Absolutely woefull. Looked like strangers most of the game. Lack of fight in my opinion, some players didn't look interested and one who we know just went for a run out.
Vic agrees with the last few posters:
FT: 1-2. Abysmal. Sluggish and blunt. No energy or urgency. Disjointed at the back, too easily beaten for the goals, offered next to nothing going forward for 85 minutes. Final flurry was frantic but flaccid. Poor, poor display.
Just realised Boro play Huddersfield next week !!
Will someone tell Mr. Warnock not to give injuries as an excuse for not winning because Huddersfield have an horrendous injury list with 5 players out who would play every week. These are mainly defenders and today they had to play with 2 attacking midfielders at full back.
From 2-0 up they went to pieces and lost 3-2 and haven’t won this year - something like 8 games and commentators are talking of relegation with most teams below them having a game in hand.
So , it should be a home win unless Huddersfield think of the reverse fixture when Boro should have had the game sewn up after 30 minutes and managed to lose from a winning position.
Philip of Huddersfield
Can anyone explain why NW starts Assombalonga, only to replace him with another dud Akpom.
Is it to try and justify Britt's massive wages?
Something has to be done. NW wouldn't play PR in the team because he didn't fit. Double standards Neil. Britt hasn't fitted in the team for a long time.
As the most I had hoped for this season was that we would be in midtable rather than in a relegation fight I had been surprised to see us near the playoff places. Perhaps we have just reverted to where we should always have been though looking at the end of season fixtures I don't see an easy run in. The 12 point gap from 3rd from bottom should be enough to keep us clear even if our current poor form continues. I don't think the next game at home to Huddersfield will be easy in spite of their loss to Wycombe. I suspect they will be more determined to show a fightback than we will be although their recent form is worse than ours. We seem to have lost the desire to fight and pressure the opposition which was the way we were playing previously. Although Tav has been criticised for keeping the ball until he runs into trouble I think he is the only attacker we have who causes problems to defenses by running at them rather than the normal midfield plodders and unless the new attacking players we have brought in can hold the ball we will still struggle to create scoring chances. Without Tav, Johnson seemed to be the main goal assistor but he has not regularly played recently.
I have kept half of my bottle of Malbec as I expect to need it on Tuesday.
As team selections go Warnock’s line up had Boro fan’s aghast even before a ball was kicked. Bettinelli retaining his Teflon Jersey was marginally understandable as NW had got rid of his main competitor. Ever since Stojanovic departed, the Fulham fumbler has gone downhill faster than Eddie the Eagle albeit with far less grace and poise. The first goal saw him comically impersonate Mrs Doubtfire only without the feisty battling persona. As Goalkeeper’s go, he is rapidly entering Brad Guzan territory. It appears to be an extremely poor decision to bring him in and even worse, letting his only alternative go out on loan. At least he organises his defence apparently, just probably not as well as his sock drawer judging by his ability to stand on his feet.
Britt’s inclusion to lead the line was met with perhaps not universal but more than is healthy derision on social media sites. It must be said that compounded by a total lack of service of any kind he did not let the naysayers down. Those two crucial positions were the Achilles heel just waiting for fans to vent their frustrations over and the sterling silver salver which Warnock presented to them was diamond encrusted.
Considering that we have nothing to lose this season and indeed have a few new attacking additions it was reasonable to expect to see some uplifting swift attacking moves and directness from Boro. Instead, we were treated to terminal launching the ball, the type of which poor Pulis could have only fantasised about. The sadomasochistic erotic overload of “X rated” ball hoofing at every opportunity should ensure it isn’t aired on Quest until well after midnight. Even short passes of three yards were intentionally looped up with the predictable inability to trap a bag of cement from anyone in a red shirt.
Static netball movements, usually the reserve of screaming teenagers were so embarrassingly orchestrated that it at least gave time to digest the statuesque dysfunctionality of everything on display from Boro. It was a reminiscent hybrid of sorts, Trashcan tartan enmeshed with the last days of the Mowbray Empire. The wheels had fallen off to the extent that even the desperate throwing on of yet more subs made little difference to the cadaveric last ditch death throe attacks.
Bolasie was injured, stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone, prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone, silence the pianos and with muffled drum bring out the coffin, let the mourners come. Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead. Scribbling on the sky the message “Neil has another excuse”. The Manager’s pet project (or maybe second pet project after NML) was missing so that seemingly afforded a complete capitulation of the sort we haven’t seen since, Rotherham or maybe Birmingham or one of several recent equally insipid diarrhoeal displays.
