We see team training drills these days , short Sharpe shuttles, five a sides, one touch box play, small goals on smaller pitches, gym work, I get it seems this team runs out of gas, pretty earl in games, Now call me old fashioned but if you expect players to be still pushing after 95 minutes, I believe long distance running twice a week would help, say 5 mile runs, just saying
Strange, as it is available in my local store. So if in doubt, you are welcome over to here to buy. Modern logistics are some times strange. Available world wide, but not at locally where made.@jarkko Good point, although the last time I popped in they had no whisky for sale, which was very odd.
It was the same when Porsche Boxter was made in Finland, it was not available in Finland as there were no importer and ditsributors for Porsche. Nowadays, though they sell more Porsches than Hondas in Finland. Even my Alfa Romeo is ten times rarer than the German brand.
Safe travels for all going to Scotland. Up the Boro.
A simple improvement to Boro’s way of playing is to copy the best team in England- Liverpool.
They are the best team in closing down, they hunt in packs of 2 or 3 players when the opposition have the ball, they sprint to close opponents down. They do an enormous amount of running. When an opponent has the ball surrounded by 2 or 3 opponents he is likely to lose the ball, misplace a hurried pass or pass the ball backwards.
There is no reason why other teams can’t do this.
Philip of Huddersfield
@philip-of-huddersfield ...other than the fact the other clubs' players will, for the most part, be poorer players than the Liverpool players! So they are more likely to make mistakes and to lose the ball than the players available to Liverpool. Liverpool has players to play ticky-tacky-tappy football but they also seem to have permission to "mix it up" - play the long ball if it opens up opportunities, boot the ball out into Row Z if Liverpool's goal is under real threat etc.
@forever-dormo Aren't our opponents also poorer in quality than Liverpool's? I mean a Derby Co. player will lose the ball more easily than an Aston Villa player.
I think we can win many matches with the current system IF we play well as a team. Up the Boro!
There was a Tweet last night on Twitter/X by @olihakamiutb, similating Boro's next several seasons, using grok (an AI thing).
Long story short -
2024-25 Carrick steadies the ship and the team finishes 10th. SG gives his backing to MC and over the summer a striker is signed to complement Conway, and a creative midfielder the replace loanees.
2025-26 The team gets into the Play-Offs (5th) but no promotion, losing in the semi-final to Sheff U (so, interestingly not promoted this year - maybe a fall-off after their defeat to Leeds??).
2026-27 Consistency led by a good defence and a prolific attack led by Conway results in promotion (finishing 2nd). Carrick hailed as a hero.
2027-28 Premier League survival (16th)
2028-29 Consolidation (12th)
2029-30 Potential European push (8th).
There is much more detail and, of course, the further into the future, the less clear is the vision of our IT seer. For example in 2026-27 it simulates the season with SG avoiding overspending and he invests modestly but wisely. But the season is a rollercoaster with Boro starting badly and being in the relegation zone in December, then a January signing - a rugged centre-back - shores up the defence and wins against mid-table sides like Palace and a shock victory over ManU (which wouldn't actually BE a shock in 2025) keeps the team afloat, finishing in 16th with Conway's goals provong decisive. The squad needs depth to thrive....
All of that is good clean fun and one's otherwise 100% trust in the technology might have been dented somewhat by the comment that the 16th position finish in 2027-28 meant the team was "one spot above the drop" (I thought only 20th, 19th and 18th went down!) but I won't argue with the digital brain.
My mate's comment was that he'd have a pint of whatever Grok had been drinking!
What happened to the runs up Easton hills or up and down RoseberryTopping and a run along Redcar beach. We never saw the players puffing and panting on the pitch after those workouts!
OFB
EXMIL CHALLENGE 2025
With 6 hours to the cut off for entries, I have received the following 9 entries:
Powmill-Naemore, Andy R, OFB, Selwynoz, MW in Darwin, Forever Dormo, lenmasterman, jarkko, Exmil.
Will anymore test their toes in the water 🤔.
Come on BORO.
I agree . All I’m saying is that players could run more, chase more etc Conway is probably our best example , before that it was Latte Lath.Watching some of our players and also Stoke City players they more or less ambled in closing down an opponent with the ball.
philip of Huddersfield
You might find of interest some information posted on Twitter/X site @Topfourtiers. A list of the wage bills for the highest paying Championship clubs (per WEEK).
Leeds - £715K
Burnley - £576K
SheffU - £558K
M'bro - £472K
Luton (!!!) - £459
WBA - £445K
Cardiff - £400K
Norwich - £376K
....
....
QPR - £245K
Derby - £245K
Coventry - £243K
PNE - £239K
BristolC - £222K
Oxford - £214K
Plymouth - £180K
Portsmouth - £174K
So that would be £38,180,000 per year for Leeds, £24,544,000 for Boro and £9,048,000 for Portsmouth. Gulp!
@philip-of-huddersfield Yes I agree. Azaz and now Whittaker don’t often bust a gut to get back.
Against Stoke, Dijksteel, whilst he is vulnerable to a pacy wide man and too often loses him, was hung out to dry with next to little help by Whittaker. The other big issue, is Hackney when he is playing further forward. Lose the ball and he does not have the pace to get back.
