My view of last night

Ratedr69

Well-known member
I'm gutted still, after a god awful few years with covid and Pullis etc I thought this was our time, even managed to get Blur tickets for the warm up show in Newcastle the day after the final which would have been an amazing weekend.

Deep down I know we are on the right track with Carrick and I know next year will be special but it was there for the taking. Beat Cov and Luton and you're in the Premier League. If it was only that simple.

I think Carrick will look back on last night and think he could have influenced the game a bit more, Me personally would have brought Djaksteel and Jones on at half time and tried to get behind them more, The longer it went on I felt we was losing grip on it. The lack of a plan B was apparent. I sense Carrick like AK will make plan A that good you won't need plan B. It was like chess and Coventry was our Kryptonite. Ramsey and Howson was a massive miss and like some have said we have a very unbalanced squad which will be changed in the summer. I don't think the last 4/5 games helped which affected our attacking fluideity but I would have made the same changes in them games so can't complain.

Big summer ahead and we will get some players who are more suited to our style. UTB and roll on next season :)
 
Think a lot of fans unfortunately were looking at simply turning up, beating Coventry and Luton then having a party when promoted.

But we went into the playoffs in stuttering form, whereas the other teams all had pretty decent form. Think we just ran out of steam at the end of the day - that and too many key injuries.

Even if we had beat Coventry, if Luton played anything like they did against the mackems they would have bullied us, booted us and I honestly think would have beaten us in our current form.

So "there for the taking" was based on our form 4-6 weeks ago, not going into the playoffs. We dipped at the wrong time, other teams showed. more consistency.

Anyhow, rather lose a playoff semi final than final any day.

Onwards and upwards 👍
 
our trajectory is upwards, all around the club we are benefiting from a stronger structure and actually having a plan that everyone is bought into.
Carrick has achieved a lot in his short time here , i fully trust him and the club to learn the lessons improve and develop what we have.
We were close this year, next year, I believe we will be in amongst it all season.

That said.. I’m a bit gutted about last night
 
I'm gutted still, after a god awful few years with covid and Pullis etc I thought this was our time, even managed to get Blur tickets for the warm up show in Newcastle the day after the final which would have been an amazing weekend.

Deep down I know we are on the right track with Carrick and I know next year will be special but it was there for the taking. Beat Cov and Luton and you're in the Premier League. If it was only that simple.

I think Carrick will look back on last night and think he could have influenced the game a bit more, Me personally would have brought Djaksteel and Jones on at half time and tried to get behind them more, The longer it went on I felt we was losing grip on it. The lack of a plan B was apparent. I sense Carrick like AK will make plan A that good you won't need plan B. It was like chess and Coventry was our Kryptonite. Ramsey and Howson was a massive miss and like some have said we have a very unbalanced squad which will be changed in the summer. I don't think the last 4/5 games helped which affected our attacking fluideity but I would have made the same changes in them games so can't complain.

Big summer ahead and we will get some players who are more suited to our style. UTB and roll on next season :)
I fundamentally disagree with a lot of this.

Firstly a few people have said Carrick had no plan b and robins outthought him.

I don't think this is true. One of the reasons we have been successful this season is because there are multiple approaches in every game. We go through the middle with intricate give and go's. Secondly we go out wide and get croses in. Thirdly we occasionally go long for archer to run onto balls over the top.

If you believe there should have been a plan b and we didn't already use that, what would your plan b have been?

Being Jones and dijksteel on earlier. Yeah cos that worked. They had plenty of time to effect the game 66 minutes on. They didn't.

It was like chess, really? Coventry in 180 minutes had one shot on target we had 4 in the same time.

They simply didn't out think Carrick. They got lucky and scored from their only shot on target.

Another day another result happens.

A little perspective is needed.
 
I fundamentally disagree with a lot of this.

Firstly a few people have said Carrick had no plan b and robins outthought him.

I don't think this is true. One of the reasons we have been successful this season is because there are multiple approaches in every game. We go through the middle with intricate give and go's. Secondly we go out wide and get croses in. Thirdly we occasionally go long for archer to run onto balls over the top.

If you believe there should have been a plan b and we didn't already use that, what would your plan b have been?

Being Jones and dijksteel on earlier. Yeah cos that worked. They had plenty of time to effect the game 66 minutes on. They didn't.

It was like chess, really? Coventry in 180 minutes had one shot on target we had 4 in the same time.

They simply didn't out think Carrick. They got lucky and scored from their only shot on target.

Another day another result happens.

A little perspective is needed.

I don't know whether Carrick was out-thought but it's undeniable that Coventry stifled Boro's game plan. It was the same game plan in the league game and the two play off games. Robins knew what was coming.

Coventry might have only had one shot, but they came far closer to scoring than Boro. It was far more likely they would have scored again than Boro score.

It's really disappointing, because that Boro team had the capability to win. But they didn't turn up, and Coventry deserved it in the end. They played to their capability, Boro didn't.

For Boro it's yet another 'what might have been', but there have been so many they are getting much easier to deal with.
 
I don't know whether Carrick was out-thought but it's undeniable that Coventry stifled Boro's game plan. It was the same game plan in the league game and the two play off games. Robins knew what was coming.

Coventry might have only had one shot, but they came far closer to scoring than Boro. It was far more likely they would have scored again than Boro score.

It's really disappointing, because that Boro team had the capability to win. But they didn't turn up, and Coventry deserved it in the end. They played to their capability, Boro didn't.

For Boro it's yet another 'what might have been', but there have been so many they are getting much easier to deal with.
The warning signs were there in games earlier in the season and in the two games we've just played against them that we can be outmuscled and put off our game by a high press, not having a back up plan (other than throwing a big man up front) is quite poor tbh.
 
At least Wednesday nights result was not all brought on by a crap refereeing decision unlike the loss at Sunderland and defeat at Luton. Scoring no goals over 2 legs may have been influenced by injuries , but otherwise we have no one to blame but ourselves.
 
I really like Carrick and hope he’s here next season, but think he’s been very fortunate that fans have given him a free pass for Wednesday night where I think he must shoulder a large amount of responsibility for the defeat. We made it so easy for them, we played exactly the same way in the league game and first leg and Robins knew we’d play the same way again, so he dropped a striker out for a midfielder and deployed a low block, knowing Gyokeres could be a one man attack.

It was obvious at half-time that we were struggling to break through and what we were doing wasn’t working, we needed Dijksteel on the pitch to actually have someone on the right capable and getting in behind their low block or even drop Archer out for Crooks / Barlaser and give us an extra body in midfield. But he did nothing, and it was the same 2nd half and the longer it went on the more it felt like the 1st team to score would win. Sadly it was them and as soon as that ball hit the net it was game over, we could have played for hours and we wouldn’t have scored.

He then waited 10 minutes to change things, far too late. Everything he did was reactive rather proactive. I love the guy, but his decision making that night was very disappointing.
 
This is very true.

Yet some moan we only "stumbled over the line" 😂
Karanka - defensive maestro with no plan B. Boro didn't stumble over the line as much as fall over it. Having been promoted Karanka didn't learn. Trying to defend your way to safety in the Prem League was just stupid. Watching that Boro team struggle was depressing.

I think Carrick is smart enough to learn from what's just happened and fix it. If he stays then I think Steve Gibson will back him to improve next season. I wonder if Carrick would be more tempted to try one of the Prem League survivors next season though - West Ham or Palace or Chelsea maybe.
 
Back
Top