'Lucky Leicester' Burst Boro's Bubble
JUST a quick one: I'm off out for a swifty at the Swatters Carr, the Northern League Boro's old changies when they played at the Linthorpe Road ground. Yes, I'm "doing a Strachan" and resorting to drink to deal with the pressure of watching Boro squander a lead.
But first a quicky sketchy impression of Boro's predictable capitulation to a bogey side. Boro 100% at home, Leicester pointless away... nailed on 'typical Boro' I suppose.
"Lucky" Leicester got a break today. First there was, both managers agreed, a question-mark over the first goal with what was said quite assertively by Boro's dug-out and players to be an obvious offside. Personally I thought Nugent's shot deflected off Bikey on the way through to Vardy so played him on.
And, both bosses agreed, there was another questionmark over the harsh free-kick that lead to serial sucker punch merchant Lloyd Dyer breaking free to screw a mega-spawny deflection off Friend. So yes, they were "lucky" in that sense.
But, that said, Boro were the architects of their own downfall because they never got the killer second goal to seal the game. Lukas Jutkiwicz stabbing against the bar from six feet out was the moment the game slipped away. Yes, Nicky Bailey's laser guided rocket shot was a sizzler but it was only Boro's second effort on target and for all the blunt probing and huff and puff throughout the game, a side with a very narrow and pedestrian midfield and only one up front never looked like being able to carve out chances convincingly.
Leicester weren't fantastic but kept on plugging away and when Boro did that routine slo-mo retreat to their own 18 yard line again to invite pressure, a very dangerous game as we have found out to our cost on many occasions.
On balance, Leicester had the better of the chances throughout the game - and more of them - and but for Jason Steele's Gordon Bankseque scooped save from a downward header (and a few other blocks) it could easily have been a far more emphatic defeat. And then 'luck' would have nothing to do with it.
Still, early days. Won four, lost four. This is a crazy and inconsistent league of erratic results and fine margins. Early days. Anyway.... beer calls. More later.
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Shots 6-7, corners 1-6, possession 42-58%. Looks like we were LUCKY to lose only by a single goal!!!
I took one look at the team selected and thought,no pace and no width and so it proved. We lost the match because Mogga picked the wrong team,he still picked the wrong team if we had drawn which was all we deserved.
Somehow he convinced himself this was going to be a tight game, no it wasn't, they played better than us and had enough chances to win handsomely.
Whereas we were back to our bad old ways, sideways,backwards, anywhere but forward,Jukebox was isolated.He picked a team to accommodate Thompson and having him in the team and Bailey is a luxury we cannot afford.
Mogga had to choose one or the other and he fudged it.Why not have Williams or Haroun on either flank to stretch the play?
We had possession but no penetration. This was avoidable but by playing safe ,being conservative he has come unstuck. Mogga has dented my confidence in him.Worryingly there are overtures of our ex manager, the pitiful Southgate, constantly talking up the merits of the opposition and less on our qualities.
The older supporters among us, remember Stan Anderson, who produced good footballing teams always had us up in the top six but failed to achieve promotion.Is Mogga another Stan Anderson?
Your article doesn't reall mak any sense. Leicester were lucky, but had plenty of chances (more than Middlebrough)and have scored 3,4 or 5 on another day.
The winner was lucky but this is a different comment to Leicester being lucky to win.
I agree - the spawny goals papered over the cracks of poor tactics and a missed opportunity to at least attempt to get a winning run going.
Mowbray's negativity and inconsistent approach to formation and team selection is costing us.
He needs to keep it simple and logical - just like it was at Blackburn.
I wouldn't say the outcome was as much determined by luck as by tactics. The Foxes came out with their tails up whilst we played with 10 men for most of the game, four of whom were identikit defensive midfielders. I say 10 men as we couldn't realisticaly say that Juke was actually playing so much as ostracised up front all on his lonesome.
Zemamma I think was probably supposed to be playing somewhere close to him but when he got possesion he terrorised everyone including his team mates as much as the Foxes. He would go on a mazy dribble, nutmeg three shadows, skip over imaginery challenges and pirouette gracefully before tripping over and falling squarely on his backside. He did this sublimely all afternoon.
Meanwhile the Juke was left stranded with St. Ledger and Wes Morgan barging, pushing, bundling and crushing him into solitary submission. For most of the game he looked a hobbling, tired, lonely and angst ridden refugee.
When Leicester won possesion they broke out with speed and confidence and got numbers up the pitch quickly. When we won possesion we ambled out, passing sideways mostly and slowly worked our way up to the half way line and then just kept passing sideways until we lost it or gave it to Zemmama (which pretty much was the same thing). In fact our only attacking threat in the 1st half was our friend George.
Woody hobbled off and Seb came on and looked to slot in OK alongside my MOM Bikey who won just about everything that came near him.
Surely at half time Mogga would shuffle his pack, bring Faris on for width and Ledesma or Williams and go two up front to at least give the Juke a better option than his only outlet all afternoon which was Justin Hoyte (yes, Hoyte).
No, the 2nd half came and nothing changed and then just as the tedium was peaking Bails took a punt and sent it flying into the top right corner out of the blue. Surely now Mogga's negative tactics would work in our favour and shut up shop?
Wrong, Leicester then went for broke and their pace and fluidity and slick one two's tore us all over the place and we retreated, soaked up presure until the ball bobbled and broke free to two Blue shirts in the box one of whom looked perhaps offside and the other a mile off. Apparently the Officials couldn't see what I could see from the opposite end of the Park.
