The figures don’t lie - another 3 goals, another 3 points and still 3 rd in the table. With another bonus of some competitors dropping points.
The only downside was Steffen, the goalkeeper who is prone to costly mistakes.
I am reminded of one of our best ever goalkeepers - Schwartzer, a bargain from Bradford City who in his first season made a few mistakes but he quickly eliminated them to become a model of consistency. I’ll never forget his penalty save in the last minute of added time to get Boro into Europe
..If only Steffen could approach Schwartzer’s consistentcy.
So, it’s Wednesday to look forward to on Sky against Sheffield United. I’ve no idea of the result- it really could be any of 3.
I expect Boro will have a lot of defending to do and for that reason alone I hope Fry is back to replace McNair.
But in the meantime let’s enjoy today’s victory.
Philip of Huddersfield
@philip-of-huddersfield I would choose Fry over McNair, but saying that the former in my opinion does not have the passing ability need for MC’s style of play. Good in the air, but otherwise limited.
I know I am being picky, but the back five make me nervous. Wednesday will be a big test for them. I hope they better than they did against Burnley.
@malcolm McNair I would rate as a 5 at best, apart from his involvement in gifting Cardiff a goal, he had few errors during the game, recently I have not got nervous watching Boro but every time the ball went near Paddy my stomach di somersaults.
Come on BORO.
Wednesday could well see us return to the Fry- Lenihan combination. Otherwise, same starting eleven, I would guess.
utb
I was only able to listen to the commentary of the first half of the Cardiff game while driving to a family appointment. Sounded like we played well during the first half to me.
By reading the above posts we might have needed to fight for the points but still won the second half by one goal to nil.
So job done. I totally agree with, Philip - three points are three points.
I just imagined how happy we would have been by winning 1-3 at Cardiff during the Pulis era. So let's enjoy the ride now. Happy with Michael Carrick.
Up the Boro!
@andy-r. An excellent analysis of a series of errors leading to the Cardiff goal. More than one error and more than one individual involved.
It’s bound to happen now and again because that is the way MC wants the team to play. Whilst it is not costing us games/points then we should stick with it/personnel involved. 😎
I certainly think it’s a case of dodgy execution over dodgy plan.
It is risky and allows for more mistakes than we’re used to but keeping the ball and playing through the opposition is leading to more goals scored for us than conceded against us. We just need to execute a little better and stay switched on.
I certainly think it’s a case of dodgy execution over dodgy plan.
It is risky and allows for more mistakes than we’re used to but keeping the ball and playing through the opposition is leading to more goals scored for us than conceded against us. We just need to execute a little better and stay switched on.
I think MC's observations on it during the post match interviews, and the calmness with which he accepted it had gone wrong speaks volumes.
Risk management is all about understanding what the risk is and what the cost will be when the risk manifests. Overall, it is less that the risk is we will concede a goal, but more that is over every occasion that we take the risk, how many times do we actually concede a goal, balanced by how many times the risk has led to scoring a goal (directly or indirectly) and how often the result of taking the risk is neutral.
I must admit it makes me very very nervous, and I originally thought it was a disastrous style of play for us, but the Boro is proving that overall the benefits are far outweighing the negatives for us. As AndyR has suggested, we will only improve the execution of taking the risk the more times we take it. So, the incidence of a negative outcome will reduce (ie resulting in a goal conceded) the better we get, even though the risk will always be there for every team that plays through the goalkeeper in this way.
@philip-of-huddersfield There's no doubt that MS was a great keeper but my recollection is that his distribution and kicking was quite poor. The number of times he kicked the ball upfield only for it to go out of play was huge.
As an aside, I’ll always remember him as the player who owned an identical camper van and trailer combination from Danbury (although his was black and mine was green). We’ve had a few Twitter discussions over the years about them, but I think, like me, he’s sold his now.
Question friends, if Boro make the playoffs but don't win, will the big guns come looking at MC?
Question friends, if Boro make the playoffs but don't win, will the big guns come looking at MC?
I'd rather not contemplate that now @malcolm 🫣
Question friends, if Boro make the playoffs but don't win, will the big guns come looking at MC?
