Two minutes gone and Blackburn miss an open goal. Wow.
Boro could have been two after ten minutes or so, but have started to come into the game. However as I write this, Blackburn break, the balls ends with Diend who passes it straight to a Blackburn player. What a let off.
Howson looks to be the deepest MF man, with O’Brien further forward. Strange
Blackburn takes the lead in the 31st minute - Craig Johns:
Boro behind. Having weathered the early storm, it's another soft goal past Boro. Boro too passive in midfield and as the ball is played into Gallagher, he deceives Fry with a clever dummy, with the ball rolling onto Szmodics on the edge to turn and apply a good finish.
Boro go a goal down, no surprise, but awful defending from Fry as he completely loses his man. Howson nowhere near to cut out the initial pass.
Has Carrick not being training on any defensive tactics at all during the break. In truth, players we thought were decent at the back, are just not good enough
Middlesbrough are all over the place defensively. Ball swung into Gallagher, unmarked, who misses what is a golden opportunity.
Half Time and we could complain if we had gone in at least two, but possibly three goals down.
We look absolutely useless at defending and that is being kind. Where the fault lays? Recruitement, players or is it finally that MC just cannot do any better with what he has.
Well Boro lucky to go into half-time only one goal down - Rovers missed heading in two open goals plus twice Boro gifted the ball to the opposition on the edge of the box but thankfully Blackburn messed up the chances. As for the goal - it was another defensive mistake as Fry got caught in two minds.
So obviously Boro haven't been working on defence during the break and struggled to get into the game today. Odd that O'Brien is playing in an attacking role given we've signed a plethora of forwards and need more from midfield. Bangura has looked OK at left-back and has looked to get forward but I don't think Rav van den Berg has got within 35 yards of the Blackburn goal and offers little going forward.
Thought Forss has looked the most dangerous for Boro and Crooks has got into the game too - Latte Lath looks good until he has the goal in his sights and then never seems to shoot at the right moment.
All in all not much sign of any improvement since QPR - thankfully we're still in the game but can Boro up their game?
Oh dear a poor performance by Boro win no real punch up front and a dodgy goalkeeper performance.
it doesn’t auger well for the future of this season or MC
OFB
Craig Johns's assesment of the first half:
Another poor first half from Boro. Shot themselves in the foot a bit here after weathering an early Rovers storm. They started to settle in the game and slow it down a little, albeit without creating much of their own.
But then they conceded another cheap goal. With that one of numerous good chances Blackburn crafted in that first half as Boro's defence continues to be a real concern.
Haven't really had any good attacking moments of note. Not really working with O'Brien in that role. He's adding little to the attack. Chances Boro have had have been half chances or from set pieces. Improvements needed.
Well, my first wish for a clean sheet lasted about half an hour and was mainly due to Blackburn not taking a couple of easy chances.
Surely when you have started the season so badly and particularly conceding lots of goals you would expect greater emphasis in training on defending. But not evident so far with the defence all over the place . And little attacking play creating zero chances.
And what is O’Brien doing playing wide left ? He is a MIDFIELDER whose strength is box to box. Now I’m really worried about Carrick.
My second wish after keeping a clean sheet was to score 2 goals in the hope it would guarantee a draw. On the first half performance this will not happen.
However as a typical Boro supporter I live in hope.
Philip of Huddersfield ☹️☹️
McGree has to come on and I expect Paddy to come on for Fry.
We have conceded first in every league game this season !
OFB
Szmodics makes it 2-0 to Rovers in the 49th minute:
Blackburn have another. Dear me. So easy again. Szmodics picks it up in the middle, plays it out wide to Travis and then continues his run unopposed to get it back on the edge of the box where he has time and space to hammer the ball home. Dieng gets a hand to it, but can't keep it out.
Where the hell's Boro's defence?
Well that H-T team talk obviously did the trick - another defensive awol goal as every stood and watched the opposition shoot.
Crooks pulls one back in the 55th minute with a little help from Marcus Forss.
Goal machine Crooks gets Boro back in it but Boro have already nearly conceded 3 since scoring - defensively boro are having a nightmare and Dieng looks dodgy!
And still we leave off the field our Young man with pace, a shot, nerve, a Good header on him and not afraid to score. Do we ever put the ball in the box? Just asking like.
Crooks pulls one back in the 55th minute with a little help from Marcus Forss.
