Michael Carrick post match interview Vs Ipswich

Nano said:
It's just basic maths. People were saying "we're only x behind" and all they think about is we could win 3 points in the next game and catch up but that's not how it works. Those teams above us, and it was quite a few teams at one point, are all picking up points as well. You don't close a 3 point lead in one week, not over 5 or 6 teams because those teams win games as well. You can win 4 out of 6 and make no progress because the team you are chasing does the same.

There are tiers of teams in the league chasing promotion. Auto contenders, playoff certs and playoff chasers. Last season we were good enough to be in the auto contenders tier and this season we have barely even been playoff chasers.

It's been obvious for a very long time that we weren't getting promoted this season. We're still not anywhere near. It's not a few results away. It's a whole season of not being good enough. Don't make the mistake of thinking our couple of good runs is the "real us". We are a midtable championship team and we've had good runs, bad runs, terrible results and great results as expected of a midtable team.
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I'm sure I remember there was a point some time in March where we could have closed the gap to 2 points but only managed to draw with Blackburn.

That result could have easily gone the other way for us and if it had of would fans have still been adamant we wouldn't be making the play-offs.
 
Abel Tasman said:
It’s easy to say “fans were too quick to write off” our playoff chances. The evidence all pointed to that way in February. Failing to win at home to Rotherham, losing at home to Plymouth, missing so many key players, selling our most promising player with the most goal assists, uninspired performances. We didn’t look like a team bound for the playoffs and that’s exactly what has happened.

A strange season in context. Doubles over Leicester and Norwich and 10 points dropped to Plymouth and Rotherham.
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If anything it was more the club that wrote off our playoff chances. Evidenced by the January transfer window and then selling Crooks outside of the window with no opportunity to replace him.
 
Our start put us on an uphill battle from the the off. Then the injuries, which have been relentless, really have impacted us massively. Raising our games against ‘better’ sides and seemingly doing the reverse against ‘lesser’ sides has been bizarre. Our home record has been so disappointing this season. There’s obviously the nucleus off a good side in the making. Get Carrick tied down and on a contract, get that extra bit of quality needed in the summer, which I believe they will based on last summer and give it a right good go next year. Got to get a good start though to give yourself a chance.
 
Anyone going to the home games can see we’re not a promotion side this season. So many performances at home have been poor and we’ve lost about 8 times. Promotion sides do not have that type of record.

I was convinced after the Sunderland game we weren’t making the play offs. It was clear to me at that point we didn’t have the consistency.
 
r00fie1 said:
"Attitude"?
9 [Nine] games unbeaten.
Joint top in the Championship form table above Ipswich, Leicester, Southampton and Leeds!
Really?

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9 games unbeaten is great but even if we'd won 9 on the trot we'd only be level with Norwich in 6th.

We've spent too long this season without establishing an identity, playing badly and basically flirting with relegation form.

At the start of the season, IMO Carrick got the line-ups wrong, and from 7 games we get 2 points.

We then get 6 wins on the bounce before losing at home to Stoke.

Do we bounce back? No we go on an almost relegation form run of 24 points from 20 games, but 6 of those points come from playing against Leicester.

Admittedly disruption from injuries, & arguably being tonked by Chelsea, didn't help but if not attitude why do we raise ourselves for Leicester, Ipswich & Southampton but not for Rotherham, Sheff Wed & Plymouth?
 
parmoboy said:
I'm sure I remember there was a point some time in March where we could have closed the gap to 2 points but only managed to draw with Blackburn.

That result could have easily gone the other way for us and if it had of would fans have still been adamant we wouldn't be making the play-offs.
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But Blackburn beat Leeds at home yesterday too, so they are no mugs!
 
Colgates_shaving_foam said:
I'm still fuming about letting Rogers go after 6 months as it looks like a lack of ambition and it gives our other promising players the green light to push for a move.
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Except Rogers didn't push for a move. The Villa interest came out of the blue.
It was quite a unique situation.
 
It’s easy to forget that this is Carrick’s first full season in charge. He can’t have asked for a much trickier task having to deal with all of the injuries we’ve had, losing so many key players in the summer and then a couple in January.

To still mathematically be in with a chance of playoffs with 3 games to go is a great credit to him and the team.

Really excited for the summer to see what players we can bring in, fingers crossed for a good start in August.
 
newusername said:
9 games unbeaten is great but even if we'd won 9 on the trot we'd only be level with Norwich in 6th.

