CJ's assessment of the first half:
Boro enjoyed more possession but unable to do anything with it so far. They've not had the same kind of attacking spark as they had at Mansfield and Rangers previously. This has been more akin to Bradford. Real lack of sharpness or quality to their attacks.
Boro a goal behind four minutes into the half:
From a corner, Noubi beats his man to the header towards the near post and though Brynn gets a hand to it, he can only push it onto the underside of the crossbar and in.
Boro back on level terms in the 67th minute, courtesy of a second from Conway:
Absolutely superb from Silvera. Picks up the ball not far from the half way line and drives. He evades multiple challenges to get in behind before squaring across the face of goal for Conway to tap in.
HH replaced McCabe in the 58th minute, Kanté & McCormick on for Jones & Morris in the 75th minute.
HH replaced McCabe in the 58th minute, Kanté & McCormick on for Jones & Morris in the 75th minute.
Forss on for Burgzorg in the 78th minute, Finch for Conway in the 84th.
Full-time score 2-2.
CJ on HH:
The Boro man drives with the ball and is dragged back to win a free-kick. He appears to lash out in frustration though. Suspect, had this been a competitive game he'd have seen red there.
There was some argy bargy on the touchline too, with Edwards not happy with someone on the Deportivo bench.
Thanks for the match updates - sounds like Boro have become the friendly draw specialists but at least they keep their unbeaten run going - not a bad draw and the arrival of two wing-backs will improve matters and hopefully Azaz and McGree can be fit soon too - though it all depends on how the window pans out and whether funds arriver with enough time to spend them.
A big thank you, KP. The stream was free and worked well. Of course it was in Spanish so I did understand only the persons mentioned.The match tomorrow is not being streamed by MFC but may be available via the website of Deportivo.
If you search rcdeportivo.es it brings up the club website.
From the menu drop-down on the top left select NOTICIAS and then click the arrow on the right side which will allow you to select #DeporMedia.
Then click the arrow on the right to bring up Videos. Click on videos from which you will see the link to the YouTube stream.
It appears that the stream will commence 10 mins before kick off.
I have not been asked to sign up to anything or pay anything when searching the website but I am not sure if that will change when I try to access before kick off. 😎
I think we need to get a right back, and a striker. But we can start to look forward to the kick-off of the season against Swansea.
I just wonder where the match can be seen on Saturday? Sky or Riverside Live?
Up the Boro!
Crystal Palace linked Rav van den Berg is absent from Middlesbrough’s friendly against Deportivo La Coruna today due to ‘ongoing transfer negotiations
OFB
@jarkko. It is definitely on Sky Sports + and may also be available via Riverside Live if you live in an “Unsold Market”; the EFL will advise which are the Unsold Markets before the season start - probably Thursday or Friday of next week.
Ps I turned the Spanish commentary off and listened to the Radio Tees commentary. 😎
Thanks so much for the heads up on today's game. The link worked very well.
The performance itself was patchy and the prospects for the coming season look decidedly unpromising. The fact that Silvera was our most potent attacker says it all. But this was a friendly after all and Morris in particular played well within himself.
The midfield may well turn out to be our most problematic area. Coming on as a sub, I'm afraid Kante found himself as a boy in a man's game, He looked like the U23s might be a step up for him. Those stats for tackling and interceptions obviously impressed the Boro's recruitment analysts but they are meaningless.
His first act was to find himself on the wrong side of his man (a la Dijksteel,) and committing a foul for a tackle he should never have had to make. He marked space and followed the ball rather than an attacker's run, a situation in which you are reduced to intercepting and tackling rather than defending properly. And if the tackle or interception fails then the whole team is in trouble.
I only saw the young man for 20 minutes so I hope that he has more to show and comes good, but the decision to ditch Howson looks more problematic by the minute.
After showing so mush promise i previous games, Whittaker found himself marooned on the right for much of this game where he reverted to last season's form. Our forwards' pressing was more convincing than their creativity.
I see that Birmingham are trying to sign Akpom on loan while Wrexham have landed Conor Cody. as well as Lewis O'Brien. Our ambitions seem paltry by comparison
@werdermouth To be honest I expected a better all round performance against a second division team that finished 15th last season. A league that is weaker than the Championship.
Whilst only a friendly, there was at times a bit of needle. However despite a good start by Boro, generally they looked disjointed and did not look like a team that could play 3-4-3 or any variation.
