Come on guys lets
have some predictions !
OFB
Only prediction from me is that we will field a team, we will probably concede and anyone’s guess as to the result. 😎
If Bolton had continued with their amazing unbeaten start to the season, I’d say we would lose. They are usually very good at home. But since that blistering start they’ve lost 4-0 at home to arch local rivals Wigan and drawn 1-1 at lowly Burton, so now might not be a bad time to play them. Even so, I expect a tough game, and as we’re bound to concede, I think we’ll struggle to win.
I would like to see Isiah Jones given a full game after his apparently fine cameo at WBA, and I’d play Coburn, even if that cup–ties him for other clubs he may be loaned to.
I would play Coburn even if it means he gets cup tied if he goes on loan to another club.
He’s our player and a chance to see what he does in a competitive game rather than on the training ground.
Let’s face it we don’t have too many options up front!
I suppose we could always play one of our two substitute goalkeepers up front if we’re short?
OFB
Previously I had predicted that Boro will field a young side for this cup game, now I feel Carrick will put out his strongest side in hope they will gel and put in a performance, try to eliminate the defensive frailties and build some momentum going into the home game against QPR.
Come on BORO.
So the Powmills on tour have contrived to catch Covid. Not ideal to take ill when visiting. Worse, we couldn't in all conscience take our flights back to Scotland at the weekend knowing we were carrying the virus.
I would like to see us go with three in the middle at the back. Putting van den Berg in will offer some pace and a better ability to cover forward thinking full backs. Is his hand injury going to keep him out at Bolton? If so I would put McNair in there instead.
Forecast ? I have no idea. Given our propensity to leak goals and on the basis that MC will ignore my desires and will be sticking with a back four, then I fear we may not be a sufficient match for Bolton. So
Hoping to be wrong, but anticipating a 2-1 defeat or maybe 3-2.
0-2 win for the mighty Boro. A clean sheet and a couple of goals. I hope Carrick will play Fry, Lenihan and Engel in defence and helped by McNair as Smith is suspended I presume. And then Howson (or is not that fit yet after misiing best part of pre-season?).
We need to get a proper team gelling now. Up the Boro!
@original-fat-bob - Oh my Goodness! Surely it's not come down to playing a substitute goalkeeper up front? We're still in August. Boro has played only a handful of games. Apart from Matt Clarke (any idea if he will ever play again?) we hardly have what might be termed an epidemic of injuries and one would be forgiven for thinking that Boro should be able to cope, in any event, when playing a team from a division below. Having said which, Boro currently finds itself 3rd bottom of the Championship and Bolton is in 3rd place in Division One - so only 6 places (or 4 clear places) between the clubs. And the game is at Bolton! The more I think about it....
Like everyone else I have doubts about this game, we'll put a strong(!) team out but will they play as a team? Please play Jones and Coburn and sort that defence out.
Apart from that I haven't a clue what Boro will do however we do need a confidence boosting game and I don't mean a draw.
We must turn a corner at some point but I'm having trouble seeing and working out which corner, at the moment it feels like a long straight road downhill. having written that I feel like a traditional old Boro supporter.
Best wishes to everyone,
UTB,
John
PS Is Woodgate still registered as a player? He might be better on the pitch than as a coach...
Sorry to hear of your illness, Powmill. I hope it is mild and that you and your family are soon recovered.
Yes, best wishes Powmill.
You have done the right thing and I hope it's a relatively short period of discomfort for you both
Well, I am alongside the majority on here, in having no idea what team will turn up. I wish I had Jarkko’s confidence. In fact the only thing I do know, is that apparently there will be 3000 Boro supporters at Bolton.
As for the team that steps out at 19.45 tomorrow, MC should play his strongest side, more or less. Yes give a couple of the bench players a start.
Berg at CB, instead of Fry, McNair at RB for the suspended Smith, Barlaser for Howson and Jones on one of the wings.
Unfortunately, I do not think we have many other options, certainly if we want to compete, win the game and build some confidence hopefully. A defeat does not bare thinking about and MC will surely be aware of that.
@powmillnaemore. Best wishes Powmill to you and Mrs Powmill, hopefully your virus will be mild and short lived.