We've spent too long this season without establishing an identity, playing badly and basically flirting with relegation form.

At the start of the season, IMO Carrick got the line-ups wrong, and from 7 games we get 2 points.

We then get 6 wins on the bounce before losing at home to Stoke.

Do we bounce back? No we go on an almost relegation form run of 24 points from 20 games, but 6 of those points come from playing against Leicester.

Admittedly disruption from injuries, & arguably being tonked by Chelsea, didn't help but if not attitude why do we raise ourselves for Leicester, Ipswich & Southampton but not for Rotherham, Sheff Wed & Plymouth?
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We’ve had one or two injuries throughout the season which have had an impact on consistency, not having the luxury of choosing the players required for each game, and we`ve also lost two valuable players: Crooks and Rogers. That's football.
 
r00fie1 said:
"Attitude"?
9 [Nine] games unbeaten.
Joint top in the Championship form table above Ipswich, Leicester, Southampton and Leeds!
Really?

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I suppose this is the point. Even with the best form in the league we still have about a 1% chance of making of the playoffs with 3 matches left. By the end of February we had just left ourselves too much to do. We have performed better than what I and most people thought we would since then but we are still going to fall short.

Scraping into the playoffs isn't really the aim though is it. Promotion is. Only one team in the last 10 years has been promoted with less than 80 points (Aston Villa). It's likely to be 3 teams with more than 80 points again this season.

90+ points has got to be the real aim and if we fall a bit short and fall into the 80-90 point we should still have a realistic chance of getting through playoffs.

Missing out on the play offs isn't really a near miss of promotion. We are 20 odd points short of where we really want to be in my eyes. We are about as close as Blackburn or Millwall were last year.
 
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B_G said:
I suppose this is the point. Even with the best form in the league we still have about a 1% chance of making of the playoffs with 3 matches left. By the end of February we had just left ourselves too much to do. We have performed better than what I and most people thought we would since then but we are still going to fall short.

Scraping into the playoffs isn't really the aim though is it. Promotion is. Only one team in the last 10 years has been promoted with less than 80 points (Aston Villa). It's likely to be the same this season.

90+ points has got to be the real aim and if we fall a bit short and fall into the 80-90 point we should still have a realistic chance of getting through playoffs.

Missing out on the play offs isn't really a near miss of promotion. We are 20 odd points short of where we really want to be in my eyes. We are about as close as Blackburn or Millwall were last year.
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Agreed.
We have just about said "goodbye" to the play-offs, but think we will stand a better chance to get the job done next season. We might see a change of personnel, other than just the loanees, but in Carrick we trust. When you look at our challengers last year, Coventry, we are both on the same points! Both of us sold our top scorer, and we've had different journeys, but the Championship is so unpredictable. Just look at Millwall, who've had a terrible season compared to last. (y)
 
parmoboy said:
That's fair enough but it wasn't a reality at the time, it was a feeling that fans had.

Just seemed to be that some fans would tell others to stop talking about the play-offs altogether, which felt odd to me. No harm in dreaming.
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Of course we all hoped we'd sneak in, but it has very much been a reality for some months now that our chances were very small and that's proved to be the case.
 
parmoboy said:
I think too many of our fans were too quick to write off our play-off chances this season. Fans were saying it was over in February, after we'd lost to Bristol City and Preston.

I know it's looking almost certain now that we won't make the play-offs, but I felt writing off the play-offs when we still had so many points to play for was the wrong attitude, and remember thinking I hope Carrick and the players don't have the same attitude.

The team has definitely given it a good go in the end but I guess it was too little too late. If only Lath had have returned from injury a month earlier.
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But haven't the fans who wrote it off been proved right? This was the table at the end of February.

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We were 11 points outside the playoffs with a game in hand.

Even after a really good spell of results and going 8 matches unbeaten which is about as good as we could have hoped for really we are still 8 points outside the playoffs with no game in hand. So no closer really other than we've overtaken the other teams that fallen out of contention.

They were just being realistic. There was too much to do and too many teams in front of us.
 
B_G said:
But haven't the fans who wrote it off been proved right? This was the table at the end of February.

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We were 11 points outside the playoffs with a game in hand.

Even after a really good spell of results and going 8 matches unbeaten which is about as good as we could have hoped for really we are still 8 points outside the playoffs with no game in hand. So no closer really other than we've overtaken the other teams that fallen out of contention.

They were just being realistic. There was too much to do and too many teams in front of us.
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Points wise we were closer to the bottom 3 than we were to the top 6.

