I’d play Wing and Tav behind Fletcher. Basically the same team as v Shrewsbury but with Saville in for Assombalonga to protect that left side with Howson protecting the right. Might be some changes at the back but I haven’t seen enough of the options.
Word of mitigation for Hall: That was his first competitive game in six months.
Boro simply don’t have the personnel to play 4-3-3. This has become glaringly obvious. 4-4-2 with proper full backs is the way to go to avoid being swamped in midfield.
Now where do we get two FB’s.....
It may only be the Daily Fail,
but I'm actually starting to warm to the man!
No - I’ve never been convinced about us playing 4-3-3 when Monk, Pulis or Woodgate tried it.
I would retain a back three and the wingbacks with Saville and Howson protecting them, then Tav and Wing behind Fletcher in a 3-4-2-1.
i think its time fans realised the gap between the Championship teams down to even the second division is getting smaller , teams are more organised ,they get better coaching , and more than anything ,top clubs are releasing good young players ,because of the numbers,and some lower managers are astute at picking them , and developing them,its the inconsistancy with kids that frustrate clubs,but to think Boro should be hammering teams ,is way off the mark.
if we had gone down,it could have been for a long time,we have got to bring some in because we are still a soft touch,and include the likes of Howson, Fry,Spence,Johnson,Wing,Mcnair,they dont dominate the opposition ,they wait for the other team to make a mistake and then start playing,its not good enough NW knows this,thats why he mentioned leaders.
@stircrazy snap ! Just read it and posted it as well...
OFB
NW just sounds like a really decent guy who will do whatever he can to get Boro into a better position than he found them and has a petty good idea of what that takes. Am I being sucked in by clever media manipulation? No, I don't think so and, to be honest, I don't care. I don't know about the rest of you guys, but I'd love to sit down for a meal with him and just talk.
UTB
And mine too.... must be said the defence need a collective kick up their Corialanus
My favourite is ‘I hate men’ two different versions in the stage production to the film version, not that I myself hate men, but love women.
2nd round Barnsley at home followed by Chelsea away, so the thoughts of another mid week match involving a trip to London, I would not be upset if NW played the fringe/youngsters against Barnsley.
Come on BORO.
2nd round Barnsley at home followed by Chelsea away, so the thoughts of another mid week match involving a trip to London, I would not be upset if NW played the fringe/youngsters against Barnsley.
Come on BORO.
I think the fringe has receded somewhat - Boro are perhaps more of a mullet this season, rather untidy at the back and bit thin down the sides. Though, I'd agree that going down the Chelsea road may highlight our limited style on a budget...
Mullett? More like contenders to remake the Hamlet Cigars advert!
Do these idiots learn nothing about the sport that they are supposed to rule? To make two cup draws at a time is death to any type of adventure or dream that teams may have. The entire point of all cups is the uncertainty, who will we draw? Take that away and you may as well pack the entire game in.
Do these idiots learn nothing about the sport that they are supposed to rule? To make two cup draws at a time is death to any type of adventure or dream that teams may have. The entire point of all cups is the uncertainty, who will we draw? Take that away and you may as well pack the entire game in.
It's just another example of Football now being an inconvenience and getting in the way of the Money Men.
2nd round Barnsley at home followed by Chelsea away, so the thoughts of another mid week match involving a trip to London, I would not be upset if NW played the fringe/youngsters against Barnsley.
Come on BORO.
Wouldn’t we all like a cup run though? Who’s had a better footballing day than 29th Feb 2004 at Cardiff. I haven’t!
Its so that Premier League teams can plan their cup strategies.
Good article on Andy Campbell in DM.
Martin Bellamy
My late wife and I were spending our usual 5 months in the Algarve and watched the match in a local restaurant and on the following day bought every British newspaper available even the Portuguese sports paper’ A Bola’. After the match I rang my pal in Nunthorpe to ask him to buy the Evening Gazette, Northern Echo and Yorkshire Post for me when I returned home.
However there’s nothing like being there, so you’ll probably understand when I state that my favourite sporting occasion was to drive down to Wembley with my wife, mum and dad to watch Castleford beat Salford in the 1969 Rugby League Cup Final. None of us had ever been to Wembley before and my parents hadn’t seen a rugby match before and I had to explain the rules to them as play ensued, but it was the occasion really. My car had been adorned for weeks before with posters such as Classy Cas and High Speed Cas. I paid for the tickets for the 4 of us and remembered it only cost 10 shilling (50 new pence) in total. We stopped at York to pick up a pal of mine, had breakfast there and he had told his works colleagues to look out for him on the television, saying that he would be easily recognisable as when Stuart Hall of ‘It’s a knockout’ fame asked everybody to wave their song sheet programmes prior to the community singing, he wouldn’t wave his so would stand out in the sellout crowd of 100,000.