Your consideration for others in not taking a flight is to be commended and puts others and a certain Tory MP to shame. 😎
Powmill,
I hope you both return to full health rapidly with no after-effects.
All the best to you both
UTB,
John
get well soon !
I still feel unwell after all these weeks it’s a bummer !
take care
OFB
I have a sneaking suspicion you may be right and use this game as a full scale practice match with real purpose.
OFB
Interestingly I see Leeds are in talks with Spurs about a loan deal for DJed Spence 🤔.
Come on BORO.
@exmil. Good luck to Leeds, we have taken the money for him and moved on. He is not a fullback so won’t fit into MC’s system.
I have never been keen on old boys coming back, with the exception of TLF. 😎
@k-p-in-spain - You may Margaret Ferrier MP, the SNP Member for Rutherglen who returned to Scotland by train after a positive COVID test when she'd been in London to attend the Westminster Parliament (telling her Party Whip she was going home because a family member was unwell). She had earlier attended a number of functions before the return journey. When this was discovered, the Party Whip was later withdrawn from her and, after being asked to resign by her consitituency party, she instead continued to sit as an Independent. On 13th September 2021 she was sentenced at Glasgow Sheriff Court to 270 hours Community Service for culpable and reckless conduct in her breach of the Covid regulations.
On 30th March 2023 (the procedures obviously take some time!) she was found guilty by the Commons Select Committee on Standards of "acting with a blatant and deliberate dishonest intent .. (acting)...with a high degree of recklessness to the public and to colleagues and members of staff at the House of Commons. She acted selfishly, putting her own interests above the public interest." She was suspended (after an appeal) by the House of Commons for 30 days, which triggered a Recall Petition, the result of which was only announced earlier this month, so she was unseated as an MP (the first time this has happened to an MP in Scotland) and a by-election called which I don't think has yet taken place but she has announced she will not stand for re-election. However she will have had the benefit of the pay and perks that an extra 2 years as an MP will have conferred on her.
what a ludicrous system we have where this can take so long to get to a point where what should have happened at the outset.
Mind you, I have lost faith in our political system as a whole at the moment. But that is a discussion for another forum, not this one - we have enough troubles of our own!
It seems to me that we are in limbo, and by that I mean not really in full control of the situation we are in. If last season was not a dream, i.e. We really did dominate every match we took part In, played well, scored freely, enjoyed the chatter after The match, were the recipients of lots of praise from all quarters, were forever replaying great goals we had scored. Then now is the nightmare, we are a bunch of missfits, looking at the league, all we see are powerfull clubs, who see us as fodder for their ambitions. We are right now discussing a game we all dreamed we would be uninterested in at this point last season. As a point of interest, could anyone spell out just what went wrong, and when, and why?, because something went terribly wrong, thats for sure. Was someone killed? Just asking?
good questions to which I am not sure what the answers are. Maybe the best answer is “well, it’s typical Boro”!
I have been supporting Boro for far far too many years, as I suspect have most of us who post on here, so what we are seeing now is nothing new and in some respects expected. I grew up with my dad saying at the end of most seasons “we’ll there is always next season” ti be followed by a few months later “This year will be our season”.
@gt I heard it was bleach you should take 🤢
@boro-beckys-dad. Here here. I am appalled at the so called leadership of our once great union.
They have the audacity to throw bricks at the likes of Trump, Putin and Kim Jong Il when they need to get their own houses in order and show some true democracy and responsibility.
Enough said, time for debate elsewhere once we have dealt with our own pressing issues. 😎
@plato. I think you are a tad over generous and perhaps looking at some things through slightly rose tinted glasses.
If you look at the season as a whole, it did not get off to a great start under CW which culminated in his departure.
MC arrived and lost his first game but then started to steady the ship.
We did not dominate every match we played in; we did dominate some and did have the majority of possession in most.
We did score more freely than we have done for many a season but at the same time let in a significant number as well to such an extent that we had, I believe, the fourth worst defensive record in the division.
We had a purple patch between January and March when we went on an unbeaten run and during which time some supporters were talking about catching and overtaking Sheffield Utd and securing second place.