For me it hasn't really been about how many points we were away from 6th place, it's been our position and the number of teams we would need to overtake to reach there.

Even if we kept winning we needed to rely on 6 or 7 teams each not winning. It was never going to happen.
 
For me Carrick has managed the side well since the early season catastrophe for which he must shoulder the blame for his team selections.

We've had horrendous injury problems since and yet our form hasn't been particularly poor.
 
Corcaigh_the_Cat said:
We've had horrendous injury problems since and yet our form hasn't been particularly poor.
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24 points in 21 games is poor for a team aiming for play-offs and barely better than relegation form.

28-Oct-23 Middlesbrough 0 - 2 Stoke L
04-Nov-23 Plymouth 3 - 3 Middlesbrough D
11-Nov-23 Middlesbrough 1 - 0 Leicester W
25-Nov-23 Bristol C 3 - 2 Middlesbrough L
28-Nov-23 Middlesbrough 4 - 0 Preston W
02-Dec-23 Leeds 3 - 2 Middlesbrough L
09-Dec-23 Middlesbrough 0 - 2 Ipswich L
13-Dec-23 Middlesbrough 1 - 2 Hull L
16-Dec-23 Swansea 1 - 2 Middlesbrough W
23-Dec-23 Middlesbrough 1 - 0 West Brom W
26-Dec-23 Rotherham 1 - 0 Middlesbrough L
29-Dec-23 Huddersfield 1 - 2 Middlesbrough W
01-Jan-24 Middlesbrough 1 - 3 Coventry L
13-Jan-24 Millwall 1 - 3 Middlesbrough W
20-Jan-24 Middlesbrough 1 - 1 Rotherham D
04-Feb-24 Middlesbrough 1 - 1 Sunderland D
10-Feb-24 Middlesbrough 1 - 2 Bristol C L
14-Feb-24 Preston 2 - 1 Middlesbrough L
17-Feb-24 Leicester 1 - 2 Middlesbrough W
24-Feb-24 Middlesbrough 0 - 2 Plymouth L
02-Mar-24 Stoke 2 - 0 Middlesbrough L

Admittedly no 2 points from 7 game runs like how we started the season but a 7 points from 8 and a 5 from 7 aren't far off.
 
brattleboro said:
carracks done ok so far, but next season ,if we don't start well, then the pressure will really be on him I feel,i feel we could have done a bit better this season with the players we have ,despite a lot of injuries, well see!!!
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If we had the players in earlier we wouldn’t have lost the first 6 games . That has cost us massively
 
newusername said:
24 points in 21 games is poor for a team aiming for play-offs and barely better than relegation form.

28-Oct-23 Middlesbrough 0 - 2 Stoke L
04-Nov-23 Plymouth 3 - 3 Middlesbrough D
11-Nov-23 Middlesbrough 1 - 0 Leicester W
25-Nov-23 Bristol C 3 - 2 Middlesbrough L
28-Nov-23 Middlesbrough 4 - 0 Preston W
02-Dec-23 Leeds 3 - 2 Middlesbrough L
09-Dec-23 Middlesbrough 0 - 2 Ipswich L
13-Dec-23 Middlesbrough 1 - 2 Hull L
16-Dec-23 Swansea 1 - 2 Middlesbrough W
23-Dec-23 Middlesbrough 1 - 0 West Brom W
26-Dec-23 Rotherham 1 - 0 Middlesbrough L
29-Dec-23 Huddersfield 1 - 2 Middlesbrough W
01-Jan-24 Middlesbrough 1 - 3 Coventry L
13-Jan-24 Millwall 1 - 3 Middlesbrough W
20-Jan-24 Middlesbrough 1 - 1 Rotherham D
04-Feb-24 Middlesbrough 1 - 1 Sunderland D
10-Feb-24 Middlesbrough 1 - 2 Bristol C L
14-Feb-24 Preston 2 - 1 Middlesbrough L
17-Feb-24 Leicester 1 - 2 Middlesbrough W
24-Feb-24 Middlesbrough 0 - 2 Plymouth L
02-Mar-24 Stoke 2 - 0 Middlesbrough L

Admittedly no 2 points from 7 game runs like how we started the season but a 7 points from 8 and a 5 from 7 aren't far off.
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Story of the season inconsistent, which with the injuries and new players and sales is to be expected, come up short!

Management will have learned alot, new players and existing will have learnt and matured.

Next season will be excellent - UTB
 
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