Just Got Back

[1finny]

We were poor last night.
Leeds were sharper and better.
Dieng did in the second half what he should have with their first, diving onto a rebound from a save and smothering it, instead of his tarty attempt to clear it. It was lazy/cowardly goalkeeping for their first. I'd play Sol now, especially after his pathetic attempt at Burnley.

Our centre backs last night are two honest lads but are nowhere near promotion players and not suited to play Carrick's game, especially with a plodder like Barlaser in front. They also do not play well together at all. Fry and VdB are our best CB's by far.

Borges was indeed targeted and exposed, but McGree was absolutely shocking last night, he didn't want to know, or just isn't good enough.
Dijksteel did ok, but Doak was dire last night, absolutely dire. 3 massive opportunities for him and he didn't even generate a chance. He really should have scored to make it 2-1.
Azaz was strangled for the second big match running, in part because those around him were inept last night.

The CM partnership was abysmal and gave the ball away so often it was horrific. At least Hackney ran with the ball, had energy and made some tackles and also made some decent passes, Barlaser was absolutely awful.

Which leaves Latte Lath who was tireless and left chasing his own efforts. He showed the heart and passion I wish most of the others showed.

I hate losing at Leeds, but to do it so meekly was annoying last night.

Leeds are not special, but they deserved to win last night and will go up top.
Our fans as usual won the terrace battle. If only the our players had shown the same quality and passion.

Watching Carrick dilly and dally late on before subs and leave things way too late AGAIN, was irritating.

A final mention for Luke Ayling. I get that you used to play for Leeds and you wish you still did, but your first thought should be for the Boro fans rather than busting a gut to applaud every stand at Elland Rd first.

We are long short of top two quality in lots of ways.
I just hope we can gather enough points to sneak into the top 6 come May. The squad is massive, certainly more quantity than quality.

I've been back 10 hours now and am still totally ***ed off. Being Yorkshire, I hate Leeds with a passion. Last night was so passive on the pitch.

Great, dare I say it, ‘old school’ report with zero reference to our pretty football.
Well said.

 

[Expat Smoggie]

One big area Doak has to improve on in the second half of the season is his finishing and goal scoring, and perhaps a better final ball. He's already one hell of a player, but if he improves those two attributes, he'll be ready for the premier league. Liverpool probably wouldn't have had a player improve so much whilst out on loan (closest maybe Harvey Elliott when he went to Blackburn).

Maybe I’m underestimating Doak but I feel he’s much like Dan James who has an amazing turn of speed but his ability score and do the Salah moments just isn’t there. Ok he’s 17 and will probably get better but while this could be true I don’t think he’ll reach those same heights. He will in my opinion be a really good championship player who can play in the Premier league but will never play for a top five club. I can see the Reds loaning him out until they’re ready to bag a few million on the lad.

 

[Corcaigh_the_Cat]

Maybe I’m underestimating Doak but I feel he’s much like Dan James who has an amazing turn of speed but his ability score and do the Salah moments just isn’t there. Ok he’s 17 and will probably get better but while this could be true I don’t think he’ll reach those same heights. He will in my opinion be a really good championship player who can play in the Premier league but will never play for a top five club. I can see the Reds loaning him out until they’re ready to bag a few million on the lad.

His amazing turn of speed wasn't there last night, he was in the pocket of their left back.

 

[Expat Smoggie]

His amazing turn of speed wasn't there last night, he was in the pocket of their left back.

Farkar out coached MC last night unfortunately but you could see that Leeds just had better players and confidence throughout. It’s only one game though but given how we played you can’t see us challenging for the top two places.

 

[uncle_rico]

Yeah and to be fair to Brynn I was quite impressed with his distribution. He was prepared to play the ball out but also not afraid to just hoof it when necessary.

Several players were guilty of it last night though. As I said in my previous post, why didn't Hackney just play a ball over the top for Lath in the lead up to their 2nd.

I thought Brynn did really well when he played those couple of games recently. He's not afraid to catch it too. I'd have him in ahead of Dieng at the minute.