Shudder.... but I suspect he may be although he may give it a full season, the one the vultures will try and steal away is Haydon Hackney, 20, British and is outstanding in this team
Malcolm, your question is not necessary, with his pedigree and history we were lucky to get him, and I hope that he stays to see us safely into the Prem. The whole of football is one great heaving mass of corruption. Three or four clubs rather liked being the only possible winners of the truly great prizes in football. Then some ugly commoner got rich and crashed the party. Immediately, there were moves (secretly) to get it stopped. Cue Manchester City got richer than all the other clubs, cue panic, cue enemy action. It got worse, Manchester City won big, and with brilliant football, and were liked where ever Football is played. Cue idiotic attempt to remove their name from the honours list of football. This lunatic idea is to stop anyone from using their own money to field the best team and win the the big prizes, there is no way it can be done but that does not stop them, they are beyond reason, because football makes people unreasonable. You will note that the entire Chelsea story was watched by these people without a word spoken, because Chelsea was based in London, and they were backed by extremely strange people.
It was difficult to concentrate on the match (via the BBC Tees commentary) because I was watching the World No 1 team play the World No 2 at Rugby Union, on TV, where Ireland (No 1) ultimately triumphed, as I expected. Ireland are head a shoulders above England, Scotland and Wales so it took France to give them a game. Really exciting stuff and it bodes well for them when the World Cup comes around in France this September/October.
Meanwhile, Boro did the business at Cardiff, but there was a period in the second half where things were sounding worrying. We desperately neeeded the third goal to wrap up the game. At the moment the team is riding its luck but successsful teams do that. How many times under the leadership of Sir Alex Ferguson did Manchester United play poorly but then sneak up the other end in "Fergie Time" to score the winner? And after doing that a couple of times, Manchester United would go on a long successful run when they would stuff everyone in sight, when Fergie Time wasn't required and, surprise surprise, cups and medals flowed at the end of the season.
Clearly we can't afford to gift any goals to Sheffield United midweek. They are 10 points ahead of 3rd place Boro for a reason - their results have been better over the season. But their results THIS year, or since our change of manager, have not been better than Boro's. What they have been able to do is to be consistent over the last SEVEN months. That is no accident. Boro's excellent form is more recent and therefore less long-lived. It doesn't rule out a win at Sheffield United and, indeed, such a result would not be a surprise and could certainly be understood. I think it is a game where ANY of the results (United win, a draw or a Boro win) could be almost expected. But if sport is, indeed, a matter of fine margins, wouldn't it light a fire under our enthusiasm and expectations if we managed to get three points at Bramall Lane? One to look forward to....
Definitely one to look forward to F-D. It has the potential to be one of the matches of the season. If we do pull off a win it will really begin to open the race for 2nd place and put immense pressure on The Blades who next go to Millwall, then host Watford.
By the way. I agree Ireland are head and shoulders above England and Wales, but perhaps only a short head above this year's Scotland. 😉
As per usual I fell asleep on Saturday afternoon so can’t possibly add anything meaningful to what has been said. Suffice to say that Billy Sharp is now only one goal short of 250 career goals. Presumably he will play against Boro on Wednesday night, and is just the type of player to humiliate Zach Steffen. A better chance to watch this match after my afternoon siesta.
Powmill - I agree Scotland are greatly improved this year. We will only find out HOW much improved when the Scots play Ireland and France.
Ken - Billy Sharp is the sort of player Boro could have done with over the last decade and a half. I think his Birth Certificate confirms he is older than YOU! He is like a more recent version of Kevin Phillips and both of them have scored goals as if it was second nature. Let's hope he comes up with a blank against Boro.
A game of two halves. We won both halves but in contrasting styles which is the upside of having a team with multiple goal threats. Even at our best under Wilder we tended to be one-dimensional whether relying on the Jones-Crooks-Dijksteel at first or Giles crossing to someone later. Under Carrick we can attack in multiple ways along multiple axes. Gone are the days of kick it to Adama or sit around and hope Juninho can magic something up. Under Carrick we have the most complete footballing *team* since the peak of the McClaren era. It's quite something.
I was looking at the whole build up to our first goal. It consisted of several phases of play, recycling and going again; including quickly winning the ball back when we briefly lost it. The key to it was McGree who had popped up on the right wing leaving Cardiff's defence spinning.
@andy-r's analysis of the Cardiff goal was dead on, in my opinion. It was a series of mistakes. Interestingly, it started when Steffen threw out to McNair who got closed down then passed back to Steffen. I think McNair then expects Steffen to kick it long but Steffen spots that the player who was closing McNair hasn't followed him back so McNair has space. Steffen returns it to McNair who is on his heels expecting something different. Then both McNair and Steffen panic and, to give Cardiff their due, they exploit it really well. Only real moment of clinical quality from Cardiff in the whole game.
