@martin-bellamy. I have also wondered about HH these last two games, especially as Morris has been immense for me.
Our big issue as I see it, is the clogged up opposition 18 yard box. It is very difficult if nigh on impossible to shoot past their defenders, including our own players.
KH needs to look at how we can create space for the likes of Strelec, and your observation of us using a longer ball more often helped last night.
We also need a left back or wide player that can beat his man and cross balls in behind the defence. As much as I like Targett we are not as effective down that side. Using Conway, he tends to come inside taking space.
For me both Hansen and Munro looked in good form and both have pace and ability to get past their man - Sarmiento has no end product and Sene just appears to have zero confidence or composure. Most of Strelec's good touches are nowhere near the goal and his demeanor always looks apologetic rather than determined and Conway spends most of his time as a provider instead of a centre-forward.
Hopefully, Boro beat lowly Portsmouth at the weekend and then it's all about winning at Ipswich with Sheff Wed next up after that it would put Boro in a good position with 2 games left if they won all three.
No point worrying about future scenarios beyond each games as anything other than wins now is not going to make a top 2 finish possible. The team just lacks a genuine centre-forward and we've watched them struggle to break down a low block for months now.
Hard to believe ten games ago Boro went top and since then it's been 11 points from 10 games - which is essentially relegation form - would never have imagined the drop in form would've been so extreme.
I am in agreement too. Without HH beside him Morris has been the playmaker, orchestrating the movement and playing more through the lines than he has done. My man of the match.@martin-bellamy. I have also wondered about HH these last two games, especially as Morris has been immense for me.
Our big issue as I see it, is the clogged up opposition 18 yard box. It is very difficult if nigh on impossible to shoot past their defenders, including our own players.
KH needs to look at how we can create space for the likes of Strelec, and your observation of us using a longer ball more often helped last night.
We also need a left back or wide player that can beat his man and cross balls in behind the defence. As much as I like Targett we are not as effective down that side. Using Conway, he tends to come inside taking space.
Same thoughts about Taggert too
For me Munroe offered more threat and a willingness to mix it up on his flank... behind, inside, high ball, low ball.
Also re Conway, he needs releasing from the left. Try him on the right whittaker when he plays on the right also comes inside, looking to make a chance on his left foot.
I see a glimmer of optimism. Ipswich have to play 7 games before 2nd May. Five of those are away - including potentially difficult games at Norwich, Southampton and Charlton, with the other two against the Baggies and Portsmouth, both of whom are desperate for points. They also have to play us at home. If they fail to pick up maximum points in some of their early games - away to Norwich and Pompey, home to Boro - they might start to feel the pressure and become nervous. They may also be feeling a bit jaded with so many matches in a short space of time. Of course, it would be up to capitalise on their misfortune (or their stuttering form, as someone above called it.) We have signally failed to do that in our last run of games, as we all know, but we have to start winning again sometime. Let’s start by beating Portsmouth on Saturday!
On the thorny question of who would sign our misfiring ‘strikers’: I think many a European side would be prepared to take Strelec, as I’m sure he would do well in some continental leagues, although we might have to pay some of his wages. As for Sène - I have genuinely no idea. Darlington? Hartlepool? Perhaps we just shop him around and cut our losses if any bid actually comes in?
TEAM TO AVOID IN THE PLAYOFFS?
Currently watching Wrexham v Southampton who are demolishing Wrexham and lead 5-1
That is 16 games unbeaten and made 6 changes tonight from the team which beat Arsenal in the FA cup. So they have strength in depth.
14 shots with 8 on target and 5 goals. Excellent performance to watch. No tippy tappy football just accurate passing , short and long, to move the ball forward.Very attacking style.
This result could be a real blow to Wrexham’s top 6 aim.
philip of Huddersfield 👍🤔
They might finish second. Only 6 points behind, game in hand and have to play Ipswich, although that game is in midweek after they play the FA Cup semi final.
Boro's play for the last couple of months has been more or less the same each game. Lots of possession. Lots of shots (not necessarily from clear opportunities, and only a small percentage on target), few goals but several mistakes at the back. I guess most supporters have come away from the games feeling despondent, and the players didn't look too happy after the Swansea game.
In this Swansea game, the pattern was the same so I suppose it is sensible to expect the same "result".
I suppose we should say that one thing was very different - an absolutely wonderful Boro goal from Bangura to take the lead. At that stage I felt massively uplifted. However TWO poor defensive mistakes to concede two penalties brought me down to Earth. In the end a point from a losing position felt like a mercy.
Can Boro still be promoted automatically from here? Certainly it is POSSIBLE. But anyone who has watched Boro's efforts to score in recent weeks might think the prospect extremely unlikely. The odds are now considerably against an automatic promotion that was well within Boro's grasp until recently.
