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Boro v Wigan (A) 2-2 (Wing 2)


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I was at the game last night and the playing conditions were terrible, the final 3 goals were pretty much all down to the weather. Can't really blame Moukoudi too much for that own goal. We looked stale and devoid of creativity, it looked like Wigan's tactics were to give us the ball because they knew we couldn't break them down.

We were sluggish on the ball and whenever a midfielder or defender got on it nobody was moving to make an option, Britt and Fletcher uptop just wasn't working, neither were dropping back to link play or really got much of a sniff. Absolutely no width the entire game either... With the wind being what it was would've been nice to send a few more crosses into the box.

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Boro will be hitting the road once again, in search of their first win since their 2-0 victory at Preston on New Year's Day...blimey that seems a long time ago now! A spirited, though ultimately

We'd hopefully appoint a decent manager or head coach with the ability to succeed here I suppose.  I don't think Woodgate has demonstrated even slightly that he is that person and that's with people s

We were a mess yesterday, the players looked clueless and that is absolutely down to the manager in my opinion.  If you change your system and the players don't know what they are supposed to be doing

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3 minutes ago, Changing Times said:

I understand what you're saying here but I guess from my point of view there would be the hope that we would make a better appointment.  I don't believe that last summer was about finding the best man for the job.

I think it was more about finding the cheapest man for the job. But you would have hoped Gibson would cast his net a bit wider.

 

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The problem we face currently is the club is very much adopted a state of "make it up as we go along approach" appears to me to be no long term 3-4 year plan to build a side and system that will get us promotion. We just seem to be applying sticky plasters (loans) that will be pulled off leaving us very exposed

 

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10 minutes ago, Changing Times said:

I understand what you're saying here but I guess from my point of view there would be the hope that we would make a better appointment.  I don't believe that last summer was about finding the best man for the job.

What leads you to believe that anything has really changed there?

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Just now, wilsoncgp said:

What leads you to believe that anything has really changed there?

Our season so far, hopefully 😬

It's certainly more hope than expectation, I know that.  But I look at what was said and done in the summer and then how things have already seemingly changed since then.  I look at the season so far on the field and a complete lack of progress and I'd hope that we'd do a better job this time.

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Now I for one held my hands up with Woodgate turning things around over christmas. 

However, for a formation that emulates Liverpool (the Woodgate Way) we played Howson at right back. He isnt as dynamic as Spence in running at people and causing problems. Howson is sturdy, but again, not for an overlapping fullback formation that he wants to emulate.

Additionally our successes have come from a back 5 which I'll be honest, seems to suit our players. We are a counter attacking football team but when we play 4 3 3 we look lost trying to control and dictate games. We dont have the players to do that, so I'm surprised that's how we go about playing. 

Ashley Fletcher needs space in behind, but our build up denies him of using his biggest asset to us. All of our strikers have rubbish movement, so when space is at a premium that's when we struggle. 

I'm just a bit deflated if I'm honest. We should be beating Wigan. Regardless of where we are in the league and on our journey, but it's the manner of the two games Brentford and Wigan where we've struggled to impose and get at them. 

We've failed to recreate that spark and zip from December because Woodgate is tinkering. 

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4 minutes ago, DurhamRed said:

The problem we face currently is the club is very much adopted a state of "make it up as we go along approach" appears to me to be no long term 3-4 year plan to build a side and system that will get us promotion. We just seem to be applying sticky plasters (loans) that will be pulled off leaving us very exposed

 

That's the most concerning thing to me is that we're bringing in temporary players when our squad is about to get a whole lot weaker this season and next. Although I appreciate January wouldn't be the best time to buy.

We've had an unbalanced squad since the Premier League season and window after window we don't seem to try to address it.

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Woodgate was boasting a couple of weeks ago that the fans can now see what he is trying to achieve and are starting to see his philosophy on the pitch. 

I'd like to know what his philosophy is, I've seen us trying to press high in games, sit back and counter attack. I've seen 5 at the back/ 4 at the back. 1 up front and now 2 up front. 

