OFB,

An excellent starter, well done. we're off to Cornwall today for a late break and the first break for nearly two years. On the 13th September last year I was being worked on by a team of surgeons for just over twelve and a half hours so despite Boro's lowly position I'm glad to be here. Thank you NHS, all of you. And thank you DiasBoro for all your good wishes too, much appreciated.

I'll follow the blog during the week and hope desperately for a change in fortunes on Saturday. I know it's the hope and all that but Boro just need a little confidence and belief, that was a good point about the hesitancy of the forwards and or players in a shooting position.

Anyway all the best everyone and [articularly Ken if he's reading the blog.

UTB,

John

Thanks OFB for the opener, I still think this squad will come good, once everyone has settled in, hopefully sooner than later.

Come on BORO.

@exmil I hope you are right, because I am thinking exactly like that, too. The only way is up, I think.

@OFB And thank for a great opener. Now that the internationals are (mainly) over, let's concentrate again on Boro. There will be an international break in a month's time as well as in Novermber, too. So let's enjoy the ride as long as Boro is in action. And there is the extra  of League Cup Round Three, too!

Up the Boro!

@OFB - Your Starter (and thanks for it, old chap) shows that football will soon be back with us.  I am NOT so confident of a 3-0 Boro win but would be delighted if it were to turn out like that.

Incidentally, my calendar has no mention of the game on it for Saturday 16th September. I have no idea why I missed it off the list of Boro games, on the assumption it is not a game that has been re-arranged to this date, as the other Boro games stand out in red on September's page. Home to QPR on 2nd Sept, away to Sheff Wed on 18th Sept, home to So'ton on 23rd Sept and away to Watford on 30th Sept.  So thanks for the reminder, OFB. If I have missed any others, no doubt people will let me know, but I have just entered details of the Blackburn game onto the calendar!

I had been planning a visit to Cropton on the North York Moors this weekend.  Camped literally next door to the New Inn which is the home of the Great Yorkshire Brewery. It would be a poor show not to pop in a few times to sample the beers brewed there.

@forever-dormo    You could download an app or just Google a link for the Championship League games for Middlesbrough. They even update any changes and you can receive prior notifications.

Last season exmil kindly posted a link for the same.

@pedro - Thanks, Pedro.  I already have the app on my phone linking Boro to me, so I could get tickets etc, and it includes the fixtures.  I must have used it at the start of the season to enter fixtures onto my hall calendar at home, but I guess by oversight I overlooked one of the fixtures (the Blackburn game but hopefully no others). 

I note, on looking back at the app, that there is the League Cup fixture away to Bradford City on Tues 26th September at 7.45pm but obviously that will have been added to the fixture list only after the previous round and therefore after I entered the games onto the calendar. I will now write in the Bradford game.  Two games added in minutes!

(Thanks, gang, for the reminders/corrections which are now evidenced on my calendar in red ink!).

Great opener OFB, thank you for that and getting us up and running again.

I wish I could share your optimism but our record at Ewood Park is not good!

Just been chatting with the Caddymaster at the golf club, a diehard Rovers supporter!  He said they can’t score, I said neither can we except in our own net!

A point would be a good point but I fear that rovers will get the better of us again. ☹️😎

John - so glad the NHS did their work so well on you, enabling you to continue enjoying Boro (albeit from behind your sofa) and contributing so well on here. 

OFB - Thank you for a very interesting and thorough opener. It must have taken you a very long time to pull together. Well done. 

The EG has been steadily sowing the seeds of doubt in our minds in the last fortnight with articles from the Rovers manager and players about how unlucky they’ve been, how they’re playing great football and creating loads of chances, how results haven’t reflected performances, and so on. How much of that is their spin to deflect away from moderate results, it’s hard to say. However, a BR-supporting acquaintance of mine tells me that Rovers are top of the statistics league for the number of times per game they get the ball into the opposition penalty area; he also said that Boro are fourth in that table, which I think you hinted at in your opener, OFB. 

If the Rovers people are correct in what they’re saying, then we face a difficult afternoon, as our defence is terribly porous. So I’ll stick my neck out here. If Lewis O’Brien is the player we hope he is, and if he plays to anchor the midfield, then I think we can get at least a draw. If not, then I can’t see anything other than a home win. I sincerely hope I’m wrong on that count. 

I did n8t realise this before the BBC mentioned it. Boro, beaten in the play-off semi-finals last season, have picked up one point from their opening five games, making it the club's worst start to a campaign in their history.

Quite a start - and we as fans will remember that the last few matches were winless last season, too. Let's hope we take off after the Internation break.

I am hoping for a win but will happily take a draw. 1-2 win for us. Up the Boro! 

