No match day thread ?

I get what you’re saying about xG and there is merit in it but it counts for the square root of nowt when you can’t keep the ball out of your own net, can’t or won’t pass it to a team-mate, punt it long for no reason, sh*t yourself at the idea of making a tackle.

That first half tonight was absolutely abysmal. Don’t let the last 20-25mins fool you or hide it. It was utter dogshit. If it happens once or twice then fine, it’s to be expected from a second division team in terms of a bit of inconsistency here and there. But this is every week; mistakes, sloppiness, aimless long balls, one man in the box, gaping holes in midfield. It’s completely bizarre.

The good spells count for nothing when the bad ones happen so often. There’s a lot of work to do.

Selling Tav has absolutely ripped the heart out of this team IMO. They clearly weren’t prepared for it. But even that doesn’t excuse the sloppiness and lack of urgency and aggression we’re seeing. It’s completely unsustainable.

This team has lacked guts and leadership for years. It should’ve been addressed properly this summer and it doesn’t look like it has. I always like to preach patience but that first half certainly makes you wonder. TBH the Sunderland performance was exactly the same, looking back. Just long balls and no real football played. What are they supposed to be doing? And if they know, why aren’t they doing it?
 
Sheriff_John_Bunnell_ret said:
We played your team of footballers against QPR first half. We were *****. We were 3 nil down, creating nothing and playing terrible. The "basic knowledge" and reason we lost is because we kept on playing it out under a heavy press. When we stopped doing that we were much better.
I know you're trying to position this as luddite Boro fans but it's really not. We didn't play long because we had three clods at the back. We played long because every player was scared to receive the ball and every player was scared to pass it to another player for fear they would lose it. Like Howson did for the second.
We are wildly inconsistent within the space of 90 minutes and that's all in their heads. Regardless of formation or the selection of players on the pitch.
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3-1 at half time I recall correctly, one goal was a foul, and the other a 25 yard screamer, and it was also away, against a pretty good side, when we were lacking a striker or two. You might think today was the same as that, I don’t, not by a long shot. Plus it was the second game, for a lot of new players, and first away.

I disagree, I think we’ve tried to be too “safe” at the back recently, with selections but some of that has been forced with injuries and lack of cover in some areas. Maybe we’ve even second guessing what we were doing, which is what concerns me, as I thought we could have played ourselves into better results, results we deserved. But as soon as Muniz arrived we changed to operation launch it (not Muniz fault, he’s done more than expected with what we’ve gave him). Launching it up seemed an easy get out for the defenders.

We didn’t shown enough for passes too mind, but maybe the midfield thought there’s zero point when they’re going to launch it 60 yards over their heads. Maybe long ball was the tactic, but I’d bet my hat it wasn’t.

We need all the players playing the same game, or it will collapse like a deck of cards. When we do play the right way, we’re often the better team. For some reason though, the players just will not do it, some more than others. The worse footballers panic too much, but yet still think they can play a 60yard ball to one striker v two centre backs, it’s lunacy,
 
Jones has an ‘emperors new clothes’ Svengali effect on Boro fans. He has been abject for months at the end of last season and start of this year but is constantly given a free ride on here by a lot of folk . He is always absent at full back and we are wide open and exposed on the right time and again. He is the worst crosser of the ball I have seen in a Boro shirt. He is so wasteful in the excellent positions and doesn’t seem to have the power to get a ball above shoulder height. When he has ran himself into a cul de sac he throws himself to the ground embarrassingly. If you hadn’t watched the first half of last season you would be scratching your head as an observer about how this guy gets his game. Time for a rest and some hard work on the training ground.
 
viv_andersons_nana said:
I get what you’re saying about xG and there is merit in it but it counts for the square root of nowt when you can’t keep the ball out of your own net, can’t or won’t pass it to a team-mate, punt it long for no reason, sh*t yourself at the idea of making a tackle.

That first half tonight was absolutely abysmal. Don’t let the last 20-25mins fool you or hide it. It was utter dogshit. If it happens once or twice then fine, it’s to be expected from a second division team in terms of a bit of inconsistency here and there. But this is every week; mistakes, sloppiness, aimless long balls, one man in the box, gaping holes in midfield. It’s completely bizarre.

The good spells count for nothing when the bad ones happen so often. There’s a lot of work to do.

Selling Tav has absolutely ripped the heart out of this team IMO. They clearly weren’t prepared for it. But even that doesn’t excuse the sloppiness and lack of urgency and aggression we’re seeing. It’s completely unsustainable.

This team has lacked guts and leadership for years. It should’ve been addressed properly this summer and it doesn’t look like it has. I always like to preach patience but that first half certainly makes you wonder. TBH the Sunderland performance was exactly the same, looking back. Just long balls and no real football played. What are they supposed to be doing? And if they know, why aren’t they doing it?
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XG was nowhere near being on our side first half, which is why I never mentioned it. I’ve not mentioned it in the two games we won either, and I don’t think we deserved either of those, compared to some games we lost, not counting tonight.

We were better immediately after the changes, straight after half time, I wrote that at my first opportunity. It took me about 3 minutes to spot that we were trying much better to retain the ball.

Tav is a big loss, and I’m not convinced by Fry leading a back 3. He seems to play his own game too much too.

I think the players are either lacking confidence, scared of losing it with a short pass or funnily enough, actually scared of losing their spot. Some of the seem to be Fanny’s, who can’t handle competition. It seems like a mental shock to their system, now they’re not comfortable starters.
 
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