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I thought Downing was much better today.

 

He definitely seemed more willing to have a go and try and pick out forward thinking passes which is nice.

 

Still don't think entirely made a mark on the game but progress non the less.

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A small thing that really impressed me with Gaston today was the ease and cuteness about his skillful turns in the middle of the pitch it really did open up space for him and others it's a speciality of his that could be key against teams using a high press which at this point is half the Premier League. De Roon having a muscle injury is weeks not months so not the end of the world but shows how depth is important and if Gaston catches a bad tackle I truly worry for us and Negredo because lest we forget we made Negredo 1 chance today which our wingers need to take alot of responsibility for.

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First off, how wonderful was it to watch the lads run out as Premier League players? It feels as though the Brighton game was a lifetime ago so it was lovely to finally get the reward for last seasons slog. ‘Strength in Unity’ said the banner proudly displayed in the North Stand before kick-off and the atmosphere certainly showed just that. The fans were fantastic today and didn’t stop all game, I hope we sell out every week.

 

With seven long years in the Championship wilderness, many outside of Teesside have wondered if Boro are capable of adapting to the step up. Quickly onto the front foot it became clear that we were in no mood to just make up the numbers in the first half. We attacked quickly in numbers, with some lovely passing and movement. I don’t think Stoke could have complained if they were 2 or 3 nil down at half time.

 

Unfortunately, despite coming close on several occasions, we just couldn’t find that crucial second and were punished for it. It was a massive disappointment to undue all that good work from the first half and it sucked a lot of energy out of our game. Stoke took the initiative to press us and went close on a couple of occasions. We did well to restrict them to the one shot on target but it still feels disappointing that we didn’t come away with all three.

 

I know we need another CH but I’d really like us to get someone for that RW. Adomah faded in the second half and some fresh legs might have made the difference. I can’t fault the work-rate of any of those lads today though they worked hard and it almost payed off.

 

Negredo fully deserves his nickname. He holds the ball so well and his touch is very classy. I can see him scoring a good few goals for us and I loved his link up play with Gaston.

 

All in all a point isn’t shabby against a well organised established Premier League side, I’ll take it as a positive that we are disappointed and roll on Sunday. It’s pretty darn swell this Premier League stuff.

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I would very much like to see Fischer start the next game, Downing basically vanished bar a few decent passes and I don't think he did much defensively at all.

 

Think de Roon, for the little time he was on, showed that he;s going to be an absolutely massive player for us and Friend does not look out of place in this league.

 

Our right side looks very weak. Adomah, for all the good he does messes up far too many time and I don't think Nsue is gonna cut it at RB. I can definitely see Barragan - Ayala - Gibson - Friend being our main defensive line up.

 

Nsue isn't going to cut it? How on earth do you work that one out based on today's performance? He coped brilliantly with one of last seasons best players in the PL and was very positive going forward!

 

He didn't cope brilliantly at all, he was poor at times against a player having a poor day. Arnautovic beat him a fair few times and Nsue had to be bailed out by Barragan. Whilst Nsue was fantastic at times last season, you can tell that he's naturally an attacker. He's hesitant when retreating, overly cautious at times and is often beaten by someone with a trick up their sleeve.

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Proud of the performances, especially in the first half. Still slightly disappointed we dropped points at home, despite 1-1 being a fair result overall.

 

Ramirez(MOTM for me) is going to be the key to us surviving, if something bad were to happen to him I think we will struggle to stay up, as we have very little creativity going forward except him.

 

First 90 minutes of a new season and already starting with hypothetical scenarios. Oh dear oh dear. God forbid if all the team are not at full peak now!!

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Ramirez, Negredo, Clayton, Forshaw, Friend, Barragan, Gibson all had terrific games.

 

Kevin Friend, the less said about this *** the better. This is why I was fuming when he was appointed to our game. The guy is a complete ***ing ***.

 

Overall, good point. And we're 5th! Champions League anyone?

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I thought we played well 1st half,2nd half Adomah was poor, caught in possession quite a few times when we were in good positions and his crossing was awful, we should have been 2 up had Adomah looked up and played the easy ball into Negredo .Downing was steady away didn't do anything spectacular but didn't do anything wrong. Big fan of Forshaw's and I think today proved it would be a big mistake to sell or loan him out, comfortable with the ball, the Premier suits him.

Good point not a bad start for us.

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Feels good to be back in the prem!

 

Think most of us would have taken a draw at the start of the game so not too disappointed about that. Thought we started strongly with lots of crisp passing and positive movement, but petered out a bit towards the end (we looked a but tired tbh).

 

Thought ramirez was great, linked up well with negredo, who also looked very intelligent with his passing as well as being a strong presence up front.

Shame about De Roon going off. Hope it's not a long one but it didn't look good.

 

Ref was useless. Gave a foul every time a boro player went near a stoke one. Hate panickity reffing like that.

