Damn. A hastily arranged family engagement today means I’m going to miss another massive game for Boro. This is unacceptable! I’m actually gutted and am clearly going to be spending my early afternoon glued to my phone.
You boys owe me a win after I left you to look after the Hull game. Don’t let me down. Please 🙏
McGree and Sporar for Crooks and Connolly.
Pretty much as expected and the right choices I think.
Damn. A hastily arranged family engagement today means I’m going to miss another massive game for Boro. This is unacceptable! I’m actually gutted and am clearly going to be spending my early afternoon glued to my phone.
You boys owe me a win after I left you to look after the Hull game. Don’t let me down. Please 🙏
Thankfully, I managed to reschedule the BBQ with Mrs Werder's parents to 4pm
I am missing golf today to watch. Brother is using mate’s season ticket. What could go wrong! Hopefully not Hull all over again! 😉😎
Oh dear yet another goal conceded via a free kick.
Sol hero to zero in 40 mins. Typical in that we had just had our best attacking spell.
All up hill now and hopes fading. 🙁😎
Plenty of possesion but again nothing to show for it. Need to sort themselves out quickly in the 2nd half otherwise it's over.
Boro once again struggling to break down a team that decides to defend and have created few chances and don't really look like scoring. Unfortunately at the other end Boro conceding far too many free kicks in dangerous areas and also got caught out once again by a floated free kick into the box. Hard to see Boro winning this one and even a draw would be a good escape at the moment.
A game between two fairly limited sides one with little creativity and one playing for free kicks, which has proved successful. Will we score again this season?
Always said we should never have let him go, Jordan Rhodes 0-2 and play off dreams ended. 😎
I believe that might be his first goal at the Riverside for any team including the Boro.
I believe that might be his first goal at the Riverside for any team including the Boro.
He scored a few at the Riverside for boro.
Just checked all his Boro goals were away from home.
Just checked all his Boro goals were away from home.
thanks mw
Well that was another below average Boro display lacking both penetration, creativity and composure (at both ends) - it seems our season has run out of legs and it's looking hard to see if Chris Wilder can regroup for the last four games. Our only hope is if both Sheff Utd and Blackburn fail to win later - if they don't then Boro must somehow win their last 4 to make that 75 point target. The Fat Lady is clearing her throat...
I think the only way Boro could stop Jordan Rhodes from scoring at the Riverside was to sign him!
Not sure what CW can do there are limited options open to him. The next two games has to be the same midfield three who else is there? If the results go against us does he play some of the U23’s as all of the teams we have to play also don’t have anything to play for. Not sure if Jones is still recovering as he didn’t have much spark today and hardly ever got to the bi-line. Maybe a long hard first championship season has caught up with him. Did Connolly touch the ball?
Hugely disappointing.
We don't do well against big physical teams and we were well out muscled today. We done to Huddersfield. Despite our possession we never looked like doing anything with it, while every time Huddersfield broke away, they looked likely to score. Daniels has done more than enough to keep the gloves for the rest of the season. It could easily have been very humiiating but for him today.
You could see that the pressure was getting to them today as they really did begin to lose composure. Also, not happy seeing Jones throwing himself down for a penalty. The more he does that, the fewer penalties he will win when he is genuinely fouled. That said, I don't think the officials were really on top of all the shirt pulling and holding that was going on (from both sides).
Still to play for, but 4 wins out of 4 will be quite an achievement and we are now relying on other results going for us. I get the feeling that not scoring is preying on them. If they could only score one then more will come.
I think the only way Boro could stop Jordan Rhodes from scoring at the Riverside was to sign him!
🤣
Well disappointed but not surprised with this result as Huddersfield did what I expected, defended in numbers and well and made full use of dead-ball situations and breakaways; they were fully deserving of their win and only some desperate and last ditch defending prevented them from scoring more.
Fulham apart they are, for me, the best of the top ten sides in the division and should they not grab the second place spot then they should win the play offs.
We huffed and puffed but never really threatened to score, yet again, and this game clearly showed how much work CW still has to do if the team is to threaten the top six in the division; much work is required both at the back and upfront which continues to be very problematic.
Huddersfield showed how to defend as a team whilst out of possession and then how to move the ball quickly and with intent once in possession. They gave Boro a masterclass in defensive and offensive play from free kicks and corners; I have long given up on expecting anything offensively from a Boro corner or free kick and now see it just as another opportunity for us to concede possession back to the opposition.
Regrettably our star men just did not rise to the occasion and even Riley McGree looked fairly ordinary with the exception of one shot close to the end which rattled the bar. We seem to have too many players who can run and chase about a lot but fail to execute at the required level. The one positive for me is that we do have a better keeper than Lumley; Daniels acquitted himself well again and if not for him on a couple of occasions, the result could have been worse.
Whilst we still have four games to play and twelve points could be acquired, I think that realistically this is a step too far and would still require teams above us to drop points. We are in eighth at present and will do well to maintain that.
Let’s hope that things do not get worse; we have not scored for four games, I think AK’s team went something like six without scoring and TP’s team lost six in a row! 😎
Well, you have to say that they were better than us all over the pitch. I think the answer to the question is that we are a mid-table team that went on a good run for a time.
Our good run was founded on the creativity between Jones, Crooks and Dijksteel. Once opponents managed to find a way to counter that we haven't found a replacement. Then with Crooks losing form and Jones suffering from an illness we have unsurprisingly gone 4 games without scoring. You can see that we have lost that instinctive pass and move that we had; everything is very careful and predictable.
I would be happy never to see Sporar in a Boro shirt again.
My main criticism of Wilder and the coaching team is that our forward line has gone backwards under them.
