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

[Changing Times 12,339]

30 minutes ago, SouthernSmoggie said:

Definitely - feel like I haven't seen us play a full 90 in for ages. 

Would people say we've playing badly last few games? Unlucky? Or just reverted to the mean after a freakish win streak? I'm finding it hard to judge off highlights and crappy facebook streams. 

The 'freakish' win streak was only 4 games long and included 2 games where we were very poor but won anyway - Stoke and Huddersfield.  If you look at our upturn in form, it was essentially beating Barnsley, Charlton, Stoke and Huddersfield at home.  Much needed wins but wins against some of the few sides that are actually worse than we are.  We drew a handful of games as well, which is pretty much what we've been doing lately, narrow away defeats at Fulham and Brentford aside. 

We played pretty well on Saturday, we played better in that game than we did in any of the four wins I mentioned above in my opinion.  However, we were playing against a better team who were also playing well and that's the difference.  The two outliers to me are the West Brom and Preston games but Preston are no more than a midtable side in a relatively poor division and at West Brom we just played well and got the result we deserved.  I think we're playing better now than we were back in September/October but I'm not sure that we're quite at the point of playing consistently well game after game or even consistently well within each individual game.  I'd still be disappointed if we didn't come through the next three games unbeaten though, we should be up to that.

[Rioch's Braves 711]

28 minutes ago, SouthernSmoggie said:

Definitely - feel like I haven't seen us play a full 90 in for ages. 

Would people say we've playing badly last few games? Unlucky? Or just reverted to the mean after a freakish win streak? I'm finding it hard to judge off highlights and crappy facebook streams. 

I think you're making a good point with regard to the 90 minutes, we only seem to play well in certain stages its never for a full game, its so inconsistent.

Never seen the Brentford game but judging by the posts on here we gave a good account of ourselves, I attended  the last 3 home games,  thought we played well enough to beat Derby, but thought our midfield against both Birmingham and Blackburn were poor, gave too much possession away, too many stray passes and lost far too many 2nd balls. So unlucky against Derby, but definitely not against the other 2.

[CanadianBoro 233]

Nice to read some positive results about Moukoudi. Seems he started well but faded a bit at the end, could just be some conditioning. Getting ahead of myself but Im hoping he can find some real chemistry with Fry for the remainder of this season and into next. If so having that option to buy Moukoudi in the summer would turn to be very smart. 

 

Hope we stay with 4 at the back. With the options at Midfield and Up front id like to see Spence and Coulson given a run at the back. 

[Smogzilla 7,482]

Game is on the red button this time. Hopefully follow up a decent performance (overall) with a much needed win

[Rioch's Braves 711]

I'll be disappointed if we don't beat Wigan, I'd be bringing Spence back for this one, really need to take the game to Wigan, early goal is vital. Britts got to start for me, our midfield have got to stamp their authority on this from the start. 

[Maccarone 265]

Tough game as they all are but Wigan beat Leeds recently. 

 

[mendieta420 1,006]

I'd suggest the inconsistencies and lack of 90 minute performances is down to the young line up and injuries.

That said we've been generally pretty good over the season without getting the points we probably deserve- especially at home.

I expect us to beat Wigan. Might go back to the 343 to get Spence in the team..

[TLF10 4,493]

54 minutes ago, mendieta420 said:

I'd suggest the inconsistencies and lack of 90 minute performances is down to the young line up and injuries.

That said we've been generally pretty good over the season without getting the points we probably deserve- especially at home.

I expect us to beat Wigan. Might go back to the 343 to get Spence in the team..

I agree. I would bring spence in and play a 3.1.4.2 formation. Saville in front of defence. Wing and Paddy ahead of him supporting front 2 of Fletch n Britt.

My head keeps telling me we will lose 1 nil and I am desperate to be proven wrong. 

[BillyWoofs_shinpad 1,884]

We need goals goals goals, so a 433 formation would be my choice. Let’s take one game at a time and see where we end up. 
I’m not too worried who plays where, the players are all much of a muchness, individually, they will have one good game and then two bad ones.

Saying that, I’m not a fan of square pegs in round holes, hopefully the manager is on board with that too. 

As long as we can keep things tight in the key areas and can quickly turn defence into attack we’ll have a chance, it’s a game of two halves and the players will need to concentrate on winning both of them.

We’ll need a decent outlet up top and players who can run the channels and press hard when the other side has possession, if we can stick to our game plan we can beat anyone on our day. I think Wigan will probably edge this one as I can’t see us doing any of the above. 

[Maccarone 265]

GAME DAY 

C'MON BORO 

[Downsouth 6,326]

Love a midweek match makes a Tuesday go much faster!

Yep looking forward to this game

[Liquid 284]

We should win this one, but it's a bizarre league, one that one can never predict. We could do with a run, like a man who's gorged like Genghis Kahn over Christmas.

I didn't see the game but from the highlights, it looked like Saville was busy, like a Wall Street hack with 6 arms.

Morrison should start for me. He's the answer to our lack of Roberts, like Howdy's, on the corner of Dovecot Street.

3 at the back. I'd throw Spencer's and Morrison's in there, like Teesside Retail Park.

Exactly as SD said, Gestede can cause chaos late on, like a bad portion of doner meat from Yarm Lane.

Edited February 11, 2020 by Liquid
Wrong person quoted!

[wilsoncgp 9,280]

It's probably gonna be tough given Wigan's form and there's likely to be some element of unknown given Paul Cook's hints they're gonna throw their 'young Rooney' into the team.

But we absolutely should be aiming to win this game, whichever formation and tactics are there for us to attack and win this game comfortably should be used. If that's 3 or 4 at the back, I'm not sure for us right now, it depends how much cover we can trust our midfielders to give in the case of the full-backs pushing on. 4-2-3-1 might be a good shout.

Pears

Spence Fry Moukoudi Coulson

Howson Saville

Nmecha Wing Johnson

Fletcher

It's genuinely hard to get everyone you want into the team without reverting to the back 3/5.

[AnglianRed 6,320]

22 hours ago, SouthernSmoggie said:

Definitely - feel like I haven't seen us play a full 90 in for ages. 

Would people say we've playing badly last few games? Unlucky? Or just reverted to the mean after a freakish win streak? I'm finding it hard to judge off highlights and crappy facebook streams. 

Well I've managed to catch quite a few games via streams on USA Goals and to be honest our performances have been pretty mixed in each game.

We often start slowly and let other teams dominate us for a good half hour or so. If we concede first, that usually sparks a response. We do play well in patches, but never for sustained periods. Most of our best play seems to involve Coulson, Spence and Tavernier, but we do seem overly reliant on them to make something happen.

Defensively...well its a lot like being a kid watching a horror movie...you want to do it from behind the sofa, as it feels any attack could result in a goal. To his credit Pears has done pretty well most of the time. Made a couple of rookie mistakes, but thats to be expected.

Personally I get jittery every time the opposition even gets near our 18-yard box. We seem to concede a lot of daft free kicks & commit needless fouls.

I know we're playing with quite a makeshift team at the back, but its not like the players have changed that much. We do seem quite disorganised a lot of the time.

 

[TAPOUT 361]

Not sure how I expect this one to go. The lowest scorers in the division v the second lowest scorers. We have won 8 to their 7 so not much between us. At home earlier in the season they were at least as good as us. I will be very disappointed if we go back to 5 at the back against these. I suppose tonight will really show how good we are.