No real pattern to the first half and few chances by both sides but a couple of scares for Boro with Barlaser passing to the opposition in his own third and a bad miss saved his blushes - though after Ayling misjudged a bouncing ball Stoke got the goal they wanted and now Boro must find a way to score two. Not seeing too many players looking at their best today and it seems like it will be one of those games where someone needs to show some quality as neither side looks particularly convincing.
What’s Van Den Berg done to be made captain. Should have been Clarke who at least plays with a bit of fire in his belly.
Losing 0-1 in an average sort of game.
Philip of Huddersfield
@philip-of-huddersfield . “Losing 0-1 in an average sort of game.” At the moment. Should have been 2 when Barlaser was dispossessed, again on the edge of our box! 😎
Stoke are a very poor side, which is why they started the match in a relagation position. However Boro are looking worse and that is our form of late. A relegation side.
Both full backs have been poor, Barlaser also. As OFB said, Engels and Dijksteel on soon. Our passing has also been terrible and I don’t see anyway back in this game.
n.
Sleepwalking to relegation
You all know the rules - even if Boro should be 5-0 down after 30 minutes, and all 11 players are showing dreadful form, there will be no substitutions until at least 60 (preferably 70) minutes. And later we will hear the mantra "it was always going to be one of those games". It would be wonderful if BORO could make the opponents have one of those games.
The Stoke second seemed inevitable. A BORO goal would have been a surprise.
Game over - Boro won't get anything now Stoke are two up - a bad second half performance after an average at best first half!
Defeat looks a certainty. Other results not going Boro’s way and so expect further slipping down the League. There seems to be no heart in this group of players.
Can this team achieve relegation this season?
Philip of Huddersfield 👎☹️
Defeat looks a certainty. Other results not going Boro’s way and so expect further slipping down the League.
Can this team achieve relegation this season?
Philip of Huddersfield 👎☹️
Wouldn't surprise me we are dreadful
I'm sure after the game on BBC Tees, "that's football" will be rolled out again.
Maybe we should have a sweepstake - "Guess the number of season-tickets sold for 2024-25". Even Maddo on BBC Tees is talking about the possibility of relegation NOT play-offs.
@Exmil is it too late to kick off an Exmil challenge for a relegation fight?
Looks like Boro are determined have an Exmil Challenge this season!
Poor performance and Boro looked clueless on how play together as a team against Stoke that were bottom of the form table. Not sure where the season is going but it looks like the players are showing signs of giving up and if they're not careful will start to drift towards the bottom of the table. Worrying time.
I thought we had seen some very poor performances to date, but that must come close to being one of the the worst if not possibly THE worst.
Clueless is one word. And although Carrick does not have a lot to choose from, he has to start looking in the mirror at how he is playing with this bunch of losers.
I am sure Werder, probably has the stats at his finer tips, as to MC’s points achieved over the last 46 games or other variations.
Whilst I want MC to stay and MFC to support him in the transfer market, he does need to show us, he knows what he is doing and that he can achieve more than this season, next season.
31 points away from the top 2
12 points from the top 6
6 points from relegation
No wonder Maddo has even taken off his rose tinted specs. I think we just need to adopt Leicester and Chelsea home win tactics. Forget possession football out from the back and adopt ultra pragmatic shut up shop and nick a goal at the other end rudimentary tactics. Nothing else is working.
Today’s second half was even more disjointed than against Plymouth, and all game we barely created anything. We hardly ever threatened the Stoke goal. I’ll be upset if the EG gives out loads of 5s in the scores. Probably only Dieng gets that and only because he didn’t have much to do. I wouldn’t give anybody more than 3, and I’m afraid that includes Michael Carrick.
Our form is seriously worrying. Of our 12 remaining games, ten are against sides who need points either to stay up or to battle for promotion. Only Cardiff and Watford are currently marooned midtable. If we play several of those games with the same lack of fight and passion we showed today, then I can’t see us picking up many points at all. I think we’re in a relegation battle.
Only Clarke and VDB were worthy of the shirt today. Latte lath had a reasonable first half
As far as I am concerned they can clear the rest out at the end of the season, together with those who recruited them, and begin again. They were uniformly terrible today particularly in the second half, and that includes the subs.
If Greenwood is on 30 grand a week, as reported on here, I would send him back to Leeds tomorrow.
On today's form you would not bet against Stoke closing that 6 point gap by the end of the season.
