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Boro v Luton Town (A) 3-3 (Fletcher, Assombalonga, Wing)


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8 minutes ago, pikerman said:

A lot of positives tonight but I still am unsure where Fletcher fits into that team yes he scored but for me did little else in the game. What worries me about him is his lack of movement off the ball in that system he should be making space for Assombalonga but he just stands around. I think maybe it is time to cut our losses and use the money for a different type of forward 

Tbf to Fletcher he did create a guilt edged chance for Britt with a lovely little flick but he didn't finish the chance. He also had a good strike in the first half that might have went in had it not took a nick off the defender. 

He does look like a striker out wide though, not the most natural fit. 

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Settle down children and I'll begin...   Twas the night before Luton, when all through the house, Not a creature was stirring, not even a Mejias. A blank kit was packed by the kit

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4 minutes ago, Brunners said:

no, of course you didn't ?

I didn't.  What do you want me to say?  He was getting caught out at times, which is something he has had a tendency to do the last couple of seasons.  Compared to Shotton he is Franco Baresi but he wasn't great tonight, none of the back four were.  Defending the penalty area there's not many I'd rather have but if you're looking for someone to nick the ball ahead of an attacker then I wouldn't say the same.  A few seasons ago perhaps but not more recently as he ends up being a touch too slow.  He's far from our biggest area of concern though obviously ?

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7 minutes ago, ladyspite said:

I thought we looked very good in the first press, but omg we nned to learn to have a second one too, as soon they played through our first press it was autostrada...... that shouldent be possible when you play with 3 central midfielders

 

But I enjoyed the match overall, just need to work on defensive set pieces and that second press.....

This is exactly it.  After the first press it was just chaos with people ending up everywhere.  At one point Ayala ended up inside their half, was too late, and they were running at us with four attackers and our only decent defender miles out of position.  They need to know when to commit to the press and when to back off, it can't just be everyone going for it whenever the ball comes near them.

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5 minutes ago, Adam P said:

Tbf to Fletcher he did create a guilt edged chance for Britt with a lovely little flick but he didn't finish the chance. He also had a good strike in the first half that might have went in had it not took a nick off the defender. 

He does look like a striker out wide though, not the most natural fit. 

Yeah I thought Fletcher drifted in and out of the game, but he scored a goal, assisted another and was involved in a couple of other decent chances for us, so all in all I'd consider it a successful outing for him.

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12 minutes ago, ladyspite said:

I thought we looked very good in the first press, but omg we nned to learn to have a second one too, as soon they played through our first press it was autostrada...... that shouldent be possible when you play with 3 central midfielders

 

But I enjoyed the match overall, just need to work on defensive set pieces and that second press.....

Completely agree. Sometimes they did a couple passes and were running at our defence with our whole midfield chasing back after the ball.

Im sure it will come. We will learn when and when not too press.

I’m sure even certain teams will be more suited to play high press against. Luton knock the ball around really well in fairness. Against donkey Cb’s (Flint) it should work a treat.

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6 minutes ago, Changing Times said:

This is exactly it.  After the first press it was just chaos with people ending up everywhere.  At one point Ayala ended up inside their half, was too late, and they were running at us with four attackers and our only decent defender miles out of position.  They need to know when to commit to the press and when to back off, it can't just be everyone going for it whenever the ball comes near them.

to be fair I think Woodgate noticed this too because in all the post game interviews I've watched he has basically said they need to learn when to press and when not to, so hopefully he noticed the same thing and will continue working on it.

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1 minute ago, BoroJake said:

How many times do you think we will be on Tv this season? I think we’ll be up there with Leeds. Playing decent football and the woodgate/Keane effect

I think we might get a few more than originally planned with how good this game was for the neutrals.

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Well just watched the game, recorded it and avoided all mention of the score, as I was at the cricket all evening (which ended in a result for Northants worse than the Boro's).

First impressions, this is without a shadow of a doubt a work in progress, a team in transition.

Our press was something of mixed success, as others have mentioned, at times it paid dividends (2nd Goal) and at other times it seemed like we were a bunch of headless chickens. This is something however that should only get better as the players get used to the system. Thought that McNair and Wing implemented the press very well at times, although Wingy does need to be a bit more careful in putting a foot in (in my opinion).

Thought Johnson was one of our better players tonight, his driving run down the right won us the corner that ultimately lead him to assisting our first goal. In my opinion (and maybe against the grain) I thought Coulson was actually fairly solid at the back. He was horribly exposed by a combination, of Fletcher not really covering with him and Shotton being dragged out of position. Despite that he coped well. Also thought Howson had a good game. Think he will be incredibly important for our pressing style from midfield, so think we need a right-back to free him up to move into the middle.

Sorry for the long post, but what a breath of fresh air to see us with a willingness to get forward. We need to improve upon our defensive side of things and the press, specifically when to press and when to hold. But they will come over time.

I didn't want to focus on negatives in this post, but I'm not naive enough to think there aren't any. Think if the same issues are coming up in game 15 onwards then we can focus on that when that potentially is happening. For now give it time and hopefully we will see some aspects of our play improve.

UTB!!!!

P.S. When was the last time we scored 3 goals in the League?

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People complaining about the amount of fouls given away obviously haven’t watched Liverpool much... I have no stats on this but Firmino must give away 15-20 fouls a game. It’s how they prevent getting caught on the counter when the opposition breaks the press. As long as the free kicks that we give away are high up the pitch, it’s completely expected that we will give away plenty of fouls in a high pressing game plan. 

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25 minutes ago, J.T. said:

People complaining about the amount of fouls given away obviously haven’t watched Liverpool much... I have no stats on this but Firmino must give away 15-20 fouls a game. It’s how they prevent getting caught on the counter when the opposition breaks the press. As long as the free kicks that we give away are high up the pitch, it’s completely expected that we will give away plenty of fouls in a high pressing game plan. 

Liverpool when I have watched them actually concede a very low amount of fouls (There are probably stats to say otherwise). Probably because they know the system a lot better than we currently know our system and have better quality players to implement their system compared to us. We are in a stage of tweaking and fine tuning our systems so there will be teething problems (high amount of fouls).

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I liked the game. Couldn’t give 100% view but as I suspected I didn’t like Clayton’s role. Thought he was the weak piece. I’d really like him to be replaced by someone who can actually pass the ball tona teammate. I know Brunners won’t like it but Clayton was bad in my eyes. 

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