Middlesbrough Post Match 1-0 Defeat

[StanSP]

Some fans act like we're gonna lose every game now. 

[Chelmofox]

14 minutes ago, SheppyFox said:

Cracks and fragility are beginning to show in our performances. The cloak of invincibility has been shattered, they know we can’t cope with being pressed. It’s slow and ponderous, far too respectful of the absolutely appalling standard of this league.
 

We should not accept another loss this year as a club. 

Or what? Have you seen how many points teams who get promoted usually drop?

[kristianity77]

1 hour ago, shen said:

And did you also praise the team after 13 games in equal measure? I only ever notice hour name on here when the boat starts to rock a bit.

Yes mate.  Have a look through my posts from start of the season up until just before the Sunderland game if you like.  I couldn't get enough of our performances during that period.  But since then yeah I've not really been that impressed.  It's called telling it how I see it. 

[Lillehamring]

20 minutes ago, Dahnsouff said:

Can see that, but don’t you also think how niggly the last two teams were allowed to be played a part? We certainly have a soft underbelly, and that’s a concern.

I like to think that it's just a stage on our learning curve - it's easy to forget how new this team is.

To be honest, if Leeds and Boro are the third and fifth favourites to win the league, i'm not that worried, they both looked like they'll get beaten  more often than we will this season, and that's there's no one we should really fear this season.

[oxtonfox]

Why has Enzo only played 2 subs in the last two defeats? Does he really only trust 13 players? He may as well put 4 keepers on the bench. 

[Guest Col city fan]

Just a few points after today:

- However much loyalty Iheanacho receives on here, he’s never been prolific. It’s clear that the club need a clear, first-choice, on-form striker. Iheanacho has actually never been good enough tbh. This is going to be crucial if/when we get promoted. To go back into the Prem with our strikers, won’t do.

- Choudhry is bang average and always has been.

- We look a better side with Ndidi in it.

- We made enough chances today to not be worried. Another day, they’ll go in. I’d be more worried if we weren’t making chances

[Lillehamring]

20 minutes ago, SheppyFox said:

Cracks and fragility are beginning to show in our performances. The cloak of invincibility has been shattered, they know we can’t cope with being pressed. It’s slow and ponderous, far too respectful of the absolutely appalling standard of this league.
 

We should not accept another loss this year as a club. 

We can cope with being pressed - doesn't mean we'll always win, though.  Sunderland pressed as much as anyone has and we did enough to win.

[Paninistickers]

29 minutes ago, CH1_Fox said:

Maybe I’m going mad but I thought that was a far better performance than the last three games. Far from perfect, and we’re nowhere near clinical enough but we’ve played far worse and won

Exactly. Wout Faes in particular was absolutely impeccable. Great goalkeeping again from Mads. I thought mavididi looked sharp. Thought it was JJs best performance so far. 

 

There was a 20.minute spell in the second half were we close (but not close enough) to scintillating. 

 

Kels x 2, Mavidid x 1, KDH x1 and Fatawu x 1 all missed good chances in that spell..plus additional half chances from kels,.mavididi and KDH

 

They scored an extraordinary goal out of nothing. They literally offered zero. 

 

Personally - and I've said this all season - I'd go with two up top and drop a winger. Certainly in those phases where we are on top and need to put the foot on the neck.

[ARTY_FOX]

1 hour ago, Ric Flair said:

But again, there's sustained and prolonged unrivalled success that you'd have to be certified insane to do so. We've achieved absolutely nothing so far, except a record breaking opening third of the season. 

 

The calm and considered approach would be that there's clearly warning signs we are starting to toil and teams are gaining confidence that its not a forgone conclusion we score and win every game. It shouldn't be panic stations yet but I really hope those involved on the football side of the football club don't just assume our dominance is untouchable. 

I'm absolutley sure they won't be concerned. Nor should they. Losses happen. We had more than enough chances to win this game emphatically 

[HankMarvin]

1 hour ago, Lillehamring said:

No one has 'sussed us out' - leeds and boro approached their games completely differently - there's not suddenly some magic 'how to beat leicester' formula.  

We didn't lose either game because the opposition were significantly (or even remotely) superior or because they completely nullified us, we lost them because they took their chances and we didn't, we had more than enough chances to have taken points from both games.

Leeds had 6-1 on target not sure how that equates to more than enough chances.

 

Middlesbrough 6-4 

Hull 4-1 on target 

 

it’s amazing how people say we were unlucky and had more than enough chances but discredit the opposition chances in those games 

[HitchinFox]

21 minutes ago, kristianity77 said:

Yes mate.  Have a look through my posts from start of the season up until just before the Sunderland game if you like.  I couldn't get enough of our performances during that period.  But since then yeah I've not really been that impressed.  It's called telling it how I see it. 

 

And perhaps you will accept that you might see things in a way that has nothing to do with the actual performance, but rather purely on whether we end up with three points or not. 

 

 

[HankMarvin]

19 minutes ago, ARTY_FOX said:

I'm absolutley sure they won't be concerned. Nor should they. Losses happen. We had more than enough chances to win this game emphatically 

Middlesbrough didn’t have a chance then before the goal?

[don_danbury]

9 minutes ago, HankMarvin said:

Leeds had 6-1 on target not sure how that equates to more than enough chances.

