* The Unofficial “Official” Middlesbrough v Sunderland “TEES_WEAR DERBY” [02/25] Match-Day Thread *

We played well for half an hour tonight.
The first half hour up until they scored we were by far the better team. From the point they scored onwards, we were second best.

We never really got going second half. We could have been 4-1 down very quickly after half time. Hackney's goal came out of nothing really. We won the ball in a good area and a lovely strike from Hackney. But we didn't really manage to sustain any pressure on Sunderland during that second half.

They were the better side tonight over the full 90 mins in my opinion.
 
We played well for half an hour tonight.
The first half hour up until they scored we were by far the better team. From the point they scored onwards, we were second best.

We never really got going second half. We could have been 4-1 down very quickly after half time. Hackney's goal came out of nothing really. We won the ball in a good area and a lovely strike from Hackney. But we didn't really manage to sustain any pressure on Sunderland during that second half.

They were the better side tonight over the full 90 mins in my opinion.

I thought their manager had us figured out in 30 mins getting tighter to Burgzorg and Whittaker to deny them space. And more crucially MC completely failed to react to the obvious pattern emerging with Le Fee v Ayling.
 
None of their goals came from us playing out of the back, ours came from Sunderland playing out.
The comments are ridiculously one sided.

Let's take our first goal, for example. Swap Roberts for azaz and fold would be saying he was weak. We then cut them apart with one pass. They were woeful at defending and relied on 2 og's.

There was some poor defending from both sides. You don't get 5 goals if both sides defend properly.

Sunderland were awful last night and got extremely lucky.

On players performances I want that impressed with Giles, if I am honest. He did much the same as borges and passed back a lot. He did put a couple of decent crosses in, to be fair.

I thought Burgzorg was pretty average, goal aside. Morris azaz and whitaker were all poor though one was a debut and the other coming back from injury.

Illing junior... I don't know looked awkward but unfair to judge him.

The defence, least said soonest mended with Ayling being the worst of a mediocre bunch.

Hackney, best player on the pitch besides le fee who was head and shoulders above the entire division.

Other than those 2 I didn't see much from anyone else. I suppose Roberts ran a lot, but then so did Burgzorg.

Our one saving grace was we had, very much a makeshift side out and didn't get what we deserved.
 
We played well for half an hour tonight.
The first half hour up until they scored we were by far the better team. From the point they scored onwards, we were second best.

We never really got going second half. We could have been 4-1 down very quickly after half time. Hackney's goal came out of nothing really. We won the ball in a good area and a lovely strike from Hackney. But we didn't really manage to sustain any pressure on Sunderland during that second half.

They were the better side tonight over the full 90 mins in my opinion.
That sounds like a very familiar match summary
 
r
Dieng
Brynn
Smith
Dijksteel
Lenihan
Engel
Bangura
Howson
Doak
McGree

All unavailable

Conway and Iling-Junior not available to start

Forss and Morris not -00% match fit

Iheanacho not yet available

Did they have one player out?
feel like we say this every week . It’s becoming lame
 
Got to give Sunderland’s player aquisiton team so credit . They have some very good players who would walk into our team , almost their whole midfield for starters . The ey e got the best player in the league by the look if it and that can be the difference …. Remember Branca when we got him.

Very early days but didn’t see anything from the new boro signings, keeper apart that excite me. I fear more hamiltons than doaks have come in
 
Regarding the defending, surely it's a bad sign when I'm more nervous when our defenders are passing it around at the back than I am when the opposition is attacking. We create so many problems for ourselves when there's no problem to deal with in the first place.

I still think we see how this season pans out, changing anything now seems pointless to me. I said I expect the playoffs, however even if we make the playoffs and miss out, do we feel confident we'll build on this team with the current management? It feels like promotion or bust for Carrick now imo, either that or a restructure of the backroom staff over the summer to better support him and freshen things up.

It feels like another unsettled summer of change is coming.
 
Regarding the defending, surely it's a bad sign when I'm more nervous when our defenders are passing it around at the back than I am when the opposition is attacking. We create so many problems for ourselves when there's no problem to deal with in the first place.

I still think we see how this season pans out, changing anything now seems pointless to me. I said I expect the playoffs, however even if we make the playoffs and miss out, do we feel confident we'll build on this team with the current management? It feels like promotion or bust for Carrick now imo, either that or a restructure of the backroom staff over the summer to better support him and freshen things up.

It feels like another unsettled summer of change is coming.
He picked the staff to work with so if change comes it means everyone out.
 
