http://i.imgur.com/AdTMeRl.jpg

 

 

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away...

 

 

Karanka is gone. After three years of work to get Middlesbrough into the Premier League, the dream turned sour once there. Steve 'Egghead' Agnew did such a poor job when taking temporary charge that he seems to have been erased from the face of the planet. 

A hero emerges. 5 years on from the demise of evil overlord Gordon Strachan, our supreme leader Steve Gibson has finally decided that he can trust ginger men again, and the result is Garry Monk, beloved in Swansea, an outlaw in Leeds.

Armed with treasures bequeathed by Gibson, Monk has wasted no time in spending it.He has assembled a gang of trusted fighters: a***st others, Britt Assombalonga, Martin Braithwaite and Cyrus Christie. With his other hand, Monk has been exiling those who seek to sabotage him. Gone are Bernardo Espinosa and Toni Barragan.

 

Monk leads his band of brothers to the cold, desolate uncultured land of Wolverhampton, where they face the first test on their quest to return back where they belong. But it won't be easy...

 

 

- HOW WILL BORO LINE UP?

- WILL THE SQUAD AT WOLVES BE THE SAME AT THE END OF THE TRANSFER WINDOW?

- WHAT WILL THE SCORE BE?

- WHERE IS STEVE AGNEW?

Same lineup as against Augsburg. Can't see any changes.

 

Having read a bit about wolves we really need to take the game to them. Their manager is new to the Championship although he is vastly experienced having managed top team Porto. Likewise many of their new players are rookies in a Championship league. They are without two of their most influential offensive players in Costa and Cavaliero while ***o is also a doubt. Their only other striker is a youngster and new loanee from Brazil who played in Saudi Arabia last season. We simply need to just attack them and not give them any time on the ball. New midfielder Neves is a massive talent and lot will likely go through him so Clayton and De Roon needs to let him feel some tough love early on. New coach Nino plays a 3-4-3 with wingbacks so that could potentially give some space to our wider players. It'll also give Traore some extra space if he comes on against a wingback that has run up and down for the first 60-70 mins.

 

We have to go for the win and we have a better team. But first game of the season away from home at a full stadium is going to end 1-1 with Paddy getting our goal to cancel out a wolves first half lead.

Great to see the thread up and running, any chance someone can join a Wolves forum and invite their members over here for some discussion?

Assuming no progress is made with De Roon's mooted move back to Atalanta, I suspect it will be the same line-up as the Augsburg game.

 

I don't think Wolves are quite finished spending yet.

 

I think we need to be careful. Wolves won their final pre-season game against Leicester and looked the better side from the highlights, a beauty of a finish by Cavaleiro (didn't realise he played for Wolves now!) And him up against Christie will be an interesting battle. Think we need to try and keep it tight for the first 15-20 minutes before trying to get a strong grip on the game.

 

I'm going for a 1-1 draw. Assombalonga with a debut goal. ***o for Wolves.

 

Steve Agnew is running YK Chow's.

Assuming no progress is made with De Roon's mooted move back to Atalanta, I suspect it will be the same line-up as the Augsburg game.

 

I don't think Wolves are quite finished spending yet.

 

I think we need to be careful. Wolves won their final pre-season game against Leicester and looked the better side from the highlights, a beauty of a finish by Cavaleiro (didn't realise he played for Wolves now!) And him up against Christie will be an interesting battle. Think we need to try and keep it tight for the first 15-20 minutes before trying to get a strong grip on the game.

 

I'm going for a 1-1 draw. Assombalonga with a debut goal. ***o for Wolves.

 

Steve Agnew is running YK Chow's.

 

Cavaliero is out for our game. I think the first two actually, but definitely ours.

 

Great opening post Tom, as always.

Ah, wasn't aware, is that a suspension?

Any Boro fans heading to the game by train you can now get a tram from Birmingham New street (Corporation street exit) to Wolverhampton

Ah, wasn't aware, is that a suspension?

 

I think so, yes.

great OP, missed football loads, helps distract from how terrible life is atm. although would have been better if you added wolves faces on the baddies :D

 

its a tough game this, the wolves are all buzzing about beating Leicester in a friendly, which i thought was daft. just shows how excited they all are for the new season. its a sellout 30k sold so with that packed stadium and the air of optimism in the air, i think they will have their tails up from the off. i'm predicting a draw as we always seem to draw first game. they will take the lead but we'll peck them back and take control later on. leaving both sets of supporters happy with a point.

 

the team is tricky to predict. i was thinking traore definite starter but paddy played right and seemed like a proper front 3 which i liked in augsberg game. i doubt traore being in the team would be a similar shape. he's a wild one though and he has to start esp away from home.

 

i think we'll start like this:

 

------------ayala--------- gibson

christie--------clayton-----------friend

 

------------forshaw howson

 

traore----------braithewaite

 

------------------britt

 

friend and christie bombing on braithe tucking right in and traore galloping downn the right feeding the balls into britt, braithe and the oncoming midfielders with george fat the back for over hit traore crosses lol

Quality opening post, Tom! Buzzing for this game, haven't gotten to an away game since Palace last season so it's been far too long!

Tricky first opponent in Wolves considering their recent business, really hard to tell how they'll fare this season... exciting stuff, hoping for a couple boro goals

Tough game against what might be a surprise package - but I'll go for 1-2.

https://media.tenor.com/images/5cfb222e79fe0f686878127e30191050/tenor.gif

 

I still think we are gonna start very slow under Monk, so I'm going for an ambitious 1-1 draw, but it wouldn't surprise me if we got beat.

The performance is more what I'm concerned about for this game. 3 points would be huge but a point and a good performance would be good in the grand scheme of things. The rest of August will have a much greater impact on our season. 3 essentially must-win home games and we should consider ourselves favourites going to Forest too.

I'm going to say a draw as well, but going for 2-2 Away from home. There's no doubt that Wolves new signings are quality, but think it could take a few matches before they are used to the Championship.

 

Likewise with our team, will take a few matches to gel and really get going. Leeds didn't start well under Monk but then hit form, can see our season being similar. Definitely not panic stations if we lose this game, seem to remember Newcastle lost their first 2 last season?

Very tough opener, Wolves beat a full strength Leicester team last Saturday and will be backed by a full house.

 

It's hard to predict a scoreline so early in the season but I agree with the above post about expecting a slow start due to all the changes we've made.

 

I'd settle for a draw but I have a gut feeling we might lose this 1-0.