Well Carrick proved that he can’t successfully change tactics, personnel, pattern of play etc.
It is normal for a team playing badly in the first half to come out in the second half with renewed energy and “ to give it a go”. But this team has no leaders and so nothing happened.
Players such as Mowbray, Robson, Ince, Leadbetter and many more would have made things happen.
It just didn’t happen with the second half no better and Plymouth won comfortably for only their second away win.
Carrick’s inability to successfully change things is the biggest worry plus is he a natural motivator?
It’s ok coming across as very calm and thoughtful and always praising ‘the group of players’ but at times players need some straight talking ( put simply -a bollacking) Somehow I can’t see him doing this.
Season over- again , I feel so sorry for the fans. They deserve better - much better.
Philip of Huddersfield 👎☹️
i think abysmal is a good word to describe the desperately poor and hugely disappointing performance from the Boro today. As Werder says, 9 points should hopefully be enough to avoid relegation but all it takes is for Boro to continue to turn in dreadful efforts and the teams at the bottom to start winning…………….
Sums it all up with Plymouth fans singing, "can we ply you every week" and "you must be sh££e we are winning away"
If we don't buck our ideas up we may end up very close to relegation places
That was unacceptable today and hardly the inducement for me to spaff 1300 gbp on renewing my season tickets, one shot on target!!!!
Can I add an amendment not a single shot on target
I said my brother was undecided about renewing his season ticket, he’s not now! 🤬😎
EXMIL CHALLENGE-Survey
After watching that dismal display and we are now 11 points off the playoffs but only 9 points off the relegation zone, should the challenge be focused on relegation rather than the top six. I will go on the most votes by those that can be bothered by Wednesday at 1700 hrs.
Come on BORO.
Relegation more likely than playoffs
Even after yet another disappointing home performance I don't think even Boro could fail to get another 6 points to keep them safe from relegation - it's midtable obscurity that beckons this season unless anyone thinks Boro could win 11 from their last 13?
Definitely blame the players today as it was more or less the same team that beat Leicester - what team does Carrick think will turn up each week? Perhaps he is to blame for thinking a shift in defensive tactics from what he played at Leicester led the players to believe it would be easier to stop Plymouth. Though there was no space behind the Plymouth defence to deploy the same attacking tactics and it looked like nobody quite knew how to engineer a shot on goal. Boro look short on ideas against teams that defend deep as they have no pace and little trickery in the last third and moved the ball too slowly - then left the backdoor open to boot!
@exmil - Is it really worth your time + effort, Exmil? If the players don't SEEM bothered, why should you/we be bothered?
There is clearly no point in a "Play-Off Places Challenge" (there's more chance that a unicorn will win the US Presidential Election) unless you want to have one without Boro. Hopefully this squad couldn't play so badly, so regularly, to be in a relegation battle (surely??). A mid-table challenge is where we are!
Does anyone think Boro could, with a favourable wind and a lot of good luck, end up in the top half of the table this season?
Winning becomes a habit as does losing. Boro are more entrenched in losing than winning.
Its now reached the stage where we’ve no idea what Boro will turn up.
At present they look odds on to be in the bottom half. Who knows, it’s not impossible to flirt with relegation.
I am sure that most Boro fans are just fed up with performances and losing interest by the day.
It gets to the stage where Boro fans simply lose interest and get interested in other things.
just how I feel
Philip of Huddersfield
I know I said I would try and be positive but.......
Abysmal, atrocious, embarrassing today.....take your pick. As fans we have been very patient but the feeling today was one of crossing the Rubicon. The club is not matching the fans ambition....playing with no striker for most of the season and then compounding it in the last few months (ie not replacing Rogers, Crooks and before that, Akpom) has been criminal. Silveira playing as an inverted winger instead of the right wing, the continued defensive shambles, McGree being brought off.......the definition of insanity.....making the same dumb tactical decisions and expecting a different outcome.
I'm afraid I am not renewing....why pay out hard earned cash when the club lacks the ambition to move forward? I have tried to be positive but I am one of many season ticket holders near me who felt this was the straw that broke the camel's back today.
I didn’t manage to stay up until 2.00am last night so I woke up this morning ready to read about a solid victory and another small step forward.
This sounds like utter rubbish and it’s hard to know where to go from here. Even my normal optimism is finding it hard to cope with this one.
UTB
We could have a challenge for the best run of five polite adjectives that describe the performance today.
Clueless, feckless, careless, pathetic and, well, utterly useless.
UTB
John
We could have a challenge for the best run of five polite adjectives that describe the performance today.
Clueless, feckless, careless, pathetic and, well, utterly useless.
UTB
John
Shambolic, slapdash, insipid, ponderous, laxadasical, but more to the point absolute ballcocks
Utterly shambolic. That was the worst Boro performance I’ve seen for years.
