Completely off topic, unless it's to do with Boro's current lack of fire power & the Pulis era, but a post from someone in St Albans commenting on the Palace-Brighton match on the Beeb's live text commentary:
Penalties distort the fact that Zaha has practically no end product. I can't think of a more overhyped player right now; except perhaps Adama Traore. They both play as though they don't realise the aim of the game is to score goals.
(my bold)
I am afraid that my worst case scenario is happening at the moment. We were forced to sign far too many players this summer and we see that the legion of new players play like they do not know their team mates. Exacly. And what I feared.
A team (club) is badly run if it founds that 12 new players are needed. Either we have had awfull recruitment in the past or we have the wrong manager appointed.
Where was the long term planning?
I hope this improves with the ex-Norwich man, Kieran Scott joining Boro as Head Of Football. We need planning and a road map to succeed.
How can you make a team overnight if you have so many new players in your team? I am not saying the new players are not good enough but we brought too many at once. This is a team sport, nothing is won on paper.
I think about four players should be bought during one tranfer window. Buy less but higher quality. Have a game plan, do not panic.
Just saying, like. We need to improve as a club.
Up the Boro!
Having said all above, we still have players to win a match. We do not lack commitment or quality, we just need to find out our best eleven and stick to it.
This is starting to look like after the summer when Monk and Gibbo were going to smash the league with a lot of money spent. But not a team found.
But if we click, we can beat anyone in this League. We have not been heavily beaten yet and the matches has been lost on individual mistakes. The Blackpool match was a good example as I did not see the Reading match.
I hope that we see a better perfomance against United tonight. We need some luck and I will go for a hard fought 1-0 win. Ikpeazu scoring the only goal on 33 min.
Up the Boro.
Were de Roon and Martin Braithwaite bad players?
It is easy to think that way when thinking what they archieved at the Riverside. But where are they now?
The former is a success in Italy and the Netherlands national team, the latter playing regularly at Barcelona. You can add Bamford to the list, too.
Is the man marking in midfield going to work? We need to find our best eleven and stick to it.
Stability is the key. A succesfull team in the Championship needs to be constant. Up the Boro!
@jarkko. You are saying the things I have been posting for a number of season now, particularly with regard to recruitment. We do not learn from our mistakes.
When we were promoted to the PL too many players were brought into the club and did not perform as a team; also not helped by the split between Spanish and others. Similar scenarios have occurred now under Monk and NW.
On the planning front, to me, there is no plan it is crisis management for most of the time.
Many did not agree with me when I said that after NW kept us in the Championship he should be thanked and allowed to go back into retirement. Many said that he should be given time to build his own team and have a further shot at promotion when I was advocating a fresh start and some short, medium and longer term aims for a new manager to work to.
Perhaps the appointment of the Director of Football role will see the start of that process once NW has departed but, on past evidence, I am not holding my breath.
One question that needs to be asked and addressed is why do the likes of Burnley, Bournemouth and Brighton manage to secure promotion and maintain their PL status longer than us? What do we need to do differently, a starting point perhaps.
I am becoming more disillusioned as time passes as we seem to be going over the same old problems every few years and end up making comments like "enough is enough he has to go". A really sad state of affairs for a club I have supported since my early teens! 😎
Hope for a new manager who knows what is needed and get the best out of the players we have and recall the ones out on loan in January.
OFB
Were de Roon and Martin Braithwaite bad players?
For a brief period Braithwaite was probably our best player. He could have been this generation's Merson and got us promoted from the Championship.
de Roon did OK but you often felt that it was taking him a while to adjust to the Premier league. Not helped in that he seemed to get asked to play further forward than he was used to.
A lot of people forget that when we went up we were tipped to stay up comfortably and that the consensus was that we had recruited brilliantly and early. Of course that's not what anyone thinks now but a first team of something like the following ought to have been perfectly capable of staying up.
Valdes
Nsue Ayala Gibson Friend
de Roon Clayton/Leadbitter (I think Grant was injured for quite a lot of the start of the season?)