Can Boro be promoted via the Play-Offs? Again it is certainly POSSIBLE. But looking at Boro's recent form, would anyone fancy Boro home and away and then in a Final game at Wembley? I'd say the odds would again be considerably against. Few in the rest of the country, now Boro has been exposed to them in games shown live on TV, would expect Boro to go up!
At HT against Swansea, if I remember correctly, the "heat map" showed Strelec with 3 touches of the ball in the 45+ minutes. If that had been Messi, it might have been acceptable. Messi would, of course, have been likely to have scored once, set one up and maybe "failed" once with those 3 touches. Strelec is made of a different cloth to Messi. I suppose if he'd had only 3 touches of the ball because on several other occasions he had been peeling away from defenders and thereby creating gaps for other attackers to run through and score, that would be very acceptable. Sadly that didn't happen either.
If Fry was fit enough to sit on the bench and to come on later in the game (when I think he did well), I would have had him start the game.
Morris is a really good midfielder. As a player to score goals, he is non-league. Is that about 46 attempts on goal this season without troubling the scorer so far? I wonder if there is record for shots without reward. He'd be worth a punt for that particular gamble.
On a different tack, I have renewed my ST this afternoon. I must be mad...
Aiden Morris has taken 49 shots with 12 on target. He was actually unlucky not to score with his effort on Monday forcing a good save from the keeper.
Some interesting observations from an Ipswich Facebook group on their recent win
On the pitch, it was the same story again, “one half only.” Ipswich, as we managed to scrape a lucky win against an average Birmingham side, who will rightly feel frustrated that they didn’t get anything from the game. Both Brum and Town play acted and dived their way throughout the game, a sad state of the current poor quality of Championship football.The second half was as bad as Town has played at any time over the last five years. At one point, the ball was just being blasted up in the air by both sides, a game that lacked any real quality from either side. Brum had a perfectly good goal disallowed by the latest laughable Championship officials, and the result is Ipswich have now scraped themselves into second place, albeit undeservedly so after another poor home display. The usual calamities from O’Shea, for once, went unpunished, including his own goal, although he tried his best to let Brum back into the game numerous times. Akpom deserves a shout out, impressively walking around when he came on, he almost broke into a trot once too, a player Ashton has us obligated to sign if we go up....
If Boro don't make the top two then let's hope Southampton do as they look easily the standout team in the top six - I wouldn't fear Ipswich, Millwall or Hull as they are all not at the same level.
@mw-in-darwin I think they will have second place well truly in their thoughts now.
I think that though a Cup Final would be nice for them, auto promotion will be the aim now.
@werdermouth In terms of trains, Southampton are like one of those Japanese Bullet type. At the moment they appear unstoppable.
MW has a great handle on the stats, I wonder how much the team lines ups have changed, if at all, since Eckert took over from Still. Did they buy anyone in January?
Whereas the Boro look like those lovely looking pre-war trains, but appear to have run out of steam. We will have to start winning, starting against Portsmouth, otherwise we could in all possibility drop out of the top six, or certainly end up 5/6 th.
Dormo, that’s a good analysis. So why is what is obvious to us not obvious to KH and his team. It cannot all be about not scoring as we have scored quite a few over the season.
Certain teams have found us out somewhat, but as you posted, if you keep shooting at a brick wall, there is no way you will breach it. Has Hellberg become a little like Carrick and not for change. If he does not find a different way he will fail.
They signed two keepers, one of which was Jamie Jones who was our third keeper two seasons ago and Canadian forward Larin on loan from Mallorca so not many changes from the summer window. Also Oriel Romeu who was a former player from their Premier League days but he has only played 6 times.
Larin, a striker, was signed on the final day of the January window and has weighed in with 5 goals. We signed two kids, both promising, with an eye to the future rather than the current promotion push.
This is how absurd our situation is: if we had offered Millwall £10m to buy back Josh Coburn in January the probability is that we would now be overwhelming favourites for automatic promotion.
Just checked the summer window they signed 7 players for a combined fee of around 60 million Euro, with Finn Azaz the highest priced at 13.9 million. He is there leading scorer (10) now that they have sold Armstrong to Wolves.
@mw-in-darwin Interesting that you mention Azaz. It seems to me that most Boro fans were happy for him to leave, but maybe he’d have made a difference, particularly if his Plymouth partnership with Whitaker had been reignited.
Like talk of Coburn, it’s all ifs and buts - I’m sure the current players know what the problem is, but I’m not sure any coach can turn them into goal scorers overnight. Were it not for Bangura’s “tackle” in the penalty area? I’m convinced we’d have won comfortably at Swansea.
KH’s biggest job, for me, is lifting the players’ mindset. They must be pretty down at the moment - I just hope they don’t read social media.
Larin has only made 6 starts so his goal return is excellent. He was not prolific in his loan early this season at Feyenoord failing to score in 8 appearances. The season before he scored 7 in 32 for Mallorca. His best season was 20/21 at Besiktas in Turkey 19 goals in 38 games.