Craig Johns:
Ball worked into Howson on the left side of the penalty area. He cuts back onto his right and patiently waits to pick the pass to Forss breaking in from the right. He goes across goal with what looked like a shot that was missing, but Crooks was on hand to tap home. Rovers want offside, but lino says no.
Well Boro back into it a little with Crooks scoring a yard offside. Just cannot understand MC playing Howson in front of the defence, he is absolutely not in the game in that position.
I’ve had better Saturday afternoons
OFB
So will Carrick’s post match interview be along the lines of we were not good today and fortunate to lose only 1-2 and must improve to have a chance of winning a game ?
Or, more likely of we played some good football and today there were improvements ?
I think we just have too many young players , some of whom will come good but don’t know when. But the main problem is these young players have too little experience of the Championship League.
And then of course, we have a coach who has too little experience of the League and too little experience of being a coach.
Can’t help notice the excellent job Tony Mowbray is doing at Sunderland - with all young players !!
Philip of Huddersfield ☹️☹️
Does MC have a clue what’s going on today ?
is the honeymoon over ?
OFB
Well in the end the scoreline was close but in truth Blackburn could have easily scored 7, 8 or 9 and looked like scoring every time they attacked. Boro simply looked alike a team that has no idea how to defend.
It became a very open game in the second half and Boro had chances to score several themselves but once again couldn't finish - Latte Lath unfortunately doesn't look like a player who is going to score many goals and never looks like he knows how to put it in the net.
As for what formation Boro ended the game in is anybody's guess - it looked like a school game in the lunch break with players just trying to take anybody on and head for goal.
Boro don't look like a coherent team and my worry of Carrick becoming a low-budget Garry Monk is appearing a realistic prospect with players in strange positions and much trial and error (mainly error) on show. Rav van den Berg at right-back is surely a mistake as he doesn't seem like he believes he can cross a ball. As was playing O'Brien as an attacking left-sided forward. Rogers came on and showed no ability with the ball and of Course Coburn got his 5-10 minutes to prove he needs longer.
OK, the game was exciting but this is not going to get us out of relegation - looks like he proverbial six-pointer awaits at Sheff Wednesday on Tuesday - not confident of getting something out of that as the basics just don't exist on the pitch at the moment.
Only saw last 15 minutes of match, but my word We are a poor team, can't score, can't defend. Things are bleak.
Will he jump or be pushed.
In terms of those stats - Boro had 21 shots today and Blackburn had 15 - certainly an open game but whether Michael Carrick will still think his team are on the right track is possibly not going to wash with most who watched the game. Unbelievably Rover are now just one point off the playoffs and nine points ahead of Boro - they didn't look like a side who are heading for promotion so this is not a difficult league if you can at least organise your team defensively and get a couple of players who can hit the target!
must say I still have no idea what happened last season, and I am referring to the moment when we were going into the last pointless matches against a group of hard scrabble teams , who had no real claim to be challenging anybody for promotion to the prem. Least of all us, with our goalscoring ability. What happened then is still with us, only worse. If you cannot organise a few shots on goal, then you are doomed, and I do mean, to endless defeats. In the championship all teams are frightened to concede. take away that fear, and we do, the result is a blizzard of balls into your box, and sooner or later someone is going to get lucky, and our keeper is not Good enough, the result is, one lonely team is cursing their bad luck in not beating us. I have heard that they have been to see the shrink, but that is not confirmed!
I heard much of the game despite being in a "poor-signal bubble". I would probably have been better off hearing none of it. Crooks scored, though? He makes more out of his ability than many others who wear the Boro shirt at the moment.
Seven games played. Bottom of the table. The worst start Boro has EVER made. I realise, as the saying goes, "Boro is in a season of transition". Many teams are in transition. Presumably this is Boro's worst transition in nearly 140 years. It is going some distance to be the worst out of all the teams Boro has put out since.....when was it?....1886....? We'll be in the Guinness Book of Records sometime soon.
I’ve returned from the cliffs, no Emergency Services required. Boro need the Emergency Services. We are a pushover, cannon fodder and utterly clueless. Who is going to put things right? It needs more that a telephone chat with Sir Alex.
Put simply it is utterly depressing and when do fans start throwing season tickets on the pitch.
A defensive coach please, someone who can see what is going on.
UTB,
John
Fun fact for a Saturday evening
Middlesbrough have now played 1,036 minutes of league football without leading a match at any stage.
If it's don't panic time, only 6 games, OK
Name the three teams right now, we will finish above