Carrick all season and we are premier league

If the recruitment is right there is no reason why Boro can't aim for automatic promotion. Even with the apparent strength of the teams being relegated.

The style of football played between November - March / April in particular would be good enough against anyone in the Championship. The issue in the end was injuries and a lack of squad depth. Muniz brought in for Wilder's style and was never suited to Carrick's fluid 4-2-3-1.
 
Carrick has given us lots of obvious reasons to be optimistic; loads of goals, attractive football and an ability to get the best out of (most) players.

But there's still a couple of question marks too;t he lacklustre second leg performance when it mattered most, a couple of surprising defeats in games that really we should have won but didn't turn up and a few too many goals conceded.

I hope the club can bring in the right mix of players this summer and I suspect this will include a few returning on loan, with Ramsey being the most obvious to me.

It's easy to forget Carrick is fresh out if the box as a manager though and is still learning too, let's hope both he and the club can achieve success together and not just in the coming season.
 
Jonny Ingbar said:
Carrick has given us lots of obvious reasons to be optimistic; loads of goals, attractive football and an ability to get the best out of (most) players.

But there's still a couple of question marks too;t he lacklustre second leg performance when it mattered most, a couple of surprising defeats in games that really we should have won but didn't turn up and a few too many goals conceded.

I hope the club can bring in the right mix of players this summer and I suspect this will include a few returning on loan, with Ramsey being the most obvious to me.

It's easy to forget Carrick is fresh out if the box as a manager though and is still learning too, let's hope both he and the club can achieve success together and not just in the coming season.
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Aye, I think we need to find ways to get results when we aren't playing well is the crux of the matter. I think under Carrick we'll probably play well more often than not, but it's those tight matches that can make the difference.

Two obvious things to improve on that'll help that is tightening up at the back and carrying more of a set piece threat.

Re: the playoffs. It's not like Coventry played us off the pitch or anything. But they made the tie a tight tense affair with how they set up and that sort of game suited them more. They still needed the rub of the green a bit (as did we but didn't get), it could easily have gone the other way.

The knock out format probably suited them better. I would argue Carricks approach is likely to be more successful over the course of a season, we won't draw many. We might slip up every now and then unexpectedly but if you're racking up wins rather than draws you can get away with that a little bit.

You can't in knock out football.
 
Redwurzel said:
The team needs a bit of strengthing to get to 92 points, even if we hung on to all our current players including loans. The division will be tougher next season.
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It’s always a funny league.
Carrick wants to play his way - you need really good players to do that and certainly more than one that can unlock defensive set ups. That’s where we struggled when it mattered.

Burnley were the best footballing team and they shone through.
Luton, Cov and, to a certain extent Sheffield Utd, all had a bit of blood and thunder to their games.
I don’t think any of them really had better players than us - in the end they were more effective tho.

That’s the challenge
 
1finny said:
It’s always a funny league.
Carrick wants to play his way - you need really good players to do that and certainly more than one that can unlock defensive set ups. That’s where we struggled when it mattered.

Burnley were the best footballing team and they shone through.
Luton, Cov and, to a certain extent Sheffield Utd, all had a bit of blood and thunder to their games.
I don’t think any of them really had better players than us - in the end they were more effective tho.

That’s the challenge
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All teams need players who can unlock a defence. I'd argue the more attacking a team is, the less you need to rely on magic from individuals though.

Our goals for column suggests we have less of an issue with unlocking defences than any of the sides you've listed.

It's almost counter intuitive but I think it's more about keeping it tight at the back against teams that set up defensively. You can't afford to concede soft goals against them, because you'll get far fewer chances.

Agree Luton and Sheff United were more effective (although the latter had some very good players, let's not pretend otherwise) the league table shows that to be the case.

Coventry finished 5 points behind us and with a hugely inferior goal difference. Them winning the tightest of games in a knock out format doesn't mean they were more effective than us over the course of the season.

There's also a lot of talk about "Carricks way". It's actually the modern way, if you look at the top divisions across Europe more and more sides are playing that way. Not just the teams at the top of the league either.

It's also the way increasing numbers of youth teams play now.

For that reason I don't think it'll be that hard to find players to fit the style. Particularly younger players.

