Boro fan in peace

[wilsoncgp]

Hi all on OTIB, I'm travelling across from the oneBoro forum as preparation for making our match thread for the game on Saturday. 

I was just trying to get some views from your members on how you feel your season is going, who you feel is your key player. Mainly though, I'd love to see some predictions on how you see the game going!

I'll give you the low-down from our side. Things are not all well at the Riverside and the prospect of facing our 2nd promotion challengers in a week is not one we're all looking forward to, especially given the way we capitulated against Derby. Many Boro fans seem to think we played one of our best halves of football in the first half against Derby. As much as I don't particularly agree with them on that, one thing we all agree on is that in wide areas, we are seriously defensively frail. Derby scored with their only significant attack of the half by pulling one of our centre-backs Ben Gibson out to the wing from a long ball forward. All Andi Weimann had to do was play it towards Vydra in the middle and one nice bit of interplay later, Vydra smashes it beyond Darren Randolph. So even when we are playing well and creating chances, we're vulnerable if you've got strength in wide areas. From that moment on, it was a case of throwing the game away. We were at our comedic best and I'm sure plenty of Boro fans are expecting more of the same at Ashton Gate.

Any stick to beat Garry Monk with is good at the moment. The only positive is that the away fans are usually willing to forgive and forget for 90 minutes and really get behind the team regardless.

We're expecting to see a line-up like this for the game:

Randolph

Christie Fry Gibson Fabio

Howson Leadbitter

Downing Braithwaite Johnson

Assombalonga

My prediction for the game is a 2-0 win for Bristol City. We can't seem to beat the teams around us, home or away. We're propping ourselves up because of results against the bottom teams. I don't think Bristol City have anything to worry about to be honest. Best of luck!

One final thing, consider changing the forum in the forum list to oneBoro. Best discussion forum for the Boro in my opinion. I'd never even heard of Come On Boro. 

[ZiderEyed]

@phantom listen to the man!

If you come and try to play nice football I think it'll play in to our hands, we've only really struggled against sides who have come to spoil the game, or played Warnock football. The key man question will probably be fairly unanimously Bobby Reid, an academy product who LJ moved up front from the midfield, and he's scoring goals for fun this season. He's got lots of energy and will look to put pressure on your back 4. Aden Flint and Nathan Baker are another 2 who never really get the praise they deserve. AF is a great threat in the opposition box but he's so solid in the air, with all our players fit I genuinely believe we've one of the best back 4s in the division. NB is properly solid and looking like a bit of a steal from Villa in the summer.

Overall I think it's going quite well. LJ has silenced the doubters a little bit, I wanted him out like many else did on here, but he's totally won me over.

Fingers crossed that if we can keep Assomanonlabnomonblonger quite then we'll come away with something. We're suffering from a bit of an injury crisis atm, and we're probably missing 3 first team players, with 2 more not quite 100% yet.

Anyway, good luck, except for Saturday. Hope we batter you xxx

[Lanterne Rouge]

Got to be said @wilsoncgp that side of yours looks pretty damn good when you see it written down.

[phantom]

37 minutes ago, wilsoncgp said:

One final thing, consider changing the forum in the forum list to oneBoro. Best discussion forum for the Boro in my opinion. I'd never even heard of Come On Boro. 

@wilsoncgp thanks for the heads up, I'll update when in work tomorrow 

[Spoons]

@wilsoncgp How many fans you bring roughly? You seem to travel well .

[WhistleHappy]

2 minutes ago, Spoons said:

@wilsoncgp How many fans you bring roughly? You seem to travel well .

Depends what car he driving surely? ... unless he drives a mini bus, like @Robbored  !     

(soz, Robbo, couldn't resist )

[ZiderEyed]

19 minutes ago, WhistleHappy said:

Depends what car he driving surely? ... unless he drives a mini bus, like @Robbored  !     

(soz, Robbo, couldn't resist )

In before robbored swans in and calls you a *****.

[wilsoncgp]

42 minutes ago, ZiderEyed said:

@phantom listen to the man!

If you come and try to play nice football I think it'll play in to our hands, we've only really struggled against sides who have come to spoil the game, or played Warnock football. The key man question will probably be fairly unanimously Bobby Reid, an academy product who LJ moved up front from the midfield, and he's scoring goals for fun this season. He's got lots of energy and will look to put pressure on your back 4. Aden Flint and Nathan Baker are another 2 who never really get the praise they deserve. AF is a great threat in the opposition box but he's so solid in the air, with all our players fit I genuinely believe we've one of the best back 4s in the division. NB is properly solid and looking like a bit of a steal from Villa in the summer.

Overall I think it's going quite well. LJ has silenced the doubters a little bit, I wanted him out like many else did on here, but he's totally won me over.

Fingers crossed that if we can keep Assomanonlabnomonblonger quite then we'll come away with something. We're suffering from a bit of an injury crisis atm, and we're probably missing 3 first team players, with 2 more not quite 100% yet.