Although in saying all of that, Stokes pass for their goal came from the other side. However ALL our defenders where on that side and the Stoke goal scorer must have thought he was “Billy no mates” Dreadful schoolboy stuff.
@pedro - No player should be too big or too good to sprint back to help out when possession is lost. With the possible exception of Messi (and, let's be fair, his positives more than outwiegh THAT negative) even the best run back. I was watching Salah covering, at speed, most of the blades of grass in the last Liverpool game on TV and Son works his backside off when he plays.
@original-fat-bob I’m fairly sure today's players are generally fitter than those days. Whether they’ve got as much heart is anyone’s guess.
It’s a(nother) big game tomorrow. A win is vital if we’re to keep the season alive. Come on Boro! Send us home happy. Keep the hope burning!
KP in Spain, you posted you made two mistakes in your entry but posted the same total for Bristol 🤔.
Come on BORO.
I’m really sorry. I haven’t been paying attention, so had no idea the challenge deadline was today. I’ve been a bit distracted. We’ve had a disruptive and emotional week with my daughter-in-law in hospital 15 miles away in Bangor (recovering now, thankfully) which has meant a lot of travelling back and forth. Add the fact that my wife has had to spend the last 6 days living in my daughter-in-law‘s flat looking after her incredibly needy and neurotic terrier, so I’ve had other things on my mind.
I know I said pre-Stoke that I would rather leave the challenge till next season, but I did intend to take part. I hope the small numbers committing won’t put you off doing it again next year. And thank you again for all your efforts.
Clive nobody will object if you post your entry now.I’m really sorry. I haven’t been paying attention, so had no idea the challenge deadline was today. I’ve been a bit distracted. We’ve had a disruptive and emotional week with my daughter-in-law in hospital 15 miles away in Bangor (recovering now, thankfully) which has meant a lot of travelling back and forth. Add the fact that my wife has had to spend the last 6 days living in my daughter-in-law‘s flat looking after her incredibly needy and neurotic terrier, so I’ve had other things on my mind.
I know I said pre-Stoke that I would rather leave the challenge till next season, but I did intend to take part. I hope the small numbers committing won’t put you off doing it again next year. And thank you again for all your efforts.
Come on BORO.
Give me half an hour. I’ll knock something up.
After watching the shenanigans from the White House this evening, football pales into insignificance, really. Let's hope something can be rescued from the fire.
EXMIL CHALLENGE 2025
At the close of entries we have 13 runners, added to the previous list are, werdermouth, Martin Bellamy, KP in Spain and Clive Hurren.
Come on BORO.
@gt there were no politics on show at the White House. Just ignorant, vindictive, bullying behaviour by grown adults who should, but as most of the world knows, do not know better. Their ignorance of, or worse, their disregard for the consequences of their words and actions will have serious consequences across the globe and most immediately in Ukraine and by that consequence the UK and the rest of Europe.
FD's and now my post are not opinionated political posts, but a genuine concern for the future prospects for millions of people, including us and all our loved ones.
FD is right and Shankley was wrong, football does pale into insignificance when we witness events like that and I am comfortable for that to be called out in this or any and every forum.
PS. ...which doesn't mean the football stops.
We must be ruthless today. Hopefully the players will have taken a lot of heart from Tuesday night and the crowd also will not be on their backs from kick off.
I would like to think we can do better than OFB's favourite Boro3, but I will be relieved if we can just win a game at home by two clear goals.
2-0 to Boro to begin to build some momentum.
CoB
Imagine the joy if we could get an early 2-0 lead, and then feel the weight lift from our shoulders with a decent safety margin between the 2 teams! We could enjoy the rest of the game with a warm feeling inside.
Or maybe 4 goals would be better as I have nasty memories of a certain home game against Sheffield Wednesday where Boro held a 3 goal lead after 30 minutes and then conceded 3 goals in a catastrophic 14 minutes in the 2nd half to end up with a draw...
Many thanks Clive for another top amusing and enjoyable preview - the win on Tuesday has certainly changed the potential mood for this afternoon's game, in what should be a very good opportunity for another three points and a season reset.
Of course the main worry is the lack of defenders and whether Ayling-Senior can handle another game - though while his body may be creaking he's generally good at reading the game and hopefully he won't make any tired passes.
Admittedly, Stoke looked like a training game until they scored so it will be important to play with intensity and avoid a slow predictable passing game against a side that I'm sure will sit back for most of the 90 minutes.
I don't expect to see any of the outfield loanees starting today as Carrick will likely stick to the same formula that ended our run of defeats!
Anyway, I'll be hoping to get back from another Handball away game in time for kick-off so it'll be interesting to see what team he selects - apparently Doak may be back in training next week after "a number of weeks" have now passed...
Ayling in for the injured Edmundson, Jonny H on the bench, HH not shown as captain:
I see that Sammy Silvera, Micha Hamilton and Alex Gilbert are all on the bench again today.
Not doing much for their development and raises the question, if they can’t hold down a starting place in a League One side, how are they supposed to get into the Boro side? 😎
sounds like Sammy Siberia has been left out in the cold 😏