I do wonder if this is partly why managers like Warnock, Pulis and Wilder to an extent, tend to favour recruiting older players. I'm not sure many younger players coming through having the attributes to play that harder running style, with a emphasis on what you do off the ball they prefer. Kids are all coached now to look after the ball, pass it on the deck and let it do most of the work.
 
Jonny Ingbar said:
a couple of surprising defeats in games that really we should have won but didn't turn up and a few too many goals conceded.
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Is that not just 'the Championship' though? It happens to every team, every season. I can only think of Huddersfield and Rotherham where it was really unexpected.

Agreed about the too many goals conceded though, that needs to be the big improvement for me.
 
We will be losing the 4 loan players, probably Chuba, and no guarantee Jonny will maintain his level over a full season given he is now 35. That's 6 players from our first choice XI under Carrick. Completely depends how well we do in the window. 'Im confident we will do well in the department as the process seems to have direction and clarity now under Scott, but until that window closes it will be very hard to make predictions.
 
I think our style of football is fantastic to watch and we rack up goals in games but against a certain style of football we really struggle and need a different approach. Teams like West Brom and Coventry played with a really packed defence and we went from scoring multiple goals, having multiple shots on goal to not being able to even create chances against them because there is no space in behind and our striker wasn't physical enough to occupy the defenders and hold the ball up to play off, even on the patient build up.

Over a full season you can accept that you will win most matches but might lose to the odd team that clashes with your style but you can't do that for one off matches in the playoffs because if you lose you are out. The biggest worry though is that other teams learn from those losses and change their style to nullify us. If we don't have a plan B then we might be facing packed defences every week and we won't rack up the goals against teams like we have done this season.

Carrick's not daft though. He'll be aware of this and I'm sure it's more of a case of not having the personnel to be able to change rather than not recognising that sometimes change is required.
 
festa5 said:
All teams need players who can unlock a defence. I'd argue the more attacking a team is, the less you need to rely on magic from individuals though.

Our goals for column suggests we have less of an issue with unlocking defences than any of the sides you've listed.

It's almost counter intuitive but I think it's more about keeping it tight at the back against teams that set up defensively. You can't afford to concede soft goals against them, because you'll get far fewer chances.

Agree Luton and Sheff United were more effective (although the latter had some very good players, let's not pretend otherwise) the league table shows that to be the case.

Coventry finished 5 points behind us and with a hugely inferior goal difference. Them winning the tightest of games in a knock out format doesn't mean they were more effective than us over the course of the season.

There's also a lot of talk about "Carricks way". It's actually the modern way, if you look at the top divisions across Europe more and more sides are playing that way. Not just the teams at the top of the league either.

It's also the way increasing numbers of youth teams play now.

For that reason I don't think it'll be that hard to find players to fit the style. Particularly younger players.

I do wonder if this is partly why managers like Warnock, Pulis and Wilder to an extent, tend to favour recruiting older players. I'm not sure many younger players coming through having the attributes to play that harder running style, with a emphasis on what you do off the ball they prefer. Kids are all coached now to look after the ball, pass it on the deck and let it do most of the work.
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Agree with that.

The fact that so many new faces will be on the team sheet come the start of next season may actually be a positive.

Carrick has the opportunity to bring players in that fit within his style, not just individually, but complimenting each other as a whole.
 
He had a great season but for whatever reason we weren't well prepared for that 2nd leg. They were nervous, edgy and eventually poor. He has to question why that was the case.
 
Got to agree with a lot of comments.

Our game is based on taking risks...which in KO competitions can prove fatal as you don't get that 2nd chance...whereas in the league you get plenty of opportunities to amend those wrongs.

I hope Scott has some jokers up his sleeve again, similar to Archer/Giles/Ramsey, as we will no doubt be relying on some big additions this summer. Even more if we lose any key players - Chuba, McNair etc.

Steffen or new GK
LB
CB if McNair goes
RB - ideally need an upgrade on Smith (unless we think Dijksteel can make the step up)
CM - Howson is 35 now, and we've also lost Mowatt...maybe Barlaser will step up?...still need cover for Hackney/Barlaser/Howson.
Winger - Jones isn't good enough, leaving us short with just McGree & Forss
Striker(s) - Crooks isn't good enough for a starter...and if Akpom goes, that leaves us needing 2 new strikers.



