Boro Post match 0-0

[MC Prussian]

A lacklustre, post-New Year's display which I fully expected and a result that probably pleases both parties. Neither team really went for it, although I must say Middlesbrough made the most of it, impressing me with more attacking intent, whilst our team was slightly hampered with the changed setup and formation, accommodating Mendy and Ulloa as starters for the first time in ages.

 

The positive thing to take back is a second successive clean sheet and the hope that these two games unbeaten will somehow act as a springboard to some more wins and draws in succession. I've had it with losing this season. Although the next league game is at home to Chelsea. 

[CosbehFox]

12 hours ago, Koke said:

BTW how bad is Adama Traore. He glides past 3 players and you think "wow this guy looks great" and then his cross ends up in row Z. He's the literal definition of "pace merchant". No brain whatsoever.

Schlupp basically. 

 

Surprised at the shock and annoyance being shown on here, this season is all about the 40 points now. If we get a decent little run together, yeah top half is a possibility. 

 

The club want six more wins and take stock of what to do next with some better long term planning. 

[NotTheMarketLeader]

13 hours ago, Col city fan said:

The point I'm making about Mahrez, which AGAIN been conveniently side stepped is that he is playing around team mates who are miles off his ability.

The best players in the world play in teams where the ability of those around them contributes to their greatness.

Ronaldo plays alongside Bale, Modric, James, Isco.

Messi plays in the same teams as Suarez, Neymar and Busquets.

Ibra is underpinned at Utd by Pogba.

Etc.

 

I believe Mahrez is an exceptional footballer. Today, he was playing in a completely defensively minded set up, alongside King, Amartey and Mendy. The only plus points of the first half were when Mahrez neatly side stepped a couple of challenges, made a forward run and literally had no one to give it to.

When he played alongside Kante, he had that player. The player with pace and ability to see what he was up to, and to give and go.

What do people expect? That he will beat five players and score from the edge of the area every week?

The only time that Mahrez has looked world class this season has actually been when our midfield has been bypassed. Against Man City, two long balls given to him, to control and to lay in Vardy. Today, he had no help. There was no one on his wavelength to give the ball to.

I almost hope he does leave us in the summer. I'll be gutted for the club, but pleased for the player. I think he'd be a part of most top teams and will once again look like the star player he clearly is. 

Playing in this team, with how we set up today must be pretty soul destroying I'd imagine. 

This is a good post.

 

However, I have to disagree on the premise that Mahrez could do nothing to perform better than he did. 

 

Yes those around him were poor, as was he. First half there were opportunities to dribble,

pass, shoot and create - none of which materialised.

 

He is totally out of form since the season began, other than odd flashes, and its a time span that the longer it goes on, we begin wonder if the Mahrez of last season will be seen again.

 

 

[CosbehFox]

Mahrez is held back by his colleagues. He didn't have a single through ball to play yesterday. It's about 'wavelengths' and literally he had no one alongside him yesterday what could offer a ball around the back. 

 

Without Huth we would have conceded, he was brilliant again. Morgan always capable of a calamity. Simpson back to his beachball days despite a good season. Wes needs slowly phasing out - get a younger lad alongside Huth and let him learn the game.

[MC Prussian]

12 hours ago, Koke said:

BTW how bad is Adama Traore. He glides past 3 players and you think "wow this guy looks great" and then his cross ends up in row Z. He's the literal definition of "pace merchant". No brain whatsoever.

He's speedy (despite his bulky build), but has no skill or attacking prowess or variations to him whatsoever.  He's so one-dimensional, it's rather laughable when you watch him play - usually makes it from the halfway line to the opposing goal line on the same side, but that's about it. Also haven't really seen him tracking back that well, either.

 

But if you think Traoré is bad, wait until you see Nsue.

