Fail to beat low block again, too much tippy happy football on edge of box, just leather it occasionally. We haven't got a striker with #£%& all very frustrating but at least we didn't lose and we could have.

So we failed to beat a team with a low block, park the bus mentality. The same team who Coventry failed to beat very recently. 

I don’t think KH picked the wrong team, nor do I see this as a disastrous result. A win would have been better and we need to beat teams who play this way but looking at the table tonight I’m still smiling. 

Let’s keep positive and enjoy the ride. 

@paulinboro 

No, we didn’t lose but it was a big disappointment particularly as other results went in our favour.  Had we won the game we would have stayed close behind Coventry and put clear water between us and Ipswich.  The coaches must work out how to beat the low block because Oxford won’t be the only team using it at the Riverside during the rest of the season.

As Martin has pointed out, Oxford recently held Coventry to a draw even though they were down to 10 men for the last 25 minutes. Disappointed as we be, let’s keep it in perspective, think of Hull and Millwall fans losing at home to mid/lower teams, not forgetting the mighty Ipswich conceding 5 to Wrexham 🤔.

Come on BORO.

As I feared a disappointing result and he only positive is that both Millwall and Ipswich lost. A win would have put us 10 clear of Ipswich. However it looked from the brief highlights that we could have lost. Probably going to be a similar scenario on Tuesday night, and then a big game on Monday night against Birmingham who have only one home defeat last season and this.

Hi everyone. Apologies for the absence of late.

Wearing my usual disappointed-but-not-devastated face, the kind I've tended to wear after 0-0 draws at home no matter what the opposition.

For what is the saying? You can't dress up dropped points at home, especially when, as my Liverpool supporter friend from L'Derry put it, you want to see a win when you pay all that money to attend the game. I didn't, but I know tens of thousands Boro fans did and their feelings are more than likely to sway closer to devastated rather than disappointed right now.

It is arguably true that in August we would have taken second spot, let alone being six clear of third, at this stage, but it still doesn't read well to dress up dropped points, even if the three rivals below us also dropped them. It's an understandable means of trying to be reasonable, to try and ease the pain, but today could just as easily be a precedent for the sense that we can afford to miss an opportunity to pull clear as long as we're still "there". Which as we know, isn't good at all.

Anyway. Observations...

OBSERVATION 1

As much as today may have felt like deja vu - I recall a match report, and it was not for Kim Hellberg's Boro, where it was written that "Middlesbrough, as usual, had plenty of possession but not much luck in front of goal" - I do have sympathy for KHBoro.

Because it's harder than one thinks for even one of the best teams in any division to rediscover their rhythm and verve once the burst bubble from being suddenly and unexpectedly put in their place by a rival they only recently seemed to have the edge over. Hearing from a fan that we were hesitant in Oxford's half, and hearing that Oxford hit the woodwork twice, didn't surprise me at all. It is quite possible that Coventry's 2-0 win at West Brom before our game even took place can't have done us too much good - what if we found ourselves carrying the feeling that our defeat to them last week might have been the catalyst for them to reboot their scoring and winning ways? When, as we've learned in the past, the cat's out of the bag and we've found that we're not invincible after all, the psychological blow has the potential to be enormous.

That's why I really would have taken any win today, like the 1-0 win over QPR which followed the 3-0 hammering at Hull in 2015. It was ugly, sure, and we hardly had a shot, but it got us back to winning ways and we didn't concede against Championhip opposition for two months. Three points and a job being done no matter how really is, sometimes, the way, for steadying the ship in any manner is vital in the direct aftermath of a possibly destabilising wobble. The more momentous and exciting wins can wait - let's get winning again first. 

OBSERVATION 2

I paid attention, at the end of the transfer window, to exchanges between observers about how successful the window had been deemed to be for Boro.

The clear concern was a relative level of inaction which to me echoed 2014-15. It was better than then, to be sure - back then, the only signing of note was Adam Forshaw, and this time, we got the likes of Leo Castledine, Finley Munroe and Jeremy Sarmiento, with Adilson Malanda kind of taking a leaf out of Patrick Bamford's book and feeling like a new signing. Although Bamford had been with us for longer - the only change was that, in early 2015, he was front and centre of our attack when he previously hadn't been.

But anyway, why the concern? And it's not just because we fell short in 2015...

