That was NOT a good performance. It was partly good. The Curate's egg looked good on its plate from a distance but on approach it was clear it had a sulphurous smell that signalled considerable imperfection. It LOOKED to have the possibility of being a good performance until (approximately) the last third of the game. At that stage, Boro's frailties were becoming more apparent. The crowd knew it and I suspect the players did, too.
The usual stuff: some very good moves, lots of possession, passes in the opposing half and in the opposing penalty area, attempts on goal etc. Basically it was "Stat Heaven" until Millwall equalised. After that, it was the frequently experienced "Stat Hell".
We go back to basics. If you score more goals than you concede, you win. The other way around, you lose. Possession is all very nice to see. Passes can be good to watch, but not as good as goals. What will define the season is conversion of chances into goals scored. I assume Boro must be fairly low on that metric. Yes, quite a few goals scored over the season but usually from a stratospheric number of opportunities and not necessarily in tight games where chances are difficult to come by. Better to be a team which carves out only three opportunities but scores two of them, than the team which creates 17 but scores only one.
Scoring is the essential Stat. The Stat Daddy. The rest is fluff - apart maybe from the goalie whose saves are each the equivalent of a goal scored at the other end.
Basically Boro's strikers are not particularly good at striking. There are players in the squad who can score goals often in batches throughout the season, but nobody we could really rely on to finish clinically like Coburn did yesterday. Do we think he is a better Championship striker than anyone in our team, that if HE had the number of chances our strikers get, that he'd score more goals than ours score?
The season is actually turning out to be much better than I'd expected. But it is, as has been mentioned before, matter of perspective. If you've been in the Top Two for most of the season and drop out of the top positions only a month before the end of the league season, then that has been great for MOST of the season, but definitely NOT great when it goes on to stutter on the crest of a slump when it matters.
Had Boro been struggling, not like Sheffield Wednesday has been all season but like Southampton had been at the start of the season, but (like Southampton) had turned that poor form around and was coming up with a late charge, we'd probably all be very excited now. Eying up a possible/probable Play-Off place, knowing that your team has been in great form for the last couple of months rather than stuttering like a car whose fuel guage has been showing empty for the last 10 miles (or games). You'd feel full of hope in that late surge rather than fearing the worst as your hopes are dashed on the rocks of chances missed, shots scuffed, balls kicked into Row 19 etc.
This is NOT turning out to be a tragedy. Even what is happening to the supporters of Sheffield Wednesday isn't a tragedy although it has the quality of looking inevitable and being brought on by sad self-harm. What is going on in Ukraine is a tragedy, a disaster
What is going on in the Persian Gulf is a disaster on a wholly different scale to the experience Boro supporters are going through (and from which it remains POSSIBLE though not exactly likely that Boro will extricate itself to achieve success despite what has been going on in recent weeks). We feel a bit down after a game, maybe even for a few weeks over the early summer, but we then get on with life. Our home has not been destroyed, the nearby school is still there, we can safely go out for walks when the weather allows. Maybe some, disillusioned for the umpteenth time, will not buy a Season Ticket next year but we still have things to be thankful for. Perspective again.
I will retain my British birthright to moan when I feel grumpy. But that isn't limited to football and the grumpiness can be lifted by something as everyday as a smile from somebody, or the sound of a stream flowing over rocks. Football isn't life. When the history of Greece is written, we tend not to dwell upon long-forgotten discuss throwers and when the history of Rome is considered, champion Charioteers, the sporting icons of their age, merit hardly a mention.
Middlesbrough football club may matter to some of us (though thousands follow the club then move on to other things, otherwise my still-alive friends who sat near me in the stadium would still be there and we'd need a Teesside Wembley), but even the current giants of the game, the Manchester Clubs, Arsenal, Liverpool etc in England, might be big(ISH) now, but may hardly merit a mention in 200 years time. Despite bowmen having been required to practice in medieval times, apart from a fictional Robin Hood, do we know the names of the Master bowmen from centuries ago? Current fads and pastimes will fade away. Life goes on, where I live anyway.
@forever-dormo Re Famous Bowmen & Archers:
Robert de Fishlake: https://www.southampton.ac.uk/assets/imported/transforms/content-block/UsefulDownloads_Download/9454470D24E34B2E82301D22E9C0BA3D/robertdefishlake_soldierprofile.pdf
Oh, and Edith, of course…
@forever-dormo What a great post and certainly puts everything into perspective.
I certainly do not along with the famous Bill Shankley quote.
@martin-bellamy - I very much enjoyed the paper you linked to your last post. An interesting short read. Maybe the feats of our heroes at Boro (or others' heroes at the Manchester Clubs, Arsenal, Liverpool etc) will not so much be part of the communal consciousness in 200 years, but will be known only as a result of papers written by history PhDs from Universities?
Edith Bowman: by name and by her actions/attempts.
The form table over the last six games shows us in 11th position with W2 D2 L2 =8 points as against an expected points total of 14; if that form is replicated over the next six games then our play off place may not be guaranteed but should just about see us scrape through.
The end of this season is beginning to resemble that of MC’s first season when we should have, could have but didn’t.
I hope it doesn’t because that will result in yet another large squad rebuild and consolidation and all that comes with it; we will probably not be able to retain the loanees and there will be a substantial number of players moving on with the merry go round starting all over again. 🙁😎
If promotion were to be achieved NEXT season rather than this, after a failure to go up this time around, I think it would be (1) much harder than to go up than it would be this season (2) much less likely than promotion seemed four weeks ago. Football offers you hope then snatches it away.
Never mind Clairvoyant of the Year, I think we have found our Laureate of the Year. Beautiful reading Martin. Thankyou for taking our minds away on a flight of fancy and away from the depression settling on the banks of the Tees.
@k-p-in-spain Probably so KP. However the best may leave, as the player has the last call, but we will be left with the bad buys, the underachievers, which will mean a wage bill too high and not sufficient leeway to add new (hopefully) better replacements.
how did i manage that...the response was supposed to be in the Swansea thread....Never mind Clairvoyant of the Year, I think we have found our Laureate of the Year. Beautiful reading Martin. Thankyou for taking our minds away on a flight of fancy and away from the depression settling on the banks of the Tees.