Boro vs Everton (A) 1-3

[teapot 4]

Players in

 

Valdes - not an improvement on Dimi, I said it when he was signed, I stick by it

Guzan - not an improvement on Dimi, no idea why he was signed

Barragan - solid, but not suited to AK's formation, which involves the fullback getting forward.

Chambers - not enough data

Espinosa - not enough data

De Roon - potentially good

Fischer - not enough data

Ramirez - he did it in the Championship, it will be harder in the Premiership, but I feel happier with him in the team than without.

Traore - not enough data - only my personal opinion that he will not be a success

Negredo - disregarding that ridiculous goal that was allowed today, I'm still undecided by him, but think he can score goals in a team set up to create goals - which we are not*

 

Players already here.

Dimi - should have been given a chance in my opinion.

Gibson, Ayala and Friend - did it in the Championship, they have not turned bad overnight. Give them a chance until January.

Clayton - works hard, we miss him when he is not there.

Everyone in front of the midfield - they were poor last season, and the season before and I don't honesty think, that Ramirez aside we have any creativity, pace or goals [let's wait and see on Traore].

 

Personally I don't think our first 11 has improved much, if at all, over what we had last season. We have a deeper squad.

 

I would have brought in 3-4 very good players that would have gone straight into the team, rather than 10-11 who have merely increased the squad strength.

 

This is going to be a long, hard season, we will lose a lot of matches. My initial thought at the start of the season was 11th to 15th place. Right now, I'll be happy with 15th to 17th.

[Prowler 197]

Players in

 

Valdes - not an improvement on Dimi, I said it when he was signed, I stick by it

Guzan - not an improvement on Dimi, no idea why he was signed

Barragan - solid, but not suited to AK's formation, which involves the fullback getting forward.

Chambers - not enough data

Espinosa - not enough data

De Roon - potentially good

Fischer - not enough data

Ramirez - he did it in the Championship, it will be harder in the Premiership, but I feel happier with him in the team than without.

Traore - not enough data - only my personal opinion that he will not be a success

Negredo - disregarding that ridiculous goal that was allowed today, I'm still undecided by him, but think he can score goals in a team set up to create goals - which we are not*

 

Players already here.

Dimi - should have been given a chance in my opinion.

Gibson, Ayala and Friend - did it in the Championship, they have not turned bad overnight.  Give them a chance until January.

Clayton - works hard, we miss him when he is not there.

Everyone in front of the midfield - they were poor last season, and the season before and I don't honesty think, that Ramirez aside we have any creativity, pace or goals [let's wait and see on Traore].

 

Personally I don't think our first 11 has improved much, if at all, over what we had last season.  We have a deeper squad.

 

I would have brought in 3-4 very good players that would have gone straight into the team, rather than 10-11 who have merely increased the squad strength.

 

This is going to be a long, hard season, we will lose a lot of matches.  My initial thought at the start of the season was 11th to 15th place.  Right now, I'll be happy with 15th to 17th.

 

[ChipBarrington 315]

I think Barragan is perfectly suited to the formation. Rightly or wrongly its the style he doesnt suit.AK seems to like his full backs playing as wingers and his wingers as full backs. Barragan seems more than capable defensively so id like us to stick Traore in from the start. Give the opposition full backs something to think about and make their winger track back.

[Aarfy_Aardvark 38]

Anything we get against Everton, Spurs, Chelsea, Man U, ***nal, Man City and Liverpool is a bonus.

 

Everything else is up for grabs. I really feel that last season was a one-off and the natural order and hierarchy is back.

 

We need to play more freely against Spurs next week.

[Neverbefore 10,940]

We've got no attacking plan whatsoever and that was terrible goalkeeping play from Valdes. It was textbook Mejias style and he really needs to do a lot better. Very much his fault.

 

i didn't expect anything from today but it's going to be one hell of a long season. I honestly have trouble seeing where the goals are going to come from with this attack. We have to hope there are two other worse teams and we have enough to beat our direct rivals like we did at Sunderland.

