@martin-bellamy 

I agree it was a much better performance than Wrexham and I was pleased to see Byram and Strelec play well - with the latter probably running out of steam after an hour. Though have watched Strelec's touch, movement and interplay (that backheel to set up Byram when he hit the post was exquisite), I'm now a bit happier that there is cover for Lankshear.

Interesting that consistency appears to be lacking in many teams and I suspect that is a combination of the Championship schedule and the intensity that forward players are now expected to play at - i.e. constant short sprints when pressing plus defensive covering.

It also perhaps explains why Cozier-Duberry is looking tired after a run in the team where he's been an important player to give the ball to. Again Arfsten has looked a good option off the bench and his role has been predominantly one of an attacking role - which he's done quite well and delivered good balls and he was a bit harshly marked in the local media against Wrexham for his defensive miscue that ultimately led to their second goal - given he'd only just switched positions from right-wing to left-back.

So time to regroup again in another break - I would however ponder if Hellberg may need to mix up his tactics a bit and try something a bit more direct in games where the opposition are organised defensively and there's little space to play through them. I think the last 15 minutes today were not really working once Watford were in low-block mode and Boro had gone into ball recycle mode and any quick break was followed by ball retention and passing backwards - which then allowed them to set themselves again. Sometimes it's better to risk a ball into the box rather than wait for the ideal pass as the clock runs down - the pressure is on them to clear the ball.

Though overall we should be happy that nobody has more points than us after a third of the season has been played - another third like that would put us in a strong position as we enter the business end of the season. Still, a bit frustrating to pick up only one point from these last two games...

Positives;   Bryan and at long last Strelec, if he can improve on that performance.

For me we failed somewhat in midfield this afternoon, Morris once more the pick with his drive, had 94 passes with 95% completion. However McGree only had 47 / 89%, Berhalter only 34 / 82%.
I do not think he can physically do the games in eight days, and to be fair, the Commentators (I always listen to the opposition if possible for an all round view) made reference to our trip to Wrexham, home in the middle of the night, then the next day, Friday, travel down south.

Of course it is how it is for the other teams also at times.

As to Hellberg and his team selections, possibly he is being smart and showing the LACK of depth in the squad. 

Werder, ACD, a shadow of himself today and for a few games now.

Today's results show what a hard division this is to predict. There were a number of posts I saw on Facebook following our defeat on Wednesday from Hammers and Sinners fans saying we have "bottled" it. The West Ham post mentioned that they beat Wrexham 6-0. So what happened on Saturday, Southampton lost at the bottom team, who had only won one game all season and West Ham lost at Blackburn. Not seen any of the highlights so can't comment on the performance. On the international front Riley Mcgree has been called up by the Socceroos, but their games are still in doubt.

A decent performance except not scoring.

Here is the player ratings by Dom Shaw at the Echo.

Boro had to settle for a point after failing to force a breakthrough against Watford on Saturday.

Here's how the players rated:

Middlesbrough:

6 Vitek: Made good near-post save in second half but other than that was hardly tested.

6 Brittain: Spent almost all of the game in the Watford half but delivery disappointing at times.

8 Phillips: Another commanding and excellent performance from centre-back, who is getting better and better.

7 Malanda: Coasted through largely untested.

7 Byram: Decent full debut for the full-back. Solid and largely untested defensively and got up to support Sarmiento.

6 Morris: Had loads of the ball but couldn’t find killer pass against Watford defence that retreated deeper and deeper.

7 Berhalter: Excellent delivery from the right almost led to Sarmiento opener. Tried to drive Boro on from midfield.

6 Cozier-Duberry: Looked threatening in flashes but his decision making in the final third let him down. Particularly wasteful when Boro had men over after Strelec through-ball. Replaced at the interval and looks like he could do with a break. Boro could do with him resting rather than going away with England Under-21s.

6 McGree: No coincidence Boro looked better than they did against Wrexham with McGree back in pulling the strings, even if this was by no means his best game. Faded in the second half.

7 Sarmiento: Frustrating at times but also looked most likely route to goal. Went close early on three times and excellent delivery headed wide by McGree in second half. Still wanted one touch too many on too many occasions.

7 Strelec: Didn’t land for him in front of goal but the striker gave Boro someone to play off. His link-up play was good. Encouraging display.

Substitutes:

6 Arfsten (for Cozier-Duberry, 46): Did well to beat his man and get cross in for Byram chance, but Boro ran out of ideas.

6 Peart-Harris (for Berhalter, 66): Fresh legs in midfield but couldn’t pick defence splitting pass.

5 Joseph (for Strelec, 66): Doesn’t look comfortable as a No.9 and missed excellent late chance.

And some statistics from the BBC:

Overall possession: 

Watford 26%, Boro 74%

Up the Boro!

