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Boro v Birmingham City (A) 1-2 (Ayala)


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7 minutes ago, Jamie-H said:

Here's an easy way to look at things Woodgate's got Monks team with a sprinkle of his own players plus Lewis Wing/McNair I dug into Pulis last year for being only 2 points better than Monk had when he was sacked with a better team I thought when people said free pass we were talking 10 points under Garry Monk would be acceptable right now we'd be lucky to be 20 points off Monk's tally in December.

It's all about perception people see 'transition' I only ever saw a Monk lineup with *IMPROVEMENTS* I can not believe how badly setup we are it's jarring to see our stats at the end of games we cede everything to every team we play it's just unacceptable we're talking about relegation in October it's stunning to me how bad Woodgate is as a manager and I had the lowest of expectations but he's underwhelming at every turn.

The squad we had when Monk was here was better than this by a decent margin.  Gibson, Bamford, Braithwaite, Forshaw, Christie etc.

We signed three League One players in the summer, that is the level they play at and unfortunately we didn't manage to improve our attack at all.  That's not to say that Woodgate doesn't take his share of the blame as he and we appear to be completely clueless.

That was probably one of the five most inept performances I've ever seen from us especially given the context of the game.

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It was just talk as our first choice was Pulis, not Woodgate, in which case the new style etc wouldn't have happened anyway. Final post before returning to self imposed exile.  We seem to have co

im in the same camp as BD .  ive gone through plenty of bad times in the past as well as wonderful times .  ive seen players ranging from  absolute top quality down to rank bad .  right now what i see

I don't think it's all bad. We just need a few players in the  January window. Two centre backs. Two fullbacks. Two centre midfielders and two wingers. And two forwards. 

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2 minutes ago, Duvel said:

Maybe Gibson would be the director of football in this new scenario. ??

Maybe he could have a chair with "DIRECTOR" printed on the back and maybe he could sit waaaay in the back and shout as much as he wants... but it wont matter, no one would go for that deal.

I remember a few exciting times, I remember being so happy as a kid when Boro got promoted from Divison 2 to 1, and I remember the excitement of the McClaren days and the 4-1, 4-2 wins. We will ever see that hope and excitement again anytime soon or even at all?

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Guys, I'm only passing on what I have been informed and putting my own opinion on it.

One thing for certain though is that the club was a laughing stock in the summer in how the dealt with numerous situations from playing staff , coaching staff and club staff. The whole interview process was supposedly laughable.

Like I said, we did enough balancing the books in the summer to get us by until next summer on the playing staff. 

I wouldn't expect a change in management unless we are in serious trouble.

 

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It’s not great, but the team is set up to play attacking football without the attacking players needed to make it work. Following from Pulis sucking the life out of the players/fans, Woodgate was given a poisoned chalice. Gibson didn’t back him properly and is treating the fans with contempt - and letting Woodgate get the blame. The club needs a revamp - and the that won’t happen with Gibson in charge. The game has moved on we have moved backwards.
 

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1 minute ago, BegSteeleOrBoro said:

It’s not great, but the team is set up to play attacking football without the attacking players needed to make it work. Following from Pulis sucking the life out of the players/fans, Woodgate was given a poisoned chalice. Gibson didn’t back him properly and is treating the fans with contempt - and letting Woodgate get the blame. The club needs a revamp - and the that won’t happen with Gibson in charge. The game has moved on we have moved backwards.
 

Good post mate

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Feels like every week now he's coming out and criticising the players. There is undoubtedly quality in this team, we've pushed for promotion and played in the premier league with some of these players they're crap because they've got an amateur manager being puppeted by a washed up owner. 

Feels like there is 0 motivation in the team, the fans and just the general feel of the club. It's hugely depressing and I just can't see it turning around.

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regarding doing the ugly things ,  i dont think thats our main failing ,  we do spend a lot of time tracking back putting in challenges and  trying to  close opponents down . but the problem is  thats a direct result of  the simple fact that we cant  string any decent  moves together and end up  losing possesssion  in the first place.  Adama aside no-one in the last 3 seasons has offerered a threat going forward  on anything remotely close to  any consistancy.  we have  a group of midfielders that  allow opposition  midfielders  to move into space  far too easily  then they react  .  we capable facing sideways  and  spend far too much gametime facing our own goal  but totally toothless  when we have the ball facing forwards.   Mc Nair got singled out for losing his man for the winner and its something that he has been guilty of previously  as it is with Wing regularly  , Saville  is also guilty of this , Howson too  to a lesser extent ,but worryingly  Clayton this season  has picked up the habit.  Honestly as it stands  only Randolph  and Ayala  are  doing thier job to the level required .   

