Well that was an early season reality check.
We knew it would be difficult against a bogey team and one with TM at the helm but I expected at least a point.
Instead we got the same old scenarios from last season and a lack of evidence that KH has any ideas to change it; some new faces but familiar problems.
Yes I know that some will say it is only the second game but the signs are clearly there, that keep performing as we are will produce the same outcome as last season.
This was not a top two/three performance in my view. 😎
Well an opportunity for three points was passed up today as Boro got sloppy and allowed Blackburn to get back into the game. The second half saw plenty of opportunities spurned with few clear chances to show for all the build up play.
I think we’ve seen this type of performance from Boro quite a few times this year so still work to be done by Hellberg and by Scott who probably needs to find some pace to bring to this team.
Btw I arrived back from a shopping trip 15 minutes after kick-off but wasn’t worried as I’d noticed a new button last week on Boro Live - ‘Play from Start’ - so pressed that only to discover it started playing the game Live instead 🙈
I had to manually move to the game start knowing Boro were 1-0 up 🙄
New season same old problems, sometimes I despair
“We knew it would be difficult against a bogey team and one with TM at the helm but I expected at least a point.
Instead we got the same old scenarios from last season and a lack of evidence that KH has any ideas to change it; some new faces but familiar problems.
Yes I know that some will say it is only the second game but the signs are clearly there, that keep performing as we are will produce the same outcome as last season”
Whilst it is early in the season and some will think I am being negative, but today was why I picked Boro to finish seventh in the COT’S.
Towards the end of the match, Hellberg was seen looking at the floor, with an air of not knowing what to do. He just believes because we had League topping stats last season, then doing the same this season but with number 9 that will score goals (hopefully) will be the answer to success.
Werder, I am not convinced that more pace is the overall answer. Yes it may help, but whilst we continue to play as we do, slow and ponderous, creating chances and shooting against a packed penalty area, it will not be enough.
TWENTY SHOTS, THREE ON TARGET. That tells it all. It was like that last season and unless Hellberg changes the way we play it will be the same this season.
Apparently we also had FORTY CROSSES. Well I think the vast majority had very little quality to them. Quantity but not quality. Crossing for crossings sake.
As Len said, Blackburn could have been 3 - 1 up at HT. Hellberg did not heed the warning and so it came to pass. He may have people saying we are the best footballing side in the division, but that is only up to the opposition box, then we run out of ideas.
We have not improved defensively, although hopefully Jones and Phillips will make us better. Although it is easy to see Arfsten is not a LB. And Berhalter has more to learn.
In the end, a poor show for the fans who travelled at great expense. A big let down.
Don’t despair - we’re only one point off a play off place!
Sometimes I don't like Mr. Mowbray. Today is a day in that category.
But it's early doors of the season. With eight new players in the squad, we are supposed to see only one good half in a match. Last weekend it was the 2nd half when we played quite OK. Today it was the first 45 min.
Patience is needed. We will be good in and around end of September.
Up the Boro!
Can anyone explain to me why our 6' 7" keeper stays on his line while the opposition score with a header from a corner inside our 6 yard box? Or why, in the European way, he chose to pat an innocent shot away, rather than securing it to his body, in the lead up to their winning goal ?
Or why we allowed our most experienced central defender, the only one we had who was completely dominant in the air, to leave on a free transfer.
In my view the decision to let Coburn go cost us promotion last season I fear that the same might be said of the free transfer of Fry by the end of this one. That certainly crossed my mind in both League games so far as our central defenders looked increasingly vulnerable to the most conventional of crosses.
As to our attack, conventional crosses were the best we could muster as our inability to get behind their defence with directness and pace still remains a chronic deficiency. This despite Sarmiento playing better than I ever imagined he could after his displays last season.
He, alongside the outstanding Peart-Harris provided at least some grounds for optimism after a bitterly disappointing result
I have just read the view of one Stephen Killen, Senior Football Writer (I wouldn't mind wagering he is still in his mid 20s and wedded to his phone) that our keeper was our star performer and that he kept us in the game because he made (in my view) one decent and a couple of regulation saves. Well,Stephen, having seen literally thousands of keepers over the 80 years I have watched top flight football, I can assure you that he wasn't, and he didn't.
I have to say that if Boro keep on defending as we did today then we will really struggle to get automatic promotion, and maybe even the playoffs. Blackburn tore holes in our ‘defence’ first half, several times by the simple expedient of playing the ball over the top of our back line, or else by playing through the huge holes in the midfield / centre of the defence. As for the goals we conceded……. It was schoolboy defending throughout.
Boro hammered away incessantly at the Rovers defence once we went behind and put them under significant pressure, but without getting anywhere. It’s perhaps as well we penned them back, though: had they attacked us we would probably have conceded a few more.
Interestingly said central defender has yet to play for his new club. Has been on the bench for all three games but has not got on the pitch.