Following our three YC, the standing are below.

		DISCIPLINE
1Stoke	15	200	172	32	2
2Charlton	15	190	163	30	1
3Lincoln	15	187	175	35	3
4Derby	15	183	130	33	1
5Wolves	15	182	172	28	0
6Birmingham	15	178	151	31	0
7Blackburn	15	175	158	36	1
8Preston	15	175	139	34	1
9Millwall	15	174	147	30	1
10Watford	15	171	165	40	0
11Portsmouth	15	167	174	24	0
12Bristol City	15	166	144	18	1
13Wrexham	15	162	161	20	0
14Norwich	15	160	170	27	1
15Sheff Utd	15	158	201	26	1
16West Ham	15	157	159	32	1
17WBA	15	150	198	27	1
18Swansea	15	148	161	22	1
19Burnley	15	148	136	29	1
20Cardiff	15	147	201	28	1
21Bolton	15	146	146	24	1
22M'Boro	15	140	148	18	0
23QPR	15	135	153	29	1
24S'oton	15	124	199	25	1

@jarkko       Not sure I totally understand xG, because we really never looked like scoring, Joseph maybe, but what is really poor once again is only 4 shots on target.

You could see the frustration and poor decision making as the game went on, with Boro trying to shoot with a wall of opposing players in front of them. It all looked very much like last season 

@pedro.  “It all looked very much like last season”.  Your comment has echoes of my half-time post yesterday.

I agree with Werder that KH needs to work on his tactics during the break to overcome those teams that are organised defensively and where we are not able to play through them; failure to do so could lead to a similar outcome as last season.

We can’t expect that Will Lanshear’s return will solve all our problems because he won’t. 😎

I think Brittain and Sarmiento should have scored. The latter had three chances to score.

And Byram hit the post from 6 yards. 

I think xG meant we should have scored two goals?  So we underarchieved. On a beter day two, with Lankshear perhaps 3 to 4 goals.

This is football. Hopefully next time we will score three or four. So no worry yet.

Up the Boro!

@jarkko - Having just watched the highlights, I agree with you that we should have scored 2 goals from the chances which were either missed or well saved. We should have done better.

Also agree with KP and Pedro that we have been here before and KH does need to work on how we break teams down. It isn’t always pretty but there are times when route one can be effective when other tactics aren’t working.

I am not a fan of this playing out from the back malarkey- there was an instance in the first half where we were fannying about and then surprise surprise lost the ball which allowed a shot on goal. It went wide but on another day it would have evaded Vitek and gone in.

But we are second on goal difference with just short of 2 points a game which is a good place to be - just need some tweaks and we may just stay there!  

@peter-surtees - Agree that Lanky Will would have knocked one of those chances in.

I thought Strelec had a decent game yesterday although the service to him wasn’t great. 

On another day we’d have won comfortably and be all smiles today. It’s a game of fine margins. 

@peter-surtees 

And to add to that train of thought we spent all last season bemoaning our lack of a goalscorer. We dominated games but fell short at the sharp end.... over and over again. So we went and spent well on a player to address that tendancy. That player was absent yesyerday and Wednesday , so perhaps we ought not have been surprised that the old frailties showed up ... over the course of a full season playing like that we might score just enough to keep us in the play off hunt. However, we did buy the remedy and it appears to be most efficacious. He should be there for us many more times than he will not be. Let us not, then, be too despondent. While it is an area we need to improve (whether by good coaching and development of who we have, or by finding the right ingredients in the January window) we really should still feel positive about howcthecseason has panned out so far.

Also... we do have Strelec to get back to fitness and Pukstas to find put about too.

@powmillnaemore         As MW posted, why did we chase after Joseph so vigorously when he was not really a first pick player for Hull. Especially when we agreed 5 million for him and then got a lucky 1 mill discount over some medical issue.

Like Strelec, at this level and at those prices one would expect more from both players and certainly from the bench with a goal or two .

I think if you sign ten players - especially young ones as Boro do - there will be one or two, who won't make it.

Generally we have been very successful in recruitment in recent years, but there is always some miss hits for some reasons. Some signings are hits, some are miss. Think about Morgan Rogers and Micah Hamilton, for example.  I think I was more excited about Hamilton than Rogers when they signed for Boro. So there is always a risk when signing a player.

Also, there is always the risk of an injury. Think about Fisher or Leninhan, for example. Or more recently Jones - he was signed as a defender,  who is "never" injured. Then after half a season, he has been missing nearly for a year - a bit like Leninhan. 

Sarmiento did not look promising last season, but he was good against Watford on Saturday.  Peart-Harris has not impressed much, but he was desent on Saturday. So it is very difficult to say who is a miss or success after a few months in a new club. Some players are settling in weeks, some only the following season after signing. I think Strelec is in the latter group.

