Vs Middlesbrough (H) Match Thread

[Reggie Greenwood]

5 minutes ago, FlyBritishMidland said:

Spot on summary.  I thought we had excellent game management, something we didn’t always have last season.  Warne has talked about high press but yesterday we were comfortable in letting them have the ball until they got in our half.  Everyone knew their jobs and did them well.  Good point about the midfield, it looks so much more mobile and we still had good options like Adams and Thompson off the bench.

Bradley was superb when he came on and make few important blocks.  Other than the offside goal, they never got through and we kept them to long range shots.

We’ll have a few games like that this season against teams like Burnley, Norwich, Leeds, etc who are going to be in and around the top 6.  We showed we can play in different ways.

Reminded me very much of the Bolton home game last season , with the same result. 

[secretsquirrel]

The first 10 games i think will be a bit of a learning curve-integrating new signings,adapting to the pace and strength of the championship and getting the first win is such an important confidence builder for all concerned -Every player yesterday gave a solid performance and  for me all the new additions made us better-i think by game 10 Ozoh will be immense .What i saw that pleased me was a team who worked hard and tirelessly from minute 1,we've had a few too many lightweights down the years. Special mention for Osbourne who worked really hard -All round a pleasing day.

[Andicis]

55 minutes ago, Nuwtfly said:

Probably going to get hammered by some of you for this, but after the high of somehow getting three points yesterday, I’m left feeling super concerned about the way we are playing. 

We look like the rock bottom team that steals a surprise win here and there. Yet again we’re sitting deep and bumping the ball over the top again and again. I don’t want to be negative but my honest view is that if this is going to be the way we play we are going to get pumped all season long and we will be back in League One - disaster.

I saw a tweet that said we are just a new version of Warne’s Rotherham. And I’m starting to believe it. 

I certainly understand the fear and don't think it's completely unfounded or impossible. What I would say though is that we were playing a side with a market value of (this is just a random guess) probably 10x what ours is. There are a fair few sides in this division that we'll have to grind out against.

That said, I'm fairly confident that there will be a number of sides worse than us. We need a few more signings, but we're reasonably well set up to hit teams on the break and then be compact. If we improve ball retention and just play a bit more calmly than today, I think it will look a lot safer. 

 

[nottingram]

I’m no huge Warne fan by any means but don’t really know what anyone would have expected yesterday?

Boro have some real quality. Latte Lath cost £5m, would probably fetch more than double that now. Conway and Hamilton off the bench another £9m or so between them. They chucked Coburn on as a last throw of the dice and we’re talking about him being on our wish list to start every single week. And that’s just their forwards.

I thought we were really naive at 1-1 against Blackburn and that was with them bringing Weimann off the bench. If we had gone toe to toe with Boro and thrown bodies forward we’d have been picked off. 

[sunnyhill60]

19 minutes ago, secretsquirrel said:

The first 10 games i think will be a bit of a learning curve-integrating new signings,adapting to the pace and strength of the championship and getting the first win is such an important confidence builder for all concerned -Every player yesterday gave a solid performance and  for me all the new additions made us better-i think by game 10 Ozoh will be immense .What i saw that pleased me was a team who worked hard and tirelessly from minute 1,we've had a few too many lightweights down the years. Special mention for Osbourne who worked really hard -All round a pleasing day.

I wasn't disappointed by any of the new players yesterday but Osborn was the pick. He reads the game so well and showed great energy throughout the 90 minutes and his interview showed why he will be a great asset this season.

[Nuwtfly]

Not going to quote reply everyone that responded to me but just to add for clarification: my reaction isn’t based just on the performance yesterday but the football under Warne for the last year.

Definitely up for giving it time to see if we improve and I hope we do, but I need more than Warne just saying “he won’t play like that every week”

Edited August 18 by Nuwtfly

[Mick Brolly]

3 minutes ago, Nuwtfly said:

my reaction isn’t based just on the performance yesterday but the football under Warne for the last year.

The performance that got us a win yesterday and the football for the last year that got us promoted 

[MadAmster]

Great to be on the right side of that type of game for once. Since my first game, back in 1961, I've seen a fair few of that type of smash and grab defeats. Actually I've seen far too many. Sat here, Chez Amster, drinking Texel Skuumkoppe and grinning like a Cheshire cat all afternoon and evening.

As others have said, we'll see that kind of display a few times this season against the better sides. A more fluent style against the less good sides. 

It will be interesting to see who, if any, our "still to come" players are, which position and how they might strengthen us. 2 points per game is promotion form, we're not there and won't be. however, if we can keep up to somewhere around 1.5 a game we'll be well safe.

[Caerphilly Ram]

1 hour ago, Ambitious said:

We went to Blackburn and had more possession than them, more passes than them in the opponents half and more touches in the box. This was a different game, the clean sheet and a defensively clean game was needed after going 1-0 up, especially. 