Anyway, good luck, except for Saturday. Hope we batter you xxx

We won't set up the way we tried to under Karanka many times to great success. Though I believe the last time we were at Ashton Gate, City stopped our record-setting clean sheet run and in the process ended our unbeaten run 1-0 very late in the game. A certain Wes Burns the man to end all that and set us up for a very tough spell which led to Karanka walking out, leaving the assistant manager to take a game at Charlton, before being welcomed back and getting us over the promotion finish line on the final day against Brighton at the Riverside.

The biggest problem with us right now is so many of us fans have gone from watching a certain style of football that we thoroughly understood to something we're not even sure the players understand. Large parts of this team were built to be a certain way by the former manager. George Friend, Dani Ayala, Adam Clayton, to name but a few were two seasons ago the envy of many teams in the Championship. Now I'm not sure we could flog them if we tried. It seems strange that so many players have gone from something to nothing but it might just be that the players don't suit the style of football Monk wants to play, whatever that is. At nearly the mid-point of the season, it's a bit criminal that we've gone so long without an identity. I hate the sacking culture with managers so I'm happy enough to keep Monk in charge for now but there are undeniable concerns for a team that's got so many proven Championship players in it.

38 minutes ago, Red Right Hand said:

Got to be said @wilsoncgp that side of yours looks pretty damn good when you see it written down.

As above, it certainly does look great on paper. The only section of it that is really working right now though is Christie and Downing on the right-hand side (if you consider that Assombalonga's goals for a man you've spent £15m on is par for the course). And it's frankly incredible that that's the case given that Christie was one of our cheapest buys at around £2.5m and Downing was told he wasn't wanted at the start of the season, was inches away from joining Birmingham City. If his wages weren't so high, I don't even think he'd be a Middlesbrough player this season as we were happy to let him leave on a free transfer.

24 minutes ago, Spoons said:

@wilsoncgp How many fans you bring roughly? You seem to travel well .

We certainly do seem to travel well. It helps further down the country that we have a fairly well populated southern supporters group that I was part of when I was living in London. I've just checked the website and the tickets are still on sale so it probably won't be a sell-out by any means but we do get around for a low income town in the North East!

[Redtucks]

1 hour ago, ZiderEyed said:

 LJ has silenced the doubters a little bit, I wanted him out like many else did on here, but he's totally won me over.

Only a little bit???

 

[WolfOfWestStreet]

I remember Asombalonga absolutely destroy us at home when he played for posh. Unplayable that day hope he's not the same player.

[ZiderEyed]

4 minutes ago, WolfOfWestStreet said:

I remember Asombalonga absolutely destroy us at home when he played for posh. Unplayable that day hope he's not the same player.

Remember that too, no surprise his goalscoring record really. Hell of a player.

[Northern Red]

Brilliant player but had a load of injuries. Without those I reckon he'd be in the PL by now.

[wilsoncgp]

4 minutes ago, WolfOfWestStreet said:

I remember Asombalonga absolutely destroy us at home when he played for posh. Unplayable that day hope he's not the same player.

He is a very good striker. I think he was well worth the money we paid for him. Quite like Martin Braithwaite too. On his day, he's a level above this division. Pretty much as you'd expect for a £24m pair of strikers at this level though.

Braithwaite has not had a good couple of games, mind. He needs to link midfield to attack a bit more than he did against Leeds and Derby. On his day, he's probably the best attacking player in our squad.

Can be said of a lot of our team as individuals though. No good as individuals, we need to get them to work together as a team, preferably soon or it could cost Monk his job, even working for such a patient chairman as Steve Gibson.

[ZiderEyed]

7 minutes ago, Northern Red said:

Brilliant player but had a load of injuries. Without those I reckon he'd be in the PL by now.

He's only 24, he's got a lot of time left. He'll get there eventually.

Weirdly I have a strange interest in footballers from bizarre nations, the fact he's Congolese makes me want him to succeed even more.

[JamesBCFC]

20 minutes ago, WolfOfWestStreet said:

I remember Asombalonga absolutely destroy us at home when he played for posh. Unplayable that day hope he's not the same player.

It's definitely the same player.

[Never to the dark side]

Mark Phanton

Can I just make a suggestion before you alter the current Middlesbrough forum.

1) one boro forum had three updates on Monday 27 november

2)come on boro had 35(thirty five) updates on Monday 27 november

3)fans on line had 70(seventy) updates on Monday 27 November

If you are going to change the boro forum,

I think fans on line would be a better choice 

 

 

 

[MC RISK77]

8 hours ago, wilsoncgp said:

We won't set up the way we tried to under Karanka many times to great success. Though I believe the last time we were at Ashton Gate, City stopped our record-setting clean sheet run and in the process ended our unbeaten run 1-0 very late in the game. A certain Wes Burns the man to end all that and set us up for a very tough spell which led to Karanka walking out, leaving the assistant manager to take a game at Charlton, before being welcomed back and getting us over the promotion finish line on the final day against Brighton at the Riverside.