Up the Boro!

@martin-bellamy.  “thought Strelec had a decent game yesterday although the service to him wasn’t great.”

I have always believed he is a quality footballer but has suffered from injuries and a lack of the type of service he needs.

When he did play last season he often displayed good movement and good runs which the other players failed to see and to pick him out.

If he can stay fit then I believe he may be able to deputise for WL or even play behind him in the 10 role; he is after all a goal scorer and provider as Saturday showed when he made opportunities for others which unfortunately were not taken. 😎

@peter-surtees.  Peter my comment about WL not solving all our problems was based on the view that he is unlikely to score in every game and that he may be injured more than once during the season.

That being the case we need to find other ways of playing and winning else the season could turn out like last season when we did not have him; I would be a lot more comfortable if DS was injury free and firing on all cylinders when played. 😎

@k-p-in-spain    It would be like signing a new player if Strelec could keep fit, get some meaningful game time minutes and more importantly grab a goal or two or assists.

Of course given he is behind WL, will he be happy not getting the game time he wants, playing, being essence second best or will he throw his dummy out and look disinterested as he has done on occasions.

As for Kyle Joseph, last season at Hull, his first in the Championship, his previous years where in the lower leagues, he was not an automatic starter, though he did start games.

I think I read, that his game time has to be managed. He played 2300+ minutes over the season, appearing in nearly all the games, but at an average of around 50 minutes.

Also possibly more importantly, although he did play as a CF, he played more games on the left or right, aka Conway and ACD. He scored 8 goals and had 5 assists (all according to the internet). He has some pace and can play off the shoulder of his man. Maybe he would be better suited as a replacement for TC and ACD, but at the moment Hellberg looks to prefer Arfsten.

@pedro.  “He has some pace and can play off the shoulder of his man. Maybe he would be better suited as a replacement for TC and ACD, but at the moment Hellberg looks to prefer Arfsten.”

I agree with you and feel he provides an option for out pacing defenders and getting to the dead ball line to cut the ball back for others to run onto; he was used that way initially and looked promising but not recently when leading the line where his first touch has let him down. 😎

Posted by: @pedro

↑

@k-p-in-spain It would be like signing a new player if Strelec could keep fit, get some meaningful game time minutes and more importantly grab a goal or two or assists.

Of course given he is behind WL, will he be happy not getting the game time he wants, playing, being essence second best or will he throw his dummy out and look disinterested as he has done on occasions.

Of course, Hellberg likes his players to change places and be very, very flexible while we have the ball. McGree is a good example - sometimes I really do not know what is his position. He is everywhere usually.

Up the Boro!

I meant DS as David Strelec (not DC as I wrote above). UTB! 

KP, Pedro and Jarkko

Excellent posts. Agree with all of them

Just read the the US play Haiti in a two leg playoff on the 14 & 18th. So Berhalter will be struggling to start on the 21st against Bristol if correct

Strelec also called up for their two matches

Re: Difficulties in recruitment 

17 goals in 14 games: Middlesbrough flop and ex-Leicester City man hits stunning form with new club. I will let you guess who is the striker. But he had a successful but short stint at Celtic after leaving the Riverside. 

https://the72.co.uk/2026/11/10/kelechi-iheanacho-middlesbrough-leicester-city-star-turkey/

Up the Boro!

What is annoying with these generally training session Internationals, is why are most completed by Monday/Tuesday and the American and Australian are not completed until Wednesday, making recovery time nigh on impossible for a Saturday match.

Are clubs compensated for their players not being physically available due to the long journey times. It is a complete nonsense and once more no thought about those paying the wages.

@jarkko 

As they say, every dog has his day - though I think Iheanacho went walkies at Boro...

If anyone is looking for something interesting to watch during the international break, then perhaps given our discussions on AI, some may be interested in a two-and-a-half hour documentary on Channel 4 this evening...

AI: Probably Nothing to Worry About

10pm, Channel 4
The wild thing about the rise of AI is that sci-fi writers have been predicting it for decades, yet everyone seems amazed by the reality. This fascinating, sprawling two-and-a-half-hour documentary attempts to make sense of humanity’s scourge/saviour with contributions from two of AI’s pioneers, Geoffrey Hinton and Demis Hassabis

And in other football news, the inevitable has happened and Man Utd have dispensed with the services of Michael Carrick. I feel sorry for him in the way that it has come about in the media etc. although I do think that the permanent appointment was not the right one.

What happened at Man Utd  was almost a carbon copy of what we saw when he was at Boro. 

Some supporters were, like we were, surprised that he and Woodgate couldn’t sort the defence out! 

A great player and possibly a good coach but clearly not suited to being a Head Coach or manager.