wilsoncgp 9,280 Posted October 17, 2017 Share Posted October 17, 2017 Whoops, sorry, I glanced through your message and thought you were talking about Friend all the way through. :D Fletcher's aerial duel success rate is 41%, vs. Britt's 27%, Bamford's 50% and Gestede's 51%. Link to post Share on other sites
Duvel 2,446 Posted October 17, 2017 Share Posted October 17, 2017 Personally I don't think we're too far away from being good. What do you base that on? The last game? I'm just curious. Link to post Share on other sites
Betamaxman 14 Posted October 17, 2017 Share Posted October 17, 2017 No. More on the fact that we've scored a reasonable amount of goals compared with the league, and our defence (goals conceded) isn't too shabby either. We've started a few games slowly, and made some daft defensive errors. That needs ironing out. However, overall I don't think we're too far off. Link to post Share on other sites
Duvel 2,446 Posted October 17, 2017 Share Posted October 17, 2017 No. More on the fact that we've scored a reasonable amount of goals compared with the league, and our defence (goals conceded) isn't to shabby either. We've stated a few games slowly, and made some daft defensive errors. That needs ironing out. However, overall I don't think we're too far off. Yeah if we cut out the errors at the back that'll be a huge step in the right direction. I've criticised Monk as much as anyone on here especially about his rotating players, however I've got a feeling that we might actually see a run of games now with a settled back four. Saturday's line up gave the impression of going back to basics and I hope Monk sticks with things. Ayala is the type of player that needs a run of games to play his way back into form and hopefully Monk will allow him that time. I don't mind tweaking the team further up the pitch but the back four need time to work together as a unit. Hopefully that might be a start towards cutting out the silly mistakes although I do wonder whether Monk spends a lot of time working on defensive shape in training. Link to post Share on other sites
wilsoncgp 9,280 Posted October 17, 2017 Share Posted October 17, 2017 I found this quite interesting from Boro Stats. Regardless of the mistakes we've made, we're still in the top 6 for how formidable our defence is, alongside the actual top 5 of the division. This is kind of what I'm getting at too. If we cut the silly mistakes out at the back and perform further up the pitch the way we did at Barnsley, we'll pick up more points. See they also did one for the attacking too, no surprises here that where we currently sit in the table is still as a result of not clicking further up the pitch. But again, evidence was there on Saturday for me that that part of our game is picking up: Link to post Share on other sites
Dan1234 1,055 Posted October 17, 2017 Share Posted October 17, 2017 I think the switching around of the defence is the main issue with leaking goals in the last few weeks. I'm pretty sure we were best by quite some way before then. Typically when you look at super strong defence's over the years they are always a consistent partnership, can't remember any team getting a solid back line rotating like we seem to be doing atm. Link to post Share on other sites
pokeyjoe 112 Posted October 17, 2017 Share Posted October 17, 2017 No. More on the fact that we've scored a reasonable amount of goals compared with the league, and our defence (goals conceded) isn't to shabby either. We've stated a few games slowly, and made some daft defensive errors. That needs ironing out. However, overall I don't think we're too far off. Yeah if we cut out the errors at the back that'll be a huge step in the right direction. I've criticised Monk as much as anyone on here especially about his rotating players, however I've got a feeling that we might actually see a run of games now with a settled back four. Saturday's line up gave the impression of going back to basics and I hope Monk sticks with things. Ayala is the type of player that needs a run of games to play his way back into form and hopefully Monk will allow him that time. I don't mind tweaking the team further up the pitch but the back four need time to work together as a unit. Hopefully that might be a start towards cutting out the silly mistakes although I do wonder whether Monk spends a lot of time working on defensive shape in training. Surely if were saying give Ayala the chance to build confidence through a run of games, wouldnt a younger fitter Fry be more worth the chance? Both have made school boy errors this season, but i just know Ayala will have the "dodgy heel" ailment at some point in the very near future. I might be a tad cynical but had the feeling Ayala just isnt in the slightest bit bothered about playing or not :blush: Link to post Share on other sites
Duvel 2,446 Posted October 17, 2017 Share Posted October 17, 2017 No. More on the fact that we've scored a reasonable amount of goals compared with the league, and our defence (goals conceded) isn't to shabby either. We've stated a few games slowly, and made some daft defensive errors. That needs ironing out. However, overall I don't think we're too far off. Yeah if we cut out the errors at the back that'll be a huge step in the right direction. I've criticised Monk as much as anyone on here especially about his rotating players, however I've got a feeling that we might actually see a run of games now with a settled back four. Saturday's line up gave the impression of going back to basics and I hope Monk sticks with things. Ayala is the type of player that needs a run of games to play his way back into form and hopefully Monk will allow him that time. I don't mind tweaking the team further up the pitch but the back four need time to work together as a unit. Hopefully that might be a start towards cutting out the silly mistakes although I do wonder whether Monk spends a lot of time working on defensive shape in training. Surely if were saying give Ayala the chance to build confidence through a run of games, wouldnt a younger fitter Fry be more worth the chance? Both have made school boy errors this season, but i just know Ayala will have the "dodgy heel" ailment at some point in the very near future. I might be a tad cynical but had the feeling Ayala just isnt in the slightest bit bothered about playing or not :blush: Depends who you think is the better player I suppose, if Ayala can recapture his best form then he'd be ahead of Fry. However you make a good point about his injury record and maybe you wonder whether we can rely on him. Link to post Share on other sites