 

[foxy boxing]

positives:back to back clean sheets and an away point. we played well in patches but had few chances which okazaki and Ulloa never put away good scoring opportunities.

we were poor going forward and didn't offer much of a threat but thankfully we were much better defensively

[WigstonWanderer]

12 hours ago, The Doctor said:

It was an excellent defensive display, schmeichel just had to catch crosses. The problem was simply there wasn't an attacking impetus bolted to it.

Could easily have been derailed if they'd have taken their chances. Dodgy strategy.

[Bob Weasel Fox]

1 minute ago, foxy boxing said:

positives:back to back clean sheets and an away point. we played well in patches but had few chances which okazaki and Ulloa never put away good scoring opportunities.

we were poor going forward and didn't offer much of a threat but thankfully we were much better defensively

I think that's the thing we have to be hard to beat initially

 

then work on the attacks etc

[desertfox2]

48 minutes ago, MC Prussian said:

He's speedy (despite his bulky build), but has no skill or attacking prowess or variations to him whatsoever.  He's so one-dimensional, it's rather laughable when you watch him play - usually makes it from the halfway line to the opposing goal line on the same side, but that's about it. Also haven't really seen him tracking back that well, either.

 

But if you think Traoré is bad, wait until you see Nsue.

 

Must be so frustrating for Boro fans. Imagine if he could actually cross or had any sort of end product at all.... he would be class but he doesn't and he's s###

[Mike Oxlong]

13 hours ago, Koke said:

BTW how bad is Adama Traore. He glides past 3 players and you think "wow this guy looks great" and then his cross ends up in row Z. He's the literal definition of "pace merchant". No brain whatsoever.

 

He has house bricks for feet.

[RonnieTodger]

I don't think anybody is too disappointed with the result, but that was probably the most toothless Leicester performance going forward. Absolutely no idea where goals were going to come from. So disappointing to see us wasting time towards the end away at a newly promoted side.

 

To be honest, when I saw the line-up I was expecting a defeat, so we bettered that. I'm assuming Albrighton and Gray were knackered from the West Ham game, which is why they didn't start. I hope that's the case, anyway.

As for Mahrez, I think we should cut him some slack. There were often times when he was the furthest player forward and running at the Boro defence with no teammates nearby, usually resulting a free-kick for us. 

 

Yes, the defensive performance was quite solid, but lets not kid ourselves, Middlesbrough aren't great going forward.

 

I'm not sure if we're going to win an away game this season, but the most important thing is that we stay up. As ugly as we are to watch right now, I'd take 37 home points and 3 away ones. It would be an absolute catastrophe to be dragged into the bottom 3.

 

 

[CosbehFox]

It reminded me an awful lot of that televised Leeds game in January where we were very defensive, didn't have the ball for long spells and then up popped Nuge with a bit of magic towards the end. 

[jon1bc]

16 hours ago, Col city fan said:

The point I'm making about Mahrez, which AGAIN been conveniently side stepped is that he is playing around team mates who are miles off his ability.

The best players in the world play in teams where the ability of those around them contributes to their greatness.

Ronaldo plays alongside Bale, Modric, James, Isco.

Messi plays in the same teams as Suarez, Neymar and Busquets.

Ibra is underpinned at Utd by Pogba.

Etc.

 

I believe Mahrez is an exceptional footballer. Today, he was playing in a completely defensively minded set up, alongside King, Amartey and Mendy. The only plus points of the first half were when Mahrez neatly side stepped a couple of challenges, made a forward run and literally had no one to give it to.

When he played alongside Kante, he had that player. The player with pace and ability to see what he was up to, and to give and go.

What do people expect? That he will beat five players and score from the edge of the area every week?

The only time that Mahrez has looked world class this season has actually been when our midfield has been bypassed. Against Man City, two long balls given to him, to control and to lay in Vardy. Today, he had no help. There was no one on his wavelength to give the ball to.

I almost hope he does leave us in the summer. I'll be gutted for the club, but pleased for the player. I think he'd be a part of most top teams and will once again look like the star player he clearly is. 

