We are losing because we failed to close down a wide man. Brittain stayed at home allowing an unmarked winger miles of space and when Oxford score Brittain blames Whittaker for not closing his man down. That may have been the case, but when the winger has so much space the central defender has to deal with the situation.
We have played well up to the finishing. We have looked to overlap and succeeded in getting behind their defence, but the final ball has been poor and the shooting powder puff.
We should still win this
@stircrazy The second Browne incident, the Oxford player made tha tackle, Browne tripped, then throw himself down probably a foot from the tackle/ball. That made it look like dive.
Oxford are physical and the ref is not giving us much at all. No chance of any penalties unless it was a stonewall foul, for the whole world to see.
At half time it seems to be more of the same - plenty of possession but unable to create any chances and unsurprisingly poor defending to give Oxford a chance they took.
This is against a team towards the bottom of the League with something like one win in the last six games.
Not good.
The new coach and his team has a massive job in getting this group of players to create chances and score goals.
Can Audi get a song out of those on the pitch in the second half half ? Hope so. I’d be happy with a single goal and a draw.
philip of Huddersfield 👎👎☹️☹️ps - and just as I finish this,Boro score !!!
Silvera on for Targett at the start of the second half, Whittaker equalised in the 54th minute & McGree & Sène on for Morris & Burgzorg in the 62nd minute. CJ on the goal:
Brilliant turn from Morris to get away from pressure. He travels a long way across the pitch before sliding wide right to Brittain. He hits one hard and low across the face of goal and Whittaker gets the touch to turn it goalwards and beyond Cumming.
Despite a well worked goal from Whittaker, we still look very poor at the top end. 17 shots and only 3 on target. Our passing continues to be poor and for all his efforts HH is one of the worst.
Anyone could win this and that includes a poor Oxford team.
All the time in the world to make a telling cross and Hackney puts it out of play on the other side. Our passing is abysmal.
Powder puff up front, possession doesn't mean points goals do
Boro now seven points behind Coventry, but three clear of Stoke in third place. Oh & Wolves lost 0-2 at home to Crystal Palace...
That has to be the most frustrating game I have seen for a long time. Oxford a poor team and Boro could have even have thrown away the point they gained.
For all the credit given to Scott and the recruitment team, the summer investment in forward players including Whittaker in January, is looking rather poor at this time. For all the defence of them, having to settle in, well there is an obvious mistake in buying so many non Championship players.
If it had not been for the astute signings of Brittain, Jones, Targett and Browne, I think my COTs challenge prediction may have been a lot closer.
We were not scoring goals under Carrick and we are not scoring goals now. If this does not change quickly, then our place at the top will start to slip down.
Two wins out of the last six and our next game on Tuesday against Coventry, who score for fun. I just hope this new guy has some answers.
Well that game demonstrated where Boro's failings are - they never really had a decent attempt on goal other than the goal - which initially appeared to hit Whittaker's foot and go into the net. Two dropped points for me rather than one gained - they won't play many worse sides than Oxford this season but as yet no sign of having a potent attack despite (in spite?) the signings. Hopefully the Swedes can bring some coolness to the forward play as it just looks chaotic and lacking in quality.
Still second on 30 points and three ahead of third place - though Boro were 5th on 27 points last season after 16 games and even our current 30 points with +5 goal difference would've only been enough for 5th last season. So the league this year is less tough and maybe a reminder that we need to up our game.
Hackney still M-o-M for me, always driving us forward covering every inch of the pitch and behind almost every decent Boro move.
Whittaker's goal seemed like a pure accident to me, Brittain's scuffed cross hitting him and deflecting into the net. Our subs mad little difference. Sylvera less effective than Burgzorg who at least had the beating of his man.
A disappointing performance and result against a side which will surely be struggling to stay in this division.
The solid pro defenders were all fine, so were Hackney, Browne and Morris, but Whittaker, Burgzorg, Silvera and all of the summer "projects" continue to misfire. For how much longer?
Placed in the context of other results other than Coventry, a valuable away point. If results had gone against us, we would be more disappointed. So no major damage done but the direction of travel is pointing to a lack of attacking prowess equalling a play off berth. UTB
@pedro Whilst I hear what you’re saying, it’s difficult, on the one hand, to criticise Scott for the attacking signings, whilst on the other, praising him for signing the new defensive players.