Stuani Ramierez Downing
Negredo
The main, obvious weakness is the lack of pace. It's also 8 out of the 11 promotion winning team so it's not that much in the way of disruption.
Outfield subs from: Barragan, Chambers, Fabio, Forshaw, Traore, Nugent, Fischer, Rhodes
I mean if we had kept Reach to alternate with Downing and Stuani can play up front if Traore or Fischer played on the right, you would put a decent wager on that team staying up.
Were de Roon and Martin Braithwaite bad players?
It's also 8 out of the 11 promotion winning team so it's not that much in the way of disruption..
Exactly how we should have played. Aitor was given far too many new players at once. One must keep the basic team the same after a promotion. Buy quality, not quantity.
Big Jack was a total opposite. He did not buy a new striker when Hicton was agening. We did finish high in the table even Paul Mariner did not join us.
Up the Boro!
@k-p-in-spain I agree with you. But unfortunately we cannot make the decisions. Just hope Steve Gibson has time to read this block.
We would make a good board at the Boro 😉. Up the Boro!
Having just watched an amazing exhibition of golf from the USA in the Ryder Cup with a young side most of whom were rookies oblivious to the stigma of playing for themselves instead of a team perhaps Boro should have adopted the same system by integrating more of the academy players into the first team environment instead of sending them out on loan. I really enjoyed the Ryder Cup despite the biggest ever defeat for Europe. In the foursomes and footballs the worst European players were McIlroy, Poulter and Westwood, yet strangely they were the only Europeans to win their Singles matches.
What’s this to do with football you may ask? Well having just caught up with Championship football yesterday on Quest and seeing the worst Boro display for many a year, I have come to the conclusion that the standard of the Championship as a whole is deteriorating season by season, and that’s why any side can beat any other side on any given day excepting Boro of course. I didn’t know any of the results including Boro’s until yesterday but Boro’s performance was the pits of all the clubs’ participating. Also the revelation that Boro have the worst disciplinary record in the division doesn’t fill me with hope for the future (incidentally tonight’s opponents Sheffield United have the best). Whether those statistics were recorded before Boro won their appeal over Matt Crooks’ red card is not known, but maybe Warnock’s reputation has discouraged some of his targets from signing for Boro, hence the panic buying of foreign players.
Having only just caught up with the weekend’s football results yesterday and watching highlights of the Championship matches, where any team is capable of beating any other (excepting Boro of course), I have come to the conclusion that the Championship is deteriorating season after season with by and large most of the promotion teams becoming yo-yo clubs. The weekend’s matches excepting Blackburn’s win over Cardiff were dire with Boro’s defeat at Reading being the worst in my opinion. Having yet to catch up with ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ I’m not sure whether I can stomach another Boro performance like (in my case) in successive days. There’s only so much television I can watch without falling asleep and I’ve still got the shopping and ironing to do whilst coping with the itchiness of shingles.
@ken. NW has made much of the poor refereeing this season stating that it is the worst in his 41 years with which I do not disagree with.
I also agree with you that the Championship is deteriorating season upon season and that most of the promotion teams are yo-yo clubs; sadly we have deteriorated even further and are now a mid to lower Championship side at present.
It remains to be seen if a new manager could mould a team from the current squad; I am not entirely convinced as I think for a long while many of us, self included, have believed that the likes of Tav, Fry, Spence, Coulson and Wing are better than they really are,sadly. 😎
So Neil Warnock still believes the majority of supporters are behind him:
"If I thought the majority of people weren’t behind me then it’s a different ball game. I’ve come here to help the club and I know meeting people and talking to people that they’re behind me and want us to do well."
Yes, I'm sure most supporters want him to do well but his record in 2021 is not looking great - I've just been looking at the numbers in my Excel spreadsheet...
