If I were Steve Gibson I would be a very worried man tonight after today’s shambles. I expect that for now he will stand by MC but for how long?
I suppose it could be argued that the performances up until the last international break were poor because the team management team were trying to accommodate new players and searching for the right mix in team selection. That argument no longer holds water because the coach and his team had a two week opportunity to address the problems that were obvious to anyone watching the team and based on the evidence today zero progress has been made. The much vaunted reset is non-existent. If the team management can’t make a difference in how the team performs after two weeks of uninterrupted work, the question is whether they can ever make the necessary improvement, especially as the improvement needs to be massive. At the moment I find it difficult to see us beating anyone.
I can understand that Steve Gibson will be very keen to see MC succeed and might not want to interfere with team coaching and selection activities. However, after what he has seen in the season so far I would hope that he has a lot of questions for MC, questions that are asked on this forum time and again. What is the defence such a shambles? What are the defence coaches doing? Why are players being played out of position? Why does MC think that Van den Berg is a right back when it is obvious that he is not? Why is McGree not an automatic choice? What does Coburn need to do to be picked to start when the current picks are not scoring goals? Why was O’Brien played wide on the left? Why was Howson playing a defensive midfield role? What options do you have for a Plan B and a Plan C in a game when the current formation isn’t working? And so on…..
One thing is for sure. If the team continues to play the same way for much longer then they will be odds on to be in League One next season. It might still be early in the season but the current omens are bad. Something has to happen to generate a huge improvement in performances and results and soon or the supporters will demand change and rightly so.
As Werder stated, that was school playground football by the Boro this afternoon. There was no indication that as a team we are getting anywhere near to even the basics of a football team.
OK, I accept the numerous changes from last year and the clubs stupidity of signing so many inexperienced (Championship level) players.
However looking at the players we have, even the defenders and midfielders, that cannot defend, we should be good enough to be not anywhere near the bottom three.
That leaves the question, are the Coaches good enough. I saw one shot of the threesome, standing in a huddle, with looks on their faces, what do, we do!!!
Somebody posted last week, a statement from Lenihan, as to the meticulous preparation, defensively, they receive from Woodgate. Can you really believe that, as there has been zero evidence shown at all this season, and may I add, last season to.
Carrick continues to come out with the same cliches. There were some good parts today, we are not as bad as we look. Who is he kidding. The games are adding up, we look no nearer to a win, and on the current state of play, by game ten, we could be well cut adrift at the bottom.
As deleriad has said on a couple of occasions, was MC just lucky last season. At this moment he does not look as though he has any idea how to turn things round. Even his team selection looks all wrong.
Boro exile and Pedro have summarised the position very clearly in the above two posts.
I just can’t see Boro winning a game based on the performances this season .
I’d take a draw now for the next game against Sheffield Wednesday who are second bottom.
Carrick must play players in their best positions starting with O’ Brien and play his best players eg McGree plus what’s the point of bringing on Coburn with 2 minutes left. His inexperience is so obvious when things aren’t going well as he doesn’t know or have the experience of how to change the team formation etc.
The position is not yet desperate but not far off.
Philip of Huddersfield 🙁🙁🙁
We were warned, weren’t we? Everything the EG wrote about Blackburn in the run up to the game said they are a high energy side that creates a lot of chances and had been unlucky not to have beaten more teams. Today, they came up against a Boro side shorn of confidence, with a terrible defensive record and, it follows, with a very vulnerable defence. Surprise, surprise, they start the match with immense pace, drive and zest, forcing us immediately on to the back foot! Yet we seem to have been surprised by this approach! Hadn’t MC and his coaches expected this? Hadn’t they prepared the lads to expect just such an onslaught? Just what were they doing to prepare the defence and the midfield cover in the two weeks without games? Didn’t they warn the lads to keep it tight for the first half hour, getting ten men behind the ball at every opportunity? I despair.
It seems to me now, as it has for a while, that MC must change tack, starting on Tuesday at Sheffield. He has to get back to basics and make us much harder to beat. If that means playing a more defensive formation, playing with less ‘flair’ (if a side that has scored 4 goals in 6 matches can be said to have any flair), then so be it. We urgently need to improve the defensive side of our game and stop conceding soft goals.
If this malaise goes on much longer, we may need to get in some gnarled old firefighter to sort us out. I hesitate to say this, but what’s Tony Pulis doing these days?
OFB
I've tried other blogs, but the infantile responses made me leave
OFB, Not sure about that rather optimistic prediction.
UTB,
John
I’ve just read MC’s explanation for having O’Brien on the left side: ‘We see him as an attacking midfielder.’