pokeyjoe 112 Posted October 17, 2017 Share Posted October 17, 2017 No. More on the fact that we've scored a reasonable amount of goals compared with the league, and our defence (goals conceded) isn't to shabby either. We've stated a few games slowly, and made some daft defensive errors. That needs ironing out. However, overall I don't think we're too far off. Yeah if we cut out the errors at the back that'll be a huge step in the right direction. I've criticised Monk as much as anyone on here especially about his rotating players, however I've got a feeling that we might actually see a run of games now with a settled back four. Saturday's line up gave the impression of going back to basics and I hope Monk sticks with things. Ayala is the type of player that needs a run of games to play his way back into form and hopefully Monk will allow him that time. I don't mind tweaking the team further up the pitch but the back four need time to work together as a unit. Hopefully that might be a start towards cutting out the silly mistakes although I do wonder whether Monk spends a lot of time working on defensive shape in training. Surely if were saying give Ayala the chance to build confidence through a run of games, wouldnt a younger fitter Fry be more worth the chance? Both have made school boy errors this season, but i just know Ayala will have the "dodgy heel" ailment at some point in the very near future. I might be a tad cynical but had the feeling Ayala just isnt in the slightest bit bothered about playing or not :blush: Depends who you think is the better player I suppose, if Ayala can recapture his best form then he'd be ahead of Fry. However you make a good point about his injury record and maybe you wonder whether we can rely on him. Exactly my point, establish a solid CB partnership with Ben, then a spanner in the works and we start again with Fry/Shotton :s Personally sooner have Fry from the start, not like he hasnt got the ability to partner Ben and kick on to be a very good reliable CB imo. Link to post Share on other sites
Duvel 2,446 Posted October 17, 2017 Share Posted October 17, 2017 No. More on the fact that we've scored a reasonable amount of goals compared with the league, and our defence (goals conceded) isn't to shabby either. We've stated a few games slowly, and made some daft defensive errors. That needs ironing out. However, overall I don't think we're too far off. Yeah if we cut out the errors at the back that'll be a huge step in the right direction. I've criticised Monk as much as anyone on here especially about his rotating players, however I've got a feeling that we might actually see a run of games now with a settled back four. Saturday's line up gave the impression of going back to basics and I hope Monk sticks with things. Ayala is the type of player that needs a run of games to play his way back into form and hopefully Monk will allow him that time. I don't mind tweaking the team further up the pitch but the back four need time to work together as a unit. Hopefully that might be a start towards cutting out the silly mistakes although I do wonder whether Monk spends a lot of time working on defensive shape in training. Surely if were saying give Ayala the chance to build confidence through a run of games, wouldnt a younger fitter Fry be more worth the chance? Both have made school boy errors this season, but i just know Ayala will have the "dodgy heel" ailment at some point in the very near future. I might be a tad cynical but had the feeling Ayala just isnt in the slightest bit bothered about playing or not :blush: Depends who you think is the better player I suppose, if Ayala can recapture his best form then he'd be ahead of Fry. However you make a good point about his injury record and maybe you wonder whether we can rely on him. Exactly my point, establish a solid CB partnership with Ben, then a spanner in the works and we start again with Fry/Shotton :s Personally sooner have Fry from the start, not like he hasnt got the ability to partner Ben and kick on to be a very good reliable CB imo. It's hard to argue against that but id still be inclined to try Ayala out. It would be more in hope than expectation but who knows what will happen, I still think if we could have a fit Ayala and Gibson for the majority of the season we'll win more games than we lose. Link to post Share on other sites
Neverbefore 10,938 Posted October 17, 2017 Share Posted October 17, 2017 Ayala for me. We have 4 different central defenders and he is the only one I would call a "dominant" defender. By that I mean he attacks the ball and he's a magnet for aerials. Gibson and ayalas skills compliment each other perfectly as we seen in the two seasons before we were promoted. Fry could be great in the future but at the moment id prefer those two to get the nod with fry coming in to cover injuries or cup games. Link to post Share on other sites
Adam P 331 Posted October 17, 2017 Share Posted October 17, 2017 Fully agree with Neverbefore on this and it echoes things I'd said over the weeks. Ayala is the only defender who is powerful in the air, and gives us more than the other defenders in both boxes. Link to post Share on other sites
boro-unger 3,870 Posted October 18, 2017 Share Posted October 18, 2017 Plus ayala can play the ball out of defence. Fry always seems to have a lack of confidence when it comes to that Link to post Share on other sites
Downsouth 6,326 Posted October 18, 2017 Share Posted October 18, 2017 Agree with all of the above, Boro need to be attack minded in intent and he is the best defender to help achieve that Link to post Share on other sites
diggerlad07 3,690 Posted October 18, 2017 Share Posted October 18, 2017 For me, if fit this is our best starting 11 Randolph Christie Ayala Gibson Friend Leadbitter Clayton Traore Downing Braithwaite Assambalonga Link to post Share on other sites
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