We are short of players overall and definitely short of players that can play Edwards Ball. Swansea next Saturday will be a hard test I think. The next nine, we’ll let’s hope we get some decent players in otherwise we will find ourselves at the wrong end of the table.
I spent some time this evening reading through a few pages of the recent posts to this thread. I may go quiet again for a few days as I might be busy.
Firstly, like others, I was delighted to read Len's news about his discharge home and, though hard work and therapy may be required, it seems as though a path to recovery has been drawn up. Good Luck, Len. Good to have you back in the team.
As to HH I guess others, maybe PL teams, will come looking for a midfielder who has impressed when fit and who looks to be a decent bet to improve further. If he must go, I hope Boro manages to get the best deal possible for the club. But if he could stay another season or even "just until January to see how the club is doing at that stage" that would be better for Boro. The club cannot expect to afford a better midfielder than HH, and who'd be good enough to slot straight into the first team as a regular.
As to how the team will perform this coming season I might as well say "just see earlier posts"! It is impossible to judge without knowing what the team will look like and how any new recruits stack up. If we do sell HH and Azaz, the aim of promotion seems unrealistic unless players better than HH and Azaz are signed. The team would be weakened. I suppose you COULD unearth a gem in the youth set-up, but to hang your hat on that hope is a bit unrealistic, to put it mildly.
The atmosphere this pre-season doesn't seem optimistic, to me. I hope I am wrong.
@werdermouth As well as Steve Gibson's somehow £350 million jump in the 2024 Sunday Times list, he is not there at all in this year's same list.
Despite the Boro drain, I can't believe he has suddenly dropped £300 million or so and how these valuations are arrived at is anyone'e guess. It is oddly comforting to see his wealth as high as possible though and he is the first person I look for every year in this list.
He has had 40 years full on involvement at the Boro now but despite that, and age and a second marriage which may have shifted his thinking, I can't see him selling out.
His public communication is woeful - and as the leader of a team that belongs to the area as well as him I feel he has a moral duty to address the fans occasionally, even if it is just once a year - and he has made some awful decisions (not retaining Howson the most recent) but it is done always I feel with the club's best interests at heart.
This is not commonplace obviously. Wrexham for example, is a fairytale right now but what on earth have these two Americans got in common with the club other than to use it as a vehicle for personal gain or ego? Ditto Birmingham and others.
Whatever the money at the club's disposal is, we do not/never seem to have strong people running the non football side. There is rarely much transparency with the fans and while we can't know everything obviously, viewing and then treating fans as the paying customers they are and being as open as possible would avoid much much conjecture, which while it is often accurate, is destructive too.
Steve's stubborness will have helped him get where he is, and while an asset, can be bloody annoying at times. But I'm not sure I'd want anyone else at the helm.
@rich-llewelyn-evans Excellent post, mate. I also think Steve Gibson should have a interview with the local press a minimum of once a season. He needs to talk to the fans regularly.
Apart from that, I prefer him to stay at Boro. Up the Boro!
Anyone impressed with Law McCabe so far? He can fit in there if Morris or Hackney will be unfit, me thinks. I hope we will see him every now and then this season and really to be part of the first team.
Also I have liked what I have seen of Luke Woolston so far. Perhaps the next McCabe? Woolston is a defending midfielder who can play at centre back, too.
Up the Boro!
Our ambitions may appear paltry but they are aligned with our economic situation
Hackney and Van de Berg are most likely leaving in which case Boro need a minimum of 5 players capable of walking into the first team.
So far we have 2 players who will improve the defence. How good are these 2 players? Championship level - if capable of playing Premiership level then they would have been snapped up years ago.
Lenihan, on paper, sounds like a new player. But injured again before the season starts. There’s no way he is going to play a full season particularly when we have 2 games a week. He will be nursed through the season.
I’m seeing Fry as our most important defender.
So, we need to see some urgent transfer activity throughout the team before we can safely say we have a team potentially capable of competing for the top half of the League.
Akpom and Lewis O’Brien would have been suitable.
At the moment, I’m not witnessing any optimism on or off the pitch and am feeling a poor start to the season is more likely.
Hope I’m wrong.
Philip of Huddersfield 👎☹️
Many thanks to Richard for his excellent post and also to Dormo for his kindness. Thanks too to Clive, exmil and Peter whose supportive words post-dated my earlier note of appreciation for the great people on this blog. I hadn't quite realised how important these things are until I felt completely beaten up even weeks after my operation. Then I really did. They made a world of difference.
