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Latest Posts
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By DanFromDownSouth · Posted
Sorry to leave you waiting, work has been a bit hectic. I've broken your points into 3 areas. 1. The point I'm trying (and failing) to make is that from Woodgate's original press conference it seems he has a preferred style that he would like to play. This style is his ultimate end goal, how he would like us to play. This is obviously not going to happen overnight, hence why we have spent the pre-season and first few games playing "his style". It is my opinon that this is laying the foundations for us to play this way. At the present moment in time I do not feel the squad can competently play this style and as such we have reverted back to a style that the players have a familiarity with, that they can play. When Jokanovic took over Fulham, I'd argue that the free flowing style they went up with was certainly not how they started playing under Jokanovic in his first 6 months in charge. But I'd almost guarantee that he was training the group of players he had certain elements of his preferred style. 2. I'm one of the first to acknowledge that we weren't going to be signing 10 players due to our financial constraints. But to answer your question I do feel that if we had got another couple of wide players in, we may have seen Woodgate persist with "his style". I do also feel however that to get to this end point in style it would take more than just the summer window and the upcoming window. By saying this about signings I'm not admitting that we would be a swash buckling side that would sweep all before them, but it would be seen as another piece of the puzzle to help us towards Woodgate's style. Again adding to the foundations that are slowly been knitted together, like the fact we played a certain way during pre-season and the first couple of games. Basically what I'm trying to get across is that I feel we are aiming for a certain style of play and that we are adding bit by bit certain elements of this style. Whether it is the pressing element, like we saw in the Luton, Brentford, Hull and Bristol City games (in my opinion), interestingly we played a 4-3-3 in 3/4 of those games. Or whether it is by the need of having more squad depth to allow us to try and play a 4-3-3 on a more frequent basis. 3. I've kind of half answered this in the bit above. It is of my opinion that we would see a 4-3-3 a lot more often this season if we had signed another winger (or 2) in the summer. The fact that we didn't for me is a key reason in us playing a back 5 often. I also feel a big problem is our total lack of creativity in the team. I also do not feel that we are a player or 2 away from implementing Woodgate's system. Jokanovic signed 11 permanent players in his first full season at Fulham, I don't think we need quite as many but certainly there are key positions we need filling. A striker who will press, wingers/inside forwards, a play maker in the middle, a defensive midfielder and for me a centre half that is comfortable with the ball at their feet. -
Can see why he'd turn down Watford hardly a stable situation we offer him a blank slate type job with a shrinking wage budget I bet he'd back himself to build up a squad next summer. The last bit about SOME board members is pretty hilarious when the reason these stories are appearing is I'm pretty sure a bad result vs Charlton and they already know what they'll have to do by lining up a replacement ASAP. I'll go on record as saying I'll take any manager with any sort of decent track record give me Shteve Mclaren back if you can wrangle it Hughton/Warnock are best case scenario's I guess shame we limited our last hunt to Jokanovic and Woodgate the only reason JWs still employed is people can't swallow how badly they screwed up and are dragging it on out of their own pride at this point I suspect the JW supporters on the board are Bausor, Bevington and Gibson I can't imagine Joyes or Lamb are the 1s dragging this on. -
By Rioch's Braves · Posted
A couple of years ago this club would have been an attractive proposition, I just don't know if Houghton who has managed Newcastle and Brighton in the PL would want to start al over again trying to build a squad on a small budget. That was the idea of bringing Bola and Dijksteel in to address the fullback problem and its nothing short of disastrous, 2 of the worst fullbacks I've ever seen in a Boro shirt. -
There are a lot of short-term problems for us at the moment due to injuries and suspensions, but with the right manager in place like Hughton we should avoid relegation comfortably as we still have a lot of quality within our squad. We also have a January window coming up to patch up the areas of concern like at fullback and on the wings until the summer transfer window. Boro having to now operate sensibly and stopping wasting money is no reason for us to have no realistic expectations of a top 6 finish next season. We're losing loads of money because we've made terrible decisions in the transfer market signing average Championship level players for inflated fees and appointing inadequate managers. Once we start making the right decisions, we'll stop losing so much money and, in turn, will start building a good squad within a modest budget. It is possible to be run sensibly and get promoted. Burnley, Sheffield United and Norwich are testament to that. -
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