Middlesbrough (H) 1-2 - Post-Match Thread

[oz was my hero]

One of those days where nothing works. Some games 1 or 2 might be off it but we had half the team off it. 

It may well be a blessing in disguise as the lads will all be aware of some of today's horrors and try to put it right on Friday.  

Don't feel the need to panic . 

Take a point Friday, another game chalked off. 

Strange results are going to happen for the chasing pack also.

[StriderHiryu]

[Happy Fox]

We were piss poor tbh, very slack in possession and out of possession.

 

Anyway onwards and upwards.

[iancognito]

No reason to panic, one of those days.

 

If Vestergaard puts that header away after 5 minutes it's a different game.

 

Changes going forward - Cannon must start ahead of Daka, Doyle must start ahead of Justin who barely got a game til his injury.

 

Beat Leeds and start again.

[Dahnsouff]

We don’t need to beat Leeds, we don’t even need to get a point (obviously both would be than the alternative) but we need to show a serious amount of fight.

[Pliskin]

41 minutes ago, Hammo said:

Big test of this team’s mettle coming up now after that, starting in the cauldron of Elland Road.

 

The concerted effort they put in late in the game was encouraging, but the players can’t come swanning into any game from now on thinking that they can just knock it around harmlessly at will and the opposition will eventually submit to their ‘control’. They have to work for this promotion and make life much harder for the opposition than was the case today.

 

Leeds and Southampton are good teams - virtually on a par with us in terms of quality of personnel - but fortunately we got a head start on them both. Complacency - the sort of complacency shown today by Mavididi and Faes - is the only enemy that can undo us. That’s what happened last season. It had better not happen again.

Exactly my thoughts. Our start set us apart, but it is easily undone. 
 

 

People calling those concerned bed wetters and nonchalantly saying “we will be fine” need to remember last season. This team still has a soft underbelly, and we’ve lost games that we really shouldn’t have. Today being one of them, comments like “they’re a decent team” they’re ****ing mid table, and we’re supposed to be run away champions…..

 

I do have genuine concerns, this side definitely has a self implosion in it, and I’m concerned that a defeat to Leeds could end up knocking us for six. 
 

Perhaps last season has scarred me, but we’ve pissed away a lot of good situations in recent years, and I think we’re still well capable of doing it again. 

[cruzFOX]

2 minutes ago, Pliskin said:

Exactly my thoughts. Our start set us apart, but it is easily undone. 
 

 

People calling those concerned bed wetters and nonchalantly saying “we will be fine” need to remember last season. This team still has a soft underbelly, and we’ve lost games that we really shouldn’t have. Today being one of them, comments like “they’re a decent team” they’re ****ing mid table, and we’re supposed to be run away champions…..

 

I do have genuine concerns, this side definitely has a self implosion in it, and I’m concerned that a defeat to Leeds could end up knocking us for six. 
 

Perhaps last season has scarred me, but we’ve pissed away a lot of good situations in recent years, and I think we’re still well capable of doing it again. 

Great point. There is a reason many of us are being accused’s of panic mongering. Yes we have a big lead and we should be quite relaxed thinking we go this lol. That’ type of mentality is exactly what got us into trouble last season. I’m not saying we can’t play badly once in a while it’s just that we need individuals to step up and take those build edged chances on bad days that help us scrape thru. When we can’t do that it’s a complete loss. This time is mentally fragile. I have not seen a steel backbone to them yet as it takes time to build that. 
 

now the big question is how they react to this loss and play the Leeds game. Do they fall apart and boost leeds confidence even more or do they hit back and make a defiant statement? I know what fans want but do the players want it as much? We shall see

[justfoxes]

Just before I say anything about the game I hope that fan in G2 is ok last few minutes of the game where the Ambulance crew attended the medical emergency always sad when you see something like that ?

 

Such a frustrating afternoon most of our usual steady rocks had a bit of a mare today either missing a sitter or two or just not playing the best they could it’s almost as tho some were just not in the game Wout usually the steady rock had a few wobbles JJ not his clinical self same as Wout guilty of giving the ball away far too much Mavididi off the boil a bit, shame really I thought today we really could pull away even more of the ones below us but with Boroughs Clinical finishes first was a bit suspect was it Winks fouls before they scored?

 

Then after the second they defended as a unit pitting almost the whole team behind parking the bus, Kavanagh didn’t give us anything really 3 penalty shouts waved away a trip in the box a couple of handballs but we can’t always count on those!

But a huge game next Friday against Dirty Leeds who have really turned the corner getting win after win 9 points behind us now a Must Win but definitely a MUST NOT LOSE,  so really hoping the lads go out and play like never before the best performance of the season please Lads !!

[Babylon]

First game for ages, trash!! Didn’t win me over. 

[It'sblueupnorth]

2 hours ago, grobyfox1990 said:

When they were 2 on 1 and Ricky p cleared it. Next question 

Right so when they didn’t even have a shot at goal okay then 

[Dickov22]

Manager made some huge mistakes today I thought

 

Cannon out wide was ridiculous; he didn’t know what he was doing and was totally wasted out there

 

Then to take Fatawu off for Yunus was almost as bizarre. Left us with no wingers and no width 

 

Then took off the best player in the division (not having his best game, but still) so we had no creativity down the middle either 

 

 

Have to say, Vardy’s goal was exceptional again. Perfect ball through from Cannon and what a finish, I don’t know how he continues to do this at his age. Both of them are miles better than Daka

 

Not too worried, bad day at the office for our key men (KDH and Ricardo) and the boss. Next game will be better 

[Ric Flair]

1st time in 14 matches we've not scored first in a game.