1-1 and the belated introduction of Williams followed to replace the bewildering Zemmama much to the relief of the home support. Ledesma came on for Tommo who in fairness had put in a decent shift in an apparent midfield of 5, or at least 4 plus one pint sized headless chicken up to that point.
Injuries have not been kind to us and they have robbed us of several key and influential players but having no Emnes, Miller or Main and the concern of placing too great an expectation on Williams's young shoulders one would think having an experienced striker in the squad to call upon would be a life saver. No, instead we patch up a midfield with mono pace plus a bit part player we are all still unsure as to what his best position is to watch him slip, trip and dribble in circles, the proverbial Jack Russell with a ball.
Ignoring MacDonald and winning is one thing, but ignoring him whilst being bereft of available Striking talent and experience and then losing is perplexing and the managerial equivalent of self harming.
A day when poor decision making was the winner!
It is not just the steel plant showing signs of growth, there are a couple of retails areas showing a remarkable upturn.
Wholesalers and retailers of incontinence products are having a remarkable boost to sales in the third quarter. A spokesman for the industry said it was an unprecendted boom.
Meanwhile Equine suppliers report a huge increase in the sales of blinkers. They are baffled because there has been no coorresponding increase in horse ownership or sales of other equine related products such as food and bridlery.
In both cases sales have been made to all ages and sections of society.
When asked to comment on this phenomenon the manager of the largest entertainment complex on Teesside said 'it is what it is.'
Who will be wheeled out in front of the press next week in another attempt to convince the Teesside public that "we can still get promotion".
My moneys on Andy Bikey.
A very disappointing result today, I knew the Blackburn performance was a one-off.
Why play at home with one striker in front of five central midfielders?? I have lost faith in the Boro management...not the players. I cannot forgive such a negative and idiotic set up as today.
I think Gibson will have already made his mind up about the clubs lack of progress and consistency, as he did with Southgate and Strachan. Both were removed in October.....any ideas for a new manager?
TM seems to be making more wrong decisions than correct ones this season, especially at home, and following the unexpected but excellant win at Blackburn.
Yes he may have had a few injuries to contend with, but other teams have the same problems, AV has said so as much, so no excuse there. You have to score goals to win matches, has been said before, plus the defence generally are not going to keep clean sheets.
What is interesting are the comments from the posters. As in politics, as you get older you get more right wing and more grumpy. AV is bang in the middle, rational, sees the good and bad, tries to steer a straight course.
Jarkko,ever the optimist, left wing. John, Ian and Redcar Red like myself right of right wing.
Fate determined that this was always destined for an away win. Firstly we had a 100% home record while they were 0% away. Inevitable. If they'd had an ex-Boro player he would have scored - perhaps the manager was enough.
Fate aside, the real cause was the attitude and psychological preparation and, resulting from that, the team selection and setup. As soon as I saw the team, I feared the worst and said as much on #borolive.
Every time he finds a succesful formula he goes and changes it. Yes, TM was suffering from missing key players but he had better alternatives than he chose. He could have put out a better-balanced and, in particular, a more enterprising team.
It seems to me that he talked himself into a wary frame of mind: 'dangerous opposition with some very good players ... it’s a dynamic team ... good quality players all over the pitch ... a big test'. That apprehension communicated itself to the players and turned it into a self-fulfilling prophecy.
His team selection reinforced this and was the nail in the coffin. The setup screamed: Leicester are dangerous and we'll do well to draw. Even if the setup had been potentially effective, I suspect the players couldn't have made it work because, by then, they had been psychologically undermined. This game was made out to be the big test that it needn't have been and Mogga failed it.
The pattern that might be emerging is that TM cannot cope with expectation. Going into the Leicester match, the respective home and away records indicated an easy win for us. All the midweek sounds coming out of the Riverside where fighting against undue expectations on the back of this.
In contrast everybody expected another trouncing at Blackburn, especially after the Blackpool debacle. It strikes me that this liberated Mogga because there was no pressure of expectation. With nothing to lose, he threw the kitchen sink at them, the players looked similarly freed up and it paid off handsomely.
People used to mock McClaren and his sports scientist. Nevertheless he was shrewder than this and perhaps we have room for such an approach now.
**AV writes: I think there could be something in this, although not just in relation to the manager. What you need for sustained success is mental strength and concentration over the full 90 minutes of every match. Not all the players have that. That is why they are in the Championship. And I'm sure that applies to all the other teams too.
Denis (clearly of my vintage - I wonder whether we stood on the Holgate together?) has made a comparion with the Stan Anderson era. I can certainly see the nearly-man parallels: good manager, good team but never quite good enough.
However I don't remember such apprehension from Anderson nor such cautious wait-and-see teams, especially at home. As far as I can recall, Stan put out enterprising teams that always had two forwards (Hickton paired variously with the likes of O'Rourke, Horsfield, McIlmoyle, Mills, etc). He always had one out-and-out winger and, especially in the earlier days, he sometimes played two.
So I can see there is a risk that Mogga might emulate Anderson by looking very promising but never quite making the grade with Boro. However I see the underlying reasons as being different.
When I saw the tag line 'Mogga Rues Key Decisions' on the MFC website, I thought he meant him playing Zemmama and an essentially defensive 'don't lose' (but did) midfield. Turns out he was talking about the Ref.
Lucky? Leicester were the better side on the day and deserved the win, if that counts as lucky.