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I'll have a rant because my week has been *** and now this is the icing on the cake. 

Firstly, I am not surprised we are where. Woodgate never had the experience to do this, and he has also not got the funds. Gibson knows all of this and is treating the fans like mugs. I don't think I blame Woodgate, I'd do the same to jump at the chance to manage us in his position. 

But, he must share some of the blame for where we currently are. Without Randolph we would be bottom, 100%. We started brightly and since that Luton game, I have no idea how we are trying to play. What is Woodgate's philosophy? There seems to be a miss match of different ones yet no clear one. 

We try to play out from the back, yet have no ball playing defenders. We got caught out today with it a few times. If we havent got the players who are comfortable, why are we doing it? 

We had no player in midfield who was linking up play to the strikers. This meant our play was either long balls or down the line. Taking the danger away from the centre where Britt and Fletcher are arguably their best. 

We then resort to long balls with players who are bad in the air? And it just shows that we are lacking our build up play. Because we punt it from the back, lose it, or win it back to then have an outnumbered attack vs their defence. We will never score goals like this. 

Going forward it's bad, but at the back, it's even worse. The second half the amount of times they had a player on the edge of the box or we didnt track a runner from midfield I'm honestly surprised we didnt lose by more. 

What worries me is that Woodgate appears to be stuck between playing in his ideal image of boro for the future, rather than the players of his current disposal. 

This brings me to my final point. Karanka could come in, and with experience make us solid and hard to beat. Then build the foundations to be able to go from there. I dont think Woodgate can do this. 

 

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Not that I think Karanka solves our problems. Maybe it has been enough time, I don't know. But we let him go for a reason and it would be the icing on the merry-go-round cake to invite him back.

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20 minutes ago, Lord_Moose said:

Feels like every week now he's coming out and criticising the players. There is undoubtedly quality in this team, we've pushed for promotion and played in the premier league with some of these players they're crap because they've got an amateur manager being puppeted by a washed up owner. 

Feels like there is 0 motivation in the team, the fans and just the general feel of the club. It's hugely depressing and I just can't see it turning around.

Don’t think I agree with him criticising the players. Tonight he admitted he has to look at himself before his players. 

The players aren’t exactly covering themselves in glory either btw, misplacing 10 yard passes, not controlling the ball, missing sitters, not going with runners in the box. These things are just basics to football.

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I'm not thinking Karanka would come back, it was more of a, I'd back Karanka to get us out of this mess due to his experience rather than Woodgate and his in experience. 

At least Karanka had bottle. 4231 and a system that worked for the players. Where is Woodgates high press? 

Abandoned at the first wobble. 

He. Is. Amateur. And. Out. Of. His. Depth. 

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31 minutes ago, BoroSmoggie said:

Don’t think I agree with him criticising the players. Tonight he admitted he has to look at himself before his players. 

The players aren’t exactly covering themselves in glory either btw, misplacing 10 yard passes, not controlling the ball, missing sitters, not going with runners in the box. These things are just basics to football.

https://www.gazettelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/angry-jonathan-woodgate-accuses-middlesbrough-17035990

Going off this Gazette article about his comments after the game tonight, granted yes he doesn't say his players aren't good enough however he does say: 

If we don’t do things right they will end up at the bottom of the table and stay there. They need to find it from somewhere, personalities on the pitch, they have to dig it out.

I really like his use of we and they. Here hes talking about confidence and this is probably wherw he needs to look at himself because It's his job as the manager to motivate players and give them confidence. I feel like some of his recent comments are the perfect drain of confidence. 

I agree with your point about the players, he says they work on these things in training but I struggle to believe that. If these players are as regimented in a Pulis mindset as some say the  they should still be able to keep the opposition out rather than failing at simple tasks. 

Edited by Lord_Moose
Me trying to conveniently forget information!
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1 hour ago, diggerlad07 said:

Guys, I'm only passing on what I have been informed and putting my own opinion on it.

One thing for certain though is that the club was a laughing stock in the summer in how the dealt with numerous situations from playing staff , coaching staff and club staff. The whole interview process was supposedly laughable.

Like I said, we did enough balancing the books in the summer to get us by until next summer on the playing staff. 

I wouldn't expect a change in management unless we are in serious trouble.

 

Hard to see a way out of this for the club, selling off the rest of the players of any value in the summer for a much lower amount than we paid (minus Randolph) and relying on youth/frees will end up in league 1, especially if Woodgate is in charge. No more premier league payments, only one player of any real value (Fry) and crowds could easily drop to 12/13k again. 

 

Club is a mess and the majority of this is down to Gibson, can’t understand how some fans don’t see this. His name is still sang every game ffs

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