Treading water

Nobby_Barnes said:
Yes red blood I think Indeedido was being sarcastic but it was quite funny
I'm used to rolling with the punches.... Hahaa
Click to expand...
I thought the poster was suggesting to ignore Adi - not you Nobby.
If I got that wrong then apols to the poster (Teacider I think)
I have never used the ignore button on any poster and not about to start.

I think the OP raised valid observations after a particularly limp week.
I think we are better off than a year ago, but also think we are nowhere near as healthy looking as some people seem to have convinced themselves of.
We have a few very good players and a lot of chaff, some of which thankfully can be moved on this summer.
Big summer this one.
BoroMart I can't believe you really think we have a good chance of making the play-offs. We are miles off in reality.
 
indeedido said:
I thought the poster was suggesting to ignore Adi - not you Nobby.
If I got that wrong then apols to the poster (Teacider I think)
I have never used the ignore button on any poster and not about to start.

I think the OP raised valid observations after a particularly limp week.
I think we are better off than a year ago, but also think we are nowhere near as healthy looking as some people seem to have convinced themselves of.
We have a few very good players and a lot of chaff, some of which thankfully can be moved on this summer.
Big summer this one.
BoroMart I can't believe you really think we have a good chance of making the play-offs. We are miles off in reality.
Click to expand...
I think we will be closer to the play offs than you might think
We need to get Bolasie, Kebano and Watmore playing together and things might just click. I keep saying our last 6 fixtures are favourable....
 
Nobby_Barnes said:
I think we will be closer to the play offs than you might think
We need to get Bolasie, Kebano and Watmore playing together and things might just click. I keep saying our last 6 fixtures are favourable....
Click to expand...
I agree re the 3 players you mention playing together, especially with drive from Tav too.
But I don't think they will play together that often for a variety of reasons and think we have all sorts of other frailties. I don't see any matches as easy for our team at the minute.
On paper the last 6 would appear easier- for a good team.
I just don't think we are.
Better than last season though.
 
The plan is to win enough football matches to finish higher than we did the season before. If we do well enough at that to be a possibility for play-offs then we adjust the plan...
 
I think we'd need to really pick up for us to be in with a chance of play offs, we look a bit off that at the minute.

There has been progression this season, which is all I ask for really. I think NW has done enough to be given the chance to build on what he has this season, I'd have snapped your hands off for a bit of midtable averageness this season after last.

also just finally if we are relying on bolasie for us to get play offs, might as well give up now. I'm sure the lad is a sound guy and he does have tallent but he's hardly kicked a ball in a year and his injury record doesn't really fill me with much confidence, particularly given it took about 2 weeks for him to pick up another injury. Feels a bit like the Dyer signing under mogga - few flashes of quality but ultimately isn't going to do enough to make the difference we really need and his best years are well behind him.

Actually - want to reword the above. Bolasie is a sound guy one of my mates dads is a palace fan and he'd gone away to WBA and left his ticket at home, my mate tweeted bolasie and he sorted his dad out with a ticket for the game at about 2 hours notice.

Still wouldn't have signed him though
 
Nobby_Barnes said:
I think we will be closer to the play offs than you might think
We need to get Bolasie, Kebano and Watmore playing together and things might just click. I keep saying our last 6 fixtures are favourable....
Click to expand...
Spot on, I've been saying for weeks, if we are within 5 points of 6th with 6 games left, we will make it, because we have the best run in and Reading, Watford and Bournemouth have shockers.
 
Nobby_Barnes said:
Yes red blood I think Indeedido was being sarcastic but it was quite funny
I'm used to rolling with the punches.... Hahaa
Click to expand...
Who knows who said what to whom.
I thought that Indee Agh forget it, if my confusion is related to mixing beer with wine, I will certainly
avoid doing that again in the near future.