On the plus side, that was probably the best goal-keeping display of the season from us. I've been a defender of Lumley but I think Daniels did everything you want from him and then some.
On the other plus side, I thought when we switched to 3-4-3 with Bola as LCB, Tav as LWB and McGree on the left side of a 2 that we looked a lot better balanced. We got caught out a lot but that was because we were pushing so high. Also as a plus, McGree will be a really good player for us.
We may still make the play-offs but this team seems to have hit its ceiling. I think what is more important now is that Wilder finds a system and players to move forward with for next season. Maybe this means a 3-4-3 with Jones pushed into the front 3. I think Balogun is worth persevering with and Coburn now needs as much game time as possible to develop. I think Gibson and Payero also need game time.
I also think that after 12 years of success as a manager, Wilder needs to reinvent himself. There is a risk that he has become set in his ways. Whether it's the formation, the system, how he builds team spirit or how he manages games, he may need to ask himself questions. He is running the risk of hitting his own ceiling; like Tony Mowbray he may become seen as someone who can keep a team comfortably in the Championship but comes up short at the highest level. Football is a ruthless business. 6 weeks ago we were flying and scoring goals for fun. Now we can't buy a goal and people will always ask questions.
I suspect that a good start under Wilder papered over the cracks. Poor recruitment in January (plus bad luck with McGree) made things worse. If Wilder is the top class manager I think he is, he realises this and is learning from it.
We’ll 1point from 12 and 0 goals in 4 games the rotund lady is singing an aria what can I say
no fight
no leadership
no inspiration
Let’s face it they could have scored more and to cap it all Rhodes scores it all looks pretty bleak
i wouldn’t play any of the loan players in the last four games what’s the point and they haven’t exactly added much in their time at the club. My three words to sum it all up are ponderous, clueless & rudderless.
it’s the hope that kills you always
Well, what can you say about that performance?
The words which come to mind are - useless, clueless, inept, woeful, tactless and many more.
No point in commenting on any player - what matters is the team performance and it was awful.
Another worry is the tactics- the province of CW who also has to shoulder much of the blame.
My conclusion is the team over performed over much of the season and the last few games - no win in 4 and can’t score- when the pressure is on, simply showed that the team is a long way from where it needs to be.
I am looking forward to seeing Huddersfield in the play offs- they have a very talented coach and excellent recruitment with most of the team being free signings .
Philip of Huddersfield
Did the FA cup have an impact on our last few games.?
Yes, certainly. We had to defend to get past a couple of decent teams. We read the press and thought we were better than them. Today we saw a team that knows it's limitations, defended in numbers, passed the ball into our half (on the ground) and had at least three chances to score easy goals. We could and should have adopted the same tactics, but we didnt, we were very slow in every thing that we attempted. We lacked height in the box, and brought on the height after the game had gone. We must play the kid for every minute left in the season, we need to know how Good he is. Do we really need to make six elegant passes in midfield just to cross the halfway line, it does not look Good, and I believe gives the opposition a nice rest.
Did the FA cup have an impact on our last few games.?
Only in that I think some players and supporters thought we are better than we are.
It was interesting to listen to CW’s post match interview in which he stated that players were taking safe options and that some were not delivering at the business end of the season. He criticised them for not doing the things on the pitch they had talked about and prepared for off the pitch.
CW indicated that there is much more work for him to do in the medium to long term if we are to be in the mix at the end of the season but this season we now have a mountain to climb and when they look back at the end of the season the recent results will show why we are a team who nearly make the play offs! Sounds like he has given up already. 😎
Some good posts there from KP and deleriad.
I will go back to deleriad’s and his question about Mr Wilder.
No doubt he is a good Manager/Coach, but there numerous foreign coaches coming in now with new ideas and one has to continue to learn and reinvent oneself as previously said.
I would be tempted to now see how much promise Coburn especially has and play him from the off for the final four. I would also move Brynn to the bench and consider playing him also. I do not think either will happen until it is mathmatically over. CW will obviously cling to that even if it looked as though the players where on the beach this afternoon.
There have been a number of teams that have spent less than the Boro on players and have performed better than us. Their Coaches have certainly produced a team bigger than the parts.
We have generally failed miserably with our overall recruitement. The debacle of Mr Warnock and the Recruitement Team differing on who to sign. Then in comes CW and they have failed again in January.
Does it really give you much confidence that it will improve during the summer when we will have a significant turnover of players and some really important buys to make up front.
Has the new man in charge of recruitment actually improved things overall. Has CW made any meaningful selection choices to date.
I really believe that even given that Mr Gibson May back CW substantially in the summer, I am not convinced we will get it right. It is obvious we have had a period of over achieving giving us false hope. Will next season be one of the same.
if we want to be in the top six mix from the off until the end, then Mr Wilder needs to get his System and Team totally right. And the Recruitement Team including the Manager need to up their game from what they have previously achieved.
I will finish with one question that somebody may be able to answer.
Why did CW allow Tav and Howson to hit long corners without pace into the Huddersfield box. Two metre tall defenders with poorly executed crosses.
Why no variation. Why no short corners. Why no near post flick ons. Why no something different. Why was it same old, fail and try the same old. Is there nothing between the ears of some footballers.
@ Pedro de Espana. Re corners, I refer to my earlier post that corners and free kicks are just opportunities for us to return the ball to the opposition which we are very good at; I hope you are not suggesting we should try and do something different like score! 😉😎
Jarkko
Sorry you’ve had such a poor result by Boro today Happy Birthday anyway !
Hope the rest of the day went fine
OFB
Happy birthday Jarkko. Sorry the Boro couldn’t provide you with a nice present of three points or even a decent display. 😎