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Boro vs Norwich City (a) 0-1


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This is exactly right, just because Pulis has started badly it seems like people are starting to rewrite history with Monk. It wasn't starting to click at all, we couldn't defend for toffee under him so we were never gonna put any sort of consistent run together.

 

Maybe Pulis was the wrong appointment and maybe he will fail here, time will tell. When I was complaining about Monk on here I was constantly being told that there's no way Gibson will sack him so I might as well get behind him, I think that advice applies even more so now. It feels like Pulis has been brought in to oversee a rebuild of the squad and I think he'll be given time to do it.

 

We had one of the best defensive records in the league under Monk.  Our defensive record with Pulis is not really any different to date - slightly under a goal per game conceded by my reckoning as compared to about a goal per game under Monk.

 

I can see with my own eyes that we defend better with a better shape now.

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Whoa the forum has certainly gone into negative freefall. I believe the consensus is damming but to be fair the writing was on the wall in the first 1/4 of the season. Being a BORO fan we laugh in the face of failure but it's no longer funny and now painful soulless. I guess when your young time or a season means not a great deal, but pushing late 50s its all to obvious a season is a lifetime.

Quite right, we don't have a divine right to be top of the league, but given our financial position after relegation we had every right as fans to expect and deserve a lot better than what we've been served up. We've never looked like a top 6 side all season and its hard to pick out the positives because there's nothing at the club to be excited about, that's why there's so much negativity a*** the fans and not just on this forum.

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Reminds me of an article I saw years ago about Mowbray and Benitez

 

“I had a great conversation with Rafa Benitez where he compared it (managing a smaller club) to a blanket,” Mowbray told the Birmingham Mail.

 

“The blanket is never quite big enough. If you try to cover your head your toes stick out and if you try to cover your toes your head is exposed.

 

“If we defend and everybody is back we are never going to score a goal.

 

‘‘If we’re positive and we take them on we leave ourselves vulnerable and Robbie Keane goes and scores two goals.

 

“If we get criticised it’s a bit unfair because we are doing the best we can with what we’ve got.

 

“If you’re positive and try to attack you get criticised for being a bit weak defensively and if you stick everybody behind the ball and never look like scoring you get criticised for that.

 

“We’re a bit like that blanket that is a bit short and we can’t quite cover our head and our toes.

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/rafa-benitez-tips-for-tony-mowbray-72610

 

When you think about it, it makes sense in a way.

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I think the negativity is there right now because this has been the week when even optimistic fans realised the the play-offs are probably beyond our grasp. Going by the fans I've talked to over the weekend anyway.

 

Before we could console oursleves with 'there's always the play-offs'... now its 'there's always next season' and I don't think anyone thought that would be the case with 15 games to play

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I can see with my own eyes that we defend better with a better shape now.

 

Cool.  

 

What you actually mean is we're more defensive minded, which we certainly are, but so far it's not making a huge amount of difference and under Monk we still had one of the best defensive records in the league whatever your eyes were telling you.

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I can see with my own eyes that we defend better with a better shape now.

 

Cool.  

 

What you actually mean is we're more defensive minded, which we certainly are, but so far it's not making a huge amount of difference and under Monk we still had one of the best defensive records in the league whatever your eyes were telling you.

 

This. All of this.

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Every time we lose a game now we're hear the same complaints about how it was so much better under Monk. It's like when Southgate was sacked and Strachan came in its a completely pointless argument.

 

If Pulis fails (which he hasn't yet by the way) that doesn't mean we were wrong to sack Monk. It just means we've replaced him with the wrong man.

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Every time we lose a game now we're hear the same complaints about how it was so much better under Monk. It's like when Southgate was sacked and Strachan came in its a completely pointless argument.

 

If Pulis fails (which he hasn't yet by the way) that doesn't mean we were wrong to sack Monk. It just means we've replaced him with the wrong man.

 

You’re leaving out how after every loss under Monk, people were saying how it would have been better under Karanka. I agree it’s a completely pointless argument but been the same all season.

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I don't think there's many who are saying it was better under Monk, some people are asking the question of whether it could have been but I haven't seen many people say we would definitely be better with him (barring perhaps one on this forum?)

 

But quite like those who were claiming we should try and get Karanka back during Monk's spell, those who are thinking we may have been better keeping Monk forget the reasons he went to begin with. Different circumstances of course, Karanka lost the dressing room, a dressing room that still contained players he clearly couldn't get on with. Monk on the other hand wasn't achieving his objectives from the start of the season, the objectives set quite publicly by the chairman. Things weren't improving as far as I could see. Nothing had clicked barring a right-sided partnership between Christie and Downing. One of the best defensive records in the division or not, we weren't one of the best teams in the division which the club were expecting Monk to give us. He did fail and he didn't have a leg to stand on by the time he was booted out.

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I think we look more organised under pullis. And apart from sat game we’ve looked more likely to win wether we have or haven’t We had some good games with monk but some we looked out played and disorganised I’ve not seen that under pullis

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Every time we lose a game now we're hear the same complaints about how it was so much better under Monk. It's like when Southgate was sacked and Strachan came in its a completely pointless argument.

 

If Pulis fails (which he hasn't yet by the way) that doesn't mean we were wrong to sack Monk. It just means we've replaced him with the wrong man.

 

I agree.  Simply pointing out that we haven't so far improved defensively in any meaningful way and we certainly haven't improved going the other way having failed to score in four of the games he's been in charge for, not including the Brighton game.  It was our attacking play that was the biggest issue under Monk rather than defensive concerns, although we did have areas of weakness and players making terrible mistakes of course.

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I think we look more organised under pullis. And apart from sat game we’ve looked more likely to win wether we have or haven’t   We had some good games with monk but some we looked out played and disorganised I’ve not seen that under pullis

 

Preston away although maybe you didn't see it.  We were all over the place and it was as bad as anything we've produced this season.  Actually that first half was as bad as anything I've seen in some time.  It'll take time of course and different players for Pulis to truly make his mark here.

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I think we look more organised under pullis. And apart from sat game we’ve looked more likely to win wether we have or haven’t We had some good games with monk but some we looked out played and disorganised I’ve not seen that under pullis

 

I think there is a lot of sense here. We have never been comprehensively outplayed under Pulis. And logic dictates that if you are not being outplayed then (over time) you are likely to pick up points. It hasn’t worked in the games so far. For a variety of reasons: late goals, missing chances, a hot striker who is on a barren run, getting the CF sent off early in a game, etc.

But I have seen enough promise to suggest that over the longer term we will win more than we will lose. Whether that is enough for the play offs this year? Who knows. But I am not giving up yet.

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I think we look more organised under pullis. And apart from sat game we’ve looked more likely to win wether we have or haven’t   We had some good games with monk but some we looked out played and disorganised I’ve not seen that under pullis

 

Preston away although maybe you didn't see it.  We were all over the place and it was as bad as anything we've produced this season.  Actually that first half was as bad as anything I've seen in some time.  It'll take time of course and different players for Pulis to truly make his mark here.

 

I did only see highlights of that one but it was just a few days after he was appointed

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We were a shambles under Monk and heading in one direction only, but we're not going to make the play-offs under Pulis either so it's immaterial really. What are we arguing about?

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