We really were poor today and, yet, it’s still in our hands. Win the next two and we’re in the playoffs, although I think I said in the first part of the season, that I’d take 7th and another season in the Championship. Maybe I’m easily pleased.
Meanwhile, the Burnley vs SheffU match "graces", if that's the right word, ITV screens free, gratis & for nothing... 
P.S. How much longer before more supporters start calling for MC's head?
I thought that we were very poor today in every regard from team selection through substitutions right down to poor performances and awful decision making from just about every player throughout the entire game.
Given the presence of Smith and Owls' tall defenders at every set piece Fry should have been an automatic selection from the start. That he was not even brought on at half-time had all too predictable consequences. Wednesday might have had three goals from their dominance in the air before they finally wrapped up the game.
Dijksteel, given his many critical defensive lapses over the past month, should not have started and was a liability throughout, going missing and giving the ball away on innumerable occasions.
But for all of the tactical and selection failings, the fact of the matter is that the players representing us today are just not good enough to get us out of this division, let alone hold their own in the Premier League What can any coach do when your main striker misses a penalty and fails to hit the target when presented with an open goal?
When the entire team needs to be up for the battle, the likes of Azaz, Whittaker and Burgzorg all go missing and even promising younger players like Hackney, Morris, van den Berg, and Iling Junior make basic errors and poor decisions time after time.
I have been a supporter of Carrick's approach to playing the game, but the longstanding criticisms of him seemed well warranted today, as did my own years' long dissatisfaction with a Director of Football, one of whose first decisions was to gift Sam Morsy in order to sign James Siliki and who has bequeathed to his coaches a team of lightweights lacking in Championship steel and nous ever since.
Making the play-offs , unbelievably, remains a possibility. But it is not a fate which we deserve or will be able to make any use of.
If we don't beat Norwich they will need to cancel the lap of thanks because it will be ugly
Just seen on BBC Mogga sacked by West Brom
That's it then.Just seen on BBC Mogga sacked by West Brom
Keep Carrick, appoint Mogga as Director of Football, keep Chris Jones as Head of Recruitment under Mogga's guidance. Clear out most of the players and build again on the basis of talent and experience
good time for Boro to get him in for a full close seasonJust seen on BBC Mogga sacked by West Brom
Also, just to take a little solace from today, I am delighted to see CW has guided The Blades to the playoffs.
Well done to Burnley and to Leeds. Got to say both teams deserve that for this season.
27 points dropped from winning positions
Also Carrick getting narky during post match interview not good enough
Well we've heard the platitudes and excuses before. Many times.
I think Mr Gibson has a hard decision to make so, will he, or won't he? There's talent enough in the team but a motivator and basically a Gunnery Sergeant character is needed on the pitch to get them on their toes so that they understand the consequences for them, at the moment there seems a nearly but not quite attitude, it'll come together next season. Well with this attitude it won't.
I know we go on about problem positions that need to be filled but what we need is a Captain who is a mirror image in attitude and drive of the (new) manager. In other words there should be no escape for lazy attitudes and just cruising. That we do not have. Forget the No 10 problem, if everyone is working hard and doing what they're briefed to do it won't be a problem. Oh, and don't sell Josh please just give him a chance and just when do we give the young ones a chance? Those with apparently so much promise?
I know it's easy to be an armchair critic but everyone on this blog has highlighted the problems but we still have them.
Sorry OFB I thought we'd be cheering you up tonight with positivity...
No more ranting I need sleep.
UTB,
John
@lenmasterman Sorry Len, but unfortunately I have lost all faith in Carrick.
I appreciate there are other issues in play within the club and the recruitment of talented yes, but lightweight, inconsistent players such as Azaz, Burgzorg and Whittaker will win us nothing over a season.
Even Hackney, VDB and Morris have gone backwards these last number of games.
Carrick has now had three seasons to work things out. Learn new tactics, learn how to change shape with substitutions, game management.
Has he really shown he has learned and improved over his time here at MFC. Not in my eyes.
@paulinboro - I felt his approach to a perfectly proper question from the interviewer was unwarranted and doesn't show Mr Carrick in a good light.
@paulinboro - Is that right? 27 points dropped this season from a winning position? That surely must be some sort of record and there are at least 2 further games to play! There must be some sort of explanation for that. It surely can't all be "bad luck".
Being in Oz, I’m able to watch all games even if it does involve a certain loss of sleep. This latest game absolutely encapsulated the problems that Carrick has created. He coaches a possession approach to the game that has fine margins and leaves us open to mistakes. It is fine when we move at pace and score goals like Azaz did today. But when it gets static, it relies on players getting out of situations that are, frankly, beyond their skill level. This results in us not creating as many chances as we should and losing the ball in midfield.