It's because history shows that our last three successful promotions have been partly defined by what I call a 'Fuchsian Fillip' - the arrival of those forwards or forward-thinking players who give everyone a lift and get us over the line. Uwe Fuchs, of course, in 1995, then Marco Branca and Alun Armstrong in 1998, then Gaston Ramirez and Jordan Rhodes in 2016. I still remember not only the huge lift given by the statement of intent in signing Branca and Armstrong, but also Gaston's impact, when we got back to winning ways after no wins in five, at home to Cardiff.

It is true that the signings were a risk. We already had John Hendrie and Paul Wilkinson in 1995. Mikkel Beck had thirteen league goals and had struck up a successful partnership with Paul Merson by the end of 1997. And the likes of Kike Garcia, Cristhian Stuani and David Nugent were all crucial cogs in the team who won eight games out of nine in 2015-16. The point here is, if it ain't broke, why fix it? Especially if the forward-thinking players already at the club, who have contributed to the campaign, stand to be put out - which can't be good for team spirit.

The sad fact is that progress at any kind of top level brings with it a distasteful ruthlessness. Something I learned when Big Jack decided that the late Alan McLoughlin would be a useful squad member for Ireland at Italia 90... but that meant giving some bad news to Gary Waddock.

Back to the present day, and while we do have David Strelec or Kaly Sene to call upon when Tommy Conway is either misfiring or absence, neither Strelec nor Sene is showing the form we hoped they'd show. Given they arrived at the club when we were still REBoro, the transition can't have been helpful to them, but the potential is there - however, we've reached the stage of the season where "waiting" is less and less of an option. So the fear that we are an injury away from being short up front is legit, although it's also typical of Boro - it's been a great season overall, so why do we have to keep fearing the worst?

It's why I try to stay generally positive. Which brings me on to OBSERVATION 3 and an alternative means of moving forward, for now. Something that kind of relates to Observation 1, too...

I don't think it would be a bad call for Boro to take a leaf out of, say, Arrigo Sacchi's book at this moment in time. Italy had famously lost 1-0 to Ireland in USA 94 and had they lost to Norway in their next game they may have been eliminated. The task looked a lot harder when Gianluca Pagliuca, their goalkeeper, got sent off after twenty minutes or so and Italy had to bring off an outfield player to make room for reserve 'keeper Luca Marchegiani. It was here where Sacchi made a gamble that astonished everyone, I think - bringing off Roberto Baggio. But what Sacchi, I think, knew that I definitely didn't is that R Baggio was carrying an ankle injury - it was also quite probable that Sacchi needed players who could play a more physical game in that heat. A sacrifice of a playmaker for a grind all while knowing you have players all over the pitch who can chip in with a goal and get the team back on course. Now, I'm not saying Boro have players like Giuseppe Signori, Gigi Casiraghi and Alessandro Costacurta, but our list of goal scorers tells me many have netted when our primary goal sources aren't delivering. In short, time to bond together and win as a team whatever happens.

Statement 1    Boro move further ahead of Millwall, Ipswich and Hull

Statement 2.   Boro fail to beat lowly Oxford.

Going into the weekend, I was certainly hoping that S1 would be true but didn’t know that S2 would come along with it. 

The first half was poor and we were a bit lucky to go in level. Boro improved in the second half dominating the play and breaking through down both sides. The weakness was our inability, despite this territorial ascendancy, to craft genuine goal-scoring chances.  Crosses have to be hit much harder and off the ground to give defenders maximum difficulty in dealing with them.

Also we seem to have lost the ability to shoot. Either the shots were weak or just didn’t happen. Malinda and Fry were so far forward that even they could have been taking shots but didn’t. It’s actually hard to remember the Oxford keeper making a decent save.

I have to now start writing the intro for the Birmingham game and it doesn’t look easy. They along with Wrexham and another 12 teams or so are looking to be very real play-off contenders. These next two games against Leicester and Birmingham could be key to maintaining our challenge for automatic promotion.

UTB

For me one of the biggest disappointments this season has been the inability of two players in particular to shoot and hit the target. 

Both HH and AM regularly get into great shooting positions, but too often they blaze high and/or wide when I’d expect them to test the opposition keeper. 

I’m assuming they must practise shooting on the training pitch. 

@martin-bellamy  Morris must be by far the worst shot player in the squad. I can honestly say that I do not believe I have seen him hit the target this season with a fair number of shots, well if that is what you could call them.

That from what we see as a professional football, hard to believe. And yes, Hackney is quite wasteful, including not passing to a better positioned player. Maybe he thinks, they will miss the target also. His corners are not much better.