 

Middlesbrough 6-4 

Hull 4-1 on target 

 

it’s amazing how people say we were unlucky and had more than enough chances but discredit the opposition chances in those games 

even tho we had 1 shot on target, it was still enough to get a point. plus the shot that hit the bar. most of leeds shots were easy for hermansen 

[HankMarvin]

2 hours ago, Nod.E said:

That's not a blueprint opponents have concocted to stop us in our tracks though is it? Hull game is the only game I've missed all season but the Leeds and Boro games we've done more than enough to score. Certainly today.

 

Our problems are our own to fix. We need to be a little sharper in front of goal, it's as simple as that.

 

We were punished in the last two games because they are better sides so we don't get quite as many chances. 

 

In the games we win, we fluff just as many promising positions, it's just we're that much better than most teams that we can afford to be wasteful.

Ipswich haven’t failed to score in any game, it’s happened 3 times with a “superior” squad. You don’t think that’s anything to do with how opposition teams set up and the success teams have had implementing that game plan?

 

[Lillehamring]

15 minutes ago, HankMarvin said:

Leeds had 6-1 on target not sure how that equates to more than enough chances.

 

Middlesbrough 6-4 

Hull 4-1 on target 

 

it’s amazing how people say we were unlucky and had more than enough chances but discredit the opposition chances in those games 

Hull we had 21 attempts at goal, leeds 10, boro 12 - sure they're not all going to go in, but when you have that many shots there's no excuse for not getting something from a game.

 

We hit the post in each of those games - so were talking inches away from scoring (which is not unfair to describe as unlucky). The Messlier save in the last minute, again we're talking inches away from a goal, given the timing there'd have been no coming back from that.

 

Again - the original argument is that we've been 'sussed out' - which is nonsense.  Don't confuse 'chances to win' with 'dominating the opposition' - neither of the last two games did we put in a performance of the highest standard - we weren't bad, but equally we've been better, and yet, but for the with of the woodwork we could have come away with points - so, no, this isn't about us suddenly being easy to beat, it's about us not sustaining the focus of the previous 14 games, or being clinical enough with the numerous chances we created.

[Pliskin]

Still fuming. And I’m getting angrier. Shouldn’t be losing games like this. 

[Lillehamring]

4 minutes ago, HankMarvin said:

Ipswich haven’t failed to score in any game, it’s happened 3 times with a “superior” squad. You don’t think that’s anything to do with how opposition teams set up and the success teams have had implementing that game plan?

 

Ipswich have also conceded more than twice as many goals as us - there's a trade off for the way that they play. Failing to score in three of 16 games isn't terrible, it's not like in any of the games we didn't have opportunity to score.

 

That we have failed to score in the three games we have lost has little to do with the way teams set up against us:

Hull essentially parked the bus, boro sat relatively deep & Leeds went with a super high press,.  Most teams we have played have set up like hull and boro did and we have beaten them and scored plenty of goals.  Equally, sunderland set up similar to leeds and we beat them.  so, no the lack of goals is down, in the main, to our poor finishing and the woodwork.

 

 

[alanf0x]

Genuinely think Hermansen would be a better option in CM than Hamza!! 

[FLAN]

5 hours ago, GingerrrFox said:

Mavididi is winding me up big time at the minute. I’d like to see him out of the side for a few games. He needs a rocket up him because his level has dropped massively. 

Grayvididi. He’s an absolute idiot. He has no idea when to play the right pass 

[Wymsey]

Are due to thrash someone fairly soon, possibly at Sheffield Wednesday.

[sacreblueits442]

10 minutes ago, Wymsey said:

Are due to thrash someone fairly soon, possibly at Sheffield Wednesday.

...posters have been saying this all season!!!

QPR was supposed to have been the patsy, we squeaked through that one quite late. Until we can get our wingers producing, we are not going to be in a position to slaughter teams, they are always in the game for up to 70 minutes.

[Paninistickers]

35 minutes ago, Pliskin said:

Still fuming. And I’m getting angrier. Shouldn’t be losing games like this. 

Mate, I'm fuming too. But it's kinda why football is great. 

 

Middlesbrough haven't got a player who'd make our 25 man sqaud, let alone our bench.  We were better than them all over the pitch. Won our individual battles. Restricted them to just two proper chances, both from set pieces. Yet they won and even more amazing, we can't have too many complaints that they did..

 

Mad game, innit? 

[tickler28]

I think it was a myth that we were ever going to storm the league. What happened in my opinion was the following:

- We played a style of football not accustomed to this level and passed teams off the park.

- We were given far to much respect by teams who mostly stood off us and allowed us to dictate games 

- I also genuinely believe that we were winning matches and scoring goals due to our superior players not some tactical masterclass (many of which are Premier League class).

 

I understand and I appreciate the style of play Enzo is looking to instill but it MUST come with end product.

 

Sadly we aren't going to score points for keeping the ball the longest and stringing a million passes together we have to remember the end goal is to score goals no matter how pretty/ugly.

Edited 11 November 2023 by tickler28

[420Hashish]

Ha, I didn't watch this game. Can't be blamed for the loss unlike the other 3 💪💪💪

[ARTY_FOX]

1 hour ago, HankMarvin said:

Middlesbrough didn’t have a chance then before the goal?

I'm not saying they didn't, teams always have chances. that's football. 

 

but we had better/more and should have put a few away.