Boro sack Monk/Hire Pulis

[lrm14]

Boro and Pulis is a match made in heaven. I wonder how many giants he can sign for them in January.

[whiteroseram]

How many managers has Cyrus Christie seen off now? Must be plenty 

[ipad1977]

On 26/12/2017 at 13:04, HantsRam said:

Wonder what our Middlesbrough visitors think of this appointment? 

Have we heard owt from @ipad1977?

Got the window to find a big lad to lump it up to 

I'm cautiously optimistic about his appointment.

The thing about Monk's sacking that a lot find strange is the timing; after the win against the owls. The reality is that he'd have been sacked whatever the result.

To the earlier poster who suggested Monk would have got us into the playoffs - I don't think he would. IMO he's a fraud. He caused a stink at Swansea apparently to get the top job. Leeds did well with him, till he fell out with Pep Clotet and suddenly they bombed; reading between the lines it was Clotet's coaching and a bit of luck that had them doing a lot better last season. Then he came to us, was given the spine of a side that finished in the autos with a few others including the 2015 championship player of the year added to it and given 50 million to spend in his first window with the whole preseason to bed them in. For us to be bobbing between 9th and 10th for a lot of his tenure is absolutely disgraceful, for the Prem equivalent if a new manager at Man City was appointed next season and given 250 million yet had them bobbing around 9th towards the end of December then I think it's inevitable that the executioner's axe would fall...

With 50 mill to spend you would expect at least some signings to be mustard and that's fair. His signings were hit and miss. Randolph and Assombalonga have been quality. Howson is looking decent after a crap start. Shotton and Christie aren't actually too bad if used correctly. The jury is still out on Braithwaite as he was missing for a while with an injury and his performances have varied. However along with that there's Marvin Johnson who offers sweet Fa. And Fletcher for 7million, what a crock of $hit he's been. Also he didn't really bring in any creative midfielder whatsoever when we've been crying out for one ever since Ramirez began to sulk.

There also didn't seem to be any gameplan or system whatsoever and our defence whilst it should be solid given the personel we have became crap. Mainly because both our fullbacks were larking around up the pitch together, leaving a 2 man defence to cope with anything. Square pegs were also jammed in round holes on a regular basis.

It also didn't help that he didn't really interact with the fans and just churned out the same old robotic cliches that meant feck all in press conferences and social media. Someone even made the connection that he was using soundbites that he'd made after Leeds defeats last year and just copy and pasting them onto his twitter feed after our defeats. The Monk-bot simply had to go.

Pulis should toughen us up at the very least and as well as his known ability to make teams solid defensively with which he has the personel to do that. He also has last season's championship top scorer, a 9million danish international who ripped it up abroad, the former championship player of the year and a guy who scored bags in ghe championship before and is tailor-made for his long ball, launch it to the big lad gameplan often used. Plus whatever he can add in January.

Realistically the playoffs are the probable best we can hope for this year thanks to the meddling of the Fu(k up that is Garry Monk, but these do offer a 1 in 4 chance, so you never know.

If, as is more likely right now, we're in this league next year he should start with a strong squad and be given another huge pot of cash for this league to spend as in realistic terms we're only down about 10 mill despite spending 50 this term due to our outgoings in the summer. Plus we only spent about 25 mill in the Prem season (which was a mistake) so by that reckoning we've still got well over 100 mill of the Prem money knocking about. So his chances of promotion next term are a lot greater than this, given his knowhow and without the handicap of the Monk-bot to limit our start.

Whoop!Whoop! That's the sound of the Pulis!

 

[RadioactiveWaste]

Funny you mention full backs both hanging round north of the halfway line.

Cyrus got a bit of a harder time than he deserved off some Derby fans, but if you're playing him you need to have a solid left back to keep the defence solid whilst he goes off on his long runs.

[ipad1977]

1 hour ago, RadioactiveWaste said:

Funny you mention full backs both hanging round north of the halfway line.

Cyrus got a bit of a harder time than he deserved off some Derby fans, but if you're playing him you need to have a solid left back to keep the defence solid whilst he goes off on his long runs.

It's what Cyrus does really well, the quick bursts forward. Some of our fans had paid attentions to his performances for you and knew this, yet weren't too alarmed as it's also the plan Monk had for him to be fair. However after first match or two whilst we gelled in our other early games this season either he or George/Fabio who tend to do the same would bomb forward (one or the other, not both at the same time) Also Clayton in centre-mid would automatically drop back slightly as they did and the other 3 defenders would move slightly so there was still a 4 man defence only with Clayts in it, prepared in case of the counter.

That set up didn't work too badly really. Then we lost a game. Monk immediately threw the baby out with the bathwater (did he expect us not to lose another game in a 46 game season? Honestly?) ripped up that set up completely and came up with one plan, then another, then no plan at all except "All do what you're best at, sprint around up top and leave them 2 lads to mark and intercept passes from a counter-attacking 3 or 4."

Despite supposedly recruiting players who were made for that first set up. The Monk-bot really does beggar belief. Our 2nd worst manager since I started following us in the early 80s, with only wee ginger Strachan out-$hitting him in this regard. Hang on, Monk is ginger too? Perhaps that's it... It's true that by contrast Schteve did rather well for us though. Perhaps the massive bald area behind his ginger tuft saved him from the curse?