@jarkko I am sorry Jarrko but will have to disagree with above post, in part anyway.
The main issue has been the selection of the wrong type of players. We still appear to have this divide between Wilder and the Recrutement Team.
The buying of development players, for not an unconsiderable amount of money. Then buying / loaning in players that do not have the skills that we desperately needed. Pace and the ability to win the ball. We also lack any real creativity in the midfield three.
All though it is early days, some would argue, other teams appear to have recruited better than we have. Or it maybe that their Coach is getting more out of his players.
As for McNair, although it was only a rumour, I did hear that Bournemouth were interested and Parker was not. Maybe no truth in it, but his worth to the team at this time appears debatable.
@pedro I see your point. But what next? A new manager would not help and we must see where we are around Xmas.
One cannot sign 11 ... 12 new players and think the team performs well the following week when the transfer window shut down.
I think the biggest problem is the amount of new players (and loosing Tav, for example) and the late arrival of the lot.
I am not expecting to see the real Boro much before December. We have to fight for the result until a couple of months will be gone.
And we still miss the main striker and two central midfielders. Pity we let Payero go on loan.
Up the Boro!
@jarkko. I am with Pedro on this one.
Whilst there have been a lot of comings and goings the team that played on Tuesday including subs who were introduced totalled 8 (I have excluded the keeper as they don’t really have to bed in) and had been there for a few seasons.
Given that we were effectively only using three new boys then this to me is not about the team getting to know one another.
The problem on Tuesday for the majority of the match was a lack of effort, determination, skill and a willingness to get at the opposition, coupled with a lack of support to Muniz.
The fault for this has to be borne by both the players and management. I agree that a change in management will not necessarily be the answer but I also don’t see our issues being resolved by players spending more time playing together.
On Tuesday’s evidence we are in for a long hard season and my hopes for the season have been shattered over the last few games where there has not been any evidence of progress on the dysfunctional nature of the team as seen in previous seasons. 😎
Ps. On the subject of pace in the midfield, is Dale Stephens, a 33 year old the answer to our problems? This is the guy who went over the ball and left a gash in Gaston Ramirez’s leg during out game against Brighton. 😎
Barring a bust-up or Wilder walking, I think we need to commit to him for the rest of the season. We can't keep continually overhauling the squad and manager so frequently. That said...
I do worry that Wilder has, for whatever reason, gone past his shelf-life as a manager. I think it's possibly the case that he is so busy trying to prove that he was right at Sheffield Utd that he is not making good decisions with us.
I don't think a good manager becomes a bad manager overnight but so far we seem to be having a repeat of Warnock Boro where a good initial impact quickly fades and ends up with manager, recruitment and club all pulling in different directions as results just get worse.
As we approach the state funeral of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, I reflect on how I perceived my dear wife’s funeral. We all must have lost dear members of our own families and gone through the pain and anguish of that period of grief between death and the laying to rest of one of our loved ones. Is it more devastating to lose someone unexpectedly as in an accident or knowing that a loved one is being put to rest following the trauma of ill health over a period of time. Surely it’s the former and I have gone through both scenarios.
My father was killed in a road accident on black ice driving home from work 7 days before Christmas in 1969, but apart from all the running around with all the paperwork involved, attending the coroner’s inquest, etc and trying to spend Christmas Day as normal as possible, the time between death and the funeral passed very quickly. Dad was only 57 and a friend of the family said to me that it’s all right for me to cry. Keeping busy was the thing to do and I still chose to go to work after 3 days leave on compassionate grounds, although it wasn’t easy for my mother although she still had my younger brother at home to look after her, but death seemed so final.
When my wife died of cervical cancer she was only 67 but after 6 days in hospital I knew, and she probably knew as well, that she would never come home again. Death was a relief for her and again I was kept busy with all the paperwork,etc but was determined that the actual funeral service should be a celebration of her life and I still had a eulogy to write. I didn’t want to embarrass myself at the church and writing and reading a eulogy was the only way of getting through the church service, the tears could wait until only members of the family watched the coffin move before the curtains closed on the way to the incinerator to the fading cassette of David Whitfield singing “When you lose the one you love, how lonely life can be” to me the perfect way to send Enid to meet her maker.
Is death so final after all? Logic tells me it is, but we shall never know until that fatal day. I expect most of you have had the same experience as I, but although nobody can enjoy funerals I would imagine that the funeral of Her Royal Highness will be a more sombre affair inside the church with that stiff upper lip mentality, whilst the cortège will pass with tears from her adoring subjects or fans. Eva Peron is reputed to have said “Don’t cry for me, I’ve never left you” and as illogical as that sounds that’s the way I hope that is what Enid is trying to say to me.
Many people today don’t want a funeral, or the expense of one, and I can accept that to a certain degree, but how does anyone say goodbye to losing a member of the family. I think my way was the best, but when you live as long as I have, few people will mourn my death as I’m outliving most of my colleagues and friends, so why bother with a funeral at all.
