Boro v Norwich 4-0

[Aarfy_Aardvark 38]

Love me sum Aarfy.

 

Me love you long time.

[Downsouth 6,326]

Great to see you posting again AA been a while?

 

Aye. I'm uprooting my life to East Asia again. Getting married next summer and going back to uni to do my PhD. Boro have been amazing since I've been away, so I'm gonna slink back into my cave for fear of jinxing them.

 

Well I hope you pop in every now and then but all the best for next year in terms of private life and Boro getting into the PL:)

 

Also it would seem a few might return to the forum as and when things get more interesting

[Will 2,958]

@DomShawGazette: AK: “We don't have anybody above the team, not the manager, not the striker, not the keeper, we are all the same importance"

 

I think Kike may be dropped on Saturday after what other people have said about him running straight past Karanka when he was subbed.

 

I hope not, we have no one else who plays the same role as him.

 

Neither do I, in my opinion he is one of our best players and nobody else in our squad is anywhere near as good as him as a lone striker. It just seems like a bit of a weird comment for Aitor to make.

 

Do you think we should be questioning AK's judgement and Management philosophy;)

 

I wasn't questioning anything, just seems an odd thing to say after a 4-0 win to me.

[p_mards 1,365]

First half I thought we were less than impressive, so to go in at half time 2-0 was very flattering. Second half we improved by far and deserved to win. Karanka's tactics of Bamford essentially playing as a second #10, with Frederick's providing our width, and Tomlin dropping into deeper areas linking up play through central areas, instead of down the wings as we've tended to do this season.

Player ratings:

Dimi: 7.5 -Made a crucial save at 1-0. Done pretty well.

Fredericks: 8.5 -Got forward brilliantly. Struggled in the air against Lafferty in the first half. They were silly not to target him more.

Ayala: 8 -Defended solidly. Their attackers were pretty much nullified all game.

Gibson: 8 -Defended solidly also.

Friend: 8 -Defended well and was good going forward. Won us a important penalty.

Clayton: 8 -Great energy and passing.

Leadbitter: 9.5 -Brilliant on the ball and took his both of his goals brilliantly.

Bamford: 8 -Drifted infield brilliantly. Took his goal very well.

Tomlin: 8.5 -Linked up play brilliantly, especially dropping deeper. His pass to Leadbitter was great.

Adomah: 7.5 -Great cross for Bamford but his passing was poor at times.

Kike: 7.5 -Was a bit isolated with poor supply but when he got the ball his control was great.

Reach: 7 -Done pretty well but his decision making let him down taking a bit too long spotting options to cross to.

Wildschut: 7 -Some good runs but his footwork looked a bit shaky at times. I wish he didn't poach Vossen's goal though as it would have really helped his confidence.

Vossen: N/A

[smogsterking the Inspirati 2,489]

“I told the players at half time that our biggest mistake would be to think that we are playing really well when they weren’t."

 

Aitor Karanka.

[Mr_Maz 2,899]

Norwich's change of formation played right into our hands! Tettey had a good first half and Norwich caused us plenty of problems in the middle during the first half. Once they lost that extra body it was much easier for us.

[Oslo_Syd 320]

Typical BBC editing of the interview with Neil Adams. His opening remark was: "We were beaten by a better side". Didn't go into the report. All we read was how poorly Norwich played. What do we have to do to be recognised as a top team?

[starbuy 35]

I thought we started very well, scored, passed the ball around with confidence for about 5 minutes and then seemed to take our foot of the peddle and let Norwich attack us. I was disappointed with some of our closing down and thought Norwich were going to cause us many problems. The second goal helped settle us a bit but I think we still struggled with Norwich's shape.

In the second half we pretty much bossed the game and looked dangerous every time we went forward. The players who I thought were going to cause us problems seemed to struggle once our defenders got to grips and we didn't really let up in the second half at all.

 

I won't go through ratings because I think every player did their job well and it seems we can play with whoever is on the pitch which is a sign that the team is organised and knows what is expected of them. Each of the players have their own strengths and style but the overall quality is there to see. Every player on our bench could have easily been in the first team and not weakened it.

 

We showed a lot of desire to compete, battle and earn the right to play and the scary thing is that we haven't seen the best of this team yet in my opinion. Team wise I think it is coming together very well but I think there is a lot more to come from many individuals.