 

And lastley, I'd never realised what a short a*** Shaquiri is. Looked like a little umpa lumpa waddling round the pitch :D

 

Now bring on MOTD

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Proud of the performances, especially in the first half. Still slightly disappointed we dropped points at home, despite 1-1 being a fair result overall.

 

Ramirez(MOTM for me) is going to be the key to us surviving, if something bad were to happen to him I think we will struggle to stay up, as we have very little creativity going forward except him.

 

First 90 minutes of a new season and already starting with hypothetical scenarios. Oh dear oh dear. God forbid if all the team are not at full peak now!!

 

It's not just 90 mins be fair alot of the opinions are the same views people have expressed for the past year ie relying on a 32 year old Downing in a wide position is a bad idea, Adomah puts in the odd good cross but also needlessly ruins other attacks with his touch/finish/decision making/overplaying. These aren't debateable new points about Adomah and Downing it's just frustrating for all the great signings we're still left with our binoculars out trying to find Downing and pulling our hair out over Adomah.

 

Everyone here is delighted we put in a good showing no doubt about it the tactical display was spot on and yes Downing on the ball had a decent delivery once or twice but the old problems are still there for all to see. Pointing out without Gaston we are toothless is an issue that was proven at times last season so it's not outrageous to say if Gaston gets an injury we would be in deep trouble without Gaston last season we'd be playoffs probably so it goes without saying we need him to play 80% of our games to stay up.

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Very good performance, we dominated for the majority of the game and had some great chances which we wasted. Ramirez was fantastic, linked up with negrado so well. We are more than good enough to survive based on that performence

 

Very frustrated with Adomah today, last twenty minutes he really left nsue exposed which could have so easily cost us. Can criticise downing for plenty of things today but he never left Friend exposed(Friend had a great game btw)

 

Hope de roon is back soon, from what we have seen so far he looks a real class act. Forshaw looked good but we really were overrun in the midfield in that second half

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If you'd have offered me a point before the game I'd have been happy.

 

I think a new CB is a priority. Not because I think Barragan or Gibson were bad today, just I don't rate Nsue at RB whatsoever. Fine with him as a RW but personally believe he is suspect at the back.

 

Ramirez looked quality today. Friend looked very good but disappointed with Adomah today. Didn't offer enough for me.

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Decent point and deserved. A lot of adrenaline out there hence the first half but not enough quality really hence the second half when that adrenaline wore off. Unfortunately that adrenaline boost isn't going to be there most of the time so we really need to improve the team as we should have been doing over the summer instead of wasting our time bringing in players that will only play in the event of injuries.

 

Valdes did ok but was at fault for the goal from what I could see. Nsue looked ok going forward but was caught out and beaten a few times going the other way. Gibson and Barragan looked good without really being tested although Barragan nearly screwed up with the back pass. Friend did well, much better than Nsue.

 

Clayton looked ok and tried to press a lot but if it doesn't work we end up with big gaps, problem is he's going to have to do a lot of work this season from what I saw today. de Roon I don't really get why people rave about him, I think he made one decent interception (maybe 2?) but on other occasions was clearly too slow to get to where he needed to be and I noticed that in the some of the pre-season friendlies as well. I don't think it's physical slowness, it's mental to me, he seems to want to wait and dive in at the last minute. Gutted for the lad getting the injury though. Forshaw did ok when he came on but he isn't the answer in the long term.

 

Downing to be fair had some drive about him today without really influencing the game and probably should have done better with the header. Adomah did what Adomah does, which is to do some quite good things with some quite bad things. Really should have been able to set up either Negredo or Downing when he broke clear in the second half. Decent ball in for the goal though. Arguably offers more than Downing but I'm not sure it will be enough over a season. He should be a back up player really. Ramirez looked really sharp but tired as the second half went on. Our best player by some distance. Negredo did well but we need to figure out how to get the ball to him in the penalty area more often. Linked nicely and was a decent target for us to play off. Still not sure he's 100% so that's promising. Basically we need to improve our attacking options and it should have been done already in my opinion.

 

We looked the better side in the first half but not by much and I thought we were second best in the second half although Stoke didn't really threaten us too much. Every team we play has match winners and players of individual quality, unless we sort out the attacking side of our game I just think we'll struggle to win games. Stoke are at best a mid table side and we're going to need to be able to beat those teams if we want to be a Premier League side next season. I'm also not sure about our ability to sit back and keep clean sheets, I don't think we'll be able to keep enough. Today may have been tiredness as much as tactical but then that's not actually all that good either really.

 

Overall some positives, some negatives but not the worst start. I'll be disappointed if we haven't added at least two more first choice players to this squad by the end of the window.

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Good point to start with and maybe should have been more.

 

Disappointed for De Roon that he has picked up the injury but delighted for Negredo that he's off the mark so soon. Think he could score enough goals to keep us clear of the bottom three if he stays fit and is provided with the ammunition.

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