Defensively, making poor choices has been at the heart of a lot of our setbacks. If, throughout the season, we had recognised our limitations and simply cleared the ball away from danger we could easily have another ten points.
The other major failing is our inability to retreat into a solid defensive structure when we lose the ball. Nobody looks round to see what areas need to be covered. We have left ourselves too open on so many occasions that one has to query the way that they have been coached.
I still enjoy the way we play but the current players need some steel to stop us always getting turned over.
It’s quite true that we still have a playoff position in our own hands but would anyone put any money on us beating Norwich and Coventry. Probably not but Coventry themselves have to go to Luton which is no gift.
it’s hard to know what to wish for but, at this stage, it’s just a question of watching and hoping.
UTB
@selwynoz A good summing up. There are and have been too many issues during the last three seasons and unfortunately Carrick has not been able to eradicate or improve those areas in most of them.
It appears that he only wants to play HIS way. He does not want to be flexible, have alternative plans when it is obviously not working or causing major problems. Fry was a good example yesterday.
The results continue to tells us we are inconsistent because we do not have the players to carry out the execution of his plan A. I was going to post the stat of dropped points before the game, 25 it was.
Now as posted by PaulinBoro, it is 27. Yes twenty seven dropped points from a leading position this season.
What does that tell you. It states categorically that the Coach and players are not capable of playing to our chosen system and in game management.
The simple answer is, A new Coach, new players, a new system.
Or I will be benevolent and say, keep the existing Coach if he can change his way of playing at times, have a plan B, use his substitutions earlier when things are going wrong, get better players in with steel and grit and mental strength.
However, can a leopard change his spots.
OFB,
Best wishes for today and your (short, we hope) hospital stay.
ATB
UTB,
John
Managed to check the score just after half-time to see us winning and Bristol and Coventry losing and looking good for the top six - then checked again just before full-time to see us disappointingly 1-1 and within a few seconds 1-2 as Boro somehow threw away a golden opportunity. It's almost like the team don't want to make the play-offs but everything keeps contriving to give them another chance to stumble into them.
I can even see a likely scenario of failing to beat Norwich but still going into the final game with a chance of a top six finish given Coventry are at Luton and Bristol City are at Leeds with Millwall traveling to Burnley for their final game. 66 points for 6th is a distinct possibility beating the previous lowest of 68.
@werdermouth are you suggesting that this season Boro could become, officially, the lowest of the low?
Adding my thoughts to those with OFB today.
@forever-dormo. There is, we don’t do the basics. We are weak or should I say poor as a defensive unit and for many a season have played square pegs in round holes.
I accept that an injury crisis will call for extreme measures but to have three CBs on the bench whilst playing a midfielder in a defence lacking in height and heading ability is poor decision making on behalf of the management.
Until the defensive shortcomings, lack of players with steel, determination and a willingness to dig in when it matters are addressed then we will languish in the championship forever.
Regrettably, I do not think that MC has the ability to sort this out but am at a loss to suggest an alternative.
Best wishes to OFB for today, hope all goes well and your hospitalisation is short lived. 😖😎
A man under pressure and/or one who can't take criticism
Totally agree why have 3 centre backs on the bench and play midfielder as centre back. If they are not ready to play they shouldn't be on the bench.
Don't get me started on the lack of spine, leadership in the team
I now believe Michael Carrick is holding this team back, we have talented players , giving them their freedom to excel I think we could be a like Leeds .attacking force to overwhelm teams. But we've got Mr Static, as a coach.
Just look at the defeats , this cannot be tolerated
@paulinboro Agreed - especially in respect of the "man under pressure" response.
To try and be fair, I think he has always taken the line not to criticise the team or players publicly. It would be interesting to hear if anyone has any insight on what MC is like with them behind closed doors.
@gt ...unless it all is a deliberate ploy to avoid accidentally finishing in the play-offs and inadvertently getting promoted this year, when next season it is planned for us to see our thoroughbreds let off the leash !!
TBH, I think MC has many good qualities. What he has been lacking in his time with us is an intelligent counterpoint or wise old head to help him develop. It is not too late. Len's idea of Mogga as director of football is not a bad shout, but much the classy central defender that Woodgate was, he is not delivering as a defensive coach. I would hope he is replaced or moved sideways this time around. How about Mark Venus coming back to us to work with MC. With Mogga's eye for talent, we must also hope for some better quality coming in up front.
I still don't think that Carrick is the main problem - how many managers have failed at Boro over the past decade and more? - but I accept that there's problems with him and the coaching staff.
I'm usually pretty relaxed the day after a game whatever the result but I can't shake the disappointment of seeing a side so passive yesterday, when the stakes are as high as they are. I have long held the belief that this Boro is not a promotion side no matter where we finish but the players, managers and coaches cannot believe that - where was the heart, the drive and determination yesterday? We had everything to play for but you wouldn't have known it.
