Thanks for a very interesting and thought-provoking opener, Powmill. Thanks, too, for the helpful information on Birmingham.

It’s hard to disagree with you that the fine margins we’ve been discussing are related to the way we’ve been playing, both in attack and defence, and clearly also to luck or ‘rub of the green.’ Put simply, I’d say that we would improve our own luck and drag those fine margins over onto our side a bit if we could get the attack to function as well as the defence has been doing. Of course, injuries, suspensions and refereeing decisions (2 stonewall penalties denied and 1 highly contentious one given against already this season) will impact that, but it’s likely that if we score two goals in most games, then our defence is good enough to ensure we would go on to win, or occasionally draw. But we all know that the problem RE faces right now is getting us to score one goal, let alone more than that. When he solves this problem, I think we’ll be fine. 

On to Birmingham, then. The clue to scoring more is to create more. For that reason, I think McGree needs to start against his own club, and I think Strelec needs a run in the side. I’d also try Hansen down the left instead of Burgzorg. 

This game gives Edwards a different problem to solve, though. This time we face a side on the up that has scored 8 times in its last two matches. I’m sure they’ll seek to put us under significant pressure. How many fit defenders will we have available? We know Jones is out. Edmondson is apparently fit, but hasn’t started for a while, and ditto Bangura, in his case for much, much longer. Will Edwards risk Fry for one game, knowing there’s an international break to follow which might give him time to recover? If he’s fit, I would definitely play Alan Browne in this one, alongside Hackney and Morris. 

So, yet another challenging game approaches. I wouldn’t go so far as to say this is ‘must-win’ at this stage of the season, though of course the three points would be most welcome and a timely boost. It is, however, a ‘must-not-lose’ game! 

Thanks Powmill for a very polished and thoughtful opener. Couldn't disagree with your main line of argument, and I appreciated the background on Birmingham. They are probably the most aggressive team in a very physical league, so it will be no game for the faint-hearted, the uncommitted or those nursing knocks.  Neither Whittaker nor Burgzorg should really be in the team on current form but where is our width going to come from ? McGree should start in this one, but he's best as a left-sided midfielder rather than a winger.

An excellent headliner P-N, and I totally accept what you say about fine margins. Maybe I was clutching at straws with my rub of the green comments! 

A win on Saturday would be good for everyone one, not least us here on Diasboro - hopefully we’ll also have some certainty around the Wolves/RE situation by then too. 

An excellent starter, Powmill. Full of info and really thoughtful. And I agree, that we need to create more chances to score.

Rub of the green - I fully understand the meaning of it as it has been used so often and long time in football. But does anyone understand where the saying comes from? As you know, my mother language is not even ralated to English in any way, so sometimes I stop for wondering where the saying or meaning comes from.

Clutching at straws is another interesting one. In our language we would say "hair" instead of "straws" but the meaning is more obvious one than the rub of the green.

I love learning English more every day at the forum. Pity I will retire in two months' time and do not need to use English daily at work anymore. But luckily there will be Boro, though.

A good starter, Powmill. Thank you for that. Up the Boro!

@martin-bellamy lol Martin and my Whittaker striking the ball too well, but we all love our football club dont we.

@jarkko I think the expression comes from the game of bowls, traditionally played outside on grass greens. The aim is to roll your bowl closest to a small ball called a jack. Sometimes the bowl will be deflected by the grass and would have been known as a rub. 

Others might also claim it comes from golf or billiards/snooker. 

Great opener PN, yes, like Martin I am guilty as charged with my fine margins clutching at straws Whittaker striking the ball too well line.

I will stick with my "it will click " approach though, it just needs to be pretty soon.

Let's hope our last minute "winner" last night proves to be decisive when we turn out on Saturday, I fancy a victory and dare I say two or more in the onion bag.

Thanks all for the kind comments. I kind of think that a lot of these footballing (or sporting generally) metaphors start to become a kind of excuse, deflecting from what is often a simple and otherwise self-evident truth. In our case it is the disfunctioning forward play that we all see and that everyone has acknowledged, at least in here. The really good teams are able to create so many more good opportunities to score that we then refer to what could have been an absolute hiding had the closely missed chances gone in as well as the two or three that actually did. You never hear of the fine margins between a 3-0 scoreline and 5-0 scoreline. The 'fine margins' expression is really only adopted when there has been a failure to achieve something.

Anyway, I just found it interesting to explore that a little, before concluding we could do with some gross margins on Saturday!

Posted by: @martin-bellamy

↑

@jarkko I think the expression comes from the game of bowls, traditionally played outside on grass greens. The aim is to roll your bowl closest to a small ball called a jack. Sometimes the bowl will be deflected by the grass and would have been known as a rub. 

Others might also claim it comes from golf or billiards/snooker. 