 

[uncle_rico]

Maybe I’m underestimating Doak but I feel he’s much like Dan James who has an amazing turn of speed but his ability score and do the Salah moments just isn’t there. Ok he’s 17 and will probably get better but while this could be true I don’t think he’ll reach those same heights. He will in my opinion be a really good championship player who can play in the Premier league but will never play for a top five club. I can see the Reds loaning him out until they’re ready to bag a few million on the lad.

Doak is 19, and he's playing with a lot of bang average Championship players. He seems to be a bit of a one trick pony at the minute though and any decent full back who has done their homework will make him struggle. We need another outlet, someone on the other wing who can do the same. I'd be tempted to give Doak a go on the left and play Jones on the right (until we sign Barry). They shouldn't be limited to just playing one side though, and by constantly switching will keep the opposition full backs on their toes.

 

[Humpty]

- Leeds targeted Borges from the first minute. When he steps forward they looked to release the ball quickly to James around the back as he’s too slow at recovering his position / CB doesn’t see it.
- McGree was poor. Didn’t look like he cared.
- Hackney and Barlaser couldn’t pass a cold tonight.
- Barlaser is so poor when he the opposition man mark him on our goal kicks. He’s not strong enough to hold the ball up and is slow to turn.
- Doak shouldn’t be blocked from criticism. He was poor tonight and his unwillingness to backtrack is becoming a weakness to the team. However why does Carrick refuse to try him on left. Even just for 5 minutes.
- we are poor at the dark arts. At 1-1 you could feel the momentum slowly switch to Leeds. Why not fake an injury. Waste some time. Frustrate them.
- our passing in final third was, surprisingly, very poor. Nothing worked.
- said it in the summer and stand by the statement. “You don’t get promoted with our full backs”. An area to target in January (again).

Positives:-
- the fans
- we still have Sunderland. Leeds. Burnley. West Brom to play at home. Time to make the Riverside a fortress and have our say on promotion.

UTB

Barlaser actually picked up at least three fouls turning his man, so i don't think that point stands up. I agree with you on the whole though.

 

[Steer]

- Doak shouldn’t be blocked from criticism. He was poor tonight and his unwillingness to backtrack is becoming a weakness to the team. However why does Carrick refuse to try him on left. Even just for 5 minutes.



UTB

I agree with this. McGree, Lath and Azaz swap positions occasionally. There is even more reason for Doak to do so.

Last night was the first time in a while that the opposition really kept Doak in check. But I can just imagine the defender who has been up against Borges all night absolutely sh!tting himself when he suddenly finds Doak running at him at pace, even if it is just once or twice.

 

[Mayor Goldie Wilson]

I thought we were really poor last night for probably 70 minutes of the game, as we were for long spells in the first half at Burnley. I don't think anybody came out of last night with much credit. You could see that the game plan was flawed inside the first 5 minutes because we couldn't cope with or adapt to their ultra aggressive pressing. We kept making the same mistake time after time and it eventually cost us the goal that decided the game.

Our biggest problem I think is that we are wedded to one particular style of play and don't have either the coaching willingness or on field intelligence to change it up and make ourselves difficult to beat. Another massive issue is the reluctance to make changes until far too late, and even then they are always like for like. 90% plus of managers last night would have brought on a defensive minded midfielder when the game started to swing back towards them with about 20 minutes left and shut up shop and taken a point. This is a massive weak point for us which will ultimately cost us in the long run.

 

[changingman]

Enough points to sneak into the top 6.....and then what ? We dont have the 'make up' required to get through the playoffs! come on, be honest with yourself....
This season will drift away and Carrick will be gone in late June.....he doesn't learn from his mistakes (too arrogant) and keep making the same mistakes, we have no steel in the team and lack leaders.

Leeds beat us at a canter last night - which is a disgrace....and Carrick was proud of his boys....

Why is it a disgrace that Leeds beat us? They're a better team than us.

 

[indeedido]

Why is it a disgrace that Leeds beat us? They're a better team than us.

He didn't say that in fairness - he posted they beat us at a canter - which is a disgrace.
But you knew that, right?

 

[BoroMart]

Why is it a disgrace that Leeds beat us? They're a better team than us.

Not only that, they’re the most expensive assembled squad, they’re arguably the best squad, they’re the form side, they’re the form home side, they’re the top scorers in the league.