 

You look at most of those games and we've had so many chances we've missed but not really been punished, today was the day. To have 25 shots and only 2 on target is an absolute howler.

 

We were all over the place and I did think 2nd half vs Sheffield Wednesday that perhaps we're starting to see us drop off for a short while. Its hard to maintain the relentless high standards, especially when we don't have strong alternative options out wide or in central midfield. Mavididi, Fatawu, KDH, Praet and Winks were poor today and James Justin was a liability on the ball.

 

Now we see what we're made of. I hope they are hurting after today but channel it in the right way, let's not let another team do the double over us. This is an opportunity to all but answer any remaining doubts about our credentials. Show no mercy.

[Gamble92]

25 minutes ago, Babylon said:

First game for ages, trash!! Didn’t win me over. 

Don't go again then

[jbflcfc]

You have these games where nothing works & you could be there all day & not put guilt edge chances away. Today was one of them, sadly you don’t know when these games come.

 

Not worried at all, teams around us will have games like this also.

 

This may work in our favour Friday, fire in the bellies!

[Raj]

2 minutes ago, Gamble92 said:

Don't go again then

Charming as always eh....

[funkyrobot]

5 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

1st time in 14 matches we've not scored first in a game.

 

You look at most of those games and we've had so many chances we've missed but not really been punished, today was the day. To have 25 shots and only 2 on target is an absolute howler.

 

We were all over the place and I did think 2nd half vs Sheffield Wednesday that perhaps we're starting to see us drop off for a short while. Its hard to maintain the relentless high standards, especially when we don't have strong alternative options out wide or in central midfield. Mavididi, Fatawu, KDH, Praet and Winks were poor today and James Justin was a liability on the ball.

 

Now we see what we're made of. I hope they are hurting after today but channel it in the right way, let's not let another team do the double over us. This is an opportunity to all but answer any remaining doubts about our credentials. Show no mercy.

I thought Praet was pretty good today tbh

[David Hankey]

It would be extraordinary not to have lost another game. Look at all our so-called rivals they have all had a stumble.

[MPH]

1 hour ago, Chocolate Teapot said:

So you don't feel better then?

 

why would I? 
 

 

[Gamble92]

2 minutes ago, Raj said:

Charming as always eh....

You're getting on my tits tonight 

[CosbehFox]

1 hour ago, Lillehamring said:

Frustrating, but hard to feel too downhearted - the games that we've not won have generally been games like this, when we haven't played bad but things just haven't clicked in the final third - i'd be concerned if we hadn't turned up or been overly passive, but the stats show that we did more than enough to win this game, sadly for us, that misfiring in the final third is only survivable if we defend solidly.

 

So, for me the worst thing about this game is the second goal, at 1-0 there's nothing in it, 2 down it becomes a real effort - so to conceded that 2nd from our own føkking throw in is unacceptable.  People have been defending JJ and arguing that he is superior but the guy offers nothing going forward and on several occasions made a mess of things defensively - just not good enough.   Not that he was the only player having a bad day, but to make such a crucial mess of a throw in, and the hopeless response that followed, made all the difference today.

 

Special mention to the dreadful ref who bottled giving clark a second yellow.

 

Hopefully they'll respond positively against Leeds who, let's face it, aren't going to be as defensive as boro.

We’d have been buggered without his pace at times today. Bad day at times but stopped a couple of counter attacks getting worst

[CosbehFox]

Find Boro interesting in someways. 
 

They were highly tipped to get promotion with Carrick implementing a decent passing style. Yet their better results this season have come completely abandoning that way of playing. We were treated the same way Chelsea and Villa were. Massive backhand compliment to us. 

[Jacafox]

We seem to struggle when the better teams come at us, and today, to be honest I think boro deserved the 3 points. Their counter attacks exposed us, maybe due to our set up. Obviously we paid dearly for those 4 great chances we missed. Daka is a lovely guy but how many easy chances has he missed this season? Is he good enough for the prem, I don't think so, neither is Vesty.

I don't believe we will throw it away but I think it will be closer than it  currently is. We miss Ndidi  (my opinion). It will be interesting how we set up against Leeds on Friday, we may be underdogs for the first time this season. 

 

[Ric Flair]

Just now, CosbehFox said:

Find Boro interesting in someways. 
 

They were highly tipped to get promotion with Carrick implementing a decent passing style. Yet their better results this season have come completely abandoning that way of playing. We were treated the same way Chelsea and Villa were. Massive backhand compliment to us. 

They fcuk me off, they've been pretty nondescript both times we've played them and they've come in here riddled with injuries having not won in 8 games.

 

I don't know how we found it so troublesome, but suppose it's fine margins. Today was without doubt the worst game I've seen Faes and Vestergaard have to face in being out of position, reminded me of last season under Brendan and that hopeless scampering from Amartey and Faes.

[RearsbyFox]

Boro more clinical than us. It took us far too long to get going and we paid the price. 

[The Doctor]

42 minutes ago, cruzFOX said:

. That’ type of mentality is exactly what got us into trouble last season. 

Different manager, different coaching staff, and only 3 of today's starting 11 were regular starters in that team (Faes, Ricardo and KDH). It's the bed wetting from the fans and what almost feels like a desire for things to go wrong so they can do this "I told you so" routine that will create problems if anything. Players feed off the energy of the crowd and if the crowd are shitting themselves because we've lost 2 games in 18 then...