Jump to content
oneBoro Forum

Boro v Burnley (A) 0-1


Recommended Posts

Not a regular or big poster but yesterday felt like a watershed moment in some ways, so here I go...

 

We kept the ball well for long spells in the second half, albeit without opening them up a single time. I thought Clayton was industrious and did well recycling the ball and trying to get us moving from deep, Negredo also worked hard with some good touches holding up and knocking down but only ever had Ramirez as an outlet who was nullified, predictable as it gets. Our bluntness in attack was particularly highlighted, again nothing new, by how poor the quality of the delivery and final ball was. One particular occasion when Flanagan scythed down Ramirez close to the byline, Forshaw's freekick didn't beat the first man at the near post, the resulting corner met the same fate, and the ball eventually came out to Clayton who lofted a ball over the heads of every player in the box out for a goal kick. Barragan and Stuani down the right were actually more hopeless, neither of them have a shred of quality in delivering a ball, floating balls directly into Heatons arms under no pressure multiple times, both substandard repeatedly. Out of the 7 midfielders and fullbacks, there was only Gaston who could be relied on yesterday to put a decent ball into the box, which considering it is a pretty large part of our gameplan, is pitiful, and made the decision to leave Downing out the whole game even more bizarre.

 

Now onto Karanka, it seems more and more people are beginning to lose their patience with him, and I've got to be honest I'm indifferent to the prospect of him leaving. Maybe I've started to take the solidity he's brought to the team for granted (those leaky afternoons under Strachan and Mowbray at Barnsley and Peterborough seem a long way away now) but I'm just finding fewer and fewer qualities that I like about him. I don't for one second buy into the notion that someone on BBC Tees yesterday was saying, that he makes ridiculous decisions to agitate the fans, but its undeniable that he's arrogant at his best and obnoxious at his worst, I know its not his job to be likeable but I just can't muster any affinity to him as the manager of our football club. This is a guy who has been backed to the hilt by Steve Gibson and walked out in the most crucial moment of the most important season in the last 7 years, what kind of self-respecting manager does that? I'm not buying into people defending him by saying look where he's taken us from where we were, he's not overachieved, he's had the best support from any club in a similar position to ours, his net spend is £41m over 3 seasons, excluding wages you've got to assume the likes of Valdes and Negredo are on now. He himself admitted that if he had not got us promoted last season it would have been a failure, and he only just scraped it on the last day of the season on goal difference. I can't get my head around people absolving him from criticism, with the way some go on you'd think we'd walked the league last year and scored 100 goals, and his negativity and stubbornness this season has already cost us points, and will continue to unless he becomes more ambitious. I don't believe its a fans duty to back a manager unconditionally just because he's at their club (support that like that should be reserved exclusively for Steve Gibson) Karanka is essentially dispensable and should be criticised on his merits and shortcomings.

 

I do however agree with some that he could potentially keep us in the Premier League, we are currently on course for the point per game target that would get us survival, but to have any chance of staying up, we've got to start picking up some extra points in games like yesterday, to push us on past that points per game total and give ourselves a a point cushion going into the end of the season, I wouldn't have much faith in us going into our last 6 (***nal H, Bournemouth A, Man City H, Chelsea A, Southampton H, Liverpool A) needing to pick up 6 points to gain survival, (I know thats all hypothetical but we've actually had people talking about the merits of maintaining a good goal difference recently so I think it can be said).

 

Right, sorry for the essay but things needed to be said to keep my sanity.

 

Great post mate.

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • Replies 338
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  •  

    32

  •  

    24

  •  

    20

  •  

    16

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Posts

Not a regular or big poster but yesterday felt like a watershed moment in some ways, so here I go...   We kept the ball well for long spells in the second half, albeit without opening them up a singl

Not a regular or big poster but yesterday felt like a watershed moment in some ways, so here I go...