Playing in this team, with how we set up today must be pretty soul destroying I'd imagine. 

Exactly! To a certain extent, you're only as good as the players around you. He looks frustrated

[HoustonFox]

2 hours ago, RonnieTodger said:

I don't think anybody is too disappointed with the result, but that was probably the most toothless Leicester performance going forward. Absolutely no idea where goals were going to come from. So disappointing to see us wasting time towards the end away at a newly promoted side.

 

To be honest, when I saw the line-up I was expecting a defeat, so we bettered that. I'm assuming Albrighton and Gray were knackered from the West Ham game, which is why they didn't start. I hope that's the case, anyway.

As for Mahrez, I think we should cut him some slack. There were often times when he was the furthest player forward and running at the Boro defence with no teammates nearby, usually resulting a free-kick for us. 

 

Yes, the defensive performance was quite solid, but lets not kid ourselves, Middlesbrough aren't great going forward.

 

I'm not sure if we're going to win an away game this season, but the most important thing is that we stay up. As ugly as we are to watch right now, I'd take 37 home points and 3 away ones. It would be an absolute catastrophe to be dragged into the bottom 3.

 

 

Agree Ronnie (have a rep!). 

 

Result was ok, but performance wasn't optimal but (with some worrying moments) was solid but uninspired. Thought Mahrez made the best of a bad situation where he could and Amartey defensively was again very assured. Kasper and back 4 (apart from some scary Wes moments - THAT HEADER!) were solid for the most part, especially Huth. 

 

Biggest worry / concern / issue for me, and has been all season, is the HUGE gap between our midfield and attack. Even Shinji didn't fill it yesterday and with Ulloa dropping deep to collect the ball (why does he do that so much?!), Riyad was on his own a lot, and it was obvious (especially to the Boro defence) that he was going to be our only outlet. Bit puzzled why we didn't play to Ulloa's strengths more and get more balls in the box, but who would supply? Same in second half against West Ham, we stopped supplying Slim. 

 

Anyway, hoping Ndidi is more box to box, we can have Dan A continue to be our furthest forward midfielder. 

 

19 points to go...!

 

[volpeazzurro]

11 hours ago, MattCan said:

So you know he is moody, comes late to the training sessions and does not give his best. How do you know all these things?

Do you work within the LCFC club structure?

Edit: you seem to be just criticizing him on a regular basis. You must be happy now that he is leaving to AFCON. And why do you care whether Barcelona wants him or not if you don't want him.

Matt, I don't work at the club but there are a couple of reliable sources. Vardy was interviewed on Soccer am on Saturday where he answered questions like which player was the most comical, the best dresser and those type of things. He was asked who the worst trainer was and he stated that it was Marhez. He commented that if he completed a couple of good dribbles he thought he'd had a good training session. He also said that he was nearly always late to training and was always getting fined and sometimes only just made it on time on match day. Though as he always paid his fines he thought it was alright.

Slimani was also interviewed in the week and commented that Marhez was a friend from the Algerian national side and he had been influenced by him to come to Leicester.  He said he used to travel with him to training but that now he made his own way as Marhez was nearly always late and got into trouble/fined for it.

The stories tend to corroborate each other I think.

I remember watching Marhez come on in the second half for Gray I think it was, against Everton. In a short space of time, on three occasions, Baines shot by Marhez from inside his own half on an overlap to assist his forwards. Marhez, turned and jogged back slowly to a position where he wouldn't be able to assist his defence but was also not positioned forward enough to make a quick break forward should an opportunity arise, in other words he was being bone idol.

When asked to play in an alternative position against West Ham, I was amazed at part way through the first half he seemed out of breath somewhat when his work rate was not that of his team mates, either he'd got a cold or his fitness levels are suspect. As brilliant a player as he can be he isn't worth the shirt at the moment for whatever reason.  Just my opinion which doesn't mean it's right by any stretch of the imagination.  His attitude re timekeeping  etc would be a concern to me if I was his manager at work whatever his job. 