On that and the wider point of dropping points from winning positions, I think that a big part of the problem is a lack of experience. RvdB, Iling Jnr, Hackney, Morris, Azaz, Whittaker, Conway - this is a young team of technical players (Morris aside, who stands out as one with a bit more fight but a bit less technical ability) that desperately needs some solid experience among it. Howson is not enough - you need three or four.
The coaching staff are also pretty inexperienced. Even the Head of Football is relatively green.
It doesn't fit with the recruitment strategy at all but if next season's team is serious about promotion and not all geared to making a profit on player trading, it will need to a good dose of experience right through the spine of the team. A centre-half, a central midfielder and a centre forward who've seen it and done it would go a long way.
In the end I think the play-offs will end up quite an open contest as most of the teams involved are showing no kind of form at all.
Sheff Utd - lost 4 of their last 5 after being top will feel they've threw promotion away.
Sunderland - lost their last 3 as they settle for the play-offs but have lost momentum
Bristol City - probably the best of the bunch but only won 1 of last 3 with Leeds up next
Coventry - only won 2 of last 6 after previously winning 5 in a row.
Boro - lost 3 of last 4 after picking up 10 points from previous 4 games
Millwall - won 4 of last 6 but may fall just short with a trip to Burnley up last.
Perhaps a team that can make it into the top six by winning their last 2 games will be the one with most confidence.
Yes, plus opting to sell the team's focal point in Latte Lath has shown a club that decided banking cash was the most important thing - if they'd stood firm and said he could leave in the summer if promotion wasn't achieved then they wouldn't have lost much financially in the long run given the numbers quoted for some of the new arrivals on loan. Though we still don't know what LL meant with his cryptic departing comment: "There are many things that happen there and I will just leave that there."
Still, if promotion is not going to happen then it is another complete rebuild and possibly a new manager as Carrick's the Championship's longest serving manager but looking no nearer to creating the team that plays the football he wants - in fact this season the team has gone backwards with the team last season not as good as the one in his first. That doesn't argue that next season will be better or his game management will improve either.
Boro lost 25 points from winning positions, 10 times they lost a lead from 28 games - in contrast Burnley only lost a lead once from 27 games they led (they drew). Only Norwich have lost more points from winning positions (30) and only Oxford have lost more games from winning position than Boro.
Interestingly, Sheffield Wednesday have retrieved the most points from losing positions in 24 - Boro have only retrieved 9 points from losing positions - with just 5 clubs managing fewer.
It does raise questions of both the players mentality and Carrick's ability to either change games or see them out.
Lots of understandable criticism of MC in the post match comments on here, and rightly so. If, by some miracle, we get into the playoffs (it’s still in our hands to do so) and then, equally miraculously, we get promoted, will we still be calling for the manager to be replaced?
It’s been a weird season in the Championship - a couple of teams who always looked like getting promoted but followed by an ever changing cast of wannabes who flatter to deceive and jockey for places in the top 6. Any of those teams could have put a run together to secure a playoff place (which I guess is what Sunderland have done) but none have looked convincing. We all know what happened when we secured our top 6 position early - our form disappeared and we failed to capitalise.
I see no reason why we couldn’t get through the playoffs (if indeed we get there at all) - all of the teams likely to be there are beatable - what happens after that frightens me death.
At what stage in a disastrous EPL season do we ditch MC and try to find a saviour who could keep us there?
You could argue that Carrick will be able to attract better technical players to play in his style if Boro are promoted - the problem seems to be trying to play his slick passing game without having the ability in the side to do it consistently, which doesn't create errors in dangerous areas.
Perhaps the club should concentrate on getting good PL loans next year rather than buying good up-and-coming Championship players that can have value added to them.
@werdermouth I would argue that it is not the passing game per se that is MC's achilles heel, but that that appears to be the only option. In season 1MC we did have Jones and Giles that could and would get behind the defensive line wide on the right and on the left. Until Doak joined us this season, we appeared to have lost that essential capability. Without Doak for much of this season and until Illing Junior has started to show that potential, we have been scuppered. Had we not lost Doak, I suspect we would be comfortably top 6 now. Imagine both Doak and Illing Junior on song - even without a top-notch goal-scorer we would have been creating so many opportunities even Icheanachu might have looked prolific.
My big gripe has always been that we appear to be pedestrian on the ball. But that is until we are not [pedestrian]. And the not used to happen when the play was stretched wide and either outside/behind or inside/though the defensive line. Then we looked sharp and quick. I believe we are only a Doak and an Illing Junior (or capable alternatives) short of being the real deal again offensively.
Defensively we probably only need a proven defensive coach to sort things out and to insist on the cultured hoof up field or into the stands when that makes sense.
This is the most bizarre season, but we still have things to play for. I think we are overdue raining back on Coventry's parade ... now wouldn't that be a thing?