Four things struck me about today’s performance:

1) So often Boro failed to cross the ball when we often had 3/4 players waiting in the box, as we preferred to play passes and look for a better opportunity. This patently didn’t work against the packed defence. Ditto with our shooting: how many times did we miss the opportunity to shoot by taking more passes than seemed necessary? 

2) We really need someone on the left who can go behind the defence and cross left-footed. Can Finley Munro do that? I’m sure he’s had several assists at Swindon this season. We did get behind Oxford's defenders several times on the right, mainly through Brittain. But that balance needs addressing. 

3) Two of the forwards we had on the pitch at the start are naturally right-footed - Conway and Sarmiento. Therefore they tended to cut back inside onto that foot. Boro also play the left-footed Whittaker on the right and he almost always cuts back inside onto his left. This adds to issue number 2 because it often makes us very narrow, and even a bit predictable. 

4) Fellow bloggers above have raised the issue of our shooting and corners. Absolutely. We appear to have nobody who can take a well-targeted free-kick from decent opportunities just outside the box. This has been a problem for years. Equally, all our corners today were disappointing - they were either cleared by the defenders or sailed right over the heads of our waiting attackers, the big centre-halves included. I can’t recall a single corner where one of our men got his head on the ball coming in. 

I don’t think KH will be able to solve any of the above by Tuesday, but they were all factors in our failure to break down what was a very stubborn and well-organised defence. 

Hi Clive.

Good post.

I’m sadly reminded of this quote from Jonas Brorsson, the Swede who captained part-timers Trelleborgs to a hugely unexpected 1-0 win at Ewood Park against a Blackburn side who were on their way to becoming champions of England…

”If you were organised you could stop them.”

This ties in with critical claims that Blackburn’s approach play was too predictable - it was primarily dependent on Jason Wilcox and our own Stuart Ripley supplying crosses for the “SAS” - and concerns that have rightly arisen since Coventry knocked us out of our rhythm and Oxford stifled it.

Time to think a little differently?

@clive-hurren.  Good post Clive.  The unfortunate thing is that all the faults you highlight are not new, they have been evident for a number of seasons.

RE often made the point that we had to be better in the final third in terms of decision making and execution; that is the right pass at the right time or shooting at the appropriate opportunity, none of which we seem to be able to address.  

Corners, free kicks and even throw ins are frequently wasted and I am constantly frustrated by the fact that nothing changes.

Whilst I am please with what KH has achieved so far I still have a doubt as to how tactically adept he and his team are as was evidenced by yesterdays  inability to change things when opposition teams are nullifying us; it will be interesting to see how Leicester set up on Tuesday and if we have any answers if it is yet another low block we are faced with. 😎

Well. It seems my preview of  their defensive organisation was on the mark and Oxford's outstanding run against the top six contenders continues. Fair play to them and I hope they will get enough points to stay up. KH is right, we take the point and move on. Thanks to Wrexham, no one catches us with games in hand. At least not after this round of fixtures. 

The Foxes are a different proposition and it is going to be a whole different ball game on Tuesday and one that I imagine we could do quite well in.To mis-paraphrase Kipling, Boro just needs to keep their heads, even though some supporters might be losing theirs and blaming it on them.

Posted by: @clive-hurren

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4) Fellow bloggers above have raised the issue of our shooting and corners. Absolutely. We appear to have nobody who can take a well-targeted free-kick from decent opportunities just outside the box. This has been a problem for years. Equally, all our corners today were disappointing - they were either cleared by the defenders or sailed right over the heads of our waiting attackers, the big centre-halves included. I can’t recall a single corner where one of our men got his head on the ball coming in. 

I don’t think KH will be able to solve any of the above by Tuesday, but they were all factors in our failure to break down what was a very stubborn and well-organised defence. 

About your point four, I think the best we have for free kicks is Leo Castledine. But he is out injured now. Hopefully he will be back soon but first he will be on the bench. He was a player on fire when he signed, pity he has missed a few matches now.

Up the Boro! 

I have AGAIN lost a post typed directly into the "reply box" rather than saved as a Word document or similar, and then cut and paste into the blog.

Boro has AGAIN lost an important game despite having a massive advantage in possession throughout the game, more passes, more accurate passes, more successful passes in the final third etc.

I wonder whether I, or Boro, will ever learn the lesson?

