Boro will be looking to bounce back from a rather disappointing defeat at Huddersfield last weekend after many of those players who had made Neil Warnock's team the meanest in the country appeared in overly generous mood. It was a game that after taking an early lead looked to be heading for a routine away win. However, after some spurned chances, one of which looked easier to score than miss, the Terriers gained in confidence and then seemed to walk through Boro's oddly porous-looking defence almost at will.
Possibly the soggy conditions didn't help but there were signs that Boro were looking leggier than a millipede with added extra prosthetic limbs. Perhaps Warnock's high-pressing game, with just a little over 48 hours rest from last Wednesday's game over Derby, was taking its toll in such conditions - especially if you consider both McNair and Saville didn't even get a breather during the international break. Indeed, the back four and midfield trio of Howson, Saville and Tavernier plus Betenelli in goal have been first choice for a number of weeks, which means all eight players may be starting to show both physical and mental strain.
Of course it could just have been something of an off day as that can happen - though it was interesting that Neil Warnock mentioned before the Derby game that the players had seemed a little lethargic in the pre-match dressing room and needed an old-school "bollocking" to get them fired up again. Maybe it was a sign of things to come and after losing the momentum following an early goal, some took their foot off the gas and allowed Huddersfield back into the game. Nevertheless, it's probably time to freshen up the starting XI though in truth there are not that many real options available to the Boro manager - perhaps a fit-again Morsy and another start for Lewis Wing could give the engine room a short break. However, it's hard to put any case for not selecting Jonny Howson, who once again continues to set the standard that others much reach.
One player who won't be returning any time soon to provide Neil Warnock with an option to rest any of his first-choice defenders is Grant Hall. After having almost returned to full fitness following his calf injury, the 29-year old apparently damaged his thigh when side-footing a ball in training with the prognosis being he'll be out for another 3-4 months and may even need surgery. That just leaves Nathan Wood as centre-back cover and the possibility of Dijksteel moving inside from right-back in an emergency - though even he looked to be carrying a knock last weekend.
It's with the attacking options where we could see most of the changes- though at the moment Marvin Johnson must be considered a starter after some well-taken goals of late. Also Duncan Watmore may be worth a start on the left as he looks like a player who shows good awareness of those around him - with Johnson perhaps playing wide right. I'd be surprised if Britt gets the nod to start on Wednesday even though he looks like he's been working quite well on his stuttering penalty run-up. That may give another opportunity for Chuba Akpom to try and show his scoring prowess and see how he links up with the rest. As to whether Warnock will turn to Patrick Roberts to solve his side's slip from solidarity is I guess the kind of thinking that is potentially way outside the box.
Still, however Neil Warnock decides to react to last weekend's performance, Wednesday's opponents will not be an easy test. Swansea are currently showing the kind of form that saw them reach the play-offs last season and with just one defeat in their last eight games, which was against leaders Norwich, they've moved up to fourth spot and only two points off the top. In contrast, Boro have slipped from their top-of-the-form-table position and are actually languishing in the bottom half after just one win in five.
The young Swans manager, Steve Cooper, has certainly continued where he left off last term and has impressed in his short coaching career. The man from Pontypridd and incidentally son of former Premier League referee, Keith Cooper, made his name as a coach with England's under-17s where he won the FIFA U17 World Cup in 2017 - surely the dream of every young Welshman. OK, it wasn't regarded as too much of a burden back in the principality as the club from South Wales saw he had the kind of talent they were looking for.
This game at the Riverside will be perhaps judged more on the performance - particularly from the midfield and defence to check if last week was merely just a blip rather than the start of a worrying trend. Conceding three goals was a shock to witness as it was an amount that had previously taken the red wall getting towards 1000 minutes and 10 games to suffer - indeed, two of which were actually penalties. So despite the need-of-a-lie-down excitement of seeing five Boro goals in three days, I suspect many will be satisfied with a return to those glorious nil-nil victories as the team regroups and stops the opposition from playing.