Death, where is thy sting, where is thy victory?
@k-p-in-spain A fair comment. I think we miss pace in midfield and we miss Tavanier, too. If we could have kept him ...
See also the Echo: https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/sport/21563913.chris-wilders-position-threat-middlesbrough/
UBT!
I hope we play much better in October, though. I have just booked a table for me and my wife at the Fenton Club, Riverside Stadium. We hope to enjoy the Blackburn match and then selebrate our 35th Marriage Anniversary on Sunday 16th October.
There is hoping ... up the Boro!
Interesting and good points on Boro's performance so far this season on and off the pitch. Chris Wilder didn't really get many of his first-choice targets and lost Tav, who he said he wanted to build his team around. Perhaps KP's point that only three new signings started against Cardiff is telling in many way - it not only disproves the notion that the players have yet to gel but highlights how recruitment have failed to deliver what is needed.
I doubt and hope Wilder is not planning to build his team around Tav's replacement, Alex Mowatt, who has appeared to get worse with every game he has played and was deservedly hooked at half-time - might explain why West Brom were keen to loan him to us.
Keepers apart, other than Giles and Muniz, I don't think any of the new signings look an improvement on what we had last season. I think Wilder is rapidly coming to the same conclusion and is now scraping around the out-of-contract lucky-dip bag for reinforcements.
Mind you, it's just as well recruitment didn't get some of their big-money targets - Jacob Greaves is currently part of the worst defence in the Championship having conceded 18 - three more than the second worst in Boro. Emil Riis may have scored a third of Preston's goals this season but he's is currently part of the worst attack in the league with just three netted in nine games.
Boro probably have a decent first XI in their ranks but it's going to take a rethink to get them all on the pitch at the same time. A reinstatement of Dijksteel and Bola is needed to get some more pace in the team and not sure if a back three is working anymore - Fry and Clarke as a centre-back pairing would probably suit both of them with perhaps Dijksteel and Bola providing pace and cover as full-backs.
I'd also move McGree back into midfield to add the drive missing since Tav left - Mowatt and McNair need benching as they're not performing at the required level. Also Nothing wrong in Watmore and Muniz started together up top - we've hopefully got Akpom coming back soon but the projects looking like going back on the shelf as an expensive reminder of players don't get developed if they not ready to play!
The season can still be rescued but Chris Wilder is running out of time and possibly the patience of the crowd at least. The club can't really afford to waste another season changing managers unless it's absolutely necessary - Steve Gibson really needs to get a handle on the situation in this upcoming international break - if it really is broke then obviously he must act but he needs answers on why Boro are heading for a relegation battle instead of a promotion push - a point a game is not nearly good enough and failure to beat Rotherham is usually not healthy for Boro managers.
@jarkko. Enjoy your time at the Riverside, I hope the match and score is a better experience than mine. Congratulations also on your upcoming anniversary. 😎
@werdermouth. A good piece Werder and with which I agree with virtually entirely.
Whatever system we play the key essential is that the players do their jobs within it. At present those within the team are making too many mistakes which are proving extremely costly and damaging.
McNair has been culpable more than once this season and Mowatt was also at fault on Tuesday for one of the goals and has failed to live up to his expectations.
I think the current personnel are better suited to a back four along the lines you suggest with hopefully Giles and Jones spending more of their game time on offensive responsibilities.
Muniz has already proved he is a goal scorer but needs support and quality supply.
As Scott Wilson says in his article in the echo “with a fifth of the season gone, things will have to start improving soon if this is not to be a wasted campaign”. 😎
It disturbs me to read the blogs with many pleading for us to deal gently with our manager. As fans we have ownership of our club, and the great lesson we all learn verry quickly is, " when everything is going wrong, on a regular basis, then the system must be changed, and quickly". It is futile to suggest that by changing this trivial thing or the other we might straighten thigs out, we will not. The manager is to blame, he has a say in who is loaned out, and who is not. That is a given, last season he loaned out a star, and we duly played rubbish. Whilst he was duly a star. This season he got rid of our wonderful veteran centre back, he could not play the full 90 but he was in complete control of the defensive area when he was on the field, we could and should have kept him, and he was wanting to be a coach, and supposedly being trained by us, which was a nice position for us to be in. He came here with Fry a good Young prospect, he soon changed that. He is now neither, good, Young, nor a prospect. All other clubs are brutal in this situation, so why are we an easy touch. His family must be asking him if he has been fired after every match.
Looked Mowatt’s stats for his games with Boro. Six tackles and one booking in his time on the pitch. Says it all.
I doubt if Crooks and Howson’s will be be much better?
Apologies, of course I should have know, Crooks leads on yellow cards. If you do not tackle, you won’t get booked. 🙂