Most worrying of all, the players seem to have lost both their faith and their confidence in how Carrick wants them to play.
It's like watching a slow motion car crash and there is nothing you can do about it, we haven't got the guile or bottle to extricate ourselves, we don't seem to be up for it, somebody said we have only picked up 10 points against the bottom six sides
This really is concerning, we were lacking in direction and leadership both on and off the field.
Apart from the personnel changes what else changed from last week’s poor performance? I think Exmil called it correctly a few weeks ago when he said we looked like we did when JW was in charge and we all know what that nearly led to.
I like MC as a person and appreciate that he is new in the role and learning the ropes but is he learning given he keeps, by and large, playing the same way which is not working; 60% of non productive possession will not achieve anything and give the current squad’s abilities is more likely to lead to relegation than promotion.
We are not progressing and even with the likes of JH, HH and IJ back in the side can we believe this will make the required difference as it didn’t have a major impact when we were on our winning run, which was only fleeting.
We appear very much like the team MC inherited but he now no longer has the benefit of the PL players and CA, so he needs to adopt his approach to suit what he currently has available to him; the art of good management is getting good results from scarce resources.
Unless something changes quickly and positively, then I can see us losing our next four games, Norwich, QPR, Birmingham and Blackburn and dread to think where that will leave us.
Not the birthday present I was hoping for but at least we are out to dinner with friends and will have a drink to celebrate and dilute my sorrows. 😎
At least one thing has emerged due to the consistent awful performances - Carrick is not likely to be poached by another Club. I’m not sure that’s a good thing or a bad thing.
Philip of Huddersfield
Couldn’t believe it when that first goal went on and saw all their heads drop. Barlaser is one of the poorest players we’ve signed. McGree was poor today although he should be on the LH side not the right. Clark was poor in defence whole team came out with no credit.
OFB
Not quite at my fingertips but the 34 games this season and the last 12 of last season add up to 62 points - though those last 12 games of 2022-23 included 5 wins (5-0, 3-1, 4-0, 5-1, 3-1) and 3 draws, which is way ahead of any form we've seen for about 4 months.
The team have completely lost focus since any remote chance of the play-offs passed - other than being focused on beating Leicester, which has now seen them lose their last 3 games.
The big worry is that many of the teams at the bottom are now in quite decent form and my initial thought that 50 points would see Boro OK is beginning to look on the low side. If Boro fail to win any of their next 3 games before the international break then it's quite likely we'll be at most 3 points off relegation given we're only 6 now. Then it really would be dangerous and can Boro and Carrick turn it around - Carrick said after the game that he thought his team played "pretty decent" in the first half, which is quite a stretch from what I saw so hope he's not found a discarded pair of rose-tinted glasses that someone threw away at Plymouth!
Watching Barlaser over the last few games I have noticed the difference between him and Howson or Hackney, whereas Howson/Hackney always seem to be in space to receive the ball but Barlaser is always close to a player, either one of his own or one of the opposition, in other words “hiding in plain sight”.
Come on BORO.
Not a very cheerful Saturday evening, and that is putting it mildly. Talk about a dark cloud settling down. My concern is that Boro are in freefall and even if we had a handy parachute nobody would know what to pull to save themselves. At what point do they try some of the youngsters because they cannot be any worse, I know optimism isn't high so I won't pursue that point.
The freefall aspect is the most concerning because every year a club comes from nowhere and falls into the relegation mire and Boro are shaping up, sorry oxymoron there using the term shaping up, to be that club this year. Equally the same often happens at the other end of the table but I won't mention that either. I agree with Philip of Huddersfield too and nobody will want to buy any of them. The losing habit is growing steadily.
Where do we go from here?
Over to you Mr Carrick and the 'Coaches'.
Depressed in Norfolk signing out.
UTB,
John
@lenmasterman. Thank you Len. We had a lovely meal this evening with good friends, which helped to take away some of this afternoon’s frustrations.
After nearly 60 years watching the Boro I should have learnt by now that frustration is par for the course. 😎
@exmil. I am even more worried when you, as one of the most positive of our bloggers, are highlighting player deficiencies.
Are you as concerned as many of us are? 😎
Just watched MC’s post match interview and that for me was the most uncomfortable I have seen him; sorry MC but the Boro players did not show the same willingness to fight as did the Stoke players and to suggest anything else to me means you are in denial.
I accept this may be a public protection of the team but hope in private he has read the riot act as that performance was not acceptable. 😎