 

We kept the ball well for long spells in the second half, albeit without opening them up a single time. I thought Clayton was industrious and did well recycling the ball and trying to get us moving from deep, Negredo also worked hard with some good touches holding up and knocking down but only ever had Ramirez as an outlet who was nullified, predictable as it gets. Our bluntness in attack was particularly highlighted, again nothing new, by how poor the quality of the delivery and final ball was. One particular occasion when Flanagan scythed down Ramirez close to the byline, Forshaw's freekick didn't beat the first man at the near post, the resulting corner met the same fate, and the ball eventually came out to Clayton who lofted a ball over the heads of every player in the box out for a goal kick. Barragan and Stuani down the right were actually more hopeless, neither of them have a shred of quality in delivering a ball, floating balls directly into Heatons arms under no pressure multiple times, both substandard repeatedly. Out of the 7 midfielders and fullbacks, there was only Gaston who could be relied on yesterday to put a decent ball into the box, which considering it is a pretty large part of our gameplan, is pitiful, and made the decision to leave Downing out the whole game even more bizarre.

 

Now onto Karanka, it seems more and more people are beginning to lose their patience with him, and I've got to be honest I'm indifferent to the prospect of him leaving. Maybe I've started to take the solidity he's brought to the team for granted (those leaky afternoons under Strachan and Mowbray at Barnsley and Peterborough seem a long way away now) but I'm just finding fewer and fewer qualities that I like about him. I don't for one second buy into the notion that someone on BBC Tees yesterday was saying, that he makes ridiculous decisions to agitate the fans, but its undeniable that he's arrogant at his best and obnoxious at his worst, I know its not his job to be likeable but I just can't muster any affinity to him as the manager of our football club. This is a guy who has been backed to the hilt by Steve Gibson and walked out in the most crucial moment of the most important season in the last 7 years, what kind of self-respecting manager does that? I'm not buying into people defending him by saying look where he's taken us from where we were, he's not overachieved, he's had the best support from any club in a similar position to ours, his net spend is £41m over 3 seasons, excluding wages you've got to assume the likes of Valdes and Negredo are on now. He himself admitted that if he had not got us promoted last season it would have been a failure, and he only just scraped it on the last day of the season on goal difference. I can't get my head around people absolving him from criticism, with the way some go on you'd think we'd walked the league last year and scored 100 goals, and his negativity and stubbornness this season has already cost us points, and will continue to unless he becomes more ambitious. I don't believe its a fans duty to back a manager unconditionally just because he's at their club (support that like that should be reserved exclusively for Steve Gibson) Karanka is essentially dispensable and should be criticised on his merits and shortcomings.  

 

I do however agree with some that he could potentially keep us in the Premier League, we are currently on course for the point per game target that would get us survival, but to have any chance of staying up, we've got to start picking up some extra points in games like yesterday, to push us on past that points per game total and give ourselves a a point cushion going into the end of the season, I wouldn't have much faith in us going into our last 6 (***nal H, Bournemouth A, Man City H, Chelsea A, Southampton H, Liverpool A) needing to pick up 6 points to gain survival, (I know thats all hypothetical but we've actually had people talking about the merits of maintaining a good goal difference recently so I think it can be said).

 

Right, sorry for the essay but things needed to be said to keep my sanity.

 

Good post.

 

Agree especially about our right side which was completely awful and one can only imagine how different it might have been if it was Downing and Fabio over there instead of Stuani and Barragan.

 

On AK, my feelings are mixed. Some games I absolutely love him and have been impressed with what he has done to include de Roon, Clayton and Forshaw, but now he actually seems to attached to the idea when its not needed. Clayton in my opinion has to start so in games like yesterday and in some home games I feel he needs to bite the bullet and decide on de Roon or Forshaw. (I'd play de Roon over Forshaw but know a lot of people in here feel the opposite).

 

Ramirez's best position is at 10 and we should be seeing him play there a much as possible. Against ***nal, City, Chelsea etc, I am all for the 3 midfielders but AK doesn't seem to want to demonstrate tactical flexibility in games.

 

Last of all, George has to be back in our 11 and its insane that he was on the bench yesterday. If it means Fabio takes Barragan's spot then so be it.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Not a regular or big poster but yesterday felt like a watershed moment in some ways, so here I go...