Whilst the Manager and his Coaches were drowning in their tears about yet another injury over the fact that a player who up until this point hadn’t managed ninety minutes nor recorded an assist or a goal was missing, maybe the fact that the Player who’s very position he had been given wasn’t even selected didn’t cut any ice with me. The fact that Marvin is one of the top scorers and coincidentally the highest assister this season (when the side had no creativity whatsoever this afternoon) was sheer criminal negligence.
Let us not forget the other injuries, Tav and Marcus Browne are out but Kebano, NML are both in so I am struggling to find sympathy. If there is an emotional unfair mismatch in the Warnock excuse stakes, then perhaps the relevant wage disparity of the two out and two in should be considered. Let us not forget that Dael is definitely a miss, a huge one in fact, just a shame there wasn’t another experienced centre half available in the squad instead of square pegging an abscess impeded Right Back.
One poor performance is an accident, twice is deliberate but we are now way beyond three times as the Form Table illustrates. NW’s predecessor may well have pulled out the gem that those tables are lying but if it looks like fertiliser, plays like fertiliser and certainly smells like fertiliser then it is more than likely the stuff which the throwback Baseball Ground playing surface was in dire need of.
I have witnessed some poor Boro performances over the decades but for complete lack of tactics, a plan or belief that one goes up on the shelf alongside “Pulis and the Play Off’s”. The bottom line is that with management nous like that our season is effectively finished and we should take the opportunity to look forward. I doubt we will be relegated but with half the first team either out of contract or retuning loans at the end of the season now is a good time to start planning and as much as it hurts me to say it, all the signs point to the end of something that was short and sweet but now looks well past it’s sell by date.
The commentators thought our keeper was shocking when letting in the second goal, because it was a long shot and went in over his head as he stood on his goal line, they thought that it was no problem for any goalkeeper.
It is devastating to think that this group (and I include the management team) were, a couple of weeks ago, 1 point from the play off places with a game in hand on a couple of the top six. We had three home games? (against rubbish) we had finally! let Wing onto the pitch (two goals)oh sorry, the keeper touched them before they hit the net, and we were not having that, that keeper was the worst we had ever seen, he had juggled the ball for ten minutes before throwing it into the net, ha ha! Our incredible management had him out of the team quick as you like, and loaned him out the next week, I think someone heard them comment that they were not having that sort of thing at this club, Britt would never embarrass them in that way.
I think I'm going to bed. Fingers in my ears and going la, la, la.
Saving half a bottle of Malbec for Tuesday. I'd finish it now and have another two ready for anaesthesia on Tuesday on the basis of that.. whatever it's called. Crap? Rubbish? Please do not play the stroller. Ever again.
Stay safe everyone.
UTB,
John
PS Even 'the eyes in the sky seem unattainable.
An abysmal performance, one of the worst. It took us 86 minutes to get a corner. Apart from Kebano’s goal, we had one shot on target, a long-range powder-puff shot from NML. We absolutely bossed the second half, but did nothing with it, zilch, nada, creating nothing and not once getting through the Derby defence. All game, we lacked heart, drive, passion. Our so-called strikers did not get a single chance all game, and between them did not have a single shot on goal, never mind on target. For much of the game our football was awful: we made very few memorable moves, rarely got behind the Derby defence, and too often hoofed the ball long. Derby are a team lacking ability and are in the bottom three. Their goals today were both brilliant, but Boro completely let them off the hook. Play-offs rapidly disappearing over the horizon.
So many questions, so few answers:-
There must be someone better than Assombalonga? (But it definitely isn’t Akpom.)
What does Fletcher have to do to get a game?
What has Marvin Johnson done to deserve so little pitch time? He was one of our best players until recently. Now he hardly gets a look in.
Who coaches Bettinelli to kick?
Who coaches the team to belt it long at every opportunity?
Where was Bolasie?
Where on earth do we go from here?
How on earth does Warnock rebuild confidence and get this lot winning again?
By the way, I completely agree with Len on the local Derby commentators. They were dreadful, 200% biased and complained frequently that the ref missed Boro fouls or gave fouls against Derby that clearly weren’t, in their view. The BBC guy often got players’ names wrong, especially ours, and didn’t even know who was top of the Championship. And I used to think Maddo was bad!