Still, as you say AV, the saving grace is that, last season, The Championship was a poor division with two outstanding teams - this season, it's still a poor division but there are no outstanding teams. Everyone is as consistently inconsistent as we are. Woody was right a few weeks back when he said that this season is all about consistency.
Anyone who can string ten or a dozen results together at the right time can have the top two or six. But can we?
We're doing better than I predicted. I suspected we'd be going into October with 10 points so 12 points represents a significant improvement.
Ever the misery-guts pessimist (on the other hand, I'm rarely disappointed), I'm not confident generally, however. I don't like the feel emanating from the Riverside and, in particular, from Mowbray.
Yes, he has made some good bargain-buy signings. Furthermore, there have been transient signs of a team coming together in a style that is both entertaining and effective. You can see what Mogga is attempting and there are flashes of it emerging. There is time for that to gell and produce big improvements by Christmas that will see us push for promotion in the second half. I fervently hope so.
However my fear is that progress will be inhibited by management errors. So far, too much of Mogga's player selection and team setup has been questionable. Even without the benefit of hindsight (I called yesterday's mistake before the match), a few have been blatently wrong from the outset.
A big puzzle is the constant changing of players, team formation and style. Every time TM finds a winning formula, e.g. Blackburn, he goes and tinkers with it. I know injuries intervene but there are usually like-for-like replacements that mean that fundamental change is not necessary. Why disassemble what clearly worked so well at Ewood? What was he thinking against Leicester?
My feeling is that much of this is driven by an apprehensive and negative frame of mind. Mowbray came with a reputation for attractive, cohesive and enterprising football. However we've seen little of that - and these are now Mogga's players and team.
All too often, we see Boro teams of sideways-passing midfielders, that lack pace or width and produce no penetration, and so leave the one forward isolated. Too many of our sides seem designed to grind out a draw. Nevertheless, despite often being packed with defensive midfielders, we see our defence exposed. If the intention is to stop the opposition from scoring then we're failing badly.
It is this mind-set that threatens to undo all the potential that has undoubtedly been accrued over the last year or so. I would love be be proven wrong, and will relish admitting it if it happens, but that is the basis of my current wave of pessimism.
The squad today looked too defensive on paper an so it proved. No pace width and I think we could do with loaning another winger now!
Get McDonald on to link up the attack. His Record is better than Zemamma's!
As a rule you should what the opposition doesnt want you to do.
They dont want you running at them, they dont like pace, they dont like being rattled early, they dont want to worry about threats, they dont want play around their box, they dont want being penned in.
They want you you to pass in front of them, they want time to get settled in to their game plan, they want to subdue the home crowd.
Where to start?
Five in midfield and one alone upfront. That is the sort of line-up you might expect if we were playing at home against Arsenal, Manchester United etc. Not against Leicester City, a team with the same points total as ourselves in a very inconsistent Championship.
Shouldn't we at least pick a side on the basis that WE will make THEM worry whether they can cope with OUR formation? At least start on the front foot! We were carved open a couple of times within the first two minutes, and should have been at least one goal down, before our players had wiped the sleep from their eyes. Maybe we had been planning to "have a look at them" first?
Consensus of opinion around me was that Leicester were worth at least a point. Without the saves from Steele, it wouldn't have been close. I suppose I, too, would have given the MoM to Bailey, as Higgy did on the radio, for a solid performance and a corker of a goal from distance.
We really need to put the opposition's goal under threat - efforts on target so as to make their goalie work. Lots of possession in midfield, sideways, sideways, backwards, sideways.... teams can watch us doing that all day long, but unless at some stage there is going to be some incisive ball into their heart of their defence (or preferably through it) it is all candyfloss. It might look colourful and have a sweet taste, but it is hardly sustaining.
And yet .... Hull City lost at home to pointless Peterborough! Brighton top the league, whilst Blackpool who tore us to shreds lie outside the play-off positions in 7th, Birmingham 13th and Bolton are 17th.
In the Premier League we can all predict now with some certainty that at least three out of Man Utd, Man City, Chelsea and Arsenal will finish in the top four of their league. It may even be all four, and even at this early stage of the season, three of the four are already in place! But it would be a foolish man who'd commit much of his money on a similar wager in the Championship.
It COULD be four of the current top six (eg a newly managed Blackburn, Leicester, Cardiff and Wolves) or four out of the current places six to 12 (eg Blackpool, Hull, Leeds, Boro *ahem*). Or the next six (Birmingham, Nottm |Forest, Bolton plus AN Other?).
It isn't yet time to lose hope and despair. I must say that like many others I had a sort of "Typical Boro" feeling at the ground when I realised we had a 100% home record and Leicester a 0% away record...so at least we are predictable, and very annoying, in that sense!
Yesterday was a blow, because if we are to sneak into the play offs every point is vital but to gift your rivals three is the real blow.
What worrys me is that everytime we have taken the lead at home bar the Ipswich game, the opposition have scored within ten minutes. We can't seem to cope when teams step it up and have a go. Commit men forwards and get crosses in. If teams would do this against us before they concede we could be in real trouble.
Our possession stats must be great to read, but I would love to see our possesion stats for the ten mins after we score.
Still a finishing spot of anywhere from 6-10th is still up for grabs
This result was a double disappointment for me - I was pottering around the house following the game on the internet via BBC live scores, which had shown that the game had ended 0-0.
I was still berating Mogga's negative team selection when I clicked on the match-report button only to discover we'd actually lost 2-1 - I'd have settled for 0-0 after that.
