The strikers we have signed so far is a bit of mish mash! Has the recruitment team panicked?

I’ll settle for Boro not conceding a goal which will guarantee a draw and hopefully nick a win.

However, I think we’ll need to score a minimum of 2 goals to win.

Philip of Huddersfield 

Boro 80% possession. Reading 1 - 0

OMG - Reading with their first attack and decent move of the game, take the lead against Boro just before the half-hour mark.  We have been here before.

That was an awful first half for Boro. Need some big changes at half time including tactics.

Well what a difference from Wednesday!  74% possession but no penetration and a total lack creativity.   Reading have one shot and score.  

CW needs to put a rocket up them during half time.  Another 45 like that and we can forget top six, top two remains a pipe dream.  As it stands we are in the relegation zone.  

Poor performances all around so far. 😖😎

Boro have gone backwards sideways and are not the team they were last season !

OFB

74.1 possession for Boro !

Probably a mistake having Fry as right centre-back as he's not looking to carry the ball forward as Dijksteel does. Reading sitting deep and doubling up on the wing-backs needs the overlapping centre-backs. Mowatt's and Lenihan's passing has been poor too. I'd move Paddy to right centre-back bring on Crooks for Lenihan and move Fry into the centre - then bring on Watmore for Forss.

Posted by: @stircrazy

 

And Boro go a goal down after 28 minutes through Tyrese Fornah...

His first professional goal, apparently...

Wilder May as well  take Jones as the righthand side have not given one running ball to attack the full back. 

Brilliant shot by Fornah, but where were the midfield three. They have been terrible, and I have always though McNair is not one.

I really am starting to wonder if Wilder knows what he is trying to achieve.

What hung the match with the Reading commentary. Reading and they y think we are boring.

What’s more Curtis Main (remember him?) has put St Mirren ahead away to Dundee United.

Watmore on for McGree & Crooks for Fry.

Boro struggling to string anything together and not many options left on the bench to inject any urgency - I wouldn't have taken McGree off as he works better with Watmore. So Hoppe comes on for Forss so we will see if he has anything extra.

KP in Spain,

Don't forget that Coventry have two games in hand... Sorry three.

UTB,

John

Clueless in Reading both the team and the management against a poor Reading side, so what does that say about us! 😎😖

Very very poor today.

After that performance I need a new swear box as I've filled the old one 🤬 

Boro didn't deserve anything today no bad luck story just a disjointed mess from start to finish - sixth time lucky next Saturday?

Well, I know we've only played 5 games but at SOME stage, surely, Boro must come good? 

Good performances don't gain points.  Goals at one end and a Boro clean sheet do gain points.  It's all down to results at the end of the season and, as they say, the league table doesn't lie.  What I'd give for a small percentage of possession, a sneaky run-away goal against the run of play, and 3 points...

Another desperately disappointing defeat. It seems, after the brilliant Stoke performance, that not only are we inconsistent within games, but also between them. Wilder had better get his act together quickly. 

Where does the management, or the team, go from here? That's the big question, really big question.

I get the feeling that the management don't know what to do next. the PR bluster and honesty only go so far and Boro are re-defining inconsistency with their Jekyll and Hyde performances and into the mix goes inability to score goals and keep a lead when they do manage to.

I don't understand the hunt for the goal scorer who scores twenty a season and he'll get subbed anyway and then there's the problems with the midfield and defence. What has happened to Dael Fry. Is it injury or a move on the horizon.

Sorry, too many open ended questions really because before the team can know what they are doing they need to gel but not with chop, change, move around going on each game.

Perhaps the square pegs in the round holes are the management and coaching side and once they sort themselves out things will improve? Well we live in hope, it'll be an exciting season at this rate so we'd better get in the queue for pacemakers or sedatives.

Now then what players do we need to complete the team?

Disappointed. Very disappointed.

UTB,

John

John your post hits the nail completely on the head. Mr Wilder appears to have no idea around which team to put out apart from Steffens and Howson, the latter (in my opinion) now completely out of his depth sadly.