 

Valdes getting a lot of criticism today which I think odd. Anyone that's played goalie will tell you the third goal is not his fault. As soon as the cross is allowed and he sees lukaku alone he has to play for lukaku getting a touch.

 

The second was a really good finish and I think he actually gets a solid fist to the first even with a boot in his face it just happens to cannon back off Negredo. This one is the only one he can take blame on because he should be more assertive.

 

Whilst i agree that Valdes in general was decent today, have to disagree with the last goal. 

 

It was schoolyard stuff really. If he was anticipating that Lukaku would get a touch, then he needed to stay on his line to give him more of a chance to react. He either thought he was going to get to it before Lukaku by coming off his line or misjudged the situation because he wasn't aware that Lukaku was there. Either way, he was ball watching and he was caught out.

[Brunners 7,982]

We've got no attacking plan whatsoever and that was terrible goalkeeping play from Valdes. It was textbook Mejias style and he really needs to do a lot better. Very much his fault.

 

i didn't expect anything from today but it's going to be one hell of a long season. I honestly have trouble seeing where the goals are going to come from with this attack. We have to hope there are two other worse teams and we have enough to beat our direct rivals like we did at Sunderland.

 

Valdes getting a lot of criticism today which I think odd. Anyone that's played goalie will tell you the third goal is not his fault. As soon as the cross is allowed and he sees lukaku alone he has to play for lukaku getting a touch.

 

The second was a really good finish and I think he actually gets a solid fist to the first even with a boot in his face it just happens to cannon back off Negredo. This one is the only one he can take blame on because he should be more assertive.

 

Whilst i agree that Valdes in general was decent today, have to disagree with the last goal. 

 

It was schoolyard stuff really. If he was anticipating that Lukaku would get a touch, then he needed to stay on his line to give him more of a chance to react. He either thought he was going to get to it before Lukaku by coming off his line or misjudged the situation because he wasn't aware that Lukaku was there. Either way, he was ball watching and he was caught out.

 

I'll admit upon rewatching he does get caught a little bit.

 

https://my.mixtape.moe/vgzzfn.mp4

 

You can see he initially starts moving out to try and claim it before seeing Lukaku and trying to back off again. 

 

You're right more at fault than maybe initially I thought but it's still schoolboy defending from the CBs.

["KM" 1,656]

Unpopular opinion but we've looked better in defence with Guzan in goal and Barragan/Gibson CB. I've been disappointed with Valdes if I'm being honest, other than his distribution he's looked poor. He doesn't command his area and I'm yet to see him organise his defence and send out orders, at least Guzan does that. Someone mentioned yesterday that if it had been Guzan making the errors Valdes was he would have been destroyed by our fans, he's right. Friend doesn't look convincing either. I reckon we will see a defensive reshuffle next weekend.

[Downsouth 6,326]

It was a bizarre first half and one of those halves that comes along from time to time, it seemed to me that we simply switched off after the equaliser and to an extent gave up.

 

A better second half purely down to the fact that Everton were content to hold onto what they had because we could have been on the end of a hiding.

 

Only a personal point of view and that is I do not think the formation we play is going to get us through the season unless we can adapt and switch playing styles from time to time.

 

Agree with the views that any points against "the big teams" is going to be seen as "shock points" so we have to match and beat those who will be in and around us.

 

I know it will be a hard season and we are being reminded just how things were when we were last in the PL but with more intensity from the Boro players then we should be ok.

 

I do wish that we had a "flair player" within our ranks though

[Tom 2,492]

I'm becoming more convinced that if Gastón isn't on song, we need to play two up front. He is a very workmanlike player, which is great when we're the better team, but when we aren't his dropping deep just isolates Negredo even more. We've been there with Tomlin, and then when we brought the more attack minded Vossen in instead, we found that Bamford had much more support. I'm not saying Nugent is THE answer, but he is an answer.

[Betamaxman 14]

I'm becoming more convinced that if Gastón isn't on song, we need to play two up front. He is a very workmanlike player, which is great when we're the better team, but when we aren't his dropping deep just isolates Negredo even more. We've been there with Tomlin, and then when we brought the more attack minded Vossen in instead, we found that Bamford had much more support. I'm not saying Nugent is THE answer, but he is an answer.