Sometimes Tony 'The Thinker' Mowbray makes Rodin's statue appear like a scatterbrain. Another case of Mogga over-thinking and talking himself into playing it unnecessarily tight - this Boro team always do better when they are set up to go forward, hopefully another thoughtful lesson learned.
Unlucky? Well if you do indeed make your own luck then we probably got what we deserved for not going for the win at home.
I think we all accept that defeats are inevitable. We all accept that sometimes the players won't perform as well as we'd like. We all accept that whilst we ought to be competitive sometimes we simply won't be as good as the other team. Much harder to accept is a failure of planning or strategy, and that would appear to have been the case here.
I am an ardent defender of Mowbray. I recognise what a tough job it is and I think he has what's required to take us where we all want to be long-term. He has a history of improving medium-sized clubs (I think West Brom are still reaping the rewards of his time there), and given time I think he will succeed here. We have already improved immeasurably from the club he inherited and have become significantly more stable in the process.
But, but, but... This is the third or fourth occasion this season already when TM's team selection has come in for criticism.
After Carayol's injury, Mogga said that we had options: "Williams has pace, Reach has pace". You could throw Ledesma into that category too. Sadly TM ignored his own advice to replace Carayol's speed with something similar and the result was a one-paced midfield that simply couldn't ask Leicester enough questions. Frustrating. Again.
We'll never know what would have happened if TM had chosen a different side. For all we know it could have been worse. But the amateur tactician in me says that football is a team game and as such the first thing you look for is a balanced team - balance between attack and defence, balance between width and solidity, balance between youth and experience, balance between technique and mobility (not that the two are mutually exclusive).
TM got the balance in midfield wrong yesterday, and while we can't say for certain that that was the determining factor, we can at least be frustrated that we didn't give ourselves the best chance to win the game.
A feature of this league, thankfully, is that missed opportunities are not greatly punished. The performance levels at every club fluctuate wildly and we will bounce back again just like we did at Blackburn.
I'm still on board the #mogganaut, but I just wish I didn't feel like I had to defend him quite so often.
I was as baffled with the formation as everyone else, four central midfielders in midfield, seemingly an attempt to get Bailey, Thomson and Leadbitter in the team. It didn't really work, there was a number of occasions when Friend was looking for someone to overlap and there was no-one there because Bailey had drifted inside.
We also have Josh M who is clearly better in the middle and looks isolated on the wing, though he had one good spell at the start of the 2nd half.
Having said that we were 1-0 up after an even first 50 mins, and then we should have sealed the result with Jukebox's chance after a superb move. If we score that, we win the game and Mogga is a tactical genius. Fine margins again.
After that I'm not sure we did sit back, I thought Leicester were a good team and pushed us back. They then scored two very lucky goals, the second of which was a free kick for us if it was anything.
To add to this, Jukebox again had his shirt almost pulled off his back in the box for the 2nd home game in succession, yet no-one spots that. I wonder if he went down more often, he might get more decisions.
Overall, it has been a decent start, we've shown flashes of quality and won some good games. Certainly a platform to build on.
Bailey,Thompson,Leadbetter and McEachran in midfield was never going to work, all decent players but no matter how good can't be accommodated in the same team if we want to win. Mowbray is going to have to bench one of them if we want to have a chance of winning the game.
It's got to be Bailey with Leadbetter/Thomson in the middle with anyone from Haroun, Zemama, McEachran, Reach, Williams playing wide to get at the opposition. Yesterday was awful at times, pedestrian side to side passing, backward passing, only George friend had the determination to get forward and try and make something happen.
Another wonder goal this time Bailey but we can't keep relying on those,at some point we are going to have to play some football and create a goal.
Leicester were no Blackburn so I don't know why a team was picked to be so defensive. If not for some brilliant saves by Steele it could have been over a lot earlier, Leicester's goals were fortuitous,a cruel deflection and a blatantly looking offside. That linesman never made a decision of his own all afternoon, may as well have not been there.
Changes needed on Wednesday for Derby!
Mogga's reputation is one of a manager who advocates entertaining football and indeed when he first arrived we used to see him change tactics and formation four or maybe five times in one game. Now he seems to be labouring under the same fear as Gareth used to suffer in that the opposition was always a worry and that we had to be overly cautious.
I'm sure we all remember the now infamous home game with Blackburn when Gareth played a team of defenders to counteract Blackburn’s attacking threat. Similarly yesterday we were treated to a negative, defensively minded and fear inducing tactics. As pointed out above by Nikeboro there was everything to gain and nothing to lose at Blackburn so Mogga went for it.
What I find worrying is that there does not seem to be any consistency in the style and type of tactics employed. Perhaps its because we are going through a phase of change and have yet to evolve but if we are to get to an organised pattern and settled style with which the squad are both comfortable and familiar with then the constant tinkering and accommodation of “favourites” must end.
I can understand trying to ease out high earning individuals who are crippling the club's finances but as things stand the transfer window has closed and there is little to no chance of MacDonald moving anywhere, indeed if I were Scotty I'd probably think “stuff you” and dig my heels in. Clearly McManus doesn't quite have the same effect on Mogga as his antipodean colleague and can expect to be back in the reckoning on Wednesday night. If Mick is tolerated then I can't grasp the MacDonald scenario unless of course it runs deeper than mere tactics and wages.