Just looking at the stats for our own HH playing for England

A few scouts and managers will be taking a look as well.

Here’s the first half performance figures 

@jarkko

It seems to me that the complete collapse, accompanied by apathy, and several other unwanted faults in any football club, which has happened since the threat of promotion raised it's head as the season ended, is not over by any means. there are several road blocks to recovery, none of which show any signs of being addressed. the three most obvious faults are fielded in every game. We won with confidence in our play and general attitude, gone! We introduced the practice of pointless dribbling, towards the corner flag. We now do not shoot at goal, perhaps regarding it as bad manners.      

HH Full time England U21 statistics 

@original-fat-bob 

Pretty impressive stats from HH! Thanks OFB. As you say, the scouts will soon be out in force. 

Shoud we play Hayden Hackney further up? He is becoming our best player and already an U21 international. This might able O'Brien to play in central midfield alongside Johnny Howson. If the latter is fit as he must be after the international break. Mind, he was injured the most of pre-season.

Up the Boro!

This is a good read about Boro and what happens in the coaching team.

https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/sport/23785471.middlesbrough-phill-hudson-reflects-11-years-boro-summer-exit/

Up the Boro!

@jarkko.  If you do as you suggest who would drop out to facilitate both Howson & O’Brien? 😎

@k-p-in-spain That is tricky to say. But Hayden was excellent last season when used higher up. Was McGree injured back then?

How about:

Dieng

McNair (Smith) - Fry - Leninhan - Bangura

Howson - O'Brien

McGree - Greenwood - Hackney 

Latte Lath

Up the Boro! 

@jarkko.  Definitely worth a try although I would like to see McGree in the 10 role and Hackney is right footed so would swap him to the other side.

With Silvera and Jones not included (not saying they should be) we look short on pace again and I am fearful that we will end up playing like we did under NW and CW where we were very slow in transitioning from defence to attack.  

It will be interesting to see who MC selects on Saturday and if there are any noticeable improvements, there needs to be!😎

@jarkko - Thanks for the link, Jarkko.  Very interesting and particularly noteworthy that when each new manager comes in, there's a good chance that members of his preferred backroom staff are brought in with him, leaving existing members of staff high and dry.

I think that degree of staff "churnover" is far too high in football clubs.  If you allow managers to bring in hordes of their friends to fuflil roles as they move to a new club, and from club to club as they move on in their careers, those friends who comprise the manager's travelling circus are likely to feel they owe their loyalty to the manager who brought them in rather than the club which is paying their wages.  If things are going wrong or being done badly, are those friendly members of the manager's team going to make that known outside the cricle of friends? Or do the supporters wait until the ship hits the rocks by which time it's too late to do anything so that, whilst the ship is destroyed, the members of the crew are motivated simply to save their lives/careers?

Feeling a certain amount of dread about this. On one hand, it's way too early in the season to be making judgements on the other hand we haven't won a game in the league since April 2023. Since the previous international break we have played 15 games in the league (13 regular, 2 play-off) won 2, drawn 4, lost 9 for the equivalent of 10 points from 15 games. That's not just relegation form it's stinking out the league form. Over a whole season that's struggling to get to 30 points.

Before the season started, it seemed reasonable to think that it might take us a dozen games to integrate the new players and get back up to speed. I figured we might have 15-18 points after 12 games. With 1 point after 5 games, a traditionally difficult game at Ewood park suddenly looks far more important than it should.

Football is random enough that we could easily come back with a 2-0 win but the historical record is against us. Thing is, it won't just be the result, it will be the performance. It has to be said that we have gone backwards at an alarming rate with no obvious sign of Carrick turning it around but we have had two weeks on the training pitch to work on our problems. If we turn up at Blackburn and there's no signs of improvement then, really for the first time, doubts will emerge over Carrick. It's early enough and he has enough credit in the bank that fans are likely to be divided into factions rather than turning against him en-masse. September, though, has some difficult matches.

It's no secret that my first choice was Corberan followed by Edwards. I felt burnt out by our habit of appointing rookie managers after experienced ones. Although Carrick had done significantly more coaching than the likes of Gerrard and Lampard, he hadn't served an apprenticeship the same way that AK or McClaren had. I was delighted to be wrong and, still now, I appreciate the way he's approaching management. Probably, quality will count and we have enough quality in the squad for a win or two out of the next 4 games. 

What concerns me is that we seem to be trying to make a system work that maybe isn't possible with the quality of players we have. There's also the risk that Carrick simply got lucky for a while. I was looking back at Woodgate's season. For a while he had a golden patch. From the beginning of December until new year's day he had a run of 7 games, won 5 draw 1, lost 1. 16 points from 7 games. Imagine that was his first 7 games of the season then we would be thinking that Gibson had pulled a masterstroke. His actual first 7 games were won 2 draw 3, lost 2 so that might be 14 games, won 7, draw 4, lost 3. 