I am also now learning how wise all of your comments were and, with hard work, how resilient the body can be, even at 85, having gone from wheelchair to Zimmer frame to stick in a matter of three weeks. I'm now managing 300 steps per day unaided and counting...
Just as long as I don't fall over...
I'm aiming to win my own personal battle with Bangura.
Thanks again to you all
It’s already beginning to look a bit tricky with a back three with Lenihan joining Edmundson on the injured list and Rav basically sitting by the exit door - just Fry, Jones and Borges fit with McCormick as backup and possibly Ayling too.
Edwards said Edmundson wouldn’t be rushed back and Lenihan out for a month with no guarantee his body is up to the strains of Championship football anymore.
I guess another centre-back is on the wishlist but all depends who will make the 25 man squad - though under 21s are exempt so Rav won’t have to be named or McCormick.
Yes all very careless to lose £300m in a year after suddenly finding it - I’m beginning to suspect £640m is the Sunday Times computer default setting when someone is added to the database 🤔
@lenmasterman. Excellent post Len and I agree entirely with your comments regarding Silvera, Kante and Whittingham.
By and large yesterday was a game between two poor sides whose play reflected their last season’s league position. We lack quality in the side and players who can consistently perform and produce at the required level.
RE has already alluded to the deficiencies that we have been experiencing on a weekly basis; namely poor decision making and execution throughout the side. Hardly surprising given the majority of the squad have been at the club for a number of seasons.
We are carrying for too many players who are not at the required level to push for promotion, such as Barlaser, Gilbert, Hamilton, Burgzorg and they need to be moved on. Add to these the three mentioned above where there are serious question marks over their abilities then you have nearly a whole team who are not fit for purpose and necessitating a major squad rebuild which will take two/three seasons.
It was clear to see the change in how we set up and the high pressing game but I am not convinced that it is sustainable. I seem to remember that Jonathon Woodgate tried something similar which didn’t work. Certainly as the game progresses the forwards are often so physically and mentally tired they are unable to take the chances that fall to them or make the correct decision.
The coaches have changed, the system has changed but the same old flaws persist and we are still defending poorly and conceding too many goals.
One partially good season under MC has raised our expectations beyond where we truly are as a club. At best we are mid table side but regrettably we could well be struggling to stay out of the bottom three on what has occurred so far. 😎
Thanks for the assessment KP on what you’ve seen so far in the preseason games - I’ve not seen any of the games so don’t have much to go on.
Though it doesn’t surprise me as Edwards has been left to field plenty of players who weren’t first-teamers last season and is missing several of our quality players and may even lose a few.
New recruits are so far being targeted in the low budget category and as yet still no centre-forward lined up.
The next 4 weeks will determine our fate but this appears to be a much weaker squad than Carrick started last season with and it could get weaker depending on sales!
So, a proven centre-forward, a centre-back with pace, two wing-backs plus a playmaker midfielder to replace Hackney are a minimum requirement in the next 4 weeks.
Talking of Carrick’s old squad - Boro are apparently in advanced talks to resign Chuba Akpom according to Echo…
Hackney to man u 24 million... you heard it here 1st
OFB
Some contradiction between the Gazette's account that we are trying to hi-jack the Akpom-Birmingham deal which is already well advanced, and the Echo's report that it is we who are in advanced talks with Akpom.
As I mentioned yesterday Sky were reporting on the Birmingham deal, but not any other. If we are second in the queue then the club has been asleep at the wheel. It's possible that they were themselves alerted by the Sky story. Given that we have had the closest possible past connection with the player why are we not indisputably leading the way and pre-empting any potential interest from elsewhere?
I'm sick of hearing about how the recruitment team are working so hard behind the scenes, as though this were a special quality rather than a minimum requirement.
They may have convinced the Echo boys that they are ahead of the curve on this one. The evidence suggests otherwise, and there will surely be questions to be answered if we were to lose a player with whose qualities we are all so familiar to the Blues
Middlesbrough are in advanced talks to re-sign Chuba Akpom, two years after the forward left for Ajax. (Scott Wilson - The Northern Echo)
@werdermouth. Interesting that the EG are reporting that discussions with Brum are well advanced and Boro are making a last ditch effort which is different to the Echo. I wonder who knows the exact state of play😉
Not sure it’s the right move without Cameron Archer in the side.
We may end up with the version of Chuba Akpom we saw pre Carrick. 😎
I knew it wouldn’t be long before one of the PL bottom six clubs came in for Hackney…