 

We kept the ball well for long spells in the second half, albeit without opening them up a single time. I thought Clayton was industrious and did well recycling the ball and trying to get us moving from deep, Negredo also worked hard with some good touches holding up and knocking down but only ever had Ramirez as an outlet who was nullified, predictable as it gets. Our bluntness in attack was particularly highlighted, again nothing new, by how poor the quality of the delivery and final ball was. One particular occasion when Flanagan scythed down Ramirez close to the byline, Forshaw's freekick didn't beat the first man at the near post, the resulting corner met the same fate, and the ball eventually came out to Clayton who lofted a ball over the heads of every player in the box out for a goal kick. Barragan and Stuani down the right were actually more hopeless, neither of them have a shred of quality in delivering a ball, floating balls directly into Heatons arms under no pressure multiple times, both substandard repeatedly. Out of the 7 midfielders and fullbacks, there was only Gaston who could be relied on yesterday to put a decent ball into the box, which considering it is a pretty large part of our gameplan, is pitiful, and made the decision to leave Downing out the whole game even more bizarre.

 

Now onto Karanka, it seems more and more people are beginning to lose their patience with him, and I've got to be honest I'm indifferent to the prospect of him leaving. Maybe I've started to take the solidity he's brought to the team for granted (those leaky afternoons under Strachan and Mowbray at Barnsley and Peterborough seem a long way away now) but I'm just finding fewer and fewer qualities that I like about him. I don't for one second buy into the notion that someone on BBC Tees yesterday was saying, that he makes ridiculous decisions to agitate the fans, but its undeniable that he's arrogant at his best and obnoxious at his worst, I know its not his job to be likeable but I just can't muster any affinity to him as the manager of our football club. This is a guy who has been backed to the hilt by Steve Gibson and walked out in the most crucial moment of the most important season in the last 7 years, what kind of self-respecting manager does that? I'm not buying into people defending him by saying look where he's taken us from where we were, he's not overachieved, he's had the best support from any club in a similar position to ours, his net spend is £41m over 3 seasons, excluding wages you've got to assume the likes of Valdes and Negredo are on now. He himself admitted that if he had not got us promoted last season it would have been a failure, and he only just scraped it on the last day of the season on goal difference. I can't get my head around people absolving him from criticism, with the way some go on you'd think we'd walked the league last year and scored 100 goals, and his negativity and stubbornness this season has already cost us points, and will continue to unless he becomes more ambitious. I don't believe its a fans duty to back a manager unconditionally just because he's at their club (support that like that should be reserved exclusively for Steve Gibson) Karanka is essentially dispensable and should be criticised on his merits and shortcomings.  

 

I do however agree with some that he could potentially keep us in the Premier League, we are currently on course for the point per game target that would get us survival, but to have any chance of staying up, we've got to start picking up some extra points in games like yesterday, to push us on past that points per game total and give ourselves a a point cushion going into the end of the season, I wouldn't have much faith in us going into our last 6 (***nal H, Bournemouth A, Man City H, Chelsea A, Southampton H, Liverpool A) needing to pick up 6 points to gain survival, (I know thats all hypothetical but we've actually had people talking about the merits of maintaining a good goal difference recently so I think it can be said).

 

Right, sorry for the essay but things needed to be said to keep my sanity.

 

Great post I have to say, i do defend the manager I know personally  speaking but you have some very valid points.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I think Fisher would have played on the left to accommodate Ramirez in the middle, but unfortunately that couldn't happen.

 

I agree with your long post, it was very insightful. I think our big problem is that we rely on Ramirez because our other side (the right) just isn't good enough. Barragan and Stuani were safe choices yesterday, and it showed.

 

I think Fabio will blast Barragan out of the water when he plays there. And I'd love to see a partnership of Fabio and Traore have a chance to flourish.

 

Friend and Downing should play on the left as they have a good relationship together. Thus leaving Ramirez in the hole behind Negredo.

 

January is crucial for Karanka.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Forget all of this talk of exotic attackers. We need more defenders. If we keep 19 clean sheets, we stay up for sure. Let that be our aim in 2017 ;).

 

19 more points and we stay up. Sign another 3 CBs in Jan and play a 9-0-1 system with only Stuani playing up at right wing and we'll be sorted.

Link to post
Share on other sites
×
×
  • Create New...