I both work with and manage individuals some of whom I like, some of whom I have absolutely no great feelings towards be they positive or negative and a small few whom I have to force myself to try and not evoke feelings of frustration and irritability as ultimately they are paid to do a job and my job is to maximise the collective efficiency and productivity. Were I to ignore some individuals or indeed overtly accommodate and have more time for my “favourites” I would regard myself as a poor manager.
My performance is judged upon the combined efforts and results achieved by those who report to me, I couldn't and wouldn't ignore a group or section or indeed an individual who despite my personal issues could make a difference and a positive one at that.
It was interesting to note that at the final whistle we were treated to a deafening PA music blast in an attempt to drown out the boos (which ironically were directed at the officials and not the players or management), this was an ill judged throwback to the Southgate/Strachan era, lets hope that’s the only similarity as we collectively go forwards.
Will the real Tony Southgate stand up,,,,,or is it Gareth Mowbray
Sorry but no luck involved, we were blitzed after our opener. Not this year chaps :=(
In the first half they went close three times where we went close with a Baily special and Friend almost had a Ricky Villa moment beating about four men and then inexplicably forgetting to shoot.
The second half came to life with Bailey's thunderbolt and shortly after the Juke could have settled it but managed to hit the bar from three yards. He was probably shocked to get a decent cross (why wasn't it on MOTD?).
From then on we retreated and the inevitable happened. As far as Mogga's team selection went when he picked Bailey to play further up I would have thought he would have played Smallwood as midfield enforcer and at least one wide man, Halliday for instance (why isn't he getting a chance).
It's not as if the others are keeping him out skillwise,like i said earlier Juke only had one decent cross all game. Leicester deserved to win because they were braver and pushed up in numbers, where as we hardly got anybody in the box. Come on Mogga sort it.
For once AV, your take on the game seems to be at odds with most of the observations made here. Are you sure you weren't on the sauce in the Navi' before kick off?
I’ve made comment on TM’s “stand back and watch for 15 minutes” stance a long while ago. He must surely have an idea as to what style the opposition are likely to play and what their player’s capabilities and limitations are, before they even get on the coach to get here.
What are his scouts up to if he’s not being fed the information, are they all on jollies around the country? Other managers seem to know our limitations well enough and are at their game plan from the first whistle, why can’t we?
I was surprised about the team selection against Leicester, too. Just one striker at home.
But I think too much is said to be Mogga's mistakes. I think the players must carry more responsibility and the manager is responsible for the signings. And preparation but we must remember that we have 12 new players from last season. They need time to gel.
Someone wrote that why to change a winning formula. Wasn't it practically same players who were 'useless' against Blackpool and who were magnificent at Blackburn? I think we should be patient and see where we are after the first ten or twelve games.
At least we are keeping the ball more. AV, please analyze the ball rendering of different teams in Championship. I think Boro are top in there. So at least we are moving into the right direction. As Simon said, we can be called Borocelona.
Up the Boro!
Just saw the highlights at Boro+. Leicester had their chances but had Juke scored when we're 1-0 up, we'd have had three points more now. So more to debate that miss than Mogga's team selections.
Anyhow, Mogga know his players better than we do. Seeing them train and knowing the injuries, etc.
Up the Boro!
Denis -
As a schoolboy being crushed on a Tuesday evening in the Holgate end, I distinctly remember Boro beating Oxford United 4-1 to achieve promotion to the second division - manager? One Stanley Anderson...
No wonder Bernie is sad, he's got two noses ;-)
Werdermouth -
At least if Bernie cuts one off it wont spite his face. Or maybe he has two faces?
Watched the golf last night and it was brilliant. I know not everyone likes the game but there is nothing better than Yank fans slinking off leaving Medinah to the Europeans.
As for tommorrow night, my hungover Derby colleague thinks they will be there for the taking. It is such a big result around here the edge may be off their game, it would be a different matter if it was at Pride Park.
Jarkko -
The difference between Bpool and Bburn was the fact Emnes sat on the wing being bypassed at the seaside with Miller doing his stars in their eyes, 'Mathew, tonight I am going to be Billy no mates'. At Blackburn Emnes was alongside Juke as a pair of strikers. We also tried starting at the first whistle. Does make a difference.
That result ruined my week, unless we win tommorrow that is!
Dear Mr. Mowbray, could we have two wins in a row please?
Well after a very late night watching some real fighters pull off the impossible.They say in golf you cant sink a put if you are short and you make your own luck in this game.
The small package i watched of the game showed the Juke miss and the Bailey corker. But really if you dont get the ball in the box you aint going to score many goals. Like for like changes for injuries was all that was needed after the Blackburn game. Its simple enough.
Do people not think it’s a bit naïve and simplistic to suggest that because we beat Blackburn with one system, if we play the same system in the next game we will automatically win?
BoroPhil -
Of course it is naive to think one size fits all.
We have had many successes with 4-5-1 before against the likes of Arsenal but we pressed the opposition. We also attacked as well.
We played with two strikers close together at Blackburn and splt strikers at Preston. Both worked.
But whatever system you play has to pose problems for the opposition. Passing across the midfield and hoping for a 30 yard screamer is an away tactic to quieten the crowd.
At home there must be some attempt to start on the front foot and not let the away team settle. As the saying goes you have to buy a lottery ticket to win it. If you dont get forward and players in to the box you wont score.
Leicester are a good side (even rated by Derby fans) so you could argue that we had to be more cautious but in the end we still lost.
Dear AV -
Please could you post here Mogga's explanation of what he was hoping to achieve with his selection and tactics on Saturday. As has been said before this blog is the only place many of us come to for our Boro news and frankly, well I'm baffled.