[MattCan]

1 hour ago, volpeazzurro said:

Matt, I don't work at the club but there are a couple of reliable sources. Vardy was interviewed on Soccer am on Saturday where he answered questions like which player was the most comical, the best dresser and those type of things. He was asked who the worst trainer was and he stated that it was Marhez. He commented that if he completed a couple of good dribbles he thought he'd had a good training session. He also said that he was nearly always late to training and was always getting fined and sometimes only just made it on time on match day. Though as he always paid his fines he thought it was alright.

Slimani was also interviewed in the week and commented that Marhez was a friend from the Algerian national side and he had been influenced by him to come to Leicester.  He said he used to travel with him to training but that now he made his own way as Marhez was nearly always late and got into trouble/fined for it.

The stories tend to corroborate each other I think.

I remember watching Marhez come on in the second half for Gray I think it was, against Everton. In a short space of time, on three occasions, Baines shot by Marhez from inside his own half on an overlap to assist his forwards. Marhez, turned and jogged back slowly to a position where he wouldn't be able to assist his defence but was also not positioned forward enough to make a quick break forward should an opportunity arise, in other words he was being bone idol.

When asked to play in an alternative position against West Ham, I was amazed at part way through the first half he seemed out of breath somewhat when his work rate was not that of his team mates, either he'd got a cold or his fitness levels are suspect. As brilliant a player as he can be he isn't worth the shirt at the moment for whatever reason.  Just my opinion which doesn't mean it's right by any stretch of the imagination.  His attitude re timekeeping  etc would be a concern to me if I was his manager at work whatever his job. 

 

So, you don't know more the rest of us. You are making accusations against a worldclass player and saying he isn't worth the shirt based on silly stuff like that? If Vardy and Slimani thought this was big deal, they would never have talked about it. Maybe he just needs a good babysitter .. ..

As for not being worth the shirt, that's only your opinion, isn't it? My opinion is that he is worth the shirt more than any other. Ranieri was saying few days ago that he is pushing him to win the Ballon d'Or next time !!

You didn't tell me why you care whether Barca wants him or not.

[volpeazzurro]

1 hour ago, MattCan said:

 

So, you don't know more the rest of us. You are making accusations against a worldclass player and saying he isn't worth the shirt based on silly stuff like that? If Vardy and Slimani thought this was big deal, they would never have talked about it. Maybe he just needs a good babysitter .. ..

As for not being worth the shirt, that's only your opinion, isn't it? My opinion is that he is worth the shirt more than any other. Ranieri was saying few days ago that he is pushing him to win the Ballon d'Or next time !!

You didn't tell me why you care whether Barca wants him or not.

No Matt, I don't want Barcelona to have him, though as yet hes he's certainly not world class and nowhere near good enough to dislodge someone from their team  (again just imo). Whilst I may not sound like it, I am a Marhez fan and in an ideal world I'd want him playing at his best for us like last season, who wouldn't! But...I'm also a realist and don't wear Riyhad tinted glasses and, at this particular point in time, I don't think he's doing it for the team and I don't feel it's just a lack of form, hence until he sorts himself out, his shirt would be better on someone else's back, Gray's  for example. We're half way through the season and many people I know or some that comment on here also are of the opinion that he doesn't appear to be putting the work or effort in (reason unknown).

As for Vardy and Slimani, who knows why they said what they did. Maybe they're pissed off with his behaviour maybe they're not. If someone you worked with wasn't putting the effort in when you were and at least turning up on time, whilst getting as much if not more money than you, wouldn't it wrankle a little bit with you.  What an example to younger squad members?

As for what Ranieri says to the press, to the players and what he actually thinks I would suggest that they are three different things. Didn't he also later comment that he expected more from Marhez, that in itself is a departure from his usual line.

My sincere hope is that he has a good tournament with Algeria and that he comes back successful, refreshed and in a different frame of mind.  No one player is bigger than their club, even Messi himself.