I’m sorry Len - I know we’re all disappointed by today’s result but I can’t agree with the view that Coburn and Fry are indispensable. As has been pointed out, DF can’t even get into the Birmingham team and, for me, JC isn’t a patch on Lankshear, even though he may have improved since he left MFC. It’s possible that a move away and out of his comfort zone was just what he needed.
Our keeper kept us in the game in the first half with two excellent saves and the header that beat him in the second was from a cross that was deflected so there’s no way he could have come out to collect the ball.
Sure our defence needs a great deal of improvement, which I think was acknowledged by KH after the game. Maybe Ashley Philips will help and make a significant impact.
I’m not ready to write off the season on the basis of one league game.
"Disappointed from Dormanstown" writes to indicate his dismay at today's result at Blackburn. Thousands of fans were present to watch their team with a 1-0 lead at HT, fail to maintain that advantage, so a 2-1 defeat followed at FT. Lots of possession. Many touches in the opposition's penalty area. More attempts at scoring but fewer goals. Not great. Deja Vu. Yet again....
This division is officially crazy.
After only 2 games, there are just two teams who have 6 points, with West Brom a possible to join them if they beat Burnley; I’d estimate a draw.
West Ham lose at home to Charlton and have one point from 6.
We play out our usual Tony Mowbray charity match.
As others have said, it will take at least a month to put a completely new side together. Then we can take a look. We have masses of talent, but they are not a team yet. They can only get better.
utb
@selwynoz I think we beat Sunderland when Tony was a manager up there. So we can beat him ...
I think we should have got a point at least yesterday. But didn't.
I think Martin summed up the situation nicely. Not the end of the world even we feel disappointed now. There is all to play for. And Ashley Phillips to look forward to.
The new players need games and there is one on Tuesday. Up the Boro!
@selwynoz Hopefully we will improve as a team as the new signings gel and start games. I was going to say and Conway is back.
However IMO unless Hellberg changes the way we play and gets behind the opposition defence, then we will continue to get the same result. One cannot score easily in an opponent’s packed out box. That was proven again yesterday.
The two goals that Lankshear scored against Lincoln showed how getting behind a defence is generally more productive than trying to play through one.
If Hellberg does not change things, nothing will change and ultimately he will be shown the door.
I certainly would not want that to happen.
@selwynoz. “They can only get better.” Fingers and everything else crossed. 😎
For those that have access to Sky Sports+ I believe that Tuesday’s match is being shown live.
I am not sure what the situation is regarding Riverside Live. Previously Caraboa Cup games could not be broadcast but that may have changed. 😎
My eldest Son and Grandson are with us at the moment and both are die hard Pompey supporters. I had the joy of sitting with them and watching Pompey comfortably beat Lincoln who we just managed to scrape past last week!
To then sit and watch Boro produce another performance from last season was disappointing to say the least; as my son said your all about possession and easy to play against as teams can defend in numbers and wait for you to make a mistake or take their goal scoring opportunities when presented, something we don't do often enough.
At least some of the family had a happy Saturday. 😎
It all feels very ground hog day over the past few seasons players/managers change but the results appear not too.
Would we rather have
A- 60% possession but struggle the beat the low block
B - 40% possession but score and get something from the games
It reminds me when makems/geordies used to go on about how marvelous their crowds were, but you don't get points for crowds in the same way you don't for possession and xG which seem to be the modern equivalents.
One of my friends said we have won 5 out of last 21 games which is shocking
One of my friends said we have won 5 out of last 21 games which is shocking.
Exactly. We said it at the end of last season when the wheels came of and Hellberg did not have an alternative plan, although we were all sympathetic given the injury problems and the forward player (summer/January) signings being not fit for purpose.
However that was last season, forgiven, but not quite forgotten.
Now is a new season and we have not started very well in either the pre-season or the last three games. We just beat Wrexham, struggled against Lincoln, who were comprehensively beaten at home by Portsmouth and again struggled against Blackburn, who created by far the better chances and so won the game rather easily in the end.
Hellberg now has no, or at best only one or two real excuses, for the lamentable form over the last 15/20 games.
He now has to find a solution and very quickly or to the going will get very difficult for him.
I share earlier comments that Boro may rue letting FRY leave. He was the best defender and certainly the best at heading the ball away from danger. If his replacements are anywhere as good that’s fine but if they play like the defence did yesterday then the defence will be the weakness .
It seems yesterday was a repeat of much of last season - loads of possession and created few chances. You can have the best forward in the League but you need to create chances for him to score.
So , we move on and hope to see improvements in the next game and hope for a win.
philip of Huddersfield 🤔🤔
@peter-surtees An excellent post. Totally agree.
Elsewhere, Boro's former record signing helps condemns Darlington to heavy defeat at Harborough. Guess who?
Up the Boro!
Everyone, hello. Apologies for my short absence again.
