we are trying to do now just plays into the hands of massed defence sides. I am really struggling to understand why Hellberg plays Conway wide on the left and leaves Targett back, there were times in the last two games where when we did get a cross in there was not one of our forwards near the six yard line. It seems fairly obvious to me that we have been sussed out by the other teams in this division and it is not going to get any easier over the remaining games. I agree with a lot of people that the January transfer window was a missed opportunity to bring some quality into our forward line but too late now Hellberg just has to do the best with what we have, although how in the short term he teaches Strelec, Whittaker and Conway how to head a football I don’t really know

30 minutes ago, pikerman said:

I love the “swarm tactics” comment it sums our play up nicely at the moment. I also agree that we have to use the width of the pitch to get dangerous crosses in as what we are trying to do now just plays into the hands of massed defence sides. I am really struggling to understand why Hellberg plays Conway wide on the left and leaves Targett back, there were times in the last two games where when we did get a cross in there was not one of our forwards near the six yard line. It seems fairly obvious to me that we have been sussed out by the other teams in this division and it is not going to get any easier over the remaining games. I agree with a lot of people that the January transfer window was a missed opportunity to bring some quality into our forward line but too late now Hellberg just has to do the best with what we have, although how in the short term he teaches Strelec, Whittaker and Conway how to head a football I don’t really know

Simply because we aren't remotely set up for that style of play, we don't have wingers or pace, and as Hellberg has said in his pre match press the other day we don't have players that have scored any goals in their career from headed crosses, and who also dont have the height or physical presence/strength to learn that skill and be successful, so why would you attempt a style of play that we don't have the ability to do?
Short answer is you don't, you try to play to the strengths of the players you have whilst adapting to the challenges opposition teams are facing. KH came in and did well by finding what worked for our technical ball playing abilities.

31 minutes ago, pikerman said:

I love the “swarm tactics” comment it sums our play up nicely at the moment. I also agree that we have to use the width of the pitch to get dangerous crosses in as what we are trying to do now just plays into the hands of massed defence sides. I am really struggling to understand why Hellberg plays Conway wide on the left and leaves Targett back, there were times in the last two games where when we did get a cross in there was not one of our forwards near the six yard line. It seems fairly obvious to me that we have been sussed out by the other teams in this division and it is not going to get any easier over the remaining games. I agree with a lot of people that the January transfer window was a missed opportunity to bring some quality into our forward line but too late now Hellberg just has to do the best with what we have, although how in the short term he teaches Strelec, Whittaker and Conway how to head a football I don’t really know

Sarmiento is a winger and hasn't had chance to stretch his legs properly yet. Agree we need to use the full width of the pitch. Not sure why the coaching team cant see it, perhaps they are too close to the touchline. Get Adi sitting up in the stands so he can see the patterns of play. Its obvious to me we are playing too narrow but hey, what do I know, I've only been to virtually every home game for the last 50 years !