Some people won’t be happy unless we win every single match, that’s just not realistic. Last night without doubt should be the toughest match of the season and one where a draw would have been a phenomenal result. I doubt they’ll lose more than two league games at home all season and the stats will probably say they were unlucky in those games.

 

[Soutra]

Why is it a disgrace that Leeds beat us? They're a better team than us.

Losing to a good Leeds team is no disgrace. I think overall Boro did ok last night.

The problem is that Boro had already lost 6 times this season, and that defeat made it 7. There's hardly any room for manoeuvre any more, they just can't afford many more losses to have a play off chance. As it is, Boro will probably be outside of the top 6 places by close of play tonight.

It feels like catch up all the time. A draw here and a defeat there seems to constantly push Boro pack into the pack.

 

[changingman]

Not only that, they’re the most expensive assembled squad, they’re arguably the best squad, they’re the form side, they’re the form home side, they’re the top scorers in the league.

Some people won’t be happy unless we win every single match, that’s just not realistic. Last night without doubt should be the toughest match of the season and one where a draw would have been a phenomenal result. I doubt they’ll lose more than two league games at home all season and the stats will probably say they were unlucky in those games.

Expectations do appear to be absolutely wild on this site. Seems to be a sense of entitlement to get results which singularly ignores data and context at the expense of pure emotion.

I despise Leeds as much as the next supporter and was gutted with last night's result but that shouldn't get in the way of objective analysis.

It's not making excuses, and there were many areas of last nights performance which could and should be improved, but Leeds are objectively a better side than us, a fact they proved by winning the game.

 

[Robborevolution]

I made the same comments last night about our full backs not being good enough and the difference between average full backs and good ones was evident last night when you watched Leeds. Borges was constantly open to that ball in behind and lost track of how many times he was caught out. I sometimes wish he would take a risk and take his man on, we lack an out and out left sided player though as McGree and Hamilton seem to drift inside. For me we need an out and out left sided player in the way Doak is, maybe this lad we are linked with from Villa might give us that. Agree with others this was always going to be a difficult game and we had our moments but mistakes cost us dearly. Not a result to base too much on for rest of season

 

[viv_andersons_nana]

Expectations do appear to be absolutely wild on this site. Seems to be a sense of entitlement to get results which singularly ignores data and context at the expense of pure emotion.

I despise Leeds as much as the next supporter and was gutted with last night's result but that shouldn't get in the way of objective analysis.

It's not making excuses, and there were many areas of last nights performance which could and should be improved, but Leeds are objectively a better side than us, a fact they proved by winning the game.

Is it ‘wild’ to be annoyed, irked, irritated that we have only won 13 of our last 33 home games in the league? Or irked by the fact we make the same basic mistakes that routinely cost us goals, matches and points? Do we just roll over and say ah well, in another 3 or 4 windows it’ll all be fine and it won’t just be the xG we’ll be winning, let me tell you that for free.

 

[Richyboro]

Barlaser or Hackney cannot receive the ball under pressure, we all know this but we still continue and hope.

 

[Redwurzel]

We are bit too predictable with how we distribute from the back. If teams know what we are going to do they will risk pressing our defenders and Barlaser. If we play the ball over our defenders say 50% of the time, they can't afford to have say 5 players on the press. Or am I missing something?

 

[B_G]

We are bit too predictable with how we distribute from the back. If teams know what we are going to do they will risk pressing our defenders and Barlaser. If we play the ball over our defenders say 50% of the time, they can't afford to have say 5 players on the press. Or am I missing something?

You aren't missing anything. Doesn't even need to be 50% of the time. If we did it 20% of time, teams wouldn't press us as high.

 

[Mayor Goldie Wilson]

You aren't missing anything. Doesn't even need to be 50% of the time. If we did it 20% of time, teams wouldn't press us as high.

Since Morris got injured we are missing a player comfortable taking the ball under pressure and either moving it on first time, breaking the opposition lines, or having the strength to out muscle the oppostion. We got a way with it against the weaker teams, but as soon as we have played anyone in the top 6 without Morris we have struggled playing out. If you don't believe me go back and watch the Leeds away game in August with Morris in the side. Its like night and day.