I genuinely don't have a clue what he's trying to do and deep down I'm not sure he does either. 

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We were a mess yesterday, the players looked clueless and that is absolutely down to the manager in my opinion.  If you change your system and the players don't know what they are supposed to be doing then you've failed to get your instructions across properly.  That seemed quite evident to me last night.

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11 minutes ago, Foogle said:

That's the most concerning thing to me is that we're bringing in temporary players when our squad is about to get a whole lot weaker this season and next.

I think the fact we've brought in temporary outfield players only this January says a great deal about the longevity of the financial commitment we are willing to give for the foreseeable future. We didn't even seem to be operating in the market for a permanent buy outside of Stojanovic, who replaced the only permanent departure.

I think on some level the club is looking forward to a summer where they have more wiggle room in their budgets and can start putting a more permanent plan in place and I think Woodgate remains firmly a part of that plan.

Put it this way too, even if there is a manager out there who is better placed to take this team forward the way the club wants us to go... it's not like we'd have a sodding clue about them. Gibson can barely look beyond his own front yard for any significant appointments. There is little doubt in my mind that were the next managerial appointment to come sooner rather than later, that would not be a good appointment and there's just as much, if not a greater chance, that the person who would end up in charge is worse for our club as a whole than Woodgate is.

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15 minutes ago, Changing Times said:

We were a mess yesterday, the players looked clueless and that is absolutely down to the manager in my opinion.  If you change your system and the players don't know what they are supposed to be doing then you've failed to get your instructions across properly.  That seemed quite evident to me last night.

We looked less badderer than Wigan at least 🤠 I think that's the most disappointing thing was that we looked like we had more individual quality but were completely devoid of any direction or creativity.

The midfield diamond made it look like the entire game was being played in a 20 yard by 20 yard box around the centre circle when we were in possession and we just weren't taking Wigan out of their comfort zone. Woody at least tried to change it by bringing on "wingers", it obviously didn't work because they were really just a Centre Mid and a Striker both being played out of position.

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The trouble with Woodgate is I don't think he has the knowledge, contacts to identify players in foreign markets. Then if he did a player be less comfortable too come here as Woodgate doesn't have that language or culture. So I can't see us buying players like Kike and Stuani like Karanka was able to do.  So we more limited too domestic market that makes it way more difficult to buy good player's on the cheap. 

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2 minutes ago, DurhamRed said:

The trouble with Woodgate is I don't think he has the knowledge, contacts to identify players in foreign markets. Then if he did a player be less comfortable too come here as Woodgate doesn't have that language or culture. So I can't see us buying players like Kike and Stuani like Karanka was able to do.  So we more limited too domestic market that makes it way more difficult to buy good player's on the cheap. 

I've been saying since the summer that Monk was appointed we should be utilizing the foreign market more, especially if we are skint. 

Having this parochial, insular mentality that we have actually prevents us being on the same playing field as our rivals. 

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18 minutes ago, DurhamRed said:

The trouble with Woodgate is I don't think he has the knowledge, contacts to identify players in foreign markets. Then if he did a player be less comfortable too come here as Woodgate doesn't have that language or culture. So I can't see us buying players like Kike and Stuani like Karanka was able to do.  So we more limited too domestic market that makes it way more difficult to buy good player's on the cheap. 

I don't know why any of this would come down to Woodgate. We literally had a person employed to be in charge of European recruitment and never replaced him.

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9 hours ago, DurhamRed said:

The trouble with Woodgate is I don't think he has the knowledge, contacts to identify players in foreign markets. Then if he did a player be less comfortable too come here as Woodgate doesn't have that language or culture. So I can't see us buying players like Kike and Stuani like Karanka was able to do.  So we more limited too domestic market that makes it way more difficult to buy good player's on the cheap. 

Woodgate will have contacts in Spain, he's fluent in Spanish. Gibson runs the club though and he definitely won't want a another Latin flavour in the dressing room.

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