It goes without saying that I was saddened after the second half yesterday, not just for the fans and the club but specifically Jeremy Sarmiento. Those who've read me will know I can't help but have a soft spot for players who seem "up against it", be it with fitness, fortune or fans, and so to see them contribute in such a positive way is unquestionably heartwarming.
Yes, I'm a fan of Sarmiento, and I make no apologies for it - it is clear now, if it wasn't last season, that he is a confidence player who thrives in a free role behind the front man or front men rather than in a fixed role. In other words, you man manage him right and it seems he'll deliver the goods. We may see similar from Myles Peart-Harris across the course of the season.
Now for my three insights, two of which were mostly penned before the game, but they're all still relevant.
TOP TALENT
Before we played, I decided to look at Coventry's 3-0 loss to Arsenal. I thought, given how commanding their promotion charge was last year, it would be a hint of how we'd find it to adjust if we got promoted ourselves. I looked at the Sky Blues' starting line up and I thought, what, no Haji Wright? No master tormentor of Boro's badly exposed back line?
Then I found out he was injured for months.
This gives whole new meaning to our fears in the January transfer window. Those being, that yes, the goals were flowing but we were only one injury away from being short on talent up top.
But were we short on top talent... or were we short on the right type of top talent?
We have a few fine forwards at this club of ours who haven't been prominent so far this season - David Strelec, Tommy Conway and Kyle Joseph. It's partly, if not entirely, because Will Lankshear is rightly stealing all the headlines.
Yet what if his momentum was to be derailed? It happened with Patrick Bamford in 2015, and to my knowledge, earlier this year, Coventry took full advantage when we looked like we were hesitating due to the fear of an injury to Conway. They were visibly merciless.
The point is - it doesn't matter how much depth a club appears to have in a certain position, as the loss or loss of form in one main man will always be a serious blow. We had this issue with Fabrizio Ravanelli of course.
This doesn't mean, however, that it's not wise to have dependable back ups. We did learn that the hard way in 1996-97 when the departures of Nick Barmby, John Hendrie, Jan Fjortoft, Graham Kavanagh, Jamie Pollock and Alan Miller left us with nobody to fall back on if Emerson, Juninho, Ravanelli and Mark Schwarzer got injured or out of form. And we know what happened the following year when our barcoded neighbours sold Paul Kitson, Peter Beardsley and Les Ferdinand, then Alan Shearer stretched for a ball and caught his foot in the turf...
'KEEPER CAPERS, PART TWO - THE "V" MEN
Just a couple of games into his Boro career and it looks like Radek Vitek is having a hard time of it. There have even been calls for Sol Brynn to return.
I'm getting very, very sad echoes which I don't want to get - the time we transitioned from Dimi Konstantopoulos to Victor Valdes.
In that the "new guy" is being subjected to the kind of scrutiny his predecessor never seemed to receive despite his pedigree and the reality of the natural difficulties there can be in a newcomer adjusting.
But the other reality is that neither Sol nor Dimi carries the "elite" aura that the "V" men, Vitek and Valdes, do. More than that, Sol really is "one of our own" while Dimi is what you'd call an adopted Teessider. They have a closeness with the area that Valdes could never attain, although Vitek may yet attain it.
One is more likely, I have found, to be forgiving of goalkeeping struggles when the 'keeper in question projects a proven closeness rather than a professional distance. It places 'keepers like the "V" men under more pressure to make an immediate impact, like Schwarzer, Shay Given and arguably Darren Randolph did.
Hence the "too soon" scrutiny. Objectively, it's unfair, but it's how it is.
TYPICAL BORO...?
And while I'm on the "too soon" topic - why did I look at the second half scoreline and feel resigned rather than despairing? Because that Typical Boro narrative was in place again, the one where everything seems to be set up and in place for a good win before things - typically - come undone.
It does appear too easy, however, to fall back on this narrative when the likes of Burnley, Brighton and Brentford have transcended their "typical" nature and thrived, something I've addressed before. Me, I know the components for this set up to find its way and its consistency are definitely in place, so I'm not worried - yet. But I also admit it's simple for me to say that from a distance.
For, to adapt a fan's words from years ago - while we can be "fair", "reasonable" and say "don't panic" to each other, if we want our support retain large in numbers and high in belief, we do need to find momentum fast.
We can, at least, as Len has rightly observed, take positivity from the form of Peart-Harris and Sarmiento. As well as Lankshear.
A very disappointing result on Saturday and as others have said very much like last season, except it was our first away league defeat since we lost at Coventry on the 16th of February, and only the third in 2026. The other defeat was at Derby on New Years Day. Looking at the WhoScored match ratings they had Morgan Whittaker as our best player with 8.0. Their man of the match was Gudjohnson with 8.2. Of the starters they had Vitek, Berhalter, and Malanda as joint worst with 6.3, although they rated the Blackburn right back as worst overall.