Very much how I feel. I have admired the range of young talent brought in to complement the kids rising from the academy. We could be a couple of years away from an amazing team. As for this season, a lot is going to depend on a solid defence and Carrick finding a goalscorer. I think that we'll make chances but does lightning a la Akpom strike twice. Two top class loan signings could be the difference between jam today and jam tomorrow.
Welcome aboard
UTB
The anticipation is building nicely now.
I say this a lot (and am often wrong!) but I do think the first goal is crucial today.
I expect Millwall to come with a counter attack and set-piece based plan and them opening the scoring will suit that plan to the ground. However, if we score first, the longer we keep our noses in front, the more the spaces will open up to kill them off.
My gut feeling is that we will be the superior footballing side showing good passing and clever movement but I worry that we won’t have teeth and that Millwall will have the physicality and dark arts experience to pull off a smash and grab.
Boro scoring first will open the game up for us.
Come on Boro.
How Boro line up
Here's how it looks
Slightly surprised to see both Akpom and Howson on the bench. CoB 😎
Watmore starts for Mlllwall with Saville on the bench.
MFC are just watering the pitch???? I wonder why.
It has been raining forever and hard at times. I am sure I saw one or two players with wellies on.
You’re right Crooks appears to be playing with wellies on can’t even keep a ball in play!
We need to step it up second half and start creating some chances
OFB
Watmore starts for Mlllwall with Saville on the bench.
And said player seems to be making a bit of a nuisance of himself! 🙁 At least it stayed 0-0 at half-time.
Looks like Boro need a goalscorer and some more pace in the team
OFB
Plenty of possession from the Boro, lots of passes and too many loose ones giving Millwall opportunities.
Millwall having the best chances and probably Fleming should of scored early on.
Boro then came into it, in the last fifteen, with their first shots.
Crooks looks lost, Rogers can hold the ball up, but we look toothless. McGree without Giles is not having much impact.
Lets see what MC does with his subs?
Lets see what MC does with his subs? 🙁
Sammy Silvera on for Coulson in the 69th minute, Howson for Barlaser in the 67th.
Saville on (64), Watmore off (73). Esse gives Millwall the lead in the 80th minute. 🙁
All things considered a disappointing but predictable result.
The lack of a goal scoring striker was evident throughout the game and few real opportunities to score meant that a single goal would probably be enough to win the game.
And so it proved but regrettably the goal went to Millwall.
Clearly Boro need Akpom and Howson back asap plus some movement in the transfer window. Desperate measures when Howson brought on when hardly trained.
Overall, we learnt nothing today which we didn’t know.
So , it’s onto the next game and the next game etc
👋🙁
Philip of Huddersfield
A disappointing afternoon and unfortunately a result which I feared might be the outcome.
We huffed and puffed and dominated possession but never truly threatened to score with only two shots on target. Millwall defending well and hitting us on the break; they could/should have scored more.
This game had shades of the end of last season, teams defending in depth whilst we don’t have the quality or an appropriate plan to break them down and score.
I hope that the recruitment team are lining up some quality loans as they are clearly needed. 😎
My thoughts - toothless and we do like to pass, shame you need to score goals to win games, doesn't bode well, I may be being too critical but my it was ponderous.
The only positive from today is that it removes any doubt (if there was any) that quality attacking talent is needed desperately.
Shades of Southgate’s Boro today: technical, easy on the eye but lacking a genuine cutting edge. The makings of a good side but not there yet and a more pragmatic Millwall stole the points.
Not overly concerned. It’s a long season and we’re only a few players (some of which we already have but are currently injured/not fully fit) away.
And ….. will today’s performance influence what Akpom thinks should be his next move ? !!
Just a thought
Philip of Huddersfield
I knew it was going to be one of those days for Boro as the omens were not good after 12 hours of overnight heavy rain left our spirits already dampened by the deafening rattling of rain on the tent roof. Then a trip to Padua was aborted after spending 45 minutes in an estimated 90 minute traffic jam that made it (just like Boro) pointless to proceed.
So hopefully things for Boro will soon pick up just like the weather should here - sounds like the season has started too early for Michael Carrick’s men with key players missing or not yet arrived.
Too early to panic but still plenty of room for improvement and Boro will want to avoid a prolonged bad start and playing catch-up again.
Just home from the game - and a not unexpected result really. In truth they should have had 3 as their finishing was poor.
As others have said, we were far too slow in build up and lack a striker. The passing was at times poor and we gave the ball away - Hackney was one of the worst offenders. Forss wasn’t used when he was often in space - Silvera looked promising when he came on with some much needed pace.
it was predictable that we would concede at some point and the goal came from McNair proving that he is not a right back. Coulson didn’t impress for me either.