I believe that is correct Martin. A "rub" is an old English word for a defect. So, in bowls, a ball rolling on the green grass could hit a rub on the green (or a defect in the grass surface) and by chance you could get a lucky deflection, or an unlucky deflection. Hence if you got a lucky deflection, you got the rub of the green.

Jarkko, the clutching at straws metaphor relates to a drowning man who will grab at anything to try and stay afloat, even the straws or reeds in the water that would be of no benefit at all in his situation.

It is one of my great pleasures in life, the wealth of such expressions and the colour and the nuance they bring to a language.

Powmill

Mamy thanks for posting the preview, a good decision to start the ball rolling for the Birmingham, game.

I don’t think the Boro are playing badly, in fact they are well organised and it’s fine margins from referee poor decisions, to players handling the ball and giving stupid penalties away.

Appreciate your time and effort well,done

OFB

@martin-bellamy I was thinking about billiards/snooker. I hadn't thought at all about the bowling green as we do not have that sport in here (our winters) - but having seen the sport a few times while in England, it is the logical source.

Is the green called a row in billiards? The green material has also some affect occationally in top class snooker.

I love the blog, me. Up the Boro!

It's a long time since I had a rub of any sort !!

But yes, i always related rub of the green to snooker but bowls and bowling green does relate.

Let's hope we are all getting plenty of rubs in the next few days.

Posted by: @jarkko

↑

@martin-bellamy I was thinking about billiards/snooker. I hadn't thought at all about the bowling green as we do not have that sport in here (our winters) - but having seen the sport a few times while in England, it is the logical source.

Is the green called a row in billiards? The green material has also some affect occationally in top class snooker.

I love the blog, me. Up the Boro!

The green material on snooker tables is called baize and is made entirely from wool. It has to be brushed in the direction of the nap, usually from the bottom of the table to the top. The nap refers to the fibres of the wool in the baize which should be aligned from bottom to top. 

Just read, that Tommy Conway is now without a goal in 10 Championship games, Strelec goalless in eight, and Kaly Sene in seven respectively.

So our strikers need the rub of the green, really. To open the flood gates.

I hope to see a 2-0 win with a goal or two from Strelec. Up the Boro!

Excellent opener as always PN, thank you.

Guilty as charged on “wheels coming off” and “must win” although I think it is fair to say we have been wobbling of late and a win, must or otherwise, we all would like to see.

I agree with Len that Whittaker and Burgzorg are not justifying their place on current form.  I also agree with Clive that McGree needs to start and we have to give Strelec an extended run in the side if we are to capitalise on his undoubted skills. 

We need some pace up front as well so the conundrum for RE is how he fits it all together. 

Another tight game on Saturday which hopefully we can shade to give every one a lift going into the International break. 😎

@k-p-in-spain Are we sure that Strelec’s skills are “undoubted” though? I appreciate that the service he’s received so far from his teammates has been poor, but he still doesn’t look like a world beater to me.

I’m hoping that the simple act of typing these words will be enough to turn the tide for him! 

How about a line-up like this vs. Birmingham:

Up-front: Strelec

Next line from left to right: Conway (he is ofter drifting to left anyway), McGree, Sene

Midfield: Hackney & Morris

Defence: Targett, Fry, Ayling, Brittain (was he wounded at Leicester? Silvera)

Brynn

Just thinking out loud. Same pace on the "wings" and a bigger centre forward. Up the Boro.

Reports from Football Insider say that they understand wolves have held talks with Rob Edwards but as yet no agreement in place...

@werdermouth interesting, I would have thought that things like that would have been on hold until the international break after the weekend, we know the players had a day off yesterday after Tuesday night, did Edwards spend some time there yesterday ? Who knows.

Many thanks Powmill for a very fine opener and a good well-balanced analysis of where Boro are and where they could be heading. In truth, it's been a little frustrating to see the great start to the season being slowly squandered by what appears a combination of circumstances and perhaps failure to have a clear strategy on how to integrate the new attacking recruits into life in the Championship.

What we have seen is when teams start scoring goals they are moving up the table - Rob Edwards has built solid foundations but is still yet to decide on what the house should look like and it's starting to look a bit like Garry Monk - who never worked out how to fit the best bits together and just kept experimenting until he was sacked.

Whether Edwards is about to jump ship and head to Wolves is now perhaps not as unlikely as it seemed a few days ago - either way he'll have some explaining to do in tomorrow's pre-match press conference - if he's still here and those talks with Wolves are more than just courtesy ones.

I'd fancy Boro would be happy to continue for a while with just Adi Viveash and Harry Watling as they're both pretty plugged into the whole philosophy of this season and are probably responsible for many of the improvements with shape and set plays.

Still, it's all pretty destabilising but thankfully there's an international break to regroup and reset.