P34 W11 D7 L16 F39 A47
That's just 40 points from 34 games, which would equate to 54 over a season - probably just enough to avoid relegation but to put that in context: the season in which he took over for the last seven games after Woodgate was dismissed (of which he won 3), Boro finished with 53 points. So where exactly is the progress that's going to see that magic top six finish the club are apparently aiming for?
The Boro manager is going to have to start showing he can deliver points if he wants to feel he has the majority of fans behind him - at some point the PR and praising of supporters will fall on deaf ears if nothing changes. He's basically still in a job because of his past record as the results are really no better than Woodgate's.
@werdermouth. I have just read the article in the EG and my immediate thoughts were he is preparing his exit route by saying "if I thought the majority of people weren't behind me".
As soon as things start turning against him, crowds on match days, then he will be able to leave on the basis that people no longer believed in him and what he was trying to do; it might be sooner rather than later, especially if we don't get a win before the next international break! 😎
Great insight and I hope to true he’s taken us as far as he can go with his ability
Thank you now Go!
OFB
It will be interesting to see both the team performance and the crowd reaction this evening. A win and Warnock will be safe for a while - especially if he goes with his 'own' team and decides not to accommodate those 'foreign' players who are not Championship fit.
Perhaps the key game for observers within the club will be at the weekend against Hull, who are only not bottom due to Derby's points deduction. The Tigers are essentially the worse team in the league so Boro need to beat them.
Though I'm not expecting Gibson to pull the plug yet but we can only hope Warnock starts winning games as the reality of waiting until it's obvious the play-offs aren't obtainable will mean the season is another treading water - or worse sinking!
Sheffield Utd have the second best form in the league over the last 5 games. Losing against them wouldn't be unexpected but if we do lose it will be the performance that determines whether the crowd turns.
Hull have the worst recent performance in the league. As you say, if we lose that I can't see any future in which Gibson hangs onto Warnock. I suspect we'll see Lee as a caretaker manager.
If we don't get at least 3 points from those two matches, I can't see Warnock staying anyway.
4-6 points from the matches with the team successfully playing Warnock ball and I think he'll stay until the playoffs become impossible.
That's how I see it. If the aim is the playoffs I think Gibson either has to act early or go all in to support Warnock. I don't think you can kick the can much further down the road.
I suspect Gibson will deem 11 games with just a month since the less than match-fit new signings arrived too soon to eject his manager - especially if it was only to appoint a caretaker team of Leo and probably Craig Liddle.
Unless Gibson has already made a contingency plan with Keiran Scott and has sounded out the profile of who a possible replacement should be. Although, having said that, if Warnock is performing no better than Woodgate did in terms of delivering points then he may decide that there isn't much to lose.
OK, if there's a danger of Warnock walking then he'll need a Plan B!
Having just watched an amazing exhibition of golf from the USA in the Ryder Cup with a young side most of whom were rookies oblivious to the stigma of playing for themselves instead of a team perhaps Boro should have adopted the same system by integrating more of the academy players into the first team environment instead of sending them out on loan....
I couldn't agree more Ken,
I think it all a load of nonsense that the players have to go out to develop and learn to play with the men, like the men.
They are good enough or not, regardless of their age and I agree with your thinking that they are far more likely to give their all in the team....
Ah well. Not convinced we will do well tonight.
Warnock's Best Choice 1 - The Blades 3
Neil Warnock obviously reached a major turning point whilst most of us were sleeping in the early hours of Sunday morning.
He had selected tonight's team. From now on he was going to play his players in his team rather than kow-towing to to "them upstairs".
No longer would he rely upon players whom he had neither chosen nor approved of, players who had, indeed, been foisted upon him specifically to usher in the new regime which would be installed on his retirement at the end of the season.
It was the right and only sensible decision, and we may be rewarded tonight with a spirited, fighting and highly motivated display which confounds most of our expectations.
Two inconvenient facts may spoil this ideal scenario for the manager.