I mean, yer jokin’ arn yer? Isn’t he noted for his ability to break up attacks and protect the defence? Isn’t that why we signed him? Just who exactly in the coaching set-up thinks he’ll be suited to a left-sided attacking position, especially given we have several more suitable candidates for that role, as others amongst you have said?
There’s obviously such a thing as overthinking what is a simple game. That’s it now. No more experiments. Play your best side in their best positions and give the squad a decisive and possibly painful boot up the backside. Sort it out!
I'm all for midfielders making attacking runs but from what I've read of O'Brien is that he's good at tackling with a great engine and more of a driving midfielder who gets the team out of defence - his weakness is apparently in the final third and his shooting is more in the Howson class - i.e. he's not gong to score you many if any.
Surely Hackney is your man if you need an attacking midfielder but it was very odd to see him selected as a left-sided attacker when we had the left-footed McGree on the bench or Jones who has given the opposition defence problems in that area.
It sounds like a case of Carrick is reluctant to change his 4-2-3-1 formation and equally reluctant to break his Howson-Hackney midfield partnership so is looking to where he can play O'Brien. This it seems is the same solution he's doing with Rav van den Berg - doesn't want to break his Fry-Lenihan partnership so instead plays him as a right-back.
This is what Garry Monk used to do when the club signed tons of players that couldn't be fitted in the same team - he ended up square-pegging players just to get them on the pitch and the team never looked coherent. Still at least Monk won 3 and drew 1 of his opening six games and was dismissed after 23 games with Boro just three points outside the playoffs.
The problem for Carrick is he doesn't have a reliable goal scorer and the defence has seemingly no idea how to defend anymore - Boro need that high energy midfielder who sniffs out trouble and shields the space in front of defence. O'Brien could be that player as he can run all day and tackle - however, he's not going to get back and help if he's playing in a left attacking role. Likewise, van den Berg is offering hardly anything outside his own half when we've seen McNair regularly delivering passes and crosses as a right-back.
Why can't Carrick and Woodgate see the obvious problem with these selections is a mystery but I think their inexperience makes them believe they can start moving players like a game of chess and come up with random moves that in their minds make sense but doesn't materialise in the same way on the pitch.
It looks like they basically trying to stumble upon a solution by avoiding addressing the things that aren't working by attempting untried tactics with players in untried positions. It's just adding to the lack of coherence - especially out of possession - which is making the problems worse not better.
Looks like more hope than method at the moment and unless Boro get some results soon it will be Steve Gibson who will once more be looking to move the pieces again!
Talking of new managers it’s odds on that ,here at Huddersfield, Neil Warnock is about to be replaced. There’s a press conference at 1pm tomorrow about his future. Neil is being tight lipped but has said that he’ll be in charge of the team for the game on Wednesday. It looks like the usual - new owners equals new manager.
if it’s announced tomorrow that Neil is leaving then put your money on Huddersfield winning on Wednesday. The players love him and the job he’s done will get him the biggest send off he’s ever had.
Philip of Huddersfield
Surely when Boro signed O’Brien they knew his best position. It certainly wasn’t the position he played yesterday. Yesterday wasn’t a day for gambling with him - it failed, as any Huddersfield Town could have predicted.
He needs to be in midfield where he can run all day and make up for Howson’s shortfalls.
Surely when a team is conceding lots of goals and scoring very few the first thing you do is to pack the midfield and play defensively and get “10 behind the ball”. It’s not rocket science.
Philip of Huddersfield ☹️☹️
@werdermouth Why can't Carrick and Woodgate see the obvious problem with these selections is a mystery.
Sadly, the only realistic answer you can come up with, they do not have an answer. Being hard, one could say, they just are not good (experienced) enough, when the difficult periods arrive. We saw that at the end of last season, even allowing for the injuries.
With out overstating matters, I believe we are very near to crisis point. We may have our best opportunity for a win against Sheffield on Tuesday night. After that the games get harder.
Our eleventh game against Sunderland, is the last before the next International break. On this blog many posters always talk about waiting until game ten. If it continues as we are, then by then we could look dead and buried.
I certainly do not blame Mr Carrick.
No the blame for our predicament lays squarely with Mr Gibson. His appointments since Aitor Karanka, have been, dubious, not helped of course by a seemingly disconnection between the incumbent Coach and the Hierarchy / Recruitment Team.
I think most of us on here were concerned at MC’s experience or lack of it at Championship level. But to compound that, Mr Gibson then foists Woodgate upon him as his second in command, again with very limited experience.
At this moment, we desperately need a very experienced AND tactically aware Coach to save us from the possible disaster in front of us.
Of course, I do not expect anything like that to happen and to be fair to MC, it would say to him, that he does not have the capabilities, so he would probably walk.