If the same applies on the football pitch on Tuesday against Leicester City, we might be some way to finding out the answer. At least so far as concerns Boro. If the same thing happens in a third successive game, then that would be God's way of telling us that a different approach, a Plan B or even a Plan C, might be worth pursuing in the event that Plan A is not working. 

Despite Boro's possession and territorial advantages over Oxford, in many ways Boro got out of jail in that game. Oxford could easily have been 2-0 up from the chances they had that hit the woodwork and every time they charged forward in breakaways when Boro had been encamped in the opposition half, I was nervous that an away goal was coming. 

There were chances NOT taken to shoot, when one more pass to a player who might have appeared marginally better placed, and then another pass to another player who again might have seemed marginally better placed, and then ANOTHER pass to a colleague (rinse and repeat ad nauseam) eventually led either to no shot, or a shot that would inevitably be blocked because the player had been closed down, or a snatched shot that hit Row 15 in the stands. A casual football follower might have expected the Oxford keeper to be the busiest man on the field but his kit and his gloves probably needed only a quick brush down after the game. Oxford did well, as they did against Coventry.  Boro cannot reasonably expect everyone else challenging below to lose in the next round of games, unless betting patterns once more come under suspicion.

Anyway, that's it for this one.  Shorter but not really happier than the first attempt, and with fewer statistics to back it up. It's just that the prize is so maddeningly close to the grasp. I REALLY hope there is no mucking-up to be done here.  

Boro finds itself, very surprisingly in light of the last two results, one point further away from the pack chasing behind, who all seek to get into the automatic promotion place that Boro STILL occupies. Two less games to play. And a win at home to lowly Leicester City would bring that prize even closer... Tension mounts!

Shef Wed relegated with 13 games to go 😱.

Come on BORO.

@forever-dormo  I think it is all sounding a little like a stuck record and somewhat reversion to Carrickball. 
As much as Hellberg has brought to the table since Edwards left on what many on here thought was a downward slope, for what we are more than grateful, is it enough?

His football at times has been wonderful and praised on YouTube. However the last two games have shown that KH, like Carrick before him, do not have an answer to the “low block” application.

OK, some of that may be the players at hand, but as Clive and KP have pointed out it is not something new within MFC, and I worry that KH maybe just a little stuck with his system just like Carrick was, no Plan B in games like Saturday.

The second half was better, but we continued passing for passings sake as Dormo posted. It was not working, yet Hellberg expected to work, because he thinks we should have scored against Oxford. 
That was a gamble that failed and remember Oxford could/should have probably been ahead.

So where was Plan B. Does he not have one. 

I know it is easy to criticise and possibly we have no right given we are still second. But even to us uneducated in football coaching matters, it is obvious that Hackney cannot deliver a consistent decent corner. One with pace that makes it uneasy for defenders.
Free kicks tend to be also poorly delivered. Surely there must be someone in the playing eleven that can strike a better ball in both these situations.

We certainly need to be better on Tuesday night. A must win game with Birmingham to follow. And that we will be a tough one.

@exmil I see that Bamford scored early on for United today and, whilst I’ve never been a massive fan of Paddy B, there’s a part of me that thinks we’d have benefited from taking him on when he was available.

@martin-bellamy   I think there were reports of interest from MFC, but his injury record and wanted financials made it difficult to make. I do not disagree with you, though Mr Strelec would have been even more unhappy.

@exmil How many games we still had to go, when Big Jack's team clinched promotion (not the Championship) back in the day?

I am so sorry that Wednesday are in such a mess. I have had a soft spot for them since Big Jack went there after quitting Boro. 

Up the Boro!

https://www.gazettelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/easily-forgotten-early-moment-oxford-33469773

An article about an incident we have not talked about, but I thought at the time, that’s a penalty, more than Targett’s at Coventry.

@pedro I, too, thought it was a penalty at the time. Without VAR, it’s extremely difficult for any referee to get those calls correct in real time and consistency across games and different officials is always going to be patchy. 

It’s one of those “what might have been” moments that could have changed the whole complexion of the game. 

@jarkko.  “Middlesbrough achieved promotion to the top flight under manager Jack Charlton in the 1973/74 season. As runaway Second Division champions in his first season in charge, Boro secured promotion by March 23, 1974, with eight games remaining, finishing with a then-record 65 points. “ 😎

@k-p-in-spain Cheers. So Wednesday made a record with 13 games to go against our eight in 1973/74 season. Mind, the Sheffield club had a 12-point deduction applied.

Thanks for bringing that up. 

Up the Boro!