I don't think Steffen IS casual. I think he tries to play in a very deliberate manner in order to project a sense of calm and control. He's a good footballing keeper but he suffers from being not as good as you would expect someone to be who has 20+ international caps and has been Man City's back-up keeper. Then again, you only have to look at the best keepers in the Championship and watch them getting caught out by a free-kick to get the impression that we probably have unrealistic expectations about them.
What is also pleasing is that we scored 3 goals despite Chuba having a relatively quiet game and actually missing a chance. Forss is probably the best natural striker of the ball we've had since Stuani; he has one hell of a powerful and precise shot with minimal backlift. Archer, I reckon, is still only around 80% match-fit and he's already a real handful. McGree is a madman; you can see him blossoming both as a player and person. Crooks may no longer be a starter but you can't want a better choice on the bench to come on and play almost anywhere.
Good times right now. On to Sheffield a team that beat Burnley 5-2 at Bramall Lane.
Sheffield United 5 - 2 Burnley?
GULP!
Hopefully that was the Blades' best performance & result of the season and when Boro plays them it will be Boro's best & Sheffield's worst.
You have to be happy with that result and Boro smacked the post twice too, if those two attempts had gone in the score would have been very different.
As for Sheffield well it's not an 'eyes in the sky' job for me, two sides who can score goals playing each other so we'll have to see who has the most steel in their team and the most resolve not to lose. . .
I hope the DiasBoro remember to take their nerve tonic before the game. I'll be behind the couch I think.
UTB,
John
Amen to that. In Carrick we trust.
Up the Boro!
@deleriad. Good post.
In defence of Steffen, every week in the EPL, never mind the Championship, one sees mistakes from top goalkeepers ending in chances for the opposition or even goals.
The majority teams there play the same way. Play out from the back, along with its risks. The top Coaches stick with their beliefs and (generally) their goalkeeper.
@pedro - All players make mistakes. Strikers who cost tens of millions miss open goals, and even take "air shots". Players completely misjudge the flight of the ball and it bounces over them or it appears they have taken their eyes off the ball and they miss what should have been an easy stop. I'd like £5 for every time a winger has attempted to cross the ball but succeeded only in putting it 10 yards behind the goal line or banged it over the heads of everyone in the box before the ball made its way into touch at the far side of the field. We've all seen a player under no pressure attempting a pass to a team-mate, yet the ball ends up hitting the side lines 25 yards behind the attempted target. None of those players MEANT to foul up so badly.
Players, even REALLY good ones, make mistakes. That's not the concern. What IS a concern, is a player making bad decisions. If you are a defender or a goalkeeper and the ball is in your penalty area with opposition players nearby and closing in, the first duty is to remove the immediate danger by getting the ball well clear of our goal. If there is time to make a considered pass to a player in a good position or a safe position, or where it looks likely that the team could build a good position, then by all means make that pass to the better-placed team mate. But not when the risks outweigh the potential benefit.
I'm sure it was Alan Hansen who made the valid point that the opposition can't score if your defenders put the ball into Row Z. If I remember correctly, Hansen was a vital cog in a Liverpool team that won a LOT of medals and cups. The key thing is to make good decisions at the appropriate time. "This is a dangerous position where I have very little time so I am going to put my foot thorugh the ball and get it as far away from my goal as possible." "That is a position where I have time - I can pass the ball to my colleague over there and the team can then try to work the ball upfield into a good attacking situation".
....mind you, I think we can place too much blame on the wrong people for bad results. We've all heard managers who berate the referee for a decision he made which "cost us the game", as well as people who blame the goalie for a poor attempt at saving a shot, or a defender making a suicidal back-pass. Meanwhile the striker has missed a couple of open goals and also allowed himself to stray into an offside position and therefore caused an otherwise good goal to be chalked off. If those goals had counted , the result would have gone the other way. But the manager wouldn't want to say anything critical about his star striker...
Usually when teams are doing well it's not just down to one factor let alone one decision made by the referee, and when teams are doing badly it isn't down to one poor decision made by one player in a game or one favourable decision. I suspect football is more complex than that. Just as when a goal is conceded it may be the result of an act of brilliance by an opposition player but it is more often not just one poor decision by a player but a series of errors, each one adding to the one before until the defence breaks.
Quite right. There is no I in team.