Swansea’s away results this season fairly impressive having only conceded 4 goals, but only scored 7 though only 1 defeat to League leaders Norwich. However have only scored 16 goals overall home and away to Boro’s 14 but have now conceded only 8 goals overall, one less than Boro who have an extra day’s rest as the Swans played last Sunday. All the makings of a goalless draw tomorrow, but I said that before the Huddersfield match! Here are Swansea’s away results:-
12 Sep Preston Won 1-0
26 Sep Wycombe Won 2-0
20 Oct Coventry Drew 1-1
24 Oct Bristol City Drew 1-1
3 Nov Brentford Drew 1-1
7 Nov Norwich Lost 0-1
29 Nov Forest Won 1-0
Bad news about Grant’s injury especially as it seemed no one else was involved.Getting players with a bad injury record is always dodgy as quite often they pick up injuries unrelated to their previous injuries.
So, it’s a chance for the young lads to get a game.
Difficult to forecast tomorrow’s game, Swansea are on a decent run and particularly so from home whereas,I think, Boro have only 5 points from the last 5 games. Part of me says a draw won’t be the end of the world - but a win would be very welcome.
Good managers usually bounce back after a defeat. I seem to remember that Karanka had an exceptionally good record of not losing two consecutive games.
Philip of Huddersfield
It sounds cold and ruthless but Hall's injury record when we signed him was a warning of what could come to pass. It was a gamble that might have paid off but in the end it bit us on the backside.
After losing Shotton, Ayala and Friend, having experience at the back made sense but ultimately its no substitute for ability. When he gets back to full fitness which is likely to be too late for this season I would still rate him behind Wood which isn't a great bit of business in hindsight. We need to bring in a CB on loan but the problem is if they would get game time over Fry and McNair and personally I'd rather we used Wood as 3rd choice to continue his development.
Maybe its better to utilise Dijksteel as 4th choice CB with Howson or Spence covering at RB. Overall the squad is too small and some additional bodies would be great but who is going to pay for them? It's more likely that NW has to look at the Academy, it was around this time last year that Spence started to break through from memory.
Just moved a couple of posts over to the Boro v Swansea thread as they probably belong here.
Yes, Paddy signed to the end of 23/24 season, so anyone coming for him in January are going have to bid high.
Swansea will be a difficult game, keeping Ayew quiet will be a major factor to getting something from the match. NW did state in a recent interview that they may be times this season where we lose 2/3/4 matches in a row, it’s a matter of staying with them.
Come on BORO.
“Paddy McNair has pledged his future to the club by agreeing to extend his stay as a Boro player.
The Northern Ireland international, who already had 18 months remaining on his current deal, has committed to an extension that will keep him at the club until the end of the 2023/24 season.
The 25-year-old is now closing in on 100 appearances for the club after joining in the summer of 2017 and is currently enjoying a terrific season in a central defensive berth.
He follows in the footsteps of Jonny Howson, Anfernee Dijksteel, and Sam Folarin, who have all recently agreed to new extensions, and boss Neil Warnock was delighted to add another player he rates highly.
“It’s another step in the right direction for the club,” said the boss.
“We want to almost build a team around Paddy. He has excelled this season, and he’s loving every minute of it. It took him two seconds to agree to a new contract which I thought was fantastic.
“I’m absolutely delighted and this is another important step for the club for the future.”
Warnock seems to be astute in getting the Club to commit to players that can form the bedrock of the clubs future. Worse case by having a few more years on their contract it will add a few more zero's to their value should a predator enter via the Transfer window.
Looking at the age of the squad now only Howson stands out as a Senior player into his early thirties and even he has committed his future.
Thanks Werder for your pre-match piece, another good read.
As far as the team selection for tomorrow is concerned I was think along the same lines as you with Morsy, Akpom and Watmore starting, assuming that Dijksteel is fit.
I will stick with a ⚽️ - ⚽️ but would not be surprised to see us lose again tomorrow. I hope not but Saturday was such a poor performance there remain more questions than answers as to the cause. CoB 😎
Yes Neil Warnock did say that. It almost takes me back to Alan Hansen’s comment about Manchester United “You’ll never win anything with kids” or something along those lines. He was proved wrong though and I wonder if he would have made the same comments about the Busby Babes pre Munich, or indeed about the Boro Bairns in 1986. Nevertheless I think one has to give young players some slack. Maybe Boro might lose the next two matches as neither are easy. But I hope they don’t, though if they do as you say it’s a “matter of staying with them” as we don’t need supporters turning against them even if only in the press, as that only affects confidence.