No passion, no fight, no tackles, no creativity, no cohesion, no leadership on or off the pitch, no league win at home since December. A defensive shambles first half. Very little accurate passing from anybody all game. Defence, midfield and attack were totally disjointed, as if the players were meeting for the first time. Only one shot on target tells its own story - Boro were the only Championship side not to score today - and frankly, we wouldn't have done so if we’d played till Easter. The only players to come out with any credit at all were O’Brien, who worked hard and generally played ok, and Glover, who made several very good saves to keep the scoreline at 2-0 - and even he bore some responsibility for the first Argyle goal as he palmed the first shot straight out to another forward, who of course scored.
So that’s it. Let’s have no more talk of the playoffs. This team simply isn’t good enough.
This league is truly ridiculous. The strangest thing about this past weekend is that out of the ten teams who ended the week from 4th (Southampton) to 13th (BORO) there was only one team, PRESTON who actually won. There were three draws - including West Brom v Hull - and the other 6 teams all lost, Of the 11 teams below that, Rotherham, Birmingham and Stoke lost, Blackburn drew and the other seven all won. Thus, most of the teams challenging for promotion managed to lose to team trying to avoid relegation. A few more weekends like this and anything is possible.
UTB
@clive-hurren A good summary. I have nothing to add to that.
Horrible match to enjoy. The line up was the best we could field at the moment - perhaps I would have chosen Dieng in goal, but other than that we fielded our best ten. Obviously Latte Lath was not fit to start and Silvera have scored quite a few goals considered the minutes he have played.
But just one shot all game. Where is the consistency and are we nervous playing at home? Up the Boro!
Dormo, we cannot play any worse than we did yesterday. So that is the only positivity of the Plymouth performance.Does anyone think Boro could, with a favourable wind and a lot of good luck, end up in the top half of the table this season?
So I think we cannot reach the top six anymore (except if we hit a winning run of six to seven matches like in late Autumn last year). But I believe we could and should still finish in in the top half of the table this season. Remember the Leicester performance and result?
As said we have some talent and we can still built on this team for next season. Up the Boro!
We could have a challenge for the best run of five polite adjectives that describe the performance today.
Clueless, feckless, careless, pathetic and, well, utterly useless.
UTB
John
Disappointing
Disjointed
Dispirited
Disheartening
Dysfunctional
Dormo, we cannot play any worse than we did yesterday. So that is the only positivity of the Plymouth performance.Does anyone think Boro could, with a favourable wind and a lot of good luck, end up in the top half of the table this season?
So I think we cannot reach the top six anymore (except if we hit a winning run of six to seven matches like in late Autumn last year). But I believe we could and should still finish in in the top half of the table this season. Remember the Leicester performance and result?
As said we have some talent and we can still built on this team for next season. Up the Boro!
Just wait until Saturday because I wouldn't put anything past this team
We pay champagne prices yet keep getting served flat lemonade......
That was really dispiriting.
We all knew that the playoffs had become too much of a long shot before kick-off, despite the brilliant win at Leicester. And we all knew that the Championship is nuts, that Typical Boro is alive and well and that our home form has been poor. Yet it still stung.
What can the manager do? With his midfield decimated, no strikers and a tactical setup that makes us vulnerable to the counter/turnover, he’s left with few options - either tweak a few players positions or change the tactics to something more pragmatic.
The short term fix may well be to go more defensive, whether that’s a back three, or a more conservative style of play. The idea of possession football is to exert control of course but Boro lose control of games through losing the ball in dangerous areas with players committed forward, somewhat nullifying the plan.
I’m sure we could go defensive and grind out some draws, nick a few wins and equally lose a few tight games by the odd goal. It could be enough to squeeze into the top half but then what? More of the same next season? Maybe Carrick is best to stick to his plan and help ingrain it with a view to simply being a lot better at it next term.
I would switch some personnel around. I don’t know what’s going on with Dieng but if he’s fit he should come back in immediately. He was excellent for us until his injury. Glover makes some smart saves but he too often parries the ball back into danger and his distribution isn’t as good as Dieng’s. Seny is the more accomplished goalkeeper.
Secondly, I think Silvera is the closest thing we’ve got to Isaiah Jones. Whilst IJ is out, I’d let Silvera deputise for him on the right, providing the out ball and pace from that flank that we’ve been lacking.
McGree should return to his best position, leaning in from the left.
Forss and the returning Latte Lath can share striker duties, or potentially even both play with Azaz taking a breather.
I’d probably go with Engel at left back given that he’s our player rather than the on loan Thomas.
When all fit, assuming no major outgoings, the squad has decent numbers for next season so hopefully we can concentrate on adding a small number of quality players who fit the mould.
For all the current disappointment I still think we’re not too far away from being a top six side.
It was very noticeable yesterday how flat the crowd was, understandably as Boro gave us absolutely nothing to get excited about. There was a sort of quiet resignation in the loos at half-time; amazingly, nobody moaned - it was almost as if the performance we had just seen was the norm, what we have had to become used to at home this season (though in fact it was much, much worse than usual!)
In the second half, only a small few ‘leather-lunged loyalists’ (copyright Antony Vickers) around the drummer created any kind of noise. Most of us just sat passively on our hands, as if few believed we would actually create anything, let alone score a goal. Even when Plymouth went into time-wasting mode (and not too badly compared with some teams), there were no boos, no calls for the ref to take action, nothing. We had quietly accepted our fate.