Whilst we all are tremendously greatful to Mr Gibson for what he has done since 1986, he needs to look in the mirror and decide what the future holds for MFC.
Certainly it will be reaching a tipping point with supporters if Boro fail against Sheff Wed and subsequently Carrick will also be close to a tipping point.
Of course I do have some sympathy for Carrick as just look at his striking options this season - Latte Lath who is making Britt Assombalonga look clinical in comparison - after that he's got Forss as a possible alternative or Josh Coburn who finished his second-half spell on loan last season with just one goal and hasn't had hardly any minutes on the pitch. That's not going to replace the goals from Akpom and Archer et al - looks to be our least convincing strikeforce in many a year.
Then no real defensive arrivals that look capable of shoring things up - neither left-backs look as good as Bola who was let go - never mind Giles.
Then there's the mystery of why McGree is sitting on the bench instead of playing, which is compounded by selecting O'Brien in his position instead.
It's a mess and mainly a mess of our own making that is seemingly based on a moneyball theory of signing projects - unfortunately your projects need to be capable of playing games if you want them to gain experience and add value - otherwise you've only signed players who you can't get rid of!
I've been mostly absent from the blog this last week or two. Been a little under the weather, swamped at work and with 1001 things to try and get done in the house and garden. I don't think I could have had anything more to add then the very many excellent posts from so many of you.
My concern is that the coaching team really doesn't know how to adapt to situation - either situation with squad and availability and capability, or to situation in the match and when to change it around a little.
Defence. Everything starts with defence. That has always been the bedrock on which successful sides are built and it always will be. It has been nice to experience a spell of free flowing high scoring football so it didn't matter if we conceded. It didn't work long term for Kevin Keegan's version of the Magpies. It won't work log time for us either.
The defence has to be sorted and perhaps that means Woodgate needs to be removed now and an experienced head bought in to get that defence sorted.
@powmillnaemore I don’t think they are able to even identify and analyse the situation and then having identified it they might, just might, be able to remedy it. There seems to be a zealot’s blindness in there somewhere.
The coaches have also revived that old problem of playing players out of position and and not playing men who should be in the starting line-up. Baffling really. Is it arrogance, stupidity or an attitude we haven’t worked out. I’m dreading Tuesday . . .
UTB,
John
If it's true Clive on the Obrien thing, then I want Carrick gone he's an idiot, Obrien history is in the middle braking up attacks and moving the ball forward
On what we've seen up to now the recruitment as been a disaster unless the Pervue was Midtable , it starts with the goalkeeper he's a nightmare ,I think the goals we've leaked a decent goalie could have saved half of them, I want a goalkeeper who makes saves not a goalie who plays midfield.
I'm now sitting back for Tuesday, could get nasty
I have to disagree about Dieng, he made at least four crucial saves yesterday, had he not done so the score could have been much worse; these were in addition to the sitters missed by Blackburn players. 😎On what we've seen up to now the recruitment as been a disaster unless the Pervue was Midtable , it starts with the goalkeeper he's a nightmare ,I think the goals we've leaked a decent goalie could have saved half of them, I want a goalkeeper who makes saves not a goalie who plays midfield.
I'm now sitting back for Tuesday, could get nasty
The jury's out KP hope your right ,do you think the goals were stoppable, not the saves later
@gt. All goals are stoppable particularly if the team defends properly, which currently they are not doing; in my view Dieng was not at fault for either of yesterday’s goals. 😎
Well having caught up, I really don’t have much more to add apart from maybe O dear me, this is just typical Boro, they always make life hard for their supporters!
I really didn’t think we would be this poor although I was realistic to know that this season was always going to be work in progress with the change in personnel and that a play off position would be a bonus.
But I am finding it hard to understand what has gone on in the last 2 weeks - no real evidence of any improvements.
Has MC run out of beginners luck and been found out and what Is JW doing as defensive coach? Has SG got the stomach to get rid of another manager so soon?Answers on a postcard please to the usual address!
I am not one to call for the managers head so early in the season, especially one who is clearly still leading his trade but something isn’t right and MC does need to change something and fast otherwise the crowd will be on his back. As someone else said elsewhere, maybe he needs to get angry with the players and stop making excuses for poor performances. LI thought the boys played well” doesn’t cut it when the evidence is questionable.
we don’t know what he says behind closed doors of course so maybe he is using the Fergie hairdryer tactic with the players.
Lets see what happens against Sheffield Wednesday - we are only 10 points off a play off place and in the Championship that can be easily achieved!
“BBD, open your eyes you are back in the room”!
And actually made some saves that stopped the shoreline being even worse