Pulis appointed Manager of Middlesbrough FC

[ladyspite 385]

Excited by Monk?? I guess it takes all sorts ;)

 

He not that bad looking, and he is pretty young :)  I wouldent mind a date ;)

[wilsoncgp 9,283]

Excited by Monk?? I guess it takes all sorts ;)

 

He not that bad looking, and he is pretty young :)  I wouldent mind a date ;)

 

You might be in luck, everyone wants shot of Monk right now, probably even his missus. :D

[LinoJo3 3,191]

Bit of a left field suggestion, but Marcelo Bielsa is out of work, not sure whether the club is ready for another hard headed Hispanic, but he would be a big coup to get at the club.

 

All this "players who think for themselves" stuff that Monk is preaching doesn't seem to be working. It's not the kind of thing players short on confidence need when they're already second guessing their own decision making.

 

I'll be the first to admit that I was excited by the prospect of getting Monk at the start of the season. Now I'm starting to think some of these players were made to look better by Karanka's authoritarian managing style...

 

Marco bielsa

 

Thomas tuchel

 

The big names are out there ;)

[BillyWoofs_shinpad 1,884]

Sven!!

[ladyspite 385]

Sven!!

 

Maybe as sport director

 

:-P

[Boro Badger 87]

Sven!!

 

Maybe as sport director

 

:-P

 

Maybe at Sports Direct

[Humpty 3,261]

How about after Bristol City when he said "I have to shoulder my share of the blame"...?

 

Ok if he said that against Bristol then fair enough, I'll admit I'm wrong he's accepted some of the blame.

 

I still feel that in the MAJORITY of interviews he gives the impression that we've played well and the only reason we've lost is down to individual errors. Most of us are not that stupid and can see we're not playing well it isn't just individual errors.

 

In the interview above he's talking about the naivety of the players, like I said for a manager under so much pressure he's on dangerous ground. He should be trying to keep the players on side. If you were a player would you want to read those comments?

 

We don't play very well but there is an argument that a lot of the actual goals we concede are individual errors. I don't think we're actually that bad defensively until we for some reason self destruct for absolutely no reason.

 

We're bad as a team going forward.

 

I think we are. There's ways and means of setting up to stop those mistakes. Defending from the front, keeping tighter lines between defence, midfield and attack, midfielders dropping in for full backs that have pushed. We don't seem to consider any of the above.

 

I can't help but think a competent manager would spot these issues straight from the off. I don't think it would take much to turn us around. Tighten up at the back and the confidence grows. Monk's been chasing his tail since September.

[LinoJo3 3,191]

Like I've said before I think it's clearly the results of monks 'players who think for themselves'.

 

No organisation, players don't know where they should be going or where they should be and the knock on effect is the other players don't know where team mates are going or will be.

 

Lack of instruction, direction and organisation. It's why we're a shambles at the back and clueless going forward.

[Duvel 2,446]

Like I've said before I think it's clearly the results of monks 'players who think for themselves'.

 

No organisation, players don't know where they should be going or where they should be and the knock on effect is the other players don't know where team mates are going or will be.

 

Lack of instruction, direction and organisation. It's why we're a shambles at the back and clueless going forward.

 

Absolutely and the frustrating thing for me is that a Pulis type manager would come in and get us organised at the back within a few weeks.

 

I keep saying that in this league the important thing is to keep clean sheets, do that consistently and you'll be challenging for promotion. The standard of the opposition means We'll always get chances at the other end but when we keep conceding first in games we're giving ourselves an uphill battle every week.

[wilsoncgp 9,283]

TBF, players who think for themselves as attackers makes sense. If you have the players for it, which in this division we most certainly should, our players have even shown on occasion that thinking for themselves has created openings. It doesn't have to be 100% up to them but we have some intelligent players in attacking areas, Braithwaite, Bamford and Downing are good enough to forge chances out of their own mindset.

 

However defending is the opposite. You can't play defensively on a whim. You need to be organised and we saw under AK how effective that is when defending as a unit. Obviously there's the point that Karanka saw a lot of defensive responsibility throughout the team and we'd get a whole host of players between the ball and the goal when we were defending. But even our back 4 doesn't seem to know what they're doing as a unit, never mind adding the midfield into that. If Monk is asking them to make decisions for themselves in the back line and he's not seeing the problem with that then it starts to look like he's shirking some of the responsibility as a manager.

[wilsoncgp 9,283]

Add to that, the biggest thing for me defensively is how easy other managers find it to exploit our problems, to the extent where the Leeds boss, under huge amounts of pressure, still finds it easy to come out and say "We know where to hit them" and after the game "We got them where they're vulnerable". Everyone else can see it, why can't we?

[LinoJo3 3,191]

Even the attackers should only really think for themselves in the final 3rd unless counter attacking.

 

Instead of finding the medium between karanka and a bit more freedom we've gone the total opposite.

[pikerman 1,121]

The likes of Gibson and Ayala do not become bad defenders overnight, it is the way Monk is trying to get width by playing two attacking full backs who very basically cannot defend to save their lives. When we are defending you should be abke to see a back four in a stright line with defensive midfielders stopping the opposition running at the goal. This just does not happen, the full backs are somewhere in lala land trying to get back, the midfield is stood with their fingers up their nose and the centre halves have opponents coming at them from all angles. Pretty basic coaching stuff this, but if you want overlapping wingers then play three at the back or two holding midfielders. It looks to me as though the players have not bought into Monks tactics and have largely throw n the towel in. Something has to change as I cannot see it getting any better.

[Duvel 2,446]

TBF, players who think for themselves as attackers makes sense. If you have the players for it, which in this division we most certainly should, our players have even shown on occasion that thinking for themselves has created openings. It doesn't have to be 100% up to them but we have some intelligent players in attacking areas, Braithwaite, Bamford and Downing are good enough to forge chances out of their own mindset.

 

However defending is the opposite. You can't play defensively on a whim. You need to be organised and we saw under AK how effective that is when defending as a unit. Obviously there's the point that Karanka saw a lot of defensive responsibility throughout the team and we'd get a whole host of players between the ball and the goal when we were defending. But even our back 4 doesn't seem to know what they're doing as a unit, never mind adding the midfield into that. If Monk is asking them to make decisions for themselves in the back line and he's not seeing the problem with that then it starts to look like he's shirking some of the responsibility as a manager.

 

Agree with all of this, getting a team organised with the ability to defend as a unit comes from a bit of know how and hard work on the training pitch.

 

Most of the really great defences over the years became that way by sheer hard word and repitition on the training ground. Read any interview from the ***nal defenders from the 80s/90s and they'll tell you they were coached like a group of kids.

 

As mentioned above Gibson and Ayala haven't become bad defenders over night, it looks to me like we are neglecting that area of the pitch on the training ground. I might be wrong on that but something on the pitch doesn't look right.

[Duvel 2,446]

https://www.***nal.com/news/how-george-graham-drilled-famous-back-four

 

Here's a link to Lee Dixon and Nigel Winterburn talking about it.