There’s no doubt that we’re misfiring up front, but from my reading of posts from those who saw Oxford’s goal, it was defensive errors which cost us the 3 points. I haven’t seen any highlights so I’m only working with what’s been written on here.
One point is better than none. But if Boro’s ambition is to finish in the top 2 then this result is not good enough. Is it good enough with an ambition of finishing in the top 6? Possibly not.
Playing a team almost at the bottom of the League should be a victory.
The real test will come on Tuesday. There’s little doubt that Coventry will come to win the game. They have nothing to fear against Boro’s lack of attacking talent and they will be a real test against the defence.
Perhaps , because of this it will be an open game giving Boro more chances to attack than other teams who set up more defensively.
Philip of Huddersfield 👎👍☹️☹️
While you could argue it was a defensive error that cost Boro a goal and subsequently three points - today was a classic example of the failure of the attack to put away a poor side. Boro made 31 crosses but only one led to an attempt on goal and that was an accident as it hit Whittaker's foot and went into the net. Boro also only had 3 attempts on target - the goal and two others that were actually mis-hit shots that rolled to the keeper - one from Whittaker and one from Brittain. Indeed, their keeper didn't have to make a save - only 2 easy saves from those mis-hit shots.
The other issue for me is that we don't really have a player who plays as a centre forward and is making the runs into box so most of the crosses would have benefited from somebody making either a run to the near post or far post. Instead the crosses that weren't either over-hit or misdirected were easily managed by the defence or keeper.
@werdermouth I’ve just watched the short highlights - does anyone think Morris will ever have a shot on target? They must practise shooting in training but no one seems to be able to test the goalkeeper from outside the box.
I did think MW deliberately made contact with the ball for his goal, but I could be wrong.
I think that one today was Morris's best effort on goal in a Boro shirt 😉
Sounds like another disappointing performance with loads of possession and shots but only 3 on target which Adi mentioned was not good enough if we want to win games. What is happening with Alex Bangura? He has been on the bench for the last 9 matches and has not yet got on the field. In a number of those games a centre back or left back has gone off injured. In the Birmingham game Matt Targett went off and George Mccormick came on. Same yesterday Targett off and Silvera on. When he has played he looked pretty decent.
We all know Boro’s weakness - lack of goals and goal scoring opportunities.
Has the time come for a change such as put your trust in Strelec who after all is the most expensive player. Play him with a partner up front with the instruction of playing together and keeping close so they can support one another. Plus midfielders would then have a choice of two players to pass the ball to in the middle of the pitch rather than one.
This would mean dropping Conway who does a tremendous amount of running for the team all over the pitch but is not consistently near a striking partner. I’d use Conway as a substitute when you need fresh legs and he may get some joy out of tiring opposition defenders.
Philip of Huddersfield 🤔🤔🤔
@lenmasterman I would not argue with HH being MOtM, but his passing at times is poor. Of course saying that our passing around the opposition box breaks down on a regular basis, he is not the only guilty party.
Possibly he/we are trying too much with the intricate, pass, pass, pass it into the net football, some of which at times is exquisite, but finally achieves nothing far too regularly.
Martin, any team can concede, a worldy, deflected shot or a mistake like today, not tracking the wide man for his cross. However, I think it is a fair argument that the summer signings plus Whittaker are not contributing anywhere near to what was hoped and expected given the money spent.
We are second in a poor league, as shown by the inconsistency of all the teams apart from Coventry, who look nailed for a top two place at the moment. I don’t think we can say that about Middlesbrough.
As much as Burgzorg is frustrating, he certainly offers more than Silvera IMO. However what the answer is to scoring more goals, probably new forwards, it certainly looks as though the present lot are not capable.
If the other teams look poor yet Boro frequently fails to beat those other teams, what does that say about Boro? I mean, a team can be unlucky every so often and fail to get the result the performance might merit. But if that keeps on happening rather than being merely an infrequent blip...?
Yet Boro remains second in the table. Better placed than any other team bar Coventry City! Make of that what you wish, but it has to be evidence that, so far, there is little suggesting high quality amongst the teams chasing Coventry.
Some explanation behind yesterdays team selection
https://www.gazettelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/dael-fry-david-strelec-sontje-32927212
Boro have the same number of points that Burnley had after 16 games last season and have scored one goal more but also conceded 8 more. At this stage last season Leeds, Sunderland and Sheff Utd all had 32 points, which is only 2 more than Boro - though we should've really beat Oxford yesterday to also have 32 points.