By the way, I completely agree with Len on the local Derby commentators. They were dreadful, 200% biased and complained frequently that the ref missed Boro fouls or gave fouls against Derby that clearly weren’t, in their view. The BBC guy often got players’ names wrong, especially ours, and didn’t even know who was top of the Championship. And I used to think Maddo was bad!
Couldn’t agree more. I tried to listen to Radio Tees with the TV commentary on mute but there was a 30 second delay. In the end I watched most of the game in silence. Didn’t make it any less depressing. Assombalonga is really poor at the moment. He wins nothing in the air so it would be just as good to have Watmore or someone else playing up top.
I assume that Fletcher will be back in as soon as his fitness allows a full game. We’re really missing Tav. Only hope is that Tav, Bolasie and NML provide some spark. Defence looks tired. Fry and Grant together midweek would be my guess. Maybe give McNair and Dijksteel a rest.
I too am not impressed by Bettinelli who hardly ever comes off his line to help the defence but I do feel that the second goal was one of the hardest hit shots that I’ve seen this season. Anyway, how far are we from giving some else a go?
utb........without much conviction
We could do with Charlie Wyke now. 17 goals this season and counting in a poor Sunderland team.
When one thinks of the North East strikers Boro had in their earlier years I sigh. Going backwards respectively Alan Peacock, Brian Clough, Mickey Fenton, George Camsell, Jackie Carr and George Eiiiott who once scored 11 goals (yes eleven goals) in one match for the reserves in a 14-1 win over Houghton Rovers in a Northern Eastern League match in 1911, I despair at our present lot. I know it was a different age then and times were hard for most people, but today’s mollycoddled prima donnas needn’t work again once their football days are over. I can’t believe Neil Warnock sometimes when he says he can’t fault the players’ commitment. Well I can and I do! This lack of goals has been going on too long now for season after season. It’s always been completely unrealistic in my opinion to expect that Boro would reach the playoffs this season, and for what end?. Promotion and cannon fodder in the Premier League! Times will change and someday Boro will rise like a phoenix from the ashes, but that seems to be not for many years yet.
Does anyone know what Leo’s role is at the moment? I’m not going to throw any criticism at him because what’s he’s been through must be unbearable, but I’m not sure what he’s adding to the coaching team.
The current tactic of our goalkeeper hitting long balls towards the touchline (or more likely over it) certainly isn’t working from a constructive attacking point of view. The only positive is that it gets the ball as far away from our goal as possible.
I’ll acknowledge that yesterday’s pitch made flowing football difficult but I’m not sure we even tried. I very nearly gave up at half time but, having paid my £10, I stuck with it. On reflection, paying £10 not to watch would have been better value for money.
As ever, it’s the pre-Xmas hope that gets you...
ice seen video clips and still photos of Leo on the training ground with the players and seems to be the one who briefs the substitutes with the play cards when they enter the field of play.
Great expectations or Scrooge? Let’s just be grateful that at least we still have a functional club that is currently surviving the pandemic 😷
OFB
Ken
Some great centre-forwards there. But, of course, as you will remember, in the years between Fenton and Clough we had to endure some justifiably long-forgotten and expensive flops like Andy Donaldson, Neil Mochan, Peter McKenna, Ken McPherson and a host of others who were no better, and, in some cases, even worse than our current crop.
It's worth saying too that Clough was originally passed over in favour of the now scarcely remembered Doug Cooper, and that Peacock was for many seasons the butt of the boo-boys, before finally coming good after the departure of Clough.
So our history of strikers and the way we have handled them has been a chequered one rather than a golden thread worthy of too much nostalgia.
True Len, but at least we were a First Division side then until we signed Charlie Wayman and one of our best seasons was when we converted Johnny Spuhler into a centre forward and signed Alex McCrae from Charlton as a goalscoring inside forward. Top of the First Division by 3 points at Christmas and would possibly have won the League if only he hadn’t been injured for 10 matches from March onwards. I know, another of life’s “if onlys”.
