We have gone from a very Good side to an awful side, worse. We are a side without a defence, there can be no excuse for the return of Mr. Woodgate. To put him in charge of the defence was an act of lunacy. He has a long history of messing about with the training set up, especially when trying to get rid of Karanka, a deeply unhappy period for us fans. Our problems right now are defensive, and they are not going away. So can we clear out the rubbish and ensure the Mr. Carrick takes charge again.
he start Boro have made this season is very similar to the last. Under Wilder our form was nearly there but the results did not follow.
Also last season we had a lot of new players in the squad and it took until the arrival of Carrick to click.
I do not mean we need a new head coach now. What I try to say when you sign nine new players in a window, the new players need time to settle. Even more so when they are quite young like this summer.
Agreed. The other difference this season is that Carrick appears to be on board with developing young players.
Thing is, it is really hard to rebuild a team this significantly. Coventry are in a similar position having lost 5 key loan players plus Gyokeres and Hamer. They are also struggling to get back to the same levels as last season.
Jarrko, MC’s first game in charge was against PNE. Take out the goalkeeper and one could argue, not that many changes.
Team. Steffen,
Smith, Fry, Lenihan, Giles
Jones, Howson, Hackney, McGree,
Akpom, Muniz
Very few positives to take out of the West Brom game. All that I can really suggest are
1. ELL looks to be a quality finisher who will score goals provided that the rest of the team can give him the opportunities.
2. Jones came on and really looked to be close to his best form of the distant past when he terrified opposition defences.
3. Hackney continues to look like a Premier League player but, unfortunately, he seems to be playing in a lower level side.
Major issues
1. Lack of a powerful defensive midfield player who can match anyone for speed and tackling power.
2. Lack of a defensive plan. We have players who should be able to record clean sheets but there is no plan to prevent people driving straight through the middle (see weakness 1)
Looking at the attack, McGree, Rogers and Silvera could be an interesting combination but so could Jones, Gilbert and Forss or some other combination including Coburn and ELL and stars from the U21s/Academy. This is a way of saying that I think that we have the players to fill the four forward slots but MC needs to get them functioning. Where we really seem to be struggling is in midfield - particularly when out of possession - and in defence.
Since I am basically optimistic, this string of results is a real disappointment rather than a proof that low expectations are justified.
Its easy to say that the transfer window is key but, to be honest, I don't really know what or who I want the club to bring in. Should we get a couple of experienced midfield/defenders and should they be on loan or permanent? Do we want another 'Cameron Archer' on loan who will leave and have to be replaced? Is there some other magic bullet out there who will transform the team.
All rather uncertain and a big test of MC as a manager.
UTB
Jarrko, MC’s first game in charge was against PNE. Take out the goalkeeper and one could argue, not that many changes.
Team. Steffen,
Smith, Fry, Lenihan, Giles
Jones, Howson, Hackney, McGree,
Akpom, Muniz
That's fair enough. Dieng is a potential upgrade on Steffen. Engel seems fine as a replacement for Giles. We have lost last season's golden boot winner and not replaced him.
However, when it comes to rebuilding a team, I think you have to compare the current team to the one we had at the end of the season.
Steffen
Smith - Fry - Lenihan - Giles
Howson - Hackney
Forss - Akpom - Ramsey
Archer
That is half the team not to mention £50m worth of players. It has to be a good thing that we are replacing loans with permanents who can potentially grow with us over several years and not have to keep going through this level of churn.
@selwynoz I really believe our biggest weakness is defence. Your “major issues” 1 & 2 are the issues that will stop us climbing the table if they are solved.
Hackney, as good as he is, cannot defend, and does not have bags of pace. Howson, now sadly has no pace at all.
One question that would be good to be answered is: Clarke?
Is there really any chance of him making a come back to his previous level at his other playing clubs? If not, then do we need another CB, or are MFC relying on Berg and McNair as back up.
@deleriad One could also argue we were playing quite well before Archer and Ramsey were established in the Team.
During this season we have seen only 47 minutes of Smith. Then he went missing again 😉. Also Howson was missing but was there in the last two games.Jarkko, MC’s first game in charge was against PNE. Take out the goalkeeper and one could argue, not that many changes.
Team. Steffen,
Smith, Fry, Lenihan, Giles
Jones, Howson, Hackney, McGree,
Akpom, Muniz
Steffen
Smith - Fry - Lenihan - Giles
Howson - Hackney
Forss - Akpom - Ramsey
Archer
We need to find balance. And our best eleven and stick to it next.
Up the Boro!
@deleriad One could also argue we were playing quite well before Archer and Ramsey were established in the Team.
I do think there were two halves to Carrick's spell last season. The first half, Akpom went off like a rocket and no one knew how to handle us. Even then, though, we were conceding every game and many games featured us going behind, pulling a goal back and then things being in the balance until we scored a couple of late goals.
