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Thoughts on Middlesbrough

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Written by kirsikka

What an awful game to watch. Lucky for us Middlesbrough manager Neil Warnock wasn’t there as it was his niggly footballing wet dream and we’d have lost it if he’d have been on the touchline to drive his team forward. It was a warthog wearing make up of a game.

To compound things, the ref was atrocious. That’s two weeks running now repeat offenders have escaped a card along with some bad fouls committed against us. I hope it isn’t the Championship refs trying to let us know we aren’t Premier League anymore.

I’m desperately trying to find some positives from that performance but I can’t. Individual performances were poor. Tactically we were poor. Keeping shape at the back we were poor.

It’s a wonder their keeper had to make three decent saves to keep them in it. If they weren’t so toothless upfront we could have been buried.

Their goal came from a lackadaisical response from Philip Billing when their player sprinted short for a throw whilst he ambled. By the time he realised and half-closed him down the cross had come in and someone (Smith?) had allowed his man to get goalside. No chance for Asmir Begovic there.

Bego looked alright in places but also let a couple bounce off him that a more predatory team would have put away.

I struggle to think of a significant passage of play from us that I could call good quality football. It was rank and depressing.

The worry is that against Blackburn we were poor and got away with it. The Palace game was like a training exercise so impossible to draw much from. Then today again we were very poor and almost got away with it.

I’m still not sure what it is that Tindall’s actually aiming for since in neither match have we had a concerted spell where you could say ‘oh, I get it now’.

Today’s grade: D-
It would be an E but we somehow escaped with a point.

I don’t know what’s happening on the training ground but the week ahead needs a lot of hard work and maybe some hard words between the players and coaching staff. Norwich will destroy us if we play like that.

As an aside, when they finally woke up in the 70th minute I thought their fans actually added a little atmosphere and you could see the little extra spring in the steps of the Boro players. It makes the decision not to have home fans v Norwich even more baffling. I hope the club review and reverse their decision on this.

Man of the Match against Middlesbrough

Solanke

Gosling

Begovic

Begovic

Someone else

Someone else

Your say…

Written by Waz afcb

There were a few positives
– Sam Surridge and Diego Rico were good when they came on
– Dominic Solanke had an okay game
Where we really struggled today is midfield, there’s no point in having the attacking talent that we have if you can’t get the ball to them in decent areas. We are always getting outnumbered in the middle of the park, and it allows teams to build sustained periods of pressure against us, while we struggle to get a grip of the game. If we’re going to try and play a progressive passing game then I can’t see this system working. – Join the conversation, click here.

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Up The Cherries!

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