The defence continues to make the same mistakes aided and abetted by the woeful midfield. Why we have not upgraded on the latter in terms of defensive ability is beyond me.

The passing today was generally very poor and Boro had no idea in the first half, of how to unlock Reading and get the wing backs into play.

The changes at half time helped matters with Crooks and McNair behind him providing more support and opportunities for Jones. On the other side, although Bola played well enough his and Mowatt’s support of Giles was limited and he did not have the impact we expect.

Up front, I just do not think CW knows what to do with his plethora of “Strikers”. Forss looks lost and Hoppe even given his limited game time also looks very inexperienced. And now he will have Muniz to add to his choice. 

All inexperienced in Championship terms and dare I say it, looking no better than we had last season. What MFC and the Recruitement Team have in mind would be really nice to know and be able understand their plan.

Sadly as has been previosly said by more astute posters than me, is Mr Wilder yesterdays man?.

The Swansea match could now take on a completely different meaning. The players must be wondering what team and formation will be posted on the notice board and their confidence cannot be very high at all. 

it is very much down to CW to sort this out and very, very quickly.

Pedro,

I think the whole team is confused and the management and coaching look as if they are making it up as they go along. Do we need more forwards? What and where is the spine?

We'll end up with so much new player churn and multiple players for the same position that it will be like the Woolies pick'n'mix sweetie counter.

The next game is going to be a killer at the Riverside.

However, UTB,

John

Oh dear, worried, when should we start to panic, 72% possession but you get no points for possession 

From Vic's Twitter:

FT: 0-1. Poor. A scrappy fruitless final flurry underlines the fact that Boro are flaccid up front. For all the possession & windscreen wiper passing it was too slow, square and predictable. Not clinical enough. Lacked fire-power, intensity & imagination.

And retweeted from BoroStats:

So far this season Middlesbrough have as many apologies from match officials (3) as they do points (3).

Why did Wilder did not play Watmore at the beginning after his man of the match display last Wednesday. 

Fry really showed that he is not a right centre back (or left) in the Wilder world. He hardly hit one forward pass and provided no real support to any attacks. The difference with McNair behind Crooks and Jones was really noticeable. He’s only in the squad as cover for Lenihan who I thought was pretty good today.

reading just dropped way back and nullified all of our attacking ideas down the wings. We don’t appear to have much of a plan B to strike through the middle.

Worrying times.

utb

Boro have no divine right to beat any side and the sooner they realise that the better. When I saw photographs of the players pre match with some of them with hands in their pockets and Dael Fry with a disdainful look on his face as if he wished to be somewhere else, I began to fear the worst. The players looked confused as to what tactics might be expected from them as there has been no leadership on the field of play so far that I can recall. We need a captain on the pitch and I’m afraid Johnny Howson is not the type of player to be that.

Bruce Rioch wouldn’t have stood for the lackadaisical approach pre match and certainly not allowing players to have hands in their pockets, but then he had Tony Mowbray on the field of play to lead by example. Apart from Grant Leadbitter we’ve never had that GENERAL on the field of play. It’s maybe too early to look at League tables after only 5 matches so I won’t bother until Boro have played 10 matches, and with a winter break for the World Cup even that might be too early to be interested. I’ve no idea who’s top of the League at the moment, but am aware that Boro are bottom given that Coventry have played only twice so far this season and I’m not concerned if truth be told. But what I do know is that Boro are more pleasing on the eye except for conceding too many goals and being shot-shy at the other end, and that the captaincy needs sorting PDQ!

Only 5 games played- another 41 to go. So what’s the problem?
Well, Boro have conceded more goals than any other team when we’ve repeatedly been told that it’s forwards we need. Some of us have been saying that we need creative midfielders . This was demonstrated yesterday when with 72% possession chances were few and far between.

So the team have problems at the back, in the middle and at the front  - and we lack leaders on the pitch!!
Now is the time for CW and his team to find a way to start winning games.

Swansea has become a must win.

Philip of Huddersfield