The work done off the ball, defensively was huge and got the win. We don’t have a lot of quality within the squad in comparison to teams at the top of this level, but we do have a manager who knows how to work with what he has and achieve. If we don’t have any more investment forthcoming between now and the end of the window, we need to make sure we can win games by hook or by crook!

That’s it for me, I saw elements of play against Blackburn where for 20-25 mins we were the better side and played with some good intent, scored the equaliser and looked in the ascendancy, then shot ourselves in the foot and went to pieces. Osborn gave a brief but accurate and honest account of that in his post match chat with Radio Derby yesterday.

Then yesterday by all accounts we were solid in defence and looked to play on the counter. Something you have to do at times, and it resulted in a win. If Warne can get the team playing well against certain times for a longer period than we managed against Blackburn, and grind out results against other times like we did against Middlesbrough I’m confident we’ll continue to pick up points.

Yates back from suspension now. Rooney, CBT and others to return from injury. New additions allegedly being pursued. We should have a bit more strength in depth, and in time the team will gel and build those patterns and relationships. Ozoh is 19 and learning the game, he’ll improve. Kenzo will get used to the pace and bring his quality. JWZ will make opposition attackers swoon into mistakes the handsome swine.
 

Some people are concerned because of what they’ve seen and Warne’s history at this level. I’m optimistic because I think there’s a lot to be said for hard work, unity, and patience as we saw last season (and yes I know that was league one, and our budget was humongous, and our players were levels above, and we’re massive everywhere we go, and NML has a big wang etc etc). Just think it’s possible to say there’ll be ups and downs this season, but we’ve seen in two games that we can mix it in part at this level and with time that can get better. 

Edited August 18 by Caerphilly Ram

[thischarmingram]

55 minutes ago, JuanFloEvraTheCocu'sNesta said:

Completely agree. I enjoyed the win yesterday but wins like that will be rarer than hens teeth if we try this every week.

Boro are better than probably 19 teams in this league. There will be many home games where we can go toe to toe but there will also be another 5 or so like that. We did the smart thing yesterday - and we will need to do so again a lot this season. 
 

Warne said in his post match that we will need to adapt and that won’t be how we play every week. 

[Comrade 86]

1 hour ago, MACKWORTHRAM said:

Did you listen to Warne yesterday? That's not the way we will play most games and he wanted more on the counter attack. Fatigue kicks in and you don't use the ball as well.

We were playing against a team yesterday that are better than us and will be right up there next season and tactically we got it spot on. The only big chance they had they were offside.

Spot on Mackworth. I also think a good few have overlooked the fact that for the thick end of 25 minutes, we were right in the game. Both sides were looking dangerous going forward and Boro's edge on possession was under 10%. Losing Cash and pretty much immediately after that, young Kane WIlson too, completely changed the manner in which we were able to play, as while Bradley is a solid enough CB and was defensively very good, he has nothing like the passing range or vision of Eiran and Ryan is a fullback, not a wingback, albeit a very good one. We set up with a 4, but played two WBs on the flanks!!! Ballsy AF, especially given PW tried that at Blackburn and got handed his arris for his troubles.

As it was, in losing those two, we were effectively forced to revert to a more conventional, flat back 4 and that suited the Smoggies down to the ground. I actually thought the starting line up might be too gung ho, but until the injuries it was working brilliantly. After the changes in personnel, we were always going to be under the cosh a bit, because hateful as it is, Boro are a really good side, the best I've seen from SMogtown in a long time. Even ignoring all of this, folk who believe we should play champagne football against the top teams are either kidding themselves, or simply looking to mark down Warne and his players. 

Edited August 18 by Comrade 86

[i-Ram]

2 hours ago, Srg said:

Will there be a player ratings thread this year?

More important than that where is @Ellafella and indeed Sage, who have kindly run these threads before. Sage I suspect is on some kind of imposed time out but Ella isn’t the kind to agitate the rockers and the mods on here. Hope they are both all right 🐑🍻

[ariotofmyown]

I think we will play like that in quite a lot of games this season and I hope we do.

Other teams, especially ones who have spent a lot of money, will want to play possession football and will have better/more expensive players than us. Many of them will also like to play it round the back a lot to beat the press, as it's fashionable and works well when City do it.

Having a well organised defence, pace on the break and great set pieces can be very effective vs this style of play.

Occasionally, it won't work. We'll make a couple of mistakes, or a creative opposition player will have a great game. But it's only the Championship. Leeds and Burnley could be too good for us, but there isn't much else to strike fear into our hearts.

Blackburn was a great lesson for us, but also a good demonstration of how we could also play too. I took as much hope from Blackburn as I did from Boro. We know we can play like we did yesterday, but for that middle period of the Blackburn match, we showed we could play a bit too. Looking forward to playing like that vs some of the weaker sides.

Great start to the season anyway, also with a decent League Cup result followed by a winnable 2nd round match. Chesterfield won 5-0 away yesterday too, so maybe not the non-league team people were claiming.

[JuanFloEvraTheCocu'sNesta]

15 minutes ago, thischarmingram said:

Boro are better than probably 19 teams in this league. There will be many home games where we can go toe to toe but there will also be another 5 or so like that. We did the smart thing yesterday - and we will need to do so again a lot this season. 
 

