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Boro v Preston North End 0-0


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I think Monk got it all wrong today. There was no need to change things- particularly not to change the role of arguably our best player and drop arguably our second best. We looked disjointed and awkward throughout, and didn't have any balance on the flanks with Christie constantly bombing on and not getting back fast enough and Friend being generally poor.

 

The positive for me today was, the defensive core of the team looked good. I.e. Randolph, Gibson, Fry and Clayton. However, I thought Baker was a passenger first half when he was in a bizarre sort of right midfield role, and I thought Fabio and Howson were anonymous (at least until Fabio moved to his proper position).

 

Gestede isn't the answer, but the only threat we posed today was as a result as hoofing it up to him and hoping for the ball to break. Assombalona worked hard, but he ended up having to drift wide and drop deep and play as a link man, which isn't his best role.Bamford and Downing looked good when they came on.

 

What struck me today was the lack of players we have who can go past a man, out of the 12 outfield players on the pitch today, only 2 or 3 can beat a man with any kind of regularity, looking at the unused subs doesn't fill me with confidence either.

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To be fair if you ever had a doubt Monk's a student of Roberto Martinez seeing him post match will soon wash that doubt away he's definitely evasive in his criticism and effusive in his praise for his players.

 

Personally I think Fry's been thrown in at a deep end myself and has managed to handle it well enough to convince me we can trust him over a season as a 3rd choice CB he has so much growth and potential ahead of him the fact he's already a good as he is says a lot to me.

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I really didn't rate Gary Monk before he came to us and he's done nothing to impress me since coming here. For me, if he wasn't English he wouldn't have got the job. He needs to sort this out, because the signs are far from encouraging.

 

The leeds fans have not missed him according to my mate who is a leeds fan they think hes organised in his squad set up once hes gets it right but one dimensional (doesn't that sound like karanka).

 

Well there is an element of being one dimensional. So far we've played 4-3-3, 4-4-2 and 3-5-2 yet the tactics is mainly long punts up the field. We don't play football we kick football. It's incredibly ugly football and easy for the opposition to read.

 

It got Burnley up. Kept them up too.

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Haven't posted in a while but long time lurker. Still early days so no panic for me just yet. Been in Greece since the 16th so only seen limited action but been reading the threads here. Think the break has come at a good time and hopefully we'll gel over that period.

I find it really sad about the obvious decline of George. Hopefully this isn't the end and he can rediscover his form.

Cheers

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The biggest puzzle for me is how ineffective Howson has become. I remember him at Norwich bombing forward and controlling the game, who is this imposter, he just seems lacklustre and disinterested, very strange. This team reminds me of Villa last season, spent loads, brought in good players but never looked like a cohesive unit.

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Haven't posted in a while but long time lurker. Still early days so no panic for me just yet. Been in Greece since the 16th so only seen limited action but been reading the threads here. Think the break has come at a good time and hopefully we'll gel over that period.

I find it really sad about the obvious decline of George. Hopefully this isn't the end and he can rediscover his form.

Cheers

 

I noticed that George said in his after game interview that the two week break would give some players who had injuries that weren't obvious (or words to that effect) a chance to recover. Maybe a hint he's been playing with a niggle?

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The biggest puzzle for me is how ineffective Howson has become. I remember him at Norwich bombing forward and controlling the game, who is this imposter, he just seems lacklustre and disinterested, very strange. This team reminds me of Villa last season, spent loads, brought in good players but never looked like a cohesive unit.

 

Is age an possibility? he is 29 now maybe he cant bomb forward like he use to any more

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Monk got it wrong. If we were determined to play either 3-5-2/5-3-2 then the first mistake was playing friend over Ayala who is a natural CB with gibson on left Fry on the right.

 

Whats the point in both Clayton AND howson sitting back (especially at home) the gap between them and our strikers was huge Baker couldn't do anything.

 

We haven't started quickly in most games so far but at least we had good spells...today there was nothing. A couple of individual runs and that was it.

 

Monk has said that they need time to gel and they do, but how can we expect them to gel when you change the tactics so completely.

 

We were lucky to get a point at a time when it would have been good for confidence to go in to the international break with a win, or at the very least a decent perfomance.

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Friend didn't play CB though. He played LB. with Fabio as LM/LW. The main qualm I had was Baker playing RM/RW... complete waste of his talents. I was excited when I thought it was 3-5-2 - the reality is that is was never that today.

 

We learn from mistakes though. Hopefully Monk and the team do that from today.

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Friend didn't play CB though. He played LB. with Fabio as LM/LW. The main qualm I had was Baker playing RM/RW... complete waste of his talents. I was excited when I thought it was 3-5-2 - the reality is that is was never that today.

 

We learn from mistakes though. Hopefully Monk and the team do that from today.

 

Baker started forward mid before the change didn't he

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Friend didn't play CB though. He played LB. with Fabio as LM/LW. The main qualm I had was Baker playing RM/RW... complete waste of his talents. I was excited when I thought it was 3-5-2 - the reality is that is was never that today.

 

We learn from mistakes though. Hopefully Monk and the team do that from today.

 

Baker started forward mid before the change didn't he

 

Aye, we started in some strange asymmetric shape, which looked just as confusing for the players as it did for us. Think Fabio was meant to be in the front 3 at first, but just wasn't getting into the advanced positions.

 

All in all, I don't think Monk's plan worked - but I also don't think Monk's initial plan was put to good practice by the players. Bit of a poor show all round.

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