We were caught in traffic jams as we neared the stadium along with Salford fans and with the car window down Dad was sharing banter with them. Sadly he was killed in a road accident driving home from work hit by a United bus which skidded on black ice in Warrenby a week before Christmas in that year. But that trip to Wembley lived long in his short memory, and mine too.
Got to agree with a number on here, that the defence, on the face of it, still looks vulnerable and limited. However more than that, I thought that the midfield against Shrewsbury were poor, was Howson really playing?
The return of Saville and McNair will add very little also. Astute as NW is, and I am confident his sum will be greater than the parts, I just do not see sufficient in the squad to see us in the top ten, never mind the dream of the top six.
McNair and Saville have already proven they bring nothing to the midfield, both have been given ample opportunities to shine and neither has done anything. The only reason they are still at the club is I imagine both have lucrative contracts and nobody will take them off our hands.
@grovehillwallah Not sure I agree with that. Not that Saville and McNair have pulled up any trees and I wouldn't be disappointed if they were sold (so long as they were astutely replaced) but that they wouldn't add anything to midfield we played against Shrewsbury.
It was a needs-must selection and no issue with it, but a central midfield three of a natural box-to-boxer (Howson), a natural no. 10 (Wing) and a natural wide-forward/10 (Tavernier) was always imbalanced and weighting to attacking play.
Adding Savile back in alongside Howson will provide better defensive balance. Playing Wing and Tav further forward will help both defensively and offensively. McNair I would leave out unless required at the back, but that again is a compromise (such is the squad).
We could certainly do with an imposing centre-back and a dedicated defensive midfielder. That said, even without them I think we can do a fair bit better than last season and finish mid-table.
I think if managed correctly McNair could become a good CB at this level and maybe even higher. He has shown quality sporadically in the past but apart from Untied the teams he has been playing for have been pretty dire so its hard to judge any Player objectively after his Sunderland tenure and our last season. If we can't recruit a CB then I suspect NW will have already pencilled him in.
@redcarred A Beckenbauer according to NW. But some - AV, perhaps - said the same about Fry, too. One is Ok but the other one needs to be a tough tacling CB.
Up the Boro!
I’ve just read this in a local magazine and it describes me and probably many others of my ilk:-
When God decreed that people would grow older with the passing of time, he realised that many of them wouldn’t realise that they should be taking appropriate exercise in order to keep themselves fit for as long as possible. So in his wisdom he therefore decided that we should all become forgetful so we would have to expend both time and energy searching for keys, glasses, wallets and all other things we tend to misplace resulting in our walking about more than we need to, but at least it was helpful in keeping ourselves fit.
He also arranged for our co-ordination to decrease so we would continually drop things which required a great deal of bending, reaching and stretching thus again keeping us fitter than we might otherwise be. He then considered the function of bladders and decided that having more calls of nature than our younger counterparts would provide yet more exercise going up and downstairs.
So if you find as you get older you’re getting up and down more, walking and bending more, don’t mutter and curse under your breath, just accept it because now you know that it’s God’s will.
I watched the match on the live stream and agree with fellow bloggers that it was a less than wonderful performance from Boro, despite our scoring four goals. We were scrappy in midfield, and weak at the back and in goal. But at least we did get the goals!
I won’t add anything more at this stage, except to say that I can’t ever remember starting a season with a weaker squad than this one, except perhaps in 1986. We are painfully thin on the ground once we get past the first eleven (plus McNair, Savile and Coulson). We desperately need reinforcements, and quickly.
Onwards and upwards. In true AV fashion, I’ve got my Wembley hotel booked for the Carabao Cup final, now that we have been drawn away to Chelsea. Piece of cake. Once we get past mighty Barnsley, of course.
As tackling been banned altogether ? seems like the new get stuck in , is a toe poke from the side.
Time to take one for the team,when you are being over ran by the opposition ,wack a couple get them moaning.
Looks like Bristol City are having a real go, they are signing everyone , we tried that in the past, didn't work.
a wonderful and slightly more rude version, worth it for the 12th Night joke alone. Both actors are English, I believe the shorter one is from Hull or thereabouts
From my RAF days when having a medical there were the following four categories:-
Measure for Measure
Much ado about nothing
As you like it
The taming of the Shrew