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Boro vs Villa 0-1


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Details

Teams – Boro vs Villa

Location – Riverside

Competition – The Championship

Date – Sat 30th December 2017

Kick off – 15:00

 

Intro

Here begins the start of the Middlesbrough Pulis era, the second Tony to become Boro boss. He comes with a reputation for defensive long ball football, but will he be able to galvanise the talent here into a team that fights for promotion? We will start to see the answer when Villa visit the Riverside this Saturday.

In Villa we will meet an out of form team under Steve Bruce, who started the season expecting to challenge for the top 2 and began well but haven’t won in December and have slipped below Boro on goal difference.

Pulisball

In honour of the new boss thought I’d take a quick look at some of the things we might come to see from Boro under his control:

Crosses  - Pulis’ teams tend to cross from a very specific area, around the areas outside the box, hit diagonally into the centre, specifically aimed at a central point just outside the side yard box. Very few balls are taken to the byline and pulled back. This seems like deliberate effort in order to nullify the chance of teams counter attacking and to give the highest percentage chance to creating a scoring chance

Set Pieces – Pulis very much puts a huge emphasis on this part of the game. His teams usually score around 25%-30% of their goals either directly of indirectly from set pieces (up until now this year Boro are at 16%). He has also utilised the long throw to great effect too, in the Rory Delap era under Pulis Stoke created 53 chances and scored 8 goals in a single season. It’s also worth noting that Ryan Shotton also took long throws under Pulis too.

Full Backs – Pulis is also well known for having very defensive full-backs, as the potential for counter attacks into the space left behind can leave teams vulnerable (as Boro have found out time and again this year). Pulis tends to favour defensive minded tall full backs to nullify this threat. Could it mean the end for Christie and Fabio?

Last Game

Villa – Lost 2-1away at Brentford in a game where Bruce said “Everything about our performance with and without the ball was loose. We weren't aggressive enough with the ball or without it.”

Boro –  A comfortable 2-0 win over a poor Bolton team, a game that won’t live too long in the memory and given how poor Bolton are hard to read too much into. 

 

History

Villa have the edge over us historically winning 64 of the previous games, with 34 draws and Boro only getting 43 wins… but in more recent past Villa haven’t beaten us since 2007.

 

He looks familiar

Uncle Albert has been ripping up the division scoring 12 goals so far this season, though he was taken off injured in the Brentford game. Ritchie De Laet also turns out for the villains.

 

Team News

Injured/Suspended

Boro – Nothing

Villa – Adomah possibly, Green out injured

 

 

 

 

View From the Other side

 

https://www.villatalk.com/topic/17144-pre-match-thread/

 

 

Predictions

 

After getting the result spot on last time out feels like a classic 1-0 here, Rudy with the headed winner.

 

Talking Points

If Pulis gets results do you care about the performances?

Has this appointment raised expectations again for this season? Where to?

Which players are likely to thrive and which will struggle under Pulis?

Will 2018 be better for Boro than 2017?

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Those Villa fans are not happy are they. They brought in an experienced manager after De Matteo failed miserably last season to build a team out of a load of expensive imports, sound familiar, I hope it is not history repeating itself.

I did not care about the football style when Pulis first came to the Albion and shored them up, but after a while it just became dire and unwatchable.

I think expectations for the season should end at getting into the playoffs, Wolves will walk it and Derby and Bristol are better teams than us

Taxis for Traore, Bamford and Fabio definitely with Braithwaite and Christie hovering on the brink as I cannot see them fitting into a Pulis type team. Clayton will be back along with Friend and Shotton is guaranteed his place.

2018 just has to be better hasn,t it?

2 _ 1 to Boro both to the Ass.

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This is a a big game I feel, the optimism a***st the fans will increase significantly if we manage a win, but a loss will probably signal same old story to some fans. With Preston the following week if we can get a couple of wins then strengthen in January its all to play for and we can look to really push on.

 

As much as I'd like Britt to bag a couple as Pikerman says, he's going to have to up his performance as he's been a bit of a flat-track bully this season. 12 goals is a good return but only 1 goal (Penalty at Leeds) against any of the sides in the top half isn't good enough IMO.

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This is a a big game I feel, the optimism a***st the fans will increase significantly if we manage a win, but a loss will probably signal same old story to some fans. With Preston the following week if we can get a couple of wins then strengthen in January its all to play for and we can look to really push on.

 

As much as I'd like Britt to bag a couple as Pikerman says, he's going to have to up his performance as he's been a bit of a flat-track bully this season. 12 goals is a good return but only 1 goal (Penalty at Leeds) against any of the sides in the top half isn't good enough IMO.

 

Agreed, like a championship Lukaku

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What i think Pulis will go with -

................................Randolph...........................

Christie/Roberts....Gibson.........Fry..................Friend

Downing.........Clayton.......Leadbitter....Braithwaite

..................................Gestede......................................

..............................Britt/Bamford......................................