First of all this is still not the squad that Warnock would ideally have chosen to have available to him. Sam Morsy (in the light of any more credible explanation having been offered by either the club or the local media) appears to have been sold from under him. Morsy is the archetypal Championship player, the one we have missed most in recent weeks, the midfield anchor we have not replaced, a Warnock-type consistent grafter who does all of the dirty work and more. Sold, we have to assume , because he did not fit into the future vision of the club, and whose transfer fee enabled us to purchase three European imports who did.
The second inconvenience is that Bola is not fit, and that none of our recent purchases was made to cover what is our most obvious positional weakness at left back. So adjustments will have to be made which will almost certainly affect the whole balance of the team.
Nevertheless I hope we play well tonight and I think that we will. We should at least see the team play with a sense of purpose and direction, even if we may have reservations about what that direction is. It should be an improvement on the confusion of purpose and identity of our last three matches, an on-field mess which reflects a confusion of message and purpose behind the scenes.
It is the interpersonal aspects of Warnock's situation that are probably of the greatest significance at the present time. I have no first-hand knowledge of what is happening and the Gazette certainly isn't saying, but it does not take a great deal of imagination to understand how bruised the manager must have been by recent events.
The appointment of Kieron Scott ("Kieron effing Who?" one imagines NW responding) as Director of Football must have been a bitter blow.
After all, this was a role for which, like Pulis before him, Warnock must have felt himself more than well qualified. And doesn't everyone, post-retirement, covet the prospect of a cushy and remunerative sinecure in which one does little other than swan in and out occasionally, giving an institution the benefit of one's hard-earned knowledge, experience and contacts?
Neil, Blackie and Ronnie marching on into a rose-tinted future. Never a likely possibility, but a cherished hope nevertheless.
One can imagine Warnock biting his tongue, but accepting ,nevertheless, the appointment of someone above him in the club's hierarchy with a well-respected footballing pedigree. But a kid from Norwich whose only claim - hold the front page! - is that he was part of a team that recruited a couple of cheap players who turned out well? Compared with a pro with more than 50 years experience in the game? Do me a favour.
Now Warnock has always regarded match officials as Public Enemies Numbers One to Four inclusive, but the psychotic episode over a throw-in on the half-way line at Forest was so over-the-top as to be suggestive of a massive displacement of anger that had been suppressed for some considerable time on to a situation that could scarcely have been more trivial.
And what about his reaction to the red card at Reading? What was intolerable for Warnock was that a good referee, an established pro, someone of proven experience should have allowed himself to be over-ruled by "a pup", someone who looked barely out of school, a kid who knows nothing, and whom Warnock would personally like to interrogate.
We have all had some fun at Warnock's post-match interviews recently, but even his severest critics, of which I include myself, have to admit that he has not ducked responsibility. He is out there facing the media, and at some length, taking it on the chin, even talking nonsense, to explain situations not necessarily of his own making. And displaying an admirable excuse-free stoicism: "It's no use moaning, we just have to get on with it".
Power without responsibility, the traditional prerogative of the sex worker, the newspaper owner and the high court judge belongs elsewhere within the club, amongst those who never allow themselves to be interrogated.
For Warnock it is all of the responsibility from an increasingly eroded power base.
Warnock does not represent the future of the club, but he has successfully achieved what he was asked to do. He deserves to be treated with respect rather than being hung out to dry. In seeking to re-establish his own authority and values, I wish him well.
I hope we win tonight against all the odds. If we don't, and we really are approaching the manager's last days, I do not envy the task of his successor, who, with a squad so lacking in coherence and identity, really will be facing a battle to stay in the Championship.
1-0 to the Boro.
Werder, he will indeed require a Plan B and all I can say about whatever plan he has or will have is can it’s lynchpin please be a younger, hungrier, more talented manager with modern ideas on how to play the game and deliver success.
Please, please, please no more ageing dinosaurs of managers like Pulis and Allardyce who might be able to keep a team In a division but are absolutely not going to take a club forward beyond that. We have been down that route several times in the last few years and it has failed to deliver the future promise that we all want to see, even if that means some more short term pain.