Many thanks in advance.
**AV writes: He bemoaned the lack of width due to injuries and opted to keep it solid in midfield and knew they would be relatively narrow but hoped that the full-backs over-lapping would give an attacking dimensions down the flanks. The main creative outlet was intended to come from Zemmama picking out the runs of Jutkiewicz. That was the plan. And to be fair, if Juke had poked in the second it would probably have worked.
My first game of the season, and my few thoughts..
Why not put the red faction behind the goal in the south stand?
Playing Zemmama doesnt work. Full stop
Why cant we get two strikers, and a simpler formation? All this tinkering doesnt work. I'm 100% behind TM, but one look at that teamsheet said it all.
Finally, what are the plans of MFC to fill the ground? It was like a morgue in there, granted I cant get along as often as I'd like (or used to) but there was no atmosphere at all.
With all those empty seats MFC needs to do something. When I started going as a lad, you went along and got hooked in. Why cant we give 5-10000 tickets away to the schools? The kids would get into it, and hopefully some of them would become fully fledged boro supporting teens/adults in the future.
What use are 15000 empty seats?
Here is some interesting feedback from the referee Mr Madely on the match on Saturday. Apparently he is a member of staff of a school in West Yorkshire where the headteacher is a close friend of mine.
Rob, the headteacher. text me yesterday to ask my opinion of Madely's refereeing of the match, to which I replied 'bloody awful', outlining his two dubious decisions which resulted in the two goals and he was booed off.
Rob did not need any encouragement to seek him out in the staff room this morning. Rob rang me to say that he(Madely) was uncertain about the offside but give way to the linesman who was adamant it was.
He made no comment regarding the foul that led to the second goal other than to add the assessor said to him there were no development points for him ,in other words he thought he got both decisions right.
Madely thought the Boro had played well and was surprised at how the supporters were critical of the team.This was his highest ranking match to date, his brother refereed the Notts Forest v Derby match yesterday and sent a player off, he too had a bad day and both are being fast tracked by the FA in the Football League.
What a gulf in interpretation of watching and officiating the game.
**AV writes: Oooh, good imput. Anyone else work with the lino?
Ian -
We can say what we like about the tactics but it was an even 1st half, we went 1-0 up shortly after the break and we should have gone 2-0 up straight after. Mogga can't put the ball in the net for our strikers. Mogga could very well argue that our tactics were perfect up until that point.
Was it any coincidence we conceded the winner when one of our triumvirate of 'sideways-passers' had gone off?
BoroPhil
The best thing is we can debate topics without the bile that infected the board during the days of MacClaren, Gate and Strachan.
In reply to Denis' posting, AV asked; 'Anybody else work with the lino?' Well, it's years since I've worked with lino but I'm currently sweating me **** off trying to lay some carpet. Will thay do?
Many thanks AV, much appreciated.
With that in mind, it still raises the question of how much we should tailor our team to the opposition. (As little as possible to my mind.)
Pushing MC Josh to the wing to accommodate both Bails and Tomo seems obtuse. Put Josh down the middle to create and have a narrow shield of three behind (Bails, Tomo, Smallwood), and play two upfront.
Yes, we may have won if Juke had scored the header (his last chance of the game?) but had we been more positive from the off we might not be rueing that one chance.
Hard to believe the ref took guidance from the linesman for that offside. He never made a decision of his own all afternoon, he was always waiting to see what the ref gave, he was hopeless. Not much hope for future referees if they are fast tracking rubbish like that through!
Has anybody ever worked with a lino?
Are they real people? I've never understood sports officials. If they love the game so much why are they so intent on ruining it? I jest (much) but if you are an official then surely at some stage you must have played the game but gave up. Surely you must have supported a team but because of being an official you can never watch them becuse you are blowing a whistle in Grimsby on a sodden Tuesday night.
So officials have never played the game or supported a team to any great extent. How many are teachers or police officers?
I don't know where this ramble is going
Smog, in my experience Lino's are the ones at school who were forever putting their arm up to attract the attention of the official at the front, much to the wrath of the rest of the class
How is it that all 15000 knew that the formation was rubbish and one person believed it was o.k. Come on Mogga, the Juke was ponderous. No pace, easily overtaken by all the Foxes defence, can't shoot. What am I saying, he never got in a scoring position. Only George had any idea of attacking. Poor Zamm, pretty moves but no one to pass to.
No more spending £200 on the 500 mile trip North, just to see Mogga's tactics, consistently rubbish. Derby should attract 14999, but not me. After 66 years enough is enough. So Mogga you can stuff your pathetic team. Gone by Christmas,I predict. Even Gibbo must have had enough.
**AV writes: Ouch!
Me Dad used to operate a 'lino' machine in the composing room at Gazette Towers back in the dark ages........
I see it's 'peace in our time' between Mogga & McD. I wonder who blinked first or whether Gibbo/Neil Bausor was asking questions about what the wages were being spent on.
Is it just that the injury crisis is getting worse?
Bench for tomorrow evening?
*AV writes: No. There's no fast track. Working his way back into the squad over the next couple of weeks was mentioned.
Seems like www.mfc.co.uk is trying to upset the Gangnam craze with a rerun of "Return of the Mac"
Scotty Mc back in the fold.
Scotty Mac is back!
Mogga said: "The two of us spent an hour or so in my office and he will probably be in the 22-man squad for the Derby game," Mowbray said.