It was not to be and following the International break results took a decidedly turn for the worse, goal scoring dried up whilst we continued to leak them at the other end culminating in, overall, a poor end to the season.
Having secured fourth spot in the league early on this tended to mask what had been happening and which has continued into this season, not helped by the loss of Chuba Akpom and three loan players who had a significant impact on results last year.
I don’t agree that we are not fully in control of the situation, nor are we a bunch of misfits but we are a team going through a period of change and with some personnel and tactical issues that need to be addressed very quickly if MC is not to end up with a serious stain on his CV. 😎
My belated wishes to Powmill. Get well soon, you and your family. Up the Boro!
I feel very indifferent to tonight’s match probably because it’s a competition where teams massively change their teams and it’s a competition which Boro are most unlikely to win. Interest is also diluted because no one knows what changes are likely. Also, it would appear that victory doesn’t guarantee an improvement in Championship results as evidenced by the win in the last round.
So, what do I hope for ? - a win of any kind probably more than an excellent performance but losing. Or even a game where Boro don’t concede a goal and scrape through on penalties.
Philip of Huddersfield
I almost forgot about the tonight's Carabao Cup game - though easily done when most of the games in the early rounds are to the vast majority invisible games that are probably only screened in obscure betting shops in Asia.
Firstly, a belated thanks to OFB for his early-bird preview and hope those antibiotics have eased the breathing problems - though there's probably no cure for the sharp intake of breaths that Boro's results are causing at the moment.
I'd normally be expecting Carrick to make plenty of changes to his first-choice team for this Cup game but I can see the argument for going with your strongest XI and getting another win on the board. However, I can also see the dangers of picking your best XI and then losing the tie against lower league opposition on form and on their own patch!
Boro's away form is terrible with no league win on the road since early March and conceding goals for fun (maybe not the right word). Jonny Howson was talking to the media yesterday and essentially putting the bad start down to having to bring in all those new attacking players who are still to bed in - he also mentioned something about the team needing to defend better and cut out the mistakes but that wasn't his main concern strangely.
I may be wrong but I recall Boro's defence appeared better when McNair partnered Lenihan - though given Paddy is now wearing a face mask after a cheek injury it would be probably better not to risk him - plus he's also being linked with a move before the Window closes since he's enter the last year of his contract.
It could well be that van den Berg gets a start instead but that will depend on a hand injury that kept him out of the West Brom squad - though unless there's a broken bone, I'm not sure how a hand injury is something that can't be bandaged up.
Though that meant Boro actually had two goalkeepers on the bench at the Hawthorns - the aptly named Tom Glover and Jamie Jones - though given the score, Carrick may have been better off fielding two keepers rather than keeping a spare on the bench!
The other possible selection could be 16-year old Fin Cartwright, who came on against Huddersfield in the last round, in order to fend off Chelsea's attempts to lure him away to Stamford Bridge. Cartwright is widely regarded as one of the hottest prospects in English football and it would be a shame for Boro to do all the hard work and then miss out on him shining at the club. He was the second youngest player to get a first team start at Boro - with the youngest being Nathan Wood - who sadly Boro let go to Swansea under Wilder and is now subject to a £10m bid from Southampton.
So plenty of decisions for Michael Carrick to make and an opportunity to try some ideas out tonight - I would fancy seeing Hayden Hackney play the number ten role as he's already demonstrating he has an eye for a goal, a good range of passing and holds the ball well in a tight space. It would free up a slot in midfield for a more tough-tackling player with power and pace - do we have one? Just pondering if Crooks played in that role earlier at Boro - at least he'll get proper yellow cards mis-timing tackles in deeper areas!
Anyway, absolutely no idea what team will be picked but not sure another defeat will be easily brushed under the early-days carpet - though Carrick must be slightly concerned about the rug getting pulled from under his feet if he can't weave some magic to start winning games.
Still, I doubt this game will matter in the grand scheme of things - the Caraboa Cup is now the experimental laboratory of choice for coaches looking to re-invent their teams or keep a few weary legs fresh for the weekend. I would say give youth a chance but that already is the strategy this season - so maybe give the even more youthful players a chance with possibly a last chance for Josh Coburn to impress before he's packed off to Plymouth to play bowls...