 

I agree Tom. I'm also a bit concerned that like it or not Gaston does have a bit of history of not making it in the PL.

 

As for Nugent (or 'the answer'), where do you stand on Rhodes Tom? Do you think he's worse than Nuge?

[melchett 5]

I'm becoming more convinced that if Gastón isn't on song, we need to play two up front. He is a very workmanlike player, which is great when we're the better team, but when we aren't his dropping deep just isolates Negredo even more. We've been there with Tomlin, and then when we brought the more attack minded Vossen in instead, we found that Bamford had much more support. I'm not saying Nugent is THE answer, but he is an answer.

 

I agree Tom. I'm also a bit concerned that like it or not Gaston does have a bit of history of not making it in the PL.

 

As for Nugent (or 'the answer'), where do you stand on Rhodes Tom? Do you think he's worse than Nuge?

 

I have a feeling its either Rhodes or Negrado. Don't think we will see them starting together. Nugent is a different style of player to Rhodes and it looks like AK thinks that them two can work together from time to time. We have seen a couple of times Nugent coming on for Gaston.

I'm not saying that this is the right option just what i belive AK thinks.

[Betamaxman 14]

I'm becoming more convinced that if Gastón isn't on song, we need to play two up front. He is a very workmanlike player, which is great when we're the better team, but when we aren't his dropping deep just isolates Negredo even more. We've been there with Tomlin, and then when we brought the more attack minded Vossen in instead, we found that Bamford had much more support. I'm not saying Nugent is THE answer, but he is an answer.

 

I agree Tom. I'm also a bit concerned that like it or not Gaston does have a bit of history of not making it in the PL.

 

As for Nugent (or 'the answer'), where do you stand on Rhodes Tom? Do you think he's worse than Nuge?

 

I have a feeling its either Rhodes or Negrado. Don't think we will see them starting together. Nugent is a different style of player to Rhodes and it looks like AK thinks that them two can work together from time to time. We have seen a couple of times Nugent coming on for Gaston.

I'm not saying that this is the right option just what i belive AK thinks.

 

Yes, I think you are probably right. I had wondered whether we'd get to see a run of Rhodes starts if Negredo gets injured.

 

I worry though, as DS alluded to. I don't think that rigidly sticking to 4231 will cut it in this league. We need formation options. I think we also need to be prepared for the fact that we will be chasing more games.

 

The players need to up their games to cut it in this league, but so does the manager. (I'm not trying to start an AK debate here). Attacking improvements/options required.

["KM" 1,656]

I don't think it's the formation that's the problem, it's poor performances from individual players and our lack of intensity. We looked OK for the first 20 minutes yesterday with that 4231 formation then it all went to ***. Once we get our personnel and intensity right we'll be fine.

[Ayresome365 44]

It's arrogant to think that we can play 4231 every week though.

 

We need to pick a formation and team that can win a game against the opposition by nullifying their strengths.

[HoyteForLeftBack 194]

It was refreshing to see nugent come on and actually carry the ball 20-30 yards instead of passing sideways/backwards, however it ends up being counterproductive when the rest of our team are in positions expecting a backwards/sideways pass and are about 20-30 yards behind him!

However probably my biggest frustration is we need to be able to setup differently against the better teams. Last night we didn't seem to have any real plan just send out pretty much the same team and hope for the best.

Possibly on my own here but Forshaw showed he's not right for that position against the bigger teams, he's too lightweight and he can't tackle. I like having him in against the poorer teams at home as he's busy and technically decent, but even then he's been caught too high up the pitch a few times when he should be screening the defence.

Hopefully claytons knock won't be too bad as I think on Saturday we'll need to start him alongside de roon (who I haven't quite worked out yet) and defend deep, reeeeeeaally deep.

On a plus note, whether or not it was a foul I don't care but it was good to see us get a nice early cross in and have negredo attack it for our goal.