I am not sure what has been going on at the training ground with regard to corners but we were wasting them whether that be a short one or the occasional one into the box. It says something that McNair got a cheer for taking a corner late on the 2nd half!
Early days with a long way to go and I just hope that we can fill the gaps with some good signings or loans. Without Giles to put in his crosses, we will struggle and the performance demonstrated the value that the loanees gave us last season.
Not unduly concerned after one game, let’s see where we are in October maybe?
Sounds like the weather there is no better and I feel for you in a tent - never like camping in the rain, it can be miserable. Have a few beers tonight I suggest!
Many of the roads around the ground were flooded and the underpass was flooded so I had a longer than anticipated walk to the ground!
Pitch was in good condition although surprisingly being watered at 245!
Hope it improves for you
It was an odd day just 18 degrees (usually 28 at least) and heaviest rain we’ve had when camping - at least the tent coped, others weren’t so lucky!
It’s much worse back home in Northern Germany where it’s been cool and wet now for a month - we camped in Northern Germany during Corona when it was also wet but only 10 degrees at night in August! We had to sleep with hot water bottles and an electric fan heater - never again!
Just started raining again 🙁 Forecast to be 30 and sunny again from Monday 😓
Fingers crossed for the weather for you. We are heading to Munchengladbach and Berlin in a couple of weeks time so hopefully will have improved by then!
Thanks and fingers crossed for your trip to Germany too - especially as we’ll be back home by then 😏
It sounded very much today as if we badly missed spark down our left side - at least until Silvera came on. I think it will be really difficult to replace Giles’ quality with anything comparable - Coulson probably isn’t the answer, and I’d rather see McGree play in a more advanced midfield role than as a makeshift wing-back.
On the Giles front, I listened to BBC Tees’s Red Alert podcast this week (BBC Sounds). It’s often very interesting. Mark Drury was adamant that Boro had an agreement with Giles and were confident he was going to come back, only for Luton and Giles’ agent to gazump them late on. This apparently pulled the rug from under Boro’s strategy and meant that several other potential targets may have moved on in the meantime. I must admit I hadn’t heard that before, but it does perhaps paint a picture of the recruitment team being unlucky on this one rather than dilatory.
Boro’s failure to capture Giles is just the inevitable truth of football - money talks louder than any notion of feeling at home or belonging.
Giles’ agent is just doing his job of finding the most lucrative deal on offer and then explaining to Giles that he’d be mad to turn it down - before taking his own wedge!
It’s why players are now queuing up to play in Saudi and put to one side any ‘misgivings’ they used to hold about the country’s human rights - “That’s terrible - sorry how much?”
Still not sure if Luton’s human rights issues was a factor for Giles…
It was an odd day just 18 degrees (usually 28 at least) and heaviest rain we’ve had when camping - at least the tent coped, others weren’t so lucky!
It’s much worse back home in Northern Germany where it’s been cool and wet now for a month - we camped in Northern Germany during Corona when it was also wet but only 10 degrees at night in August! We had to sleep with hot water bottles and an electric fan heater - never again!
Just started raining again 🙁 Forecast to be 30 and sunny again from Monday 😓
Not sure you'll be able to view this, werder, but if you can, you'll quickly see that you could be even worse off!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-europe-66418007
😉
A massive crowd willing and hoping for last season to continue but it was the end of last season that continued.
Well, I'll just put it down to being predictable, inevitable and typical plus the goal for the opposition in Steve Maclaren's so called 'red zone'. The team isn't really a work in progress yet. Will it come, inevitably we'll find out later. A bit of a wake-up call and after all Millwall are the typical party poopers.
Back behind the couch soon. . .
UTB,
John
Whilst we have all discussed the demise of the loanees up front and certainly the Giles impact, what was really evident this afternoon, was our defensive liabilities.
Last season, we were defensively poor, compounded by the lack of cover from the midfield.
Roll on the summer, well June and July, and today those frailties were obviously evident once again.
The new goalkeeper looks fine, at least matching Steffen. However we could not often keep a clean sheet all season, and for the last number of games score many goals.
So here we are, new season, same issues. OK, we may bring in a couple of good loan players to satisfy the problem up front. But, what of the more important issue, possibly, of not letting in goals.
Same squad of defenders to choose from, apart from swopping Giles for Coulson. The latter probably worse than the former. If defending was an issue last season, why has nothing been done in that area?