Whichever division we're in next season I think Boro need to focus on three areas for recruitment:
1. Moving on several of the current forwards in the squad, and replacing them with one or two out and out strikers. At least one of them should have some height, power and aerial threat
2. Signing a proper winger with pace who can go past a player, reliably send in a decent cross, and be an outlet on the counter (like Jones and Doak once were for us)
3. A new keeper who can make the important saves
That's just a starting point, mind. If we're still in the Championship then we'll likely also need to replace one or two like Hackney and possibly Malanda. Browne would also need replacing or retaining. If we're in the Premier League then we'll need a whole lot more.
IS TOP 6 POSITION GUARANTEED?
Given that I’ve written off Boro for finishing 2nd in the table my thoughts wandered to ask are Boro nailed on to finish in the top 6.
A few weeks ago many of us hardly looked at the points total of teams below Boro as we were looking up, not down.
But in the last 10 games Boro have only gathered something like 11 points. So my question is, if the teams in the top 6 continue to accumulate points at the same rate as they have been doing for the remaining games then where will Boro finish ?
Certainly not 2nd or 3rd or 4th or 5th as currently Ipswich, Millwall, Southampton and Hull (?) are doing much better. So they could finish as low as 6th.
Surely not, you say as this lack of points gathering can only improve. Possibly, possibly not. However the above teams who are doing a lot better than Boro will equally be thinking we’re on a good run and so logically it will continue. Possibly, possibly not.
Interesting times. For what it’s worth I can’t see Wrexham finishing in the top 6 and so I’m relatively relaxed that Boro will be ok and hope they can start winning and put up improved performances in the play offs. After that it’s all a lottery .
Philip of Huddersfield 🤔🤔🤔🤔
IPSWICH DID NOT PLAY WELL V BIRMINGHAM
But they won !
This is testing times for teams near the top - the teams which achieve their goals have the ability to win games when not playing particularly well. Boro are playing well in parts of games but not winning.
philip of Huddersfield 🤔🤔🤔
At least having Wrexham in the last game keeps a top six spot in our own hands should Boro's inability to pick up points continue - as even if they won their next 4 games they'd only be on 76 points and surely even Boro can pick up a point against Sheff Wed!
We are level on points with Ipswich who are second. And some people are already writing us off? Unbelievable.
There will be more twists and turns in the Championship and we are yet to play Ipswich. They might have two games in hand but they need tp play seven (7) matches in the same time as others play only five. And that is about a month that is left.
I still trust we can and will improve. We cannot have this bad "luck" for ever. The tide must change - we are a good side creating a lot of chances.
I am not yet interested in play-offs. It is for worse teams than Hellberg's Boro.
Up the Boro!
To continue.
Kim Hleberg said according to the Northern Echo: "I saw some stats, we had conceded less in open play in the last 20 games in the six top leagues in Europe in terms of open play defending. So we also can pat ourselves on the back, but then of course you cannot give away two pens [as Boro did at Swansea]."
And we have had more shoths than any other team in the division since KH took over. So there is a lot the team makes well. It will turn - the sooner the better. Up the Boro!
@jarkko I think Southampton have a fair chance of achieving the second spot as they are far and wide green form team.
Stats do not score goals as we know only too well. Shots on target, that bulge the net win points.
@andy-r As much as I agree with your three points Andy, as I previously posted, who in their right mind would take off our hands, Hamilton, Sene, Hansen, Strelec, are we talking Conway, and Sarmiento.
I had a look at the some of the comments on the BBC from Southampton fans from their last away defeat 4-0 at the Riverside in January
As usual Saints prove to be the perfect opponents for a team in poor form struggling to score. Manager is useless but should never have been appointed permanently after just a few good games. Don't know how the players, board and manager had the cheek to talk of promotion, they have got themselves into a relegation battle. Embarrassing
Saints fan here.
Well done Boro ... by far the better team.
As for SFC ... laughable. Absolutely pathetic and based on this performance in the wrong division.
Give that team today a cold shower then boot Sport Republic out of Southampton. Embarrassing.
I wonder how they feel now. There are many comments along the same lines.
@andy-r As much as I agree with your three points Andy, as I previously posted, who in their right mind would take off our hands, Hamilton, Sene, Hansen, Strelec, are we talking Conway, and Sarmiento.
No easy task, I agree. But then we have a whole department whose entire job is to move players, managers and staff in and out of the club.
It might require a sizeable loss to achieve.
@andy-r It might require a sizeable loss to achieve.
Resulting in the money received from selling Hackney, used to cover the losses. Or Mr Gibson may just decide, enough is enough.
If we get frustrated and upset, can you imagine what he must feel like seeing the debacle of the last two months unfold.