I’m a bit worried…

Strange to single him out. No 'worse' than anyone else when completely outplayed.

The other thing.... It's not like he's keeping out all the other available left backs 😂. We don't have any.
 
Hammies_Tash said:
I’m a bit worried why Carrick & the rest of his coaching team can’t see how bad Engel is. He was at fault either totality or directly for 4 of the goals tonight, and at 5 if you count that the whole of the team refused to pass to him & Clarke got caught out playing a direct straight pass instead of passing out wide to Engel. It was apparent against Rotherham at the weekend that his team mates don’t trust him with the ball in semi tight positions.
O’Brien would even playing out of position must be a better option. Engel is the worst Boro player I’ve seen since Ryan Shotton, at the moment it’s neck & neck, get him out of the team please Mr Carrick
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Goal 1 - not sure what he was supposed to do when left with Palmer and Sterling to deal with. If Fry had stepped up in line with rest of the back 4, we might have caught them offside, but otherwise if Engel had followed either Chelsea player, the other would have been played in instead.

Goal 2 - extremely culpable for not tracking Disasi.

Goals 3 & 4 - no blame whatsoever to Engel, yet Hackney was at fault for both and escapes any criticism from the OP.

Goal 5 - Rav gets skinned by Gallagher and Fry loses Palmer. Not sure how the left back gets any blame for this one.

Goal 6 - ok it’s a bad pass from Engel
but Clarke should never have passed to him there as his only option was to go inside.

For me, Engel was at fault for 3 of the goals, but all of our defenders and midfielders were at fault for at least 1 goal each. It was a collective failure against a £500m team.
 
I don't think any of our players really dealt well with the Chelsea press. Engel, Clarke etc. There is such a gulf in class between the PL and championship that to think we would get away with making errors playing out from the back again like we did in the first game was highly unlikely.

Engel is ok. But it is a very difficult position in our tactic. When the ball comes out to him he doesn't have a traditional winger to protect or support our attacks down that flank.
 
Jr. SkinnyLegs said:
I don't think any of our players really dealt well with the Chelsea press. Engel, Clarke etc. There is such a gulf in class between the PL and championship that to think we would get away with making errors playing out from the back again like we did in the first game was highly unlikely.

Engel is ok. But it is a very difficult position in our tactic. When the ball comes out to him he doesn't have a traditional winger to protect or support our attacks down that flank.
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Agree with this. They pressed with pace and our slow defenders couldn’t cope. If we broke the press our slow midfielders were soon closed down by chelseas pace. The first 10mins we seemed quite in control but they kept the pressure on and mistakes caught up with us. During the summer we definitely need more pace in the team, throughout the pitch if we can.
 
We are a mid table Championship team, we look at our squad through rose tinted glasses at times, most of our players will never play in the premier league (not good enough).
Last year our team/squad was stronger, and yet still miles behind Burnley in quality, and look at Burnley this season, the gap between Premiership and Championship is massive.
It's back to the fun of the Championship and long may it continue.... bring on the Mackems....
 
Engel being good enough or not has nothing to do with last night

However in the championship he is an absolute liability

He is poor in a 1v1 situation and constantly allows the ball to come into the box

He switches off and allows people in behind him after quick interplay

Positionally he is very very poor (that’s why he looks better in LCB, less space and responsibility)

His decision making in possession is poor

In conclusion for me he is not good enough for a team wanting to get promoted out of the championship

Seems like a top bloke and wants to do well but in football we have to be pragmatic
 
outoftown said:
Completely over the top.
However people do target our left hand side if Mcgree or Bangura don't play in front of him, as nobody else seems to have the discipline to help out defensively.
It's it lot easier playing behind Jones / Forss at RB , than behind Rogers / Greenwood/ Silvera / whoever at LB
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Agree it is over the top.

One thing though, how many times have either Bangura or Riley actually played in front of Engel for you to make that statement?

Riley has played only 3 games with Engel left back and bangura 20mins before he went off injured v Chelsea in first leg.
 
Raul said:
Engel being good enough or not has nothing to do with last night

However in the championship he is an absolute liability

He is poor in a 1v1 situation and constantly allows the ball to come into the box

He switches off and allows people in behind him after quick interplay

Positionally he is very very poor (that’s why he looks better in LCB, less space and responsibility)

His decision making in possession is poor

In conclusion for me he is not good enough for a team wanting to get promoted out of the championship

Seems like a top bloke and wants to do well but in football we have to be pragmatic
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Theres a lot of good will for him to make it but theres fundamental flaws in his game. This has been compounded by having poor left midfielders supporting him and pedestrian clarke failing to cover for his runs foward as left centre back. Hes poor but i think giles would look shîte with clarke and Greenwood next to him
 
I think once we get the players all back and firing we will see a total different team towards the end of the season to what is currently playing, rav going into CB gives us more agility and athleticism, Ayling or dijksteel or even Jones can give us pace and defensive awareness at RB, Forrs or Jones on the right pace and direction, obrien and Hackney a bit more mobility in the middle of the park, do we need to add Barlaser as a quarter back type who knows?

I'm not writing off howson at any cost here by the way.

Mcgree, Bangura and LL to come back without any additions or other player options, we have a good championship squad we just need to fine tune it in a couple of areas and hopefully keep everyone fit and on our day can beat any team that will be in and around the playoffs.

Nice break for a week now to recharge and then its full steam ahead.

Cmon, UTB
 
He’s an ideal starter if our ambition is midtable championship. That’s not having a pop as that’s still a high level.

He should be a squad player / cover if we have ambitions of promotion. Arguably he is but I’m not too convinced by our other options at LB.
 
He seems to have somehow dodged criticism for the second goal which was absolutely schoolboy defending. Just completely lets his man run off him.
 
Agree for some reason any criticism of Engel is not allowed on here. For me he mostly doesn't want the ball and when he does get it he either gives it back to the centre half or panics and hits it aimlessly into midfield area. He is not Championship standard.
 
I’m not just basing it on last night, Engel’s just not good enough, cut your losses send him back to Danish football which is his level. He’s the worst footballer I’ve seen at Boro since Ryan Shotton, infact im probably doing Shotton a disservice, at least he had long throw, which under Pulis was one of our main attacking weapons, so he did offer soemthing to the team
 
Some pretty binary opinions on here, he might not be one of the best in the league at the position (a luxury we were afforded last season) but he's hardly one of our worse players in the last 10 years or so either.

I think he has definitely improved, and no reasons to think he can't continue to improve either.

That said, I stick by my preseason ascertain that Bangura will fill that slot as first choice eventually.
 
I must admit I think you right. I like him, I think when we're chasing games and he goes 1v1 and has to be gung ho he does OK and he looked better with Bangura in front of him where Carrick tweeked his position. Other than that though he has been poor defensively and not done enough going forward.

1st half at Millwall until he scored he was as bad as at Sheffield Wednesday, but I do hope he comes good.

Also for the 1st goal Dael Fry alone did not play them onside Rav was level with him and the goal was down to tactics and how Howson dropping in didn't work.
 
Don't mind Engel but the one thing he needs to stop or get better at is that first time pass inside, his passing in general is fine but I've lost count of how many times he has given the ball away with that first time pass he likes to do.

I feel like he gives the ball away at least once a game doing that, cost us for the 6th goal last night, same at West Brom.
 
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