So Boro compare well to the top 4 of last season after 16 games - Boro as mentioned earlier were 5th on 27 points after beating Oxford 6-2.
However, it's what happens in the next 16 games that will decide the promotion race - this was the table after 32 games...
1. Leeds 69pts +45 (goal diff)
2. Sheff Utd 67pts +23
3. Burnley 64pts +30
4. Sunderland 62pts +21
5. Blackburn 48pts + 6
6. West Brom 47pts +11
7. Boro 47pts +10
Boro only managed 20 points in their next 16 games - whereas the top 4 accumulated between 30-37 points. So Boro have done well in that first third of the season but unless it's backed up in the next third then it will count for nothing. Though what's odd this time is that Boro are under new management and much will depend on whether they can hit the ground running.
@werdermouth What will concern me, is the blame the new manager will accrue if our strikers continue to underperform. He’s only got the same material to work with, but we’ll all want him to work miracles with his inherited sow’s ear to produce a beautiful silk purse.
I think there's work to be done with several forwards as they were scoring goals before they came to Boro but someone needs to work out how we play to their strengths not wish they are different players than the ones we signed.
Whilst it’s easy to blame underachieving fowards for poor Boro results I think we should also consider another factor which has impacted our points total.
Taking yesterday’s game as an example, Oxford should have had a man sent off for a clear and deliberate over the top foul which could have been a leg breaker.
in the same game Browne was clearly fouled in the penalty area and denied the decision, instead he was booked for diving which was a ridiculous decision.
Other games where we were denied clear penalties include Opposition goalkeepers taking away the legs of forwards and I could look at most matches and find fault with the decisions not awarded or gone against the Boro.
Whilst I accept that my view is biased as a Boro fan the list of errors and poor decisions has gone on and AV alluded to it during his post match interview yesterday……….
OFB
There was one aspect of the Oxford performance that was a distinct improvement on our previous displays and showed that Adi is working on the right lines.
At long last we were working hard on getting behind the opposition's defence rather than just taking pot luck by putting in crosses and hoping for the best.
Pulis used to indicate how unlucky we were by enumerating the number of crosses we put into the mix and saying someone should have got on to the end of at least one of them.
Edwards' philosophy was much the same, based on his Luton experience. It produced a surprise goal from a Hackney header against Birmingham (after Edwards had departed) but how often is that going to happen? And Ayling's last gasp equaliser at Leicester simply showed that the tactic is most justifiable when time is running out and defenders have joined the attack to provide extra height.
But a statistic thrown up on the Friday evening game was that Blackburn had put in over 300 crosses this season without yielding a single goal. In the Championship it is just a too predictable and hopeful a tactic. And it certainly doesn't play to our strikers' strengths
At Oxford we worked really hard in the first half to use the width of the pitch, create overlaps and get behind the Oxford defence. We did this well enough, but the final ball failed to find a man and was too often played too close to their keeper. It is obviously a work in progress, But these are exactly the kind of positions that Strelec with his ability to find space in tight areas should be able to feed off.
I fear for us against Coventry. With Targett out we simply cannot afford to play Silvera against one of their outstanding players, Sakamoto. I do not know who we can play there, but it has to be a genuine defender. But Ayling will get done for pace, Bangura hasn't even been given a run out. And McCormick is very inexperienced. I'm afraid that their lively winger will have a field day, and I fear that the game may be done and dusted by half-time.
@lenmasterman All very true Len, well said.
Adi commented after the game on our lack of quality in the final third " final action, final pass, cross, finish"
UTB
That was my one concern when we signed Matt Targett. Excellent defender, certainly at our level, but is known to be prone to injuries in recent years.
Silvera works hard and tries, but is not the answer. He does not often try to beat his man, and generally either comes inside or passes back or inside. And a defender he is not.
How many LB’s have signed in recent seasons and how many have not been good enough, Targett apart. I think Len did a piece once and was eleven?
That was my one concern when we signed Matt Targett. Excellent defender, certainly at our level, but is known to be prone to injuries in recent years.
Silvera works hard and tries, but is not the answer. He does not often try to beat his man, and generally either comes inside or passes back or inside. And a defender he is not.
How many LB’s have signed in recent seasons and how many have not been good enough, Targett apart. I think Len did a piece once and was eleven?
Two questions.
1. Why is Bangura on the bench but never playing?
2. Is there any chance of Lukas Engel coming back? He seems to have come on well in the US?