"It only needed one chat and we put a few things to bed and we're all getting on with it like adults. But he's got some stiff competition to get back into the 18."
McDonald has scored 27 goals in 82 starts since joined the club from Celtic in January 2010, including nine last season."
Up and hurray! 4-2 to Boro against Derby Co, Up the Boro!
Got a text to say McDonald was back in the matchday squad. A long conversation with Mogga it appears. As long as he does us a job and isnt a nuisance then if itos ok with Mogga it is ok for the rest of us.
Stayed reading the match pack and had a double take.
We have only score five first half goals in 17 home matches and of those four were after the 41st minute.
Even stranger is the fact we have not scored in the first 15 minutes for more than 35 home games.
Dont blame me, it is on MFC. I will leave rational explanations to others.
And, Masham Wiggy at 12.41pm, ....they forever had the wrong answer anyway, or they were simply wanting to tell the teacher that the lad to their left had forgotten his history text book and "it's unfair to have to share.."
So we play Derby on Wednesday because they beat ( you know who snigger snigger) on Sunday? Is this a rule or do Derby have to ask our permission to put the game back a day? Now it could be a case of swings and roundabouts, that if we play on a Sunday the opposition will move a midweek game back.
But Derby earned some wonga from playing on Sunday, should we not be able to ask for an administration fee to move the game from the predestined date, say £100,000.00? Split that with the season card holders. That is my novel idea #1 to boost season card sales.
Sneak preview on #2 involves a crocodile and Steve Claridge
It seems from all the reports I've read, the match stats and most of the comments here, your talk of luck is way off beam AV. If you are right, and we truly were just unlucky, it probably just evens things up. Most posters (and you if I recall your reports accurately) seemed to feel we were lucky to win our first three home games.
**AV writes: I put "lucky" in quotations marks because while both of the Leicester goals had big dollops of fortune about them - a couple of deflections, a couple of questionable decisions - there is no doubt they set the late tempo, forced the issue and created the chances.
Smogs at 5.58pm -
I like the idea of Steve Claridge meeting a toothy crocodile.
I am, of course, a man who eschews the use of violence, though I am considering preparing a list of people for whom I'd be prepared to make an exception. Perhaps more of that later...
Of more pressing importance is the need to update a few rules. Here are some to get things rolling:
1. No offside unless the player is within 18 yards of the goal-line ie level with the edge of the penalty area. (On offside generally, it always struck me as odd that an offside decision could be given against a forward standing one foot inside the opponents' half as his goalie hoofs a goal kick his way...when the only reason he was left stranded was that the two defenders leapt into the other half of the pitch a second before the ball was kicked. How was the forward trying to gain an advantage thereby? It was the defenders seeking to gain advantage!
2. Automatic yellow card for players showing a ridiculous hairstyle - referee can judge each player before the starting whistle. A centre-half with a street-cred piece of "artwork" on his head, had better make sure he tackles cleanly for the next 90 minutes if he starts off one foul away from a red card.
3. Handshakes to be AFTER the final whistle not before the start of a game.
4. No attempt to be made to interfere with the condition of the playing surface once a game has started, until the final whistle, with a possible exception to repair damage done eg where a sliding tackle has dug out a large divot or removed a section of the painted lines - that could be rectified.
On last of these, did anyone else at the Leicester game think it ridiculous that, after the wettest week on record, when most of the country had received a month's rain in 24 hours a couple of days earlier and where every part of the country was either flooded or at least sodden, the water sprinklers were blasting out their spray right up to the kick off?
"The ball runs better on a damp pitch". It seems to me it runs perfectly fine on any flat pitch whatever its state of moistness. Balls have been running in a perfectly acceptable manner at Lords, Headingley etc for many a decade without the need to spray.
"Tackling is better on a damp pitch". Look, mate, there is damp and there is damp. We have read in recent blog pieces about rain lashing down in "Biblical proportions" so there was no prospect for AGES of any pitch in the kingdom being so dry that a decent tackle would have been out of the question. Even if an industrial hairdrier, let's say a helicopter, had been used continuously on the Riverside for three days, the pitch would have "taken a stud".
Annoying though that might be, the watering of a pitch DURING THE GAME seems the most ridiculous. OK, it's been raining as if God has wanted to create new records for a few weeks, and I assume they don't only turn sprinklers on when there are witnesses present in the ground, so it would be interesting to see what they are doing at midnight when there is no game being played.
OK, they gave the pitch a soaking just before the starting whistle. WHY then do they have to give it another blast at half time? That is open to abuse.
Let's water the penalty area we are attacking more than the one we will defend in the second half to give us an advantage! Surely once a game starts, the playing conditions shouldn't be interfered with until the game is over? Is that too much to ask?
This is Teesside (so the banners say), not the Mojave desert. No prospect of 45 Celsius dessicating heat here in late September. No prospect of the pitch drying out in the second 45 minutes but, even if it did, it would be the same for both sides.
Another view might be that, if amateur footballers are expected to show their stuff on the recreation grounds that I remember from the past, professional footballers, many earning thousands of pounds a week, should be able to perform adequately on the carefully manicured pitches we see at the Riverside without the staff sprinkling more water onto a surface that has already suffered a monsoon for the previous few weeks. It's not as if there were any thirsty patches of yellowing grass hidden amongst the greensward.
Im with John Dobson on this. Sme of us waited along time to see us, as an established top division team, We had to listen to the two sets of fans North of us for years treating us as a lesser club.