Warne said in his post match that we will need to adapt and that won’t be how we play every week. 

I'll believe it when we see it, and I hope we do see it.

I think the Blackburn game surprised Warne and it'll be a while before he is going to take what he deems to be a 'risk' by getting on the front foot.

[BramcoteRam84]

14 hours ago, ipad1977 said:

Who knows, it's early days yet. I was optimistic of a top 6 finish this year and that hasn't changed, the main reason we missed out last year was having 14 of the first team squad out injured for 4 months that wrecked the season in the worst injury crisis we've ever known, 8th wasn't a bad finish considering.

Think autos are beyond us with the parachute clubs and Leeds in the mix, and the playoffs are a lottery so your guess would be as good as mine really.

This result won't have any real bearing on the season much though, we always lose to newly promoted sides as far back as I remember, even when we went up under Karanka and indeed Robbo it was a feature then, we call it Typical Boro. It was evident in the Prem too even in our best years this century! We'd whallop Arsenal, Manure, Chelsea etc al on a regular basis no problem, it was the likes of rock bottom Bolton who hadn't won for 8 games we'd fear the most and with good reason?

I actually feared losing to your lot today because of this, its what we do. Whilst Burnley, Luton etc will obviously stand between us and going up, I don't fear them much in a match they're our most likely source of 6 points this season and we're likely to turn up looking like Man City against them. They'll set out to give us a game and we'll more likely play them off the park with our pace to burn than other sides who sit deep and hope to smash and grab against us. But I fear you guys, Plymouth and Oxford more than any side in this division and have already written off points gained from those matches as much as I'm confident of us outperforming Burnley say?

It's how we do against the traditionally midtable sides like Preston etc that will truly shape our season and where we have to make our quality tell the most.

Just please God we get our usual great return against Sunderland as those matches matter the most to me!

Take the result out of it, you have to be encouraged by your performance yesterday. It was a very high level just not your day. I think you’ll be right in the mix, Leeds are streaky, early days it seems only Burnley is the real stand out team, think Boro will be at least top 6. I’m hoping we don’t get many more games as tough as that was at home especially, away I think every game will be tough.

[Comrade 86]

7 minutes ago, ariotofmyown said:

I think we will play like that in quite a lot of games this season and I hope we do.

Other teams, especially ones who have spent a lot of money, will want to play possession football and will have better/more expensive players than us. Many of them will also like to play it round the back a lot to beat the press, as it's fashionable and works well when City do it.

Having a well organised defence, pace on the break and great set pieces can be very effective vs this style of play.

Occasionally, it won't work. We'll make a couple of mistakes, or a creative opposition player will have a great game. But it's only the Championship. Leeds and Burnley could be too good for us, but there isn't much else to strike fear into our hearts.

Blackburn was a great lesson for us, but also a good demonstration of how we could also play too. I took as much hope from Blackburn as I did from Boro. We know we can play like we did yesterday, but for that middle period of the Blackburn match, we showed we could play a bit too. Looking forward to playing like that vs some of the weaker sides.

Great start to the season anyway, also with a decent League Cup result followed by a winnable 2nd round match. Chesterfield won 5-0 away yesterday too, so maybe not the non-league team people were claiming.

And Blackburn sit 3rd having taken a point away to Norwich yesterday, scoring twice in the process! 👀

[Comrade 86]

4 minutes ago, JuanFloEvraTheCocu'sNesta said:

I'll believe it when we see it, and I hope we do see it.

I think the Blackburn game surprised Warne and it'll be a while before he is going to take what he deems to be a 'risk' by getting on the front foot.

What would have been the more adventurous team selection and approach then? If playing Elder and Wilson as FBs to try and pin their wide men back isn't 'risky' enough for you, what exactly would you be advocating?

[The_Sheriff]

46 minutes ago, Nuwtfly said:

Not going to quote reply everyone that responded to me but just to add for clarification: my reaction isn’t based just on the performance yesterday but the football under Warne for the last year.

Definitely up for giving it time to see if we improve and I hope we do, but I need more than Warne just saying “he won’t play like that every week”

You mean the football that got us 92 pts?

[Nuwtfly]

6 minutes ago, The_Sheriff said:

You mean the football that got us 92 pts?

Yes that football. If we play like that in the Championship this season we will be getting a chance to score even more points in League One pretty soon. 

[RadioactiveWaste]

Am I right in thinking Yates will be available next match?

I'm not that concerned by how we played, getting off the mark, putting Blackburn behind us, overcoming some adversity with injuries, taking some confidence etc etc. Granted there were a couple of "more luck than judgment" moments that kept it at 1-0 but there were plenty of moments of great defending and the truism that the harder you work the luckier you get.

Was yesterday the high water mark of what this team can be? I'd hope not, but being stubborn, determined and hard working against teams who are better (expected to be in the top 6) and coming out with 3 points gives you something to work with.