Vossen will get there and score goals and he will be important to us. Kike's all round play is exceptional at times and while I think he allows himself to get frustrated (I think he's very self-critical when he doesn't score), I've noticed he tries to give thumbs up to his team mates when they do things right rather than moan when they do things wrong. Bamford is settling in more now and looks to be a handful and Wildschut is certainly going to scare any championship defender he plays against. Reach keeps getting better and better and was very confident and direct and I'm sure there is more to come from him. I was thinking today that there really isn't a player in the squad who I would want to get rid of. It's been a long time since I've been able to say that.

 

It's still early days in this league though and it's just about picking up as many points as possible. Bournemouth on Saturday promises to be a cracking game and I hope even more people turn up because the Riverside is so much better with just a few extra thousand in there turning up the noise levels and backing the team.

[BoroDave4 1,018]

Anyone got highlights?

[Guest Changing Times]

That was a big result for us, very pleasing to come away with a win against a potential promotion rival and to do it by that margin is fantastic of course.

 

The game itself wasn't quite as straight forward as the scoreline suggested. We got off to a good start but after that Norwich were the better side. It wasn't like the last half hour of the Watford game where we were all over the place though to be fair. The penalty came at a good time for us. From where I'm sat it's difficult to tell whether it was or wasn't but it seemed a bit soft. Hopefully the amount of decisions going our way this season will lead to people giving it a rest about how we never get anything from referees.

 

The second half was a different story and this was helped in no small part by Norwich making a change. They brought on Hooper to chase the game but taking off Tettey really weakened them in midfield in my opinion and we were able to get control of the game in a way that we weren't able to in the first half. From this point on there was only going to be one winner and it was odd to be so relaxed for the rest of the game but I just didn't see anything other than a Boro win as the second half got going. We fully deserved the two goals we scored even if we maybe didn't deserve two in the first half.

 

In terms of individuals I think everyone had good moments. I heard that Tomlin got man of the match, he wouldn't have been my choice as I thought Leadbitter and Clayton were good tonight and that was where the game was sewn up in the second half. Having said that, I think Tomlin had one of his best games for us and that is a positive for him and us. I was slightly disappointed with Kike's reaction. I'm not sure what's going on with him but I just wonder if he's really settling in here or not.

 

However, lots of positives to take from tonight's result. We've finally beaten a good side and a team that should still be challenging for top six this season. We've put three points on a potential promotion rival and we've effectively put eight goals on them as well. We've improved our goal difference a great deal over the last two games. Another clean sheet is very welcome and we now have the best defensive record in the league. Bamford getting another goal is great for him after a slightly stuttering start to his time here.

 

I think I mentioned either before or just after the Watford game that there were a few things I wanted to see. I wanted to see us beat the poorer sides in this division with more ease, I wanted to see us beat the better sides in the division and I wanted to see a few more goals. In the space of two games we've actually done all three of those. Something I say quite a lot is that we have to back results up with the next one. We've done that today by beating Norwich but we now have to do this on Saturday against Bournemouth. Another team up there and another opportunity to damage one of them whilst improving our own position. We could go into the break being the team to beat in this division and putting a marker down that we're serious promotion candidates. It's probably too short notice but if I were the club I'd have a ticket offer on over the next few days and really go for it with a top of the table clash. If we get a big gate and we actually show up and perform to get a win then that could have knock on effects into the Xmas period and beyond.

[MRe 352]

If only Tomlin netted that flick over his head...

[Adam P 331]

Someone on the Norwich forum claims that most of "their bench would walk into our team, they have a multi-million pound bench and we've got loads of unknowns and a Norwich reject in defence".

 

Ridiculous statement.

[Will 2,958]

Someone on the Norwich forum claims that most of "their bench would walk into our team, they have a multi-million pound bench and we've got loads of unknowns and a Norwich reject in defence".

 

Ridiculous statement.

 

I read that and was going to post it in the morning, how deluded can people be?

[p_mards 1,365]

It sums up the arrogance of relegated teams. They've got some expensive players on big wages but it takes far more than that to be promoted from this division.

 

When Ayala is fit and match sharp, he is one of the best CB's in this division. We done great business signing him for the rumored £300,000.

[London_born_Boro_bred 29]

Someone on the Norwich forum claims that most of "their bench would walk into our team, they have a multi-million pound bench and we've got loads of unknowns and a Norwich reject in defence".

 

Ridiculous statement.

 

Still smashed them 4-0 though so what does that say?