When we finally did ,what did we do? We handed it over to that incompetent mouth piece Southgate, (I turn the TV over anytime he's on it). Some of us are now at an age where its now, we want success not a five year plan,and we see the same things happening all over again,
What did everyone know after last season, Mowbray admitted it himself,we needed that extra bit of class in the team, but more than anything a top goal scorer at this level. I think there was something like a 30 goal difference between Boro and promoted teams,
So what does he do? Signs midfielders and central defenders (I dont consider Ledesma a striker, Miller no history of scoring).
Now we are told money is tight but I do know our wage budget is top six or there abouts,and for me Mowbray has wasted salaries in areas that could be covered with players already at the club (McManus is still on the payroll,and could have done a job)
What I'm mad about is he could have saved wages on at least two signings, Mcmahon and Bates were already gone, and used those savings to sign a genuine striker. I cant name ,names right now,but a Chopra type, Austin at Burnley, McCormack at Leeds, And I'm sure there are others, My point being, for me I'm seeing Mogga reaching for straws and I'm concerned,hes losing focus,
Hey we could win 6 . 0 tomorrow I hope so but ,its hard to see a promotion push with this lot
**AV writes: One small cluster aside, Boro's average wage profile is easily in the bottom half of the Championship table. We just can't afford the wages (let alone the fee) that an Austin or McCormmack would command. That has been the single biggest factor in Mogga's recruitment over the past two years.
So it took an hour or so to sort out the differences, why wasn’t this done in August. It’s taken until October to actually get Mac and Mog to sit round a table and talk, if someone was wasting my money by having the top drain on my resources sit on his cherry each match day, I’d be having words, serious ones.
Extremely bad man management in my opinion, you can’t afford to throw your Teddy out of the pram when you’re the manager, you lead by example.
Is the crown losing its lustre? Mr. Dobson definitely seems to think so and I’m detecting a few seeds germinating out there. I don’t think that TM’s walking on eggs as yet, but I’ll have my whisk on hand for the possibility of an omelette making contest in the new year.
whats the odds on Mc Donald scoring the winner against Derby?
McDonald back? The injury crisis must be serious.
I'm not expecting too much tonight, with only Juke playing of our regular strikers we'll have the same problem as last Saturday, no pace to get behind the opponents defence. Although judging from the stats Ian has reported then we're due to score a brace in the first ten minutes!
There's an equivalent, & arguably slightly more detailed, article in today's "Echo" about Scott McD's return from internal exile. It includes this priceless - & totally incomprehensible! - quote from Mogga:
"I had a long heart-to-heart with Scott the other day and he's going to be available again in my mind, although he's always been available, as you have seen from selection he hasn't really been available."
I'm an ex-professional technical translator, but try as I might, I'm b*ggered if I can make sense of that one. Can anyone better versed in Mogga-ese assist with an English translation?
**AV writes: There's far more comprehensible quotes in the Gazette.
Nigel -
I mentioned those amazing stats to my Rams supporting mate and he said not to worry because they stop playing for the last 20 minutes. Ten of the sixteen goals they have conceded in league and cup in that period.
Just to clarify on those stats and my comment at the end. We dont help ourselves by starting as if we are playing Brazil every week but even so you would expect some team is bad enough to cough up a goal in the first quarter of an hour in 35 matches at the Riverside.
One goal in the first 40 minutes in 17 matches beggars belief.
From the urban dictionary
Mogadon
1. Medical: a drug used as a heavy sedative.
2. 'A thinking man's mogadon', something that would put a man of intelligence to sleep.
3. Team talk from Middlesbrough football manager.
Sorry, the idea just came to me as I was typing.
So in future, when we shut up shop away from home we are doing a Mogadon - maybe that applies at home as well.
London based Boro fan -
That looks like some words are missing or Mogga was musing and it was reported verbatim.
But what a day, Scottie and KP back in the fold forBoro and England cricket respectively and Derby coming up to Boro.
I am relying on you boys as I am working early doors. What I have been told is that Derby are likely to be cautious so the first half may be a stalemate as we cancel each other out.
Lets hope I can show my face tomorrow.
**AV writes: It was verbatim, often Mogga muses and thinks aloud as he feels his way to an answer. It's not my place to comment on another paper's story but I wouldn't have used that quote like that.
Fingers crossed that things go well tonight. And from the early part of the Radio Ali broadcast, there seems to be some optimism that Scotty Mac is in the team or maybe on the Bench tonight - despite the hints in the paper that it might be a few weeks of being in the squad before he might expect to get on the pitch.
Interesting. And they think it was Scotty that "blinked first" in knocking on the manager's door to have a chat to put things right. Honestly, man management - harder than just managing a football team!
Late input on the lino thread, stayed in a hotel on Malta a few years back. The resident turn was called Lino Man, he was really rubbish.
Can't be losing points at home to teams like Leicester & Derby & expect to get promoted. They say the table tells the true story after 10 games. Where we are after our 10th game on Saturday will show us where we can realistically expect to be at the end of the season.
"Can't be losing points at home to teams like Leicester & Derby & expect to get promoted."
Reading's 1st 6 home games last season:
2-2 v Millwall
1-2 v Barnsley
0-2 v Watford
2-0 v Doncaster
0-0 v Boro
2-2 v Derby
Position after 10 games: 15th (12pts)
AV
A good article in the Daily Telegraph by Jim White about the basket case that is the Championship. I recommend a read to fellow posters
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/columnists/jimwhite/