If I have learnt anything from this thread it's
Don't run out of beer when you're only half way through a session. o_O(y)
 
I think that, apart from some of the hyperbolic language, Adi has made a very valid point and it's in no way bed-wetting.
I'm sure you all know my thoughts on how we gutted the club structure after Aitor left and adopted a more parochial approach, but if you're honest then we haven't had a plan since then, at least not one that has been built on any sort of firm foundations.
I'd also suggest that our inability to identify decent strikers is not limited to our recruitment team, but it extends through to our much vaunted academy. When have we produced any real striking talent from the academy or, Downing aside, any really creative players who've gone on to have great careers. We seem able to produce solid midfielders and defenders, but not real match-winners. I'm sure our academy is very worthy of its status, but you do have to wonder why it struggles to produce talented strikers and creative players or why those that do show signs never seem to develope and break into the first team.
Pulis used his years of experience to get us there or thereabouts, much as Warnock is doing now, but you'd fear for us if we somehow went up as we don't have the core talent or the finances to bring it in.
 
coluka said:
Agree but we need more than one, plus need to replace the loanees too (with pacy ones), a credible keeper and CB
Click to expand...
Warnock has already said he is after a striker in the summer, he knows what we have is very short term and not upto scratch. As well as McNair has played at CB I want to see him in midfield driving forward.
Currently we are a make shift team in a massive transition phase, loanees, out of contract players so the summer will be a busy one, and the worst thing that could happen is for Warnock to leave as any new manager would not have the time to assess and change so too many players would end up staying rather than being replaced.
Warnock has said several times (even when we were doing well) that we are overachieving, and given our powder puff strikers / scoring threat, we are. Promotion would bring hammerings most weeks in the premiership, so this summer is critical for bringing in the players we need and demonstrating there is ambition within the club.
I just have a feeling that the only games we are going to be able to attend this season are play off games, strange old season it's been.
 
'Journeymen'
To think players and managers are with us for anything more than money is the stuff of fantasy.
People seem to think that because they kick a ball they would value what they do for a living differently to the rest of us.
They've ALL been journeymen.
Money and the ambition of getting more money, that's them.
 
truck said:
all the january incomings could be vital as what we had before they arrived is not good enough
Click to expand...
1.5 points per game prior to the end of the transfer window, 1.15 points per game since. I hate the transfer window.
 
My take on Boro world at the moment:

1. I've gone off Warnock this week. He is now willing to throw anyone - players, scouts, medics (Fletcher fitness) under the bus. Not nice to see and is not what an experienced manager anywhere should be doing.
2. Our tactics recently have been awful. We have decent footballers being asked to hoof it. Pointless.
3. Coaching. Why on earth has Warnock and his team not been able to coach simple skills like heading clearances? Aitor fixed that within weeks for example.
4. Stop banging on about Keifer Moore. It's embarrassing. You have enough in the squad if you use them correctly. But none are going to win header after header. Oh and Moore was shocking yesterday. Did absolutely nothing. So what have we missed?
5. All other teams have no income but some well coached teams- Barnsley, Swansea, Reading - are doing very well. Stop making excuses.
6. Pick a keeper. Bettinneli is hopeless. Has to be priority in the summer.
7. Gibson decide what you want in terms of style. Stick to it long term.
8. I'm not sure another season of Warnock is what we need. I'm hoping for a Paul Cook type - unless Ipswich nab him first.
 
edinboro said:
No. Fresh start with no history to rely on or use against them.
Click to expand...

I agree with that, absolutely. There's enough controversy about Pearson to think he's probably not the guy.

The thing about Warnock, and others like Pulis, Allardyce, McCarthy, Harris and others is that they are the football equivalent of triage doctors. Stop the bleeding, take away the pain, stabilise things. But I'm not sure they can build a model and create a dynasty, which is what I think Dem was talking about.

I think Steve Gibson has a big decision to make in the summer. The easy decision is to stick with Warnock (if he wants to stay) but I think there is a much more imaginative path and (no doubt in the short term) harder route to take.

And no, not Aitor Karanka either.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top