@plato. Are there any aspects of our club which you feel are positive? Your regular description of players and staff without actually naming them always puzzles me. If you mean Josh Coburn, then why not name him? Similarly, if you are alluding to Jonathan Woodgate, just use his name.
If your expectations are for your exact player and coaching choices to be matched by the club, then you’re always going to be disappointed. It’s your chosen club, try and get some pleasure from supporting the Boro, rather than being frustrated by things that are beyond any fan’s control.
I have heard that Boro have 2/3 premier league loans nearly over the line, how reliable this information is I can’t vouch for, or the positions these loans occupy.
Come on BORO.
Virgil Van Dijk, Bruno Fernandes and Erling Haaland would suit our needs quite well.
I can only hope City will agree to pick up most of Haarland's wages given the lowest estimates put him on just under £20m a year before bonuses!
btw Better not mention that to Mrs Werder 😉
I think Van Dijk would a useful addition to the squad as cover for Lenihan...
I think you are mistaken in your opinion, I have just enjoyed one of the best seasons of watching a well managed club and team play a type of football much admired by the national press. Each match, as it came along was a pleasure to watch. My reason for worry about our team is quite simple, just as our pleasure was not some big coincidence but a change of everything at the club, chiefly, coaching, leadership, and team selection. So the complete collapse, was a return to all the awful faults we have suffered over the years, and, it happened in an instant, as though a light had been switched off. If anyone knows why, answers would be welcome. As you will have gathered I am not at all sure we will, in an instance, return to being an exiting team to watch.
@plato I don’t have the answers you’re looking for, except that injuries to key players towards the end of last season must be partly to blame.
It could be that other teams worked out how to counter our threat and our very inexperienced new manager couldn’t adapt quickly enough or didn’t have the necessary players to replace those who were injured.
I suspect MC regrets some of his tactics and team selections at the point where we’d already qualified for the playoffs, but tbf we came very close to winning the first game against Coventry - who knows what would have happened if we’d had a lead going into our game at the Riverside.
I hope we all get as much pleasure this season as we did in 2022/3. I’m sure MC, JW & SH hope we do as well.
On loss of form and sudden inability to score goals starting at the end of last season.I think it was, and is, multiple things.
I get the impression that there was a series of minor changes in how we set up in an attempt to tighten up our defence which, added together took the edge off our threat going forwards.
Carrick hardly ever rotated players and I think by the end of the season some of them were running on empty and carrying minor injuries that reduced their effectiveness.
Ramsey's addition to the team reminded me of Juninho's. Clearly an upgrade but a fairly settled unit seemed to be unsure of how to adapt to him and then, when he was injured, we struggled to revert to playing without him.
Pressure. Up until the Sheffield Utd win, the autos were a pipe dream. When it became real, the pressure got to some of us.
Injuries, especially to Howson. Hackney has struggled without Howson alongside him.
And, since the new season started, a massive loss of quality plus the uncertainty over Akpom and Howson still being injured.
We are in a self-reinforcing circle of problems at the moment. These things happen and we will break out of it. The question is when and how much damage does it do to our season before then.
Lots of good reading in here this week. Especiallt glad to hear your good news John. Long may the co sultant remain happycwithvyourcrecivery.
The Powmills are on tour at the moment. Today in Surrey for a family wedding, but doing a round of visiting and culture in and around London for another week yet.
Nothing really to add in respect if today's game. I only hope that when I check my phone later this evening it will see Boro on 3 points.
Enjoy the game everyone going or streaming.
CoB
@deleriad. Thank you for an excellent précis of the problems besetting the team toward the end of last season and which have had a knock on effect so far this season. 😎
Just purchased my Season Pass for MFC Live so all set to witness my first game of the season - hopefully we'll get our first win of the campaign and start climbing the table.
It's still early days but interesting that after 2 games only two teams have won 2 games so it's still an unpredictable league - Note my tip for the title, Leeds, have just 2 points after three games!
Also four of the eight teams on 4 points play each other today, plus with three of those eight also playing three of the five teams on 3 points, it offers plenty of potential for catching up opponents.
So three points today could almost see Boro go from bottom to back in touching distance of the play-offs 😉
@deleriad - You may well be right. In which case that's why the club pays Michael Carrick a not-inconsiderable sum to manage/coach the players. Let's hope he knows the answers.
It is, of course, an entirely different issue as to HOW much the coaches/managers know about the jobs they fulfil, how much is luck, how much is bluster or smoke and mirrors. I guess if Guardiola were to be immediately transferred to Hartlepool he'd (1) be staggered as to the (in)ability of the players at his disposal as he's probably never seen players of that standard before in his career but (2) he'd see SOMETHING in SOME of the players and he'd probably greatly improve the performance of the team without making them world-beaters. If you did it in a way that the players didn't recognise him but understood he was a lad who'd managed a small team from near Gibraltar (obviously if they knew he was the Great Man they might start to believe that he and they could do anything - as if they'd been hypnotised).
But if you put Harltepool's manager into Pep's place at Manchester City, he'd probably do OK, wouldn't he? The players would still be a group of some of the best players to play together in the same squad. You wouldn't expect City to be relegated as if the team was a boat without a rudder. (Maybe tell the players that this new lad is a reincarnation of Cloughy....).
Whatever....let's hope the smoke clears this afernoon at The Riverside and that our players can see a clear route to scoring their first goals of the league season. A first clean sheet would be good, too. Let's hope this game is a corner waiting to be turned. Hope. HOPE! Get's you in the end, as they say!
@pedro - As I said, it's that fellow HOPE raising his head above the parapet again...!
Sat outside the ground for my first live match of the season and really excited! Like a young kid again.
Meeting up with one son and grandsons and brother in law so a lovely lively chat in the outside bars before the game.
At this stage of the season there is HOPE !
OFB
Boro team news
Starting XI: Dieng; Van Den Berg, Fry, Lenihan, Engel; Hackney, Howson, Silvera, Forss, Rogers; Latte Lath
Subs: Glover, Barlaser, McGree, Jones, Gilbert, Coburn, Payero, Coulson, Crooks.
No McNair? 😎
Boro team news
Starting XI: Dieng; Van Den Berg, Fry, Lenihan, Engel; Hackney, Howson, Silvera, Forss, Rogers; Latte Lath
Subs: Glover, Barlaser, McGree, Jones, Gilbert, Coburn, Payero, Coulson, Crooks.
No McNair? 😎
So both this week's signings start... Here's hoping they can hit the ground running! Must've trained well since their arrival. My fingers are very firmly crossed!
Mind, the bench looks very strong with no U21 players there:
Subs: Glover, Barlaser, McGree, Jones, Gilbert, Coburn, Payero, Coulson, Crooks.
McNair must be injured or leaving. Cannot understand why our best player in McGree is on the bench
Up the Boro and!
Anyone having difficulty accessing today's stream. I have logged in and I am being told "Video Purchased available soon". Normally by now the stream is up and running. 😎
To me it says, video available in 11 min. So we must wait.
Usually, the stream starts 1/2 h before kick-off with BBC commentary on. Up the Bpro!
Yes, still saying available soon also with less than 2 minutes to kick-off - not a good start to my subscription!
@werdermouth & Jarkko. I emailed the contact address 15 mins ago but no response! 😎
@k-p-in-spain Cheers, mate. Even the audio is availabe soon and game has started.
It not working via the application, too. Up the Boro?
I just rang the number given in my subscription receipt but turned out to be an answer machine with only 2 options neither of which was the Boro Live subscription. More than annoyed now!