Saving all our luck to do Sunderland in the play off final…. Bookmark this
If we did somehow get in to the play-offs, and then win them (can't see it myself); that would be the time to change manager.
(We should have done that with Karanka too).
You don't want to be trying to compete in the PL with a rookie manager.
 
I don't agree to be honest. The 2 goals I'm assuming you are referring to, the first and the third, could have been stopped at source at RB.

Le Fee had acres of space for both of them.

Then the first one Hackney defended the initial shot well only for us to lose possession again instantly in a bad area.

The second one, Giles had a difficult job but there were other places he could have kicked that other than the back of our own net.

To say they are just unlucky and we couldn't do anything about them is just glossing over the issues.
He didn't kick it, it hit him, obviously didn't have time to react !
 
The comments are ridiculously one sided.

Let's take our first goal, for example. Swap Roberts for azaz and fold would be saying he was weak. We then cut them apart with one pass. They were woeful at defending and relied on 2 og's.

There was some poor defending from both sides. You don't get 5 goals if both sides defend properly.

Sunderland were awful last night and got extremely lucky.

On players performances I want that impressed with Giles, if I am honest. He did much the same as borges and passed back a lot. He did put a couple of decent crosses in, to be fair.

I thought Burgzorg was pretty average, goal aside. Morris azaz and whitaker were all poor though one was a debut and the other coming back from injury.

Illing junior... I don't know looked awkward but unfair to judge him.

The defence, least said soonest mended with Ayling being the worst of a mediocre bunch.

Hackney, best player on the pitch besides le fee who was head and shoulders above the entire division.

Other than those 2 I didn't see much from anyone else. I suppose Roberts ran a lot, but then so did Burgzorg.

Our one saving grace was we had, very much a makeshift side out and didn't get what we deserved.

I'm a little surprised by your comments here, as I usually feel we have a similar opinion on football.

I’m also unsure how you can say my comment that the goals didn’t come from passing out from the back, as another poster suggested "are ridiculously one-sided.” All the goals we conceded last night resulted from midfield or forward players giving the ball away cheaply. I’ll go through each goal as it happened.

For our first goal, you mention that fans would be calling Azaz weak if he had done the same as Roberts. However, both the TV replays and expert analysts support my view that Roberts was fouled twice before losing the ball. If we had conceded a goal in the same manner, we’d all be screaming for a foul.

We were on top for most of the first half, though Sunderland had their moments of pressure. Just before they scored, we struggled to clear our lines, but the defense was standing firm, making crucial headers and blocks. Hackney blocked a shot from Rigg on the penalty spot, and the ball fell kindly to Burgzorg outside the box. Burgzorg tried to hold off Neil but was too weak. Neil then reached the edge of the box with no real options, so he took a hopeful shot. Edmundson did the right thing by putting his body on the line to block it, but the ball bounced cruelly off him, leaving Travers with no chance. If Edmundson hadn’t gone for the block and they scored, we’d all be questioning his effort.
Sunderland’s second goal was avoidable and came from Patterson’s long goal kick after we had pressed high. The ball dropped to Ayling, whose control was poor, though he managed to get it to Morris. However, Morris’s first touch was awful, allowing Cirkin to get a foot in and play the ball to Le Fée. Morris went down looking for a foul—on another day, he might have got it, but the ref had been letting things go, just as he did with the challenge on Roberts. Le Fée’s pass was equal to Hackney’s—he split our defense with a perfect slide-rule ball, and Isidor sat Travers down with ease. He was always going to score from there.

The only goal that came from passing out from the back was Hackney’s equalizer, which resulted from a poor ball by O’Nien under pressure from Azaz.

Sunderland’s winner started with a looping clearance that dropped to Le Fée, who sent Ayling for a taxi. His first touch was brilliant, taking him away from his marker before delivering a dangerous cross. The ball eluded every Sunderland player and cannoned off Giles, who couldn’t sort his feet in time.

As for your other comments - Yes, there was some poor defending at times, but not all the goals were the defenders' fault. Others need to hold their hands up too.

Were Sunderland awful? Far from it. They contributed to a good local game, which are usually drab affairs. I’ve seen far worse games between these two sides, even when they had better players.

Were Sunderland lucky? Very much so but sometimes, you create your own luck.

I agree with you on your other points. Illing-Junior was played out of position and looked lost at times. I’m not sure why Fry didn’t play. Hackney’s and Le Fée’s passes for the goals were sublime, and Hackney’s goal was top-drawer.

I feel Sunderland have been fortunate in both games against us this season. Last night, we were still bedding in new players and missed Doak and a natural forward. Forss is not the answer up front, and hopefully, Iheanacho can replace ELL and lead the line for us.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top