Beautifully reasoned and fair as ever Len.
Great Post Len one which you have thought and considered long and hard about to deliver your points.
I feel sorry for Warnock but change happens and whatever the result tonight we all know he’s on his way out . It may be next week next month or next year but it has to happen.
None of us can work forever and it took me two long years sat at home to think that perhaps it was the right thing to retire when I did.
It’s raining hard in Teesside at the moment which will probably result in a reduced crowd as the game is being shown live on sky. Warnock is trying to rally the fans and his latest call to arms is as follows
“
Neil Warnock says he will work as hard as he possibly can to turn around Middlesbrough's fortunes after a disappointing start to the season.
The reason is he wants to reward Boro fans for their incredible support so far this season, which he described as 'the massive plus' on an otherwise disappointing campaign so far”
So I’ll go along with your 1 0 Len but I don’t expect a great performance!
Up the Boro
OFB
So I’ll go along with your 1 0 Len but I don’t expect a great performance!
Up the Boro
OFB
I think I'm in the opposing camp on that final point, OFB.
I have a feeling that Warnock turning to "his" players may provide a more spirited and coherent performance than we've seen of late but I still think it will end in defeat as Sheffield Utd are flying at the moment.
Not playing our more talented imports will do nothing for our long term prospects this season as our squad is otherwise mid-table at best but equally we're in a rut at the moment and Warnock's own may well be the best short-term option. We need points.
I'll upgrade my 0-3 prediction to a hard fought 1-2 that leaves us disappointed but not dispirited, and fancying our chances against Hull at the weekend.
If we don't at least get a reaction tonight then surely the plug has to be pulled.
PS Terrific post, Len.
@original-fat-bob I was the first to predict a 1-0 win for the mighty Boro . And now Sir Len said the same, too.
Beside, Sheffield United will find their journey to the Riverside Stadium an unpleasant one having drawn once in their last six visits there. Their last victory was on their first-ever visit to the Riverside on 5th October 1997, when they won 2-1.
So what could go possibly wrong for Boro tonight?
Up the Boro!
Great post Len at trying to make sense of what exactly has been happening in terms of seemingly running parallel overlapping regimes at Boro. It's hard to say exactly where Neil Warnock has fitted into the recent summer dealings but he has probably accepted much on the basis he's not planning to be around next season.
There have been a drip drip dripping of the Boro manager's doubts but he's glossed over the issues and publicly gone along with need for these decisions. No doubt his line in the retirement sand probably stopped at not being around for much longer this season if he passively continued to bed in players while the tide was shifting the ground underneath him.
But as you say, and I'm of the same view, it's left Boro with a squad that neither one thing or the other, which lacks depth in all the wrong places - thanks mainly to a joint effort of both manager and the club to dispense with all the covering players in order to accommodate the numerous new recruits and avoid the failure of complying with FFP budgets.
As I've said, I think as far as this season goes, we have to hope Warnock starts getting results as the alternative is using the rest of this campaign to bed in a new regime to be up to speed for next season. Hopefully, there is some kind of long-term vision behind this rather than random decision making that all seem logical individually but don't make a coherent strategy together.
Agree, time for a different film with a 21st century manager in charge for the digital age rather than the nostalgic flickering reruns from a 20th century fox we seem to end up with...
Interesting but unsurprising given Warnock's comments on his new 'foreign' signings this week - Let's see if this rumour leads to a decision or things cool down if Warnock gets his much-needed win tonight.
Just reading an article in the Echo where Warnock makes it quite plain what his view is...
"I think I’ve probably worried too much about getting people fit, but I don’t think I should do that anymore now. I think I should just pick my team and if people get fit, great, if they don’t, they won’t get in the team."
It seems to have come on the back of Siliki refusing to agree with his manager's request not to go away on international duty with Cameroon because Warnock told him that he wasn't nowhere near fit enough and would likely only play 5 or 10 minutes for Cameroon and then return less fitter back to Boro.
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