 

Christie and Fabio may be to adventurous for Pulis to begin with i reckon he will want to build from the back and not give any stupid errors away. Clayton I think will come in for Howson as a safer alternative, with leadbitter alongside. I think Gestede will feature long balls up to him and knocked down for either Bamford or Britt to run onto. Im gonna go for a well deserved 1-0 win and every player putting the neck on the line to stop Villa scoring will be the key in this one.

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uncle albert injured for this one. villa fan saying he has been kicked harder by his baby. anyone think old albert didnt fancy coming here, like zeige bottling the reception.

 

i hope we turn these over, not just because i always want us to win, because i just totally detest villa. i have since the 80's. never has a team got under my skin like the villa. its not like they are great or a sky fanboy team. they are just villa bit like everton but with a horrible stirp colour. actually i dont like any of the claret teams. burnley, wes spam, villa, scunny. all awful strips.

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This is a a big game I feel, the optimism a***st the fans will increase significantly if we manage a win, but a loss will probably signal same old story to some fans. With Preston the following week if we can get a couple of wins then strengthen in January its all to play for and we can look to really push on.

 

As much as I'd like Britt to bag a couple as Pikerman says, he's going to have to up his performance as he's been a bit of a flat-track bully this season. 12 goals is a good return but only 1 goal (Penalty at Leeds) against any of the sides in the top half isn't good enough IMO.

 

Agreed, like a championship Lukaku

 

I think this is a bit harsh on Britt, seems more like our general inability to beat/score against teams above us rather than anything to do with Britt for me.

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uncle albert injured for this one. villa fan saying he has been kicked harder by his baby. anyone think old albert didnt fancy coming here, like zeige bottling the reception.

 

i hope we turn these over, not just because i always want us to win, because i just totally detest villa. i have since the 80's. never has a team got under my skin like the villa. its not like they are great or a sky fanboy team. they are just villa bit like everton but with a horrible stirp colour. actually i dont like any of the claret teams. burnley, wes spam, villa, scunny. all awful strips.

 

Go on Kev get it off your chest, let it all out, you will feel better for it

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uncle albert injured for this one. villa fan saying he has been kicked harder by his baby. anyone think old albert didnt fancy coming here, like zeige bottling the reception.

 

i hope we turn these over, not just because i always want us to win, because i just totally detest villa. i have since the 80's. never has a team got under my skin like the villa. its not like they are great or a sky fanboy team. they are just villa bit like everton but with a horrible stirp colour. actually i dont like any of the claret teams. burnley, wes spam, villa, scunny. all awful strips.

 

Go on Kev get it off your chest, let it all out, you will feel better for it

 

i dont like striped strips either. they look stupid, mackems, saints, sheff utd, sheff wed, barcodes god this list goes on. not keen on blue. basically. white or red. the rest are ***ttttte.  :D

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What i think Pulis will go with -  

................................Randolph...........................

Christie/Roberts....Gibson.........Fry..................Friend

Downing.........Clayton.......Leadbitter....Braithwaite

..................................Gestede......................................

..............................Britt/Bamford......................................

 

 

Pulis will not pick Bamford over Britt

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Scott Hogan will likely lead the line; their bright young lad Keinan Davis will be on the bench. Grealish plays an almost free-role style just behind the front man with Snodgrass out Left and Elmohamady likely to be the replacement if Uncle Albert doesn't make it.

 

As BD says, good time to play them - but there's still some decent names in that forward line. Defensively they look poor though... Jedinak is a good CM at this level, but partnered with Whelan their Midfield lacks mobility.

Against Brentford they had a back line of Hutton, Elphick, Chester and Taylor - which again looks short on mobility and any sort of spark to create something from the back.

 

Hopefully we take the game to them and test that defence. Assombalonga could have an absolute field day against Elphick; Howson and Leadbitter will have to be disciplined to counter their experience in midfield and, hopefully, Howson turns up to add some creativity that his counterparts lack.

 

Braithwaite could tear Hutton a new one...

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uncle albert injured for this one. villa fan saying he has been kicked harder by his baby. anyone think old albert didnt fancy coming here, like zeige bottling the reception.

 

 

I disagree with this bit. We all know Albert loves to visit a former club ground, put in a half ***d performance watch his team lose then go and clap and cheer the opposing fans :s

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Nice one Teacider, good analysis of Pulisball!

 

Pulis may deliberately want to change things, just to stamp his authority. I think he'll try this out during training this week:

 

----------------------------- Randolph -----------------------

-- Christie --- Shotton -- Ayala -- Gibson -- Friend --

-------- Leadbitter --- Downing --- Howson ----------- 

---------------- Gestede --- Assombalonga ---------------

 

It would be hard to score against and we'd still carry a height/power/pace threat upfront. We don't have reliable/effective #10s/wingers so Pulis might just play to our strengths, as uncreative as that might be.

 

If it were me, I'd go with the same winning team/formation, except give Friend a go, and give Bamford a rocket up the ***.

 

-------------------- Randolph ------------------

-- Christie --- Shotton -- Gibson -- Friend --

--------- Leadbitter ------ Howson --------- 

--- Downing --- Bamford -- Braithwaite ---

---------------- Assombalonga ---------------- 

 

Then Bring Clayton on in the second half for Leadbitter, to ease him back into the team

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