These are all ifs and buts but it does make the point that sometimes it's more about timing and luck than anything else and maybe Carrick just got lucky by having his golden run at the start while Woodgate got unlucky with having a really bad run at the beginning. Probably what will happen is that we'll play another 10 games, revert to somewhere around what looks like normal, e.g. gaining 15 points and 1/3 of the way through the season we'll likely be in the bottom 3 with 16 points from 15 games. From this point, even decent mid-table form isn't going to get us out of the relegation spots by November and that is going to lead to unrest.

I have no idea what will happen this weekend. Is Carrick going to stick with the same system and players he's been using all along? Will he use the 2 weeks to adjust or change course? No one will know until 3pm on Saturday. I kind of dread it because if we don't win and the performance doesn't seem to have changed much it's just going to lead to strife and I'm not sure I want to deal with that.

What would I do? A large part of any game is confidence. I think I would have spent 2 weeks drilling players in an exciting new shape as much as a confidence trick as anything else. Going on to the pitch thinking you're going to win is 50% of actually winning.

I would go with 4-3-3

Dieng

Smith - Fry - Lenihan - Engel

Hackney - Howson - O'Brien

Jones - Lath - McGree

Engel to provide the pace and width on the left and Jones to do the same on the right. McGree to cut in and have more of a free role. Hackney and O'Brien given licence to attack with Howson tasked on keeping the back door shut.

@deleriad - Nice, thoughtful piece.  I would hesitate to choose the team, as you have done, but I couldn't disagree with any of the points you have made.

Apologies for the late "THANK YOU".  OFB. 

A brilliant Headliner, delivered with much thought and effort and most enjoyable.

I will not be there live, however hopefully I will watch it streamed. 

No predictions, just hoping for the best. Not confident that the team really has the ability to score two goals. A massive problem for MC, as we cannot keep them out.

@jarkko Sorry, but I think JH is now probably out of it, especially when it comes to defending the back four.

@deleriad.  Thanks Deleriad for an excellent incisive post. It was an enjoyable read if somewhat scary given the potential consequences if MC cannot get a playful tune out of his revised squad.

I would go with your team as it provides experience, youth and pace all of which are needed to win games in this league.

I have already said a point will be a good point given out track record at Ewood and our current circumstances, so fingers crossed for an improved performance at both ends of the pitch. 😎

Young Hackney getting plenty of plaudits on his England debut the other night,it's rare a debutant gets the minutes he did,it's usually a look and see, w,I'm sure he's been scouted by premiership and overseas clubs, if clubs do come in I hope Boro don't just sell for the money, and point him to top teams with top players ,it wouldn't be to his interest to go to a club that is constantly struggling

@deleriad

A very clear summary of where we stand although I do hope that the club (management and ownership) are more committed to the long haul. Otherwise the whole transfer strategy would have been absolutely pointless. If we get a point and a half a game for the next thirty games, we will be perfectly secure and ready for the last ten. We will then have a young squad packed with potential. That seems a reasonable way to approach the season.

Regarding team selection, I wonder whether Carrick should switch to a back three - which can become a back five on defence - but doesn’t have the left sided player to take the role. Maybe the return to fitness of Clarke will open up that possibility and create a more solid defensive structure. 

We have a plethora of midfield and attacking players and it’s a question of finding the best combination. I watched McGree play 90 minutes for Australia and he was excellent. I would pick him as an automatic along with Hackney and O’Brien. Bangura will, presumably, get a shot at left back/wingback. Up front I’m not sure that Lath and Coburn can play together so Lath, presumably gets first shot.

The rest will come from performance in training and I’ll look forward to see what MC picks.

UTB

@deleriad. A very good post, given a lot of thought. Unfortunately from a Boro perspective, it does not make good reading.

The International break has not helped, in as there were 6/7 players missing, the majority having been in the first team these last five games.

As I posted to KP, we cannot keep a clean sheet and in all honesty, I cannot see that changing. So, can we score at least two goals (at least) to win?

Howson to keep the back door shut. I really do not think so. Possibly O'Brien, if he can replicate his Huddersfield form. 

Your stats deleriad, make awful reading. Are we that bad or a little better, say mid-table. I hope that it is the latter and we start picking up some points, starting Saturday.

If not, well eventually the axe will fall and we will start all over again.

@deleriad 

I hope MC has seen your post as I think it’s a really good selection for Saturday 

!

OFB