Werder
just read your post this morning and looking forward to the game tonight. Hopefully the Huddersfield game was a blip amd the poor and jaded performance was a one off.
I have every confidence that NW will freshen things up and we can see a better performance tonight.
Thanks for all the best wishes all you bloggers.
Tonight I’m going for (drum roll !)
⚽️⚽️
OFB
Just one more statistic to mull over folks. The last time that Boro had only conceded 9 goals from their opening 14 league matches they won promotion 😃😃😃
While a draw would probably be a good result against Swansea, after last night's results Boro could probably do with a win this evening if they aren't going to see 5-6 point gap emerging between them and the top six.
Closing a six-point gap is not easy unless a team goes on a winning run and so far Neil Warnock's team have only managed back-to-back victories once this season. In fact they only achieved consecutive wins once last season too, when Woodgate actually won four in a row over the festive period to earn himself December's manager of the month.
OK, there's still two-thirds of the season to go but the bigger the gap the better the run needs to be. Incidentally, based on the current points per game Boro are on target for 69 points this season - whereas the teams in play-off places are currently heading for a minimum of 80 points, which is quite high by Championship standards.
btw don't forget it's a 7pm kick-off again
It looks like my opinion of our goalkeeping at Huddersfield was about right, they were crunched last night 3-0 so, was it a one off, or something we can expect on a regular basis.
Thanks for the usual high quality intro Werder and the mixture of wit and realism.
Good to see OFB almost back to normal but I'm going for a 0-2 this time to try and reverse the hex of my optimism. Surely Mr Warnock cannot play Britt? he seems to be in cow's arse and banjo territory.
stay safe everyone,
UTB,
John
I cannot see NW accepting two defeats in a row. Not this team.
So I will join the peacemaker in here: 👀
But I hope Britt will think differently 😁. And to score.
Up the Boro!
This is one of our most difficult fixtures against a good passing team with a quality and in-form striker. A team who beat us comprehensively only a few months ago. A team which will retain possession and make us run and chase.
The good news is that these are probably the best circumstances under which to play them.
We have had a day's extra recovery- no small advantage at a time of fixture congestion- and this game represents the Swans' second away game in a few days with all of its attendant travelling.
So I'll go for Swansea taking an early lead and the Boro surprising us all by fighting back, coming from behind, as they all too rarely do, and winning 2-1.
Logic dictates it.
Local History and Philosophy tells us "Yer joken arn yer"
Team News
Time has beaten me again this week.
Just wanted to say a quick thanks to Werder, all the best to OFB, and (only partially in solidarity with OFB) predict a back-to-basics 0-0.
Come on Boro.
Now I know this sounds weird but since the Second World War before our opponents were granted city status and known as plain Swansea Town I always looked forward to our home matches against the Welshmen because I knew that Boro would probably win and there would be plenty of goals. In fact Boro played Swansea 12 times, won 10 of those and drew one and lost one. But the significant thing was that in those 12 matches Boro scored 40 goals twice winning 6-2 and only conceded 16 goals which aggregates as a 3-1 win. Now I’ve always maintained that previous results are irrelevant, but now I’m wondering if———-?
Watmore to open his account in a home win.
And he does, in the 26th minute, assisted by "NeyMarv". 😊 1-0. Keep it up, lads!
Watmore to open his account in a home win.
And he does, in the 26th minute, assisted by "NeyMarv". 😊 1-0. Keep it up, lads!
From the Beeb's text commentary:
A quick counter attack from Boro leads to the opening goal in the Championship tonight as Marvin Johnson sets up Duncan Watmore, who finds the bottom corner from the edge of the area.
However, it did take a massive deflection, completely wrong-footing the keeper. It's gone in the opposite corner to the one Watmore aimed at. But Boro won't be bothered by that! 1-0.