@presidentjump 

Well, since his family live in Birmingham he probably headed there after the game and who knows whether he's been given permission to talk to Wolves by Boro as I presume he couldn't just decide to have a chat with them. In reality once the momentum builds up a head of steam it's probably better to resolve the matter one way or the other  - and sooner rather than later as if Boro do need to replace Edwards then this is the last international break until next spring and would be the least worst time to make a change if needed.

Now here's a funny thing...

I did make the pre-season prediction- bold (or rash) by any standards- that Rob Edwards wouldn't last in the job beyond the end of November.

Honesty rather than modesty prevents me from taking any credit for it. I couldn't have been more mistaken in terms of my prediction of how the early part of the season would turn out.

Nevertheless, as the saga reaches its climax, my money's on him upsetting the Riverside Faithful by being revealed as a Traitor

@werdermouth Exclusive - Middlesbrough dismiss suggestions Rob Edwards has held Wolves talks.

https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/sport/25601822.middlesbrough-dismiss-suggestions-rob-edwards-held-wolves-talks/

Interesting to follow the press conference tomorrow. Up the Boro! 

@martin-bellamy. My comments were based on his record and clips of his playing club and international games before he arrived.

He has not had enough game time for us and when he has played, as you correctly point out, he has not had the service.

I have seen him make some good runs off the ball but they have not been seen by a team mate or the pass has failed to reach him.  

This to my mind will only be addressed if he is given an extended run in the side even if he is not scoring or assisting; I believe with time his undoubted skills will come through, but there again what do I know. 😎

@powmillnaemore    That was a brilliant Headliner, which I agree with. 

“Fine Lines” to me is just a cliche for not quite good enough. OK, one cannot disagree with the argument of some bad luck or not getting a rub of the green, thank you Martin for the explantation. A couple of penalties that we may have scored from and also one that should not of been, even though the player made a mistake in handling in the first place. 

Yes, all on that may have put more points on the board, but not guaranteed. What is guaranteed, more or less  🤣  is that if Boro could score more than a couple of goals they would win the match. Two goal would at least get a point.

But, and it is a big but, we are not scoring goals.

Werder said.        Rob Edwards has built solid foundations but is still yet to decide on what the house should look like and it's starting to look a bit like Garry Monk - who never worked out how to fit the best bits together and just kept experimenting until he was sacked.

Whilst I can agree in part what a Werder is saying, unfortunately for me, the truth will be down to the quality of the players purchased. We have all complained at our 6 million signing Whittaker. Lightweight. Most of our other forwards are similar and not up to holding onto the ball.

In my opinion we need to be quicker and get behind the opposition defensive line. Trying to play through the lines has not worked up till now. Maybe McGree could change that, but maybe not.

None of the recent purchased forwards have impressed me to date. In fact the much maligned Burgzorg is really no worse. He can at least hold onto the ball, which is why I guess Edwards gave him a try in the middle.

Although saying all of the above, I would take a gamble and play Strelec from the start for the next number of games. But, again he will need balls played into him in the box not outside of it. More from Targett and Brittain.

Jarrko. When you said bigger number 9, according to Transfermarkt, both Strelec and Conway are 1.85 metres tall. Ayling is only 1.83 considering his goal. 

According to a number of reports, Wolves are going to approach Boro for permission to talk to a Rob Edwards about the manager job at Wolves.

Come on BORO.

@pedro Thanks for the info. You are right, both are 185 cm.

To me Strelec looked like the taller guy. Funny. Up the Boro!

@werdermouth         Considering that there are no other real candidates being touted on the internet, although I am sure feelers will have been put out, it does look, according to Sky Sports, that Wolves are going to seek permission to talk to Edwards.

As much as MFC are denying that they have been approached, there does appear to be the basis of a story. If it turns out to be true, then Mr Gibson will have to move rather quickly to replace him, even if his assistants decide to stay or he does not choose to take them.

I did read somewhere when Adi Viveash and Harry Watling joined MFC, that the former never wanted to be a Head Coach.

Unfortunately this is going to leave a sour taste, just like it did with Wilder. Edwards could have come out like Bellamy or O’Neil and said he is not interested. But he has not.

I wonder what Mr Gibson and the players are thinking just before a very important game against Birmingham. As has been said, not a must win, but in reality it is, just to get the train back on the tracks.

Thanks @k-p-in-spain 

I too agree with Len. Well definitely about Burgzorg and probably about Whitaker too.

I favour a back four that almost picks itself at this moment in time. I would have Morris Hackney and Brown as a midfield trio, with Morris little behind the other two, then Strelec up front supported by Conway and McGree to start with. I agree with you that he (Strelec) should be given match time.

Any win will do, but ideally with more than one goal to spare.