Ah! Bettinelli, now where were we with his Keeping, you points are very true, but, and there are always buts. Consider the following. He is a compulsive wanderer, and his wandering takes many forms. One, he cannot stay in the center of his goal if the ball is right, he is clinging to his right post. If left to his left post. He then watches the ball which of course is moved inside with one pass, which leaves an opponent with a twenty yard shot, which has an excellent chance of scoring with three quarters of the goal available. His other habit is to get bored and wander up field, and a little sideways, which is a great opportunity to try a long punt over his head, it is important that the shooter does not hit the ball too hard, a three quarter angled lob will normally do the job. How we came to be saddled with him beats me, who on earth thought that he was a goalkeeper. His favourite is getting 2-3 yards off his line when the box is full of bodies, come the moment when a desperate attacker finally prods the ball towards our goal, his dive is way too late.
Len. One of the great threads of football has been, and still is, the worship of the golden striker. I do not begrudge any of the controversy and disagreements over the greats. We worshiped Clough, why? Because he was mad to win, every time. And that is a gift beyond price. We like to talk about great moves, but when the great striker gets on the ball, the crowd roar, and the greats when on song will seem to be on the ball forever on the occasions when they hit 4-5 goals. I saw many such watching Brian. As for Alan Peacock, he was an England player who went to the world cup and played in it, so he was good! But when alongside Clough, he naturally was second best. Because we at this club have watched some great goalscorers, we know exactly what we are missing. The other side of the same coin is that we know how the Liverpool fans felt when they sold Suarez, devastated.
Just to introduce a little light relief. Wing, through his own efforts smashes two in (two of the luckiest own goals ever seen, plus worst Keeper ever seen) Kebano tries his luck smashes into an outfield opponent and cannons into the net, Great goal! Hhhm!
We could do with Charlie Wyke now. 17 goals this season and counting in a poor Sunderland team.
Maybe so, Ken, but you're forgetting Boro's supreme talent for signing apprently prolific goal-scorers & turning them into players that start firing blanks the minute they pull on that red shirt! 🙁 Charlie's been round the block a bit since he finally left Boro for Carlisle in 2014 (was it?).
I am having difficulty in posting anything that has not already been said after another dismal and disappointing performance and result.
I suppose like many, after such a strong start to the season which promised much more than any of us had expected, it is so disheartening to see it fizzling out like so many before.
Whilst NW is not under pressure as far as his position is concerned, he has of late begun to sound like a manager who is. He seems to be using spin and excuses to deflect away from performances and results which are more in line with relegation candidates than a team looking to achieve a top six slot.
It can't all be put down to the loss of Fry and Tav and bad refereeing decisions. NW is also becoming inconsistent with his choices of who should and should not play; he didn't want to risk Hall and Fletcher because they have been out for so long but then plays Bolasie who hasn't played for even longer!
It appears that teams have worked out how to exploit our current system and perhaps the use of PM as a centre back has run its shelf life.
The midfield continues to be pedestrian and defensive minded and needs a shake up. So I would play Hall and Fry, Dijksteel and Bola at the back and move PM into a holding midfield position and push JH into a more forward role. Saville has gone back into his shell so needs a rest.
Fletcher needs to come back into the forward line with DW and in the absence of Bolasie, Johnson is needed on the left flank to provide width with Kebano on the other.
Having said all that we all too often display a lack of quality and that is one of the biggest obstacles that numerous managers have failed to solve.
Something needs to change, as given our recent form we are currently on a slippery slope toward the bottom end of the table. 😎
I won't comment further on yesterday's game, since previous posters have said it all.
However I was relieved that Warnock did not blame the result on the referee, though he did directly confront him, as is his wont, as he left the pitch at half time.
I think that our manager, like many others, should reflect on the abuse, death threats and other forms of violence routinely meted out to referees on a weekly basis which percolates right down to grass- roots level on your local common and is threatening the very future of the game.
If managers think that the standard of refereeing has declined so much then they might like to ponder why that might be. It's an unproven thesis anyway, since I go back a long way, but can never remember a time when refs were not routinely criticised, and booed for their supposed incompetence by partisan crowds.
But the current routine scapegoating of officials by losing managers, by players who greet even minor decisions with a volley of expletives and media pundits who see three or four slow-mos before criticising officials has reached alarming new levels. All of them are responsible for giving a green light to the worst elements of society to seriously threaten referees with physical violence at every level of the game.
What mystifies me is not why referring is so poor today but why any sane individual would wish to take up the whistle, thereby subjecting themselves to levels of abuse and intimidation that would not be tolerated in any other workplace.
So the next time that Mr Warnock has an intemperate reaction to a refereeing decision- and we all know that we won't have long to wait for that - he might better reflect on the extent to which his own indisciplined actions are a primary cause of the situation he so regularly deplores.