I make the point not to criticise the fans, nor even to bash Boro further for a desperately dismal display. Rather, I worry that yesterday might have decided many more fans not to renew their season cards. With our season virtually over before March, home wins scarce, goals drying up, defensive errors abounding and the club having failed to sign a striker, many fans might have been pushed over the edge. I hope this isn’t the start of a slippery slope downhill.
It’s a very fair point Clive and I suspect you’ll be right. What percentage of ST holders are waiverers, I’m not sure - perhaps it’s however many we’ve gained since Warnock left. Not all will give their cards up of course but right now, with the controversy over prices and PR, it’s hard to imagine anything but a decline in sales for next season.
That being said, if Boro were to sign one or two quality players earlyish in the summer window, optimism will return.
There ought to be some money lying around from the sales of Chuba (maybe) and especially Rogers, whilst you’d imagine the wage bill will be lower again with higher earners like McNair likely to move on.
We may need to sign O’Brien permanently if he’s willing and the figures add up, then I think we need to find some kind of Chuba and Archer replacements that can score the goals to make the system work.
Hard to see there being much enthusiasm for the remainder of the season with it amazingly essentially over in terms of meaningful games with just under a third left - that would be the dream scenario if we were in the PL but a bit of a nightmare for the Championship.
What has been clear for a while now is how the opposition have worked out how to play against Boro at the Riverside - press us high and pounce on inevitable misplaced passes as we play it out from defence and then defend deep and just watch Boro pass the ball from side to side until we lose possession.
Once Plymouth went 2-0 up it was game over as the analysis of stats I posted recently show that when Boro concede 2 goals this season they've only managed 4 points - that 3-3 at Plymouth and a 3-2 win over Watford.
So it's obvious that conceding goals is costing us way too many points and never seems to be addressed unless Carrick decides we're playing a very good side and then we usually defend quite well before reverting back to the usual for 'easier' opponents.
The transfer business in January was basically writing off the season with Rogers and Crooks (plus Kavanagh) leaving and no striker arriving knowing Coburn was never going to be fit again this season and Latte Lathe also an injury-prone rarely-fit alternative. OK, Azaz arrived and he may ultimately develop into a decent player but we're now heading into March. Jones is the only player with pace and trickery but he's unlikely to play until after the international break now.
So hard to see where the improvement will come from in the remaining games and for team that aims to play possession-based football we seem to lose possession at a frequent alarming rate. Looking at the two teams yesterday you would have thought it was Plymouth who had play-off aspirations as they looked a much better coherent team that managed 22 shots on goal with just 32% possession and 11 on target. Boro didn't manage a shot on target despite 68% possession but since most of that possession was around the halfway line it's not surprising nobody had a shot!
So a lot to ponder for the club, Michael Carrick, the players and the supporters - it's all about next season now and perhaps it would be useful to work out a better strategy on and off the pitch on how Boro can have a much better season next time.
I'd agree with most of that other than being not far away from being a top six side - I think we're looking further away from being that and other than that golden spell of six wins in a row in games 8-14 and beating Leicester twice it's been just 5 victories from those other 25 games. No sign of any consistency needed to make the top six and no sign that the coaching team have identified the problem of why.
@andy-r - But this squad (with some additions) will not start the next season. Instead there will be a number of players going out. It would be a surprise if they were all replaced with better.
I think we’ve changed a bit tactically this season and it hasn’t quite worked.
Last season, although it was always 4-2-3-1 on the teamsheet, we had Ryan Giles very high and wide on the left when in possession, whilst the no. 10 was a striker who dropped deep.
This season the left back is much more conservative and the no. 10 is an attacking midfielder.
No-one is putting decent crosses in with any regularity and no-one is adept at dropping deep with their back to goal like Akpom was.
There’s no-one like Chuba in the squad now but I think we should go back to some of last season’s tactics.
Engel clearly doesn’t have Giles’ delivery but he’s not bad, more than capable of slinging crosses in, firing them low across the box or cutting it back. We need to use that. You can see us passing it death with limited dangerous play against packed defences at The Riverside.
I would play Dijksteel at right back and just tell him to stay back, forming a three at the back whilst Engel is posted high on the left. His pace to recover when we lose the ball is needed at the back.
Baralser then needs to play a slightly different role, a deep quarterback never more than 10-15yrds in front of the centre-backs to offer some positional protection to the back three.
O’Brien is the legs with license to join in and make runs. McGree and Azaz occupy the pockets between opposition defence and midfield, and between opposing centre-backs and fullbacks - those hard-to-mark areas.
Silvera wide right and Forss up top until ELL is fit enough to compete with him.
That’s more akin to last season’s largely successful tactics, albeit without some of the obvious quality.
I feel it’s more balanced - still attack minded, still looking to creat passing triangles and overloads, but with more insurance and pace at the back. And the teamsheet includes only one loanee as we build towards next season.
Son came up from smoke with one of his mates ( who is Plymouth fan) to watch match, his mates comment was why did you keep playing out from the back when we kept closing you down and intercepting passes.
For me this defeat hurts more than the other abject performances for some reason