Big big summer ahead.
 
This management lark is easy.......

1. Improve scoring/defending set pieces
2. Stop conceding bad goals.
3. Don't get out muscled in MF/defence
4. Have the goals spread out around the team.

The above will be improved with the players we sign. Bit more height (without coming over full on Tony Pulis....) and physicality will help hugely in the Championship, and hopefully a bit more speed through the MF wouldn't be a bad thing (not massive though).

Carrick isn't daft, sure he knows all of this. Remember, he inherited that squad bar Archer and Ramsey so if that's his/Danks/recruitment teams eyes for a player, that will do me.
 
Wish i had your belief. I think we will have a fight on just to make the playoffs. Probs be the best championship ever some big clubs of similiar stature and ambition in there. Also some with huge pots of money and we all know who theyl be.
 
BoroPhil said:
He had a great season but for whatever reason we weren't well prepared for that 2nd leg. They were nervous, edgy and eventually poor. He has to question why that was the case.
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What I was trying to say though was....If Carrick had been here from the start of the season and got these players in earlier (Archer, Ramsey) along with the other loan players already here then we would've most likely got promoted outright given the points we amassed for the games Carrick was here...

Alas, attention now turns towards next season and i'm confident Akpom doesn't go (unless a silly offer comes & he wants to go for money security reasons) in which Case i feel certain that under Carricks guidance Payero could be just as potent (in a different way) because he looks like a number 10 to me and has not fulfilled his potential in any way.

Good news that Villa didn't qualify for Europe and therefore I expect Archer & Ramsey to be available again for a loan with Boro in prime position.
Steffen may well get bought by us along with giles (both will surely want to come to Boro under Carrick)
He might sign Mowatt as cover for Howson or bring him back on lona if West Brom aren't bothered about him and another season at Boro works for all parties.

Obviously, Scott, Carrick and his coach (from Villa) might have higher aspirations on players they have identified and lets be truthful. After watching footage of Boro recently many many players are going to be interested in a bit of that. Good football, respectful manager, great team spirit.

The immediate future looks bright, it looks Red (not orange) ;)
 
Ex Footy Legs said:
Alas, attention now turns towards next season and i'm confident Akpom doesn't go (unless a silly offer comes & he wants to go for money security reasons) in which Case i feel certain that under Carricks guidance Payero could be just as potent (in a different way) because he looks like a number 10 to me and has not fulfilled his potential in any way.
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To play as a "10" in Carricks team you need to be able to hold the ball up with your back to goal, hold the opposition off, then bring others into play. Akpom does this brilliantly, especially when receiving those 40 yard clipped passes from Steffen to beat the press. Playing Payero there would massively change the team dynamic.
 
MickaelDebevePhenomenal said:
To play as a "10" in Carricks team you need to be able to hold the ball up with your back to goal, hold the opposition off, then bring others into play. Akpom does this brilliantly, especially when receiving those 40 yard clipped passes from Steffen to beat the press. Playing Payero there would massively change the team dynamic.
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Thats a very fair point in terms of a different skill set akpom vs payero - payero is more driving forward with the ball looking for 1-2s and penetrating runs....from what we seen of him...
 
Every year we are told it will be harder to get out but don't it differs much season to season, very confident if we get the quality of players Carrick and Scott want we will be right up there. Some of the football we played consistently with Carrick last season was easily some of the best I have seen in over 50 years watching the Boro
 
Fattyfoggon said:
Every year we are told it will be harder to get out but don't it differs much season to season, very confident if we get the quality of players Carrick and Scott want we will be right up there. Some of the football we played consistently with Carrick last season was easily some of the best I have seen in over 50 years watching the Boro
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Exactly.

The assumption is the teams coming down will smash it (and of course they might do), but plenty of previously established premier League teams have found the reality a bit of a shock to the system.

There's an argument that teams coming straight back down after one year up carry more of a threat because they know what to expect.

I think a lot of premier league players who've never experienced the championship have a tendency to underestimate it. These are players also in a losing habit too don't forget, it does have an effect.
 
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