@lenmasterman. Excellent, well said Len.
The whole game/society needs to take a long hard look at itself and address seriously not only racial but any types of abuse. 😎
@stircrazy
Maybe so in recent times, but I’ve so far written about Alf Common 65 goals in 168 appearances, Steve Bloomer 62 in 130 appearances, George Elliott 203 in 344 appearances, Jackie Carr 81 and the supplier of many more, and Andy Wilson 57 goals in 90 appearances all scored for Boro when they were a First Division side in my history of Boro strikers which you can find by hitting the little bird on my avatar on the list of members if you’re interested. And I haven’t got as far as George Camsell yet. Boro have had a plethora of good strikers in their history for most of the time but I maintain that those that we have now should be classed as non-strikers at the moment.
great post Len and perhaps it’s time the FA started to think about how referees are recruited.
The big change of course was when the Premiership started and professional referees were appointed.
This created an elite group who trained well and attended coaching seminars with video replays and discussions and analysis of decisions made during the season.
Standards did improve however the championship only has a few professional referees and the others are made up of part time personnel who usually do it for the love of the game.
What has changed is that now the Championship is the feeder for millions of pounds to be made in the upper tier and any decisions that are wrong are pounced on and in some cases the ref blamed and made a scapegoat.
There is no VAR in the championship and Boro have been on the receiving end of some poor decisions. The high boot on Fry certainly was a turning point in the game and most experienced refs would have either known what had happened or at least gone over to the linesman and the 4 th official to discuss it whilst Fry was being treated.
On Saturday one of the linesmen didn’t flag for a foul which was close to him and was awarded by the referee who was 30 yards away. The same linesman flagged for an offside when the ball wasn’t played to another player but the same Boro player ran onto the ball. This is what I believe Warnock was upset about in the first half.
I certainly don’t condone verbal abuse of refs and would never stand for it myself and was known for not taking any dissent which greatly aided my ability to control a game in the proper manner.
Perhaps the FA and the RA should issue a statement that any dissent will be issued with initially a yellow and subsequently a red card to try and minimise the hysteria that is being exacerbated by TV SLO MO Re-runs. It might help if an ex official was part of the media circus to state the case.
There is a shortage of referees at grass roots and youngsters are discouraged when players, parents and fans think they have been hard don’t by and constantly blame the referee never the players.
Its certainly a problem and one that needs addressed
OFB
You clearly understand the problems from the inside and I can only sympathise with the current crop of refs. Having said that, it still makes me annoyed when we get a palpably poor decision against us as in the case of the Blackburn can-can which nearly took off Fry's head.
Perhaps the problem is that VAR and other decision review systems have opened up an idea of 'absolute truth'. This is having a fundamental difference on the way that football is being played and particularly in how it is officiated. In the premiership, decisions are not given in case they might be wrong and thus prevent a goal and then given post facto on the understanding that they will be reviewed. However, as with 'Umpire's Call' in cricket, the review panel has to then find a clear example of an error. This is not always the case and yet the evidence is there for every armchair pundit to claim their version of the truth. Surely professional officials should be able to make a decision and stand by it.
Personally, I like to see it when egregious refereeing errors are corrected but is the cost of this too great in its impact across the game. In the Championship we now appear to have the worst of all worlds. We have a group of players and an audience that is used to seeing errors corrected in the Premiership and so somehow expect that to happen in the Championship which, of course, doesn't happen. However, we still have the excessive slo-mo replays to point out the faults have occurred which just makes it worse. This causes an extra level of complaint both within the game and from the audience and the pressure just gets worse and worse.
I wonder if it would be possible to allow the fourth official to actually do something useful rather than just standing their as a lightning rod for the manager's complaints. Couldn't he be positioned in the front of the stand with an instant replay system to correct the worst errors. This could even be limited to things that the referee actually wants to query. Thus, offside and penalty decisions would be left with the decision on the field but if, as in the case of Fry, there is a possible incident that has not been seen, the referee could ask for a quick review.
Finally, I would point out something new from the Australian Open tennis. Because of COVID concerns, all line judges have been removed and every line decision is made by the Hawkeye system which makes a computer generated call. Thus, there is no option available for review because, clearly, the system can't 'take another look' and change its mind. Everything is greatly speeded up and people just accept the calls which are, by definition, always right.
UTB