Second half, Archer created a new threat but teams started to realise that if they pressed us and attacked that we were really vulnerable.
Since the defeat at Huddersfield we have been performing at relegation level even though more than half of those games were with a £50m strike force. (14 games, won 2, draw 4, lost 8 = 10 points from 14 games. Or 9 points from 12 games if you don't count the playoffs.)
It does mean that you have to ask whether Carrick simply got lucky for a while. I don't *think* so but I do think that maybe he hasn't figured out how to set-up a team that isn't scoring for fun.
For comparison, Woodgate's last 14 games before being sacked we won 3, draw 5, lost 6. 14 points from 14 games. Without checking, I strongly suspect that our current spell under Carrick is the worst, sustained run of bad results since relegation. Wilder's last 14 games were won 4, draw 4, lost 6. 16 points from 14 games.
I'm definitely not calling for Carrick to be sacked, that would be idiotic, but he really does need to show that he can turn this around. Right now, his results are at the level where Gibson routinely pulls the trigger.
The Wonder Kid ie Sonny Finch 18 years old has signed a new contact till 2026 with the option of a further year.
@deleriad I hope Gibbo stays sensible and waits untill the current nine new players bed in. And see if we still will hire three more as predicted by the Echo.
A dozen new arrivals is much to make play well before the end of September. But the problem was not created by the head coach alone.It is a club problem and won't be solved by changing the head coach.
Up the Boro!
@malcolm i thought you meant Fin and not Finch 😇
Middlesbrough has a potential problem as Chelsea 'look to lure' starlet Fin Cartwright. He has already made his Middlesbrough debut and now has interest from Chelsea.
Up the Boro!
Think I have had another brain storm 😆
Malcolm and Jarkko - It seems you are both right 🙂 18-year old Sonny Finch has signed a new contract but Chelsea are looking to poach 16-year old 'wonderkid' Fin Cartwright from Boro's academy.
Unfortunately, it appears Boro are powerless to stop Chelsea snatching Cartwright as under UK employment law they can just talk directly to the player to persuade him to move as you can't offer a contract to anyone under 17. As if the big rich clubs didn't have enough advantage without going round the country stealing the most promising youngsters that have been developed by academies.
No doubt his head will most likely be turned by promises of a great future at a big club but might be the time for Carrick to play him in the first team again to show him his future has already arrived at Boro.
@malcolm It was good news about Sonny. The bird-named youngster deserves his contract. Carrick certainly rate him. Up the Boro!
@jarkko I agree there, about not changing the Coach. However, I do believe that MC needs to “tweak” his ideas and tactics somewhat. We cannot continue as we are surely.
@jarkko. We don’t need to bed in nine new players as some of them are not yet ready as regulars for the first team; they will spend a lot of time either on the bench or playing for the U21s ie Glover, Jones, Van den Berg, Gilbert.
We do need MC to do something about the team’s tactics/set up when defending as what they have been doing in training is not working on match days and as Deleriad has pointed out our performances are at relegation level and cannot continue on this trajectory for much longer. 😎
Finally managed to find time to catch up - life always seems take over and I am supposed to be retired! Mrs BBD had us decorating over the weekend and then had son and family round to visit combined with helping step son move things.
Anyways some very good points made by everyone and having seen the highlights I am not sure I can add much.
Defensively we look poor with some basic errors, Engel and Smith to name two. I would dock Smith some wages for getting the red card - it wasn’t called for. He knew he had done wrong and clearly wasn’t thinking.
Engels error, it’s what happens when you try to play out from the back and the opposition know that you will and are quicker than we are.
I had a horrible feeling at the start of the season that the loss of our Loanees could prove to be an issue unless replaced with players of equal quality. So far it looks to be the case unless a miracle occurs before Friday!
Was MC lucky last season and has he been found out? Jury is out for me at present - the test for me is how he reacts to the situation we are currently in and what changes (if any) he makes for Saturday. I am not too concerned about Tuesday strangely.
Will be able to see for myself on Saturday as I will be making the trip up - just hope it is a better performance than the Millwall game!
UTB
Don’t you think that if Woodgate brought nothing to the team that MC would have acted and replaced him???
I think he commands respect from the players and a lot of them have migrated from his stint with them in the U18 team
OFB
The Wonder Kid ie Sonny Finch 18 years old has signed a new contact till 2026 with the option of a further year.
as has been pointed out, the actual issue is 16yo Finn Cartwright but it does reinforce that we have a load of good kids but aren’t really prepared to play them in the first team. Are they just not ready to be given a go or is it that current management don’t quite trust players that young unlike other teams who are playing 17, 18 and 19 year olds.
Not having really seen them, it’s hard for me to comment.
utb