The biggest problem with us right now is so many of us fans have gone from watching a certain style of football that we thoroughly understood to something we're not even sure the players understand. Large parts of this team were built to be a certain way by the former manager. George Friend, Dani Ayala, Adam Clayton, to name but a few were two seasons ago the envy of many teams in the Championship. Now I'm not sure we could flog them if we tried. It seems strange that so many players have gone from something to nothing but it might just be that the players don't suit the style of football Monk wants to play, whatever that is. At nearly the mid-point of the season, it's a bit criminal that we've gone so long without an identity. I hate the sacking culture with managers so I'm happy enough to keep Monk in charge for now but there are undeniable concerns for a team that's got so many proven Championship players in it.

As above, it certainly does look great on paper. The only section of it that is really working right now though is Christie and Downing on the right-hand side (if you consider that Assombalonga's goals for a man you've spent £15m on is par for the course). And it's frankly incredible that that's the case given that Christie was one of our cheapest buys at around £2.5m and Downing was told he wasn't wanted at the start of the season, was inches away from joining Birmingham City. If his wages weren't so high, I don't even think he'd be a Middlesbrough player this season as we were happy to let him leave on a free transfer.

We certainly do seem to travel well. It helps further down the country that we have a fairly well populated southern supporters group that I was part of when I was living in London. I've just checked the website and the tickets are still on sale so it probably won't be a sell-out by any means but we do get around for a low income town in the North East!

That 1-0 win the last time we played you was the first game we played after Steve cotterill had been sacked if I remember correctly...hope you have safe travels down on Saturday and enjoy the game but not too much.

[Rob k]

7 hours ago, wilsoncgp said:

He is a very good striker. I think he was well worth the money we paid for him. Quite like Martin Braithwaite too. On his day, he's a level above this division. Pretty much as you'd expect for a £24m pair of strikers at this level though.

And this is what we’re up against for anybody still doubting what a job LJ is doing...

[RedEyez]

8 hours ago, JamesBCFC said:

It's definitely the same player.

Beat me to it

[RedM]

37 minutes ago, Rob k said:

And this is what we’re up against for anybody still doubting what a job LJ is doing...

I read the price tag and thought exactly the same. Our investment in Diedhieu looks small fry financially. Who have we got for strikers, Reid (if considered a striker) a free as such, Duric (undisclosed), Matty Taylor (£300k) and a loanee!  But it’s not the cost I guess, it’s what they can do. But it certainly shows as you say the money we have to compete with. 

[chipdawg]

30 minutes ago, RedM said:

I read the price tag and thought exactly the same. Our investment in Diedhieu looks small fry financially. Who have we got for strikers, Reid (if considered a striker) a free as such, Duric (undisclosed), Matty Taylor (£300k) and a loanee!  But it’s not the cost I guess, it’s what they can do. But it certainly shows as you say the money we have to compete with. 

Duric was rumoured to be around the £1.5million mark if I remember correctly. Even with Deidhou coating £5million, the relative value they've found in our front line is excellent. Across the whole team for that matter

[Kid in the Riot]

1 hour ago, Rob k said:

And this is what we’re up against for anybody still doubting what a job LJ is doing...

I don' think anyone is doubting what a good job he's doing so far this season?

Middlesbrough spent more than any other club in the C'ship in the summer btw,  including Villa and Wolves.

There are still plenty of clubs in this division who could only dream about spending  £5.5m on one player 

[BRISTOL86]

9 hours ago, wilsoncgp said:

He is a very good striker. I think he was well worth the money we paid for him. Quite like Martin Braithwaite too. On his day, he's a level above this division. Pretty much as you'd expect for a £24m pair of strikers at this level though.

To those who moan about our occasional blips or poor games, I hope you’re paying attention. Just let that sink in a little. 

[JoeAman08]

Yea I thought Boro would be better this season. They were not awful last season in the prem especially defensively. They just lacked goals. They addressed that with Assombolonga, Braitewaite and Fletcher on paper. Add that to Bamford and it seemed a strong core of strikers to help them go straight back up. 

[You Do The Dziekanowski]

18 minutes ago, Kid in the Riot said:

I don' think anyone is doubting what a good job he's doing so far this season?

Middlesbrough spent more than any other club in the C'ship in the summer btw,  including Villa and Wolves.

There are still plenty of clubs in this division who could only dream about spending  £5.5m on one player 

Bolton, Burton, Millwall potentially Sheff Utd and Preston. The remainder will be able to afford 5.5m 

[wilsoncgp]

5 hours ago, Never to the dark side said:

Mark Phanton

Can I just make a suggestion before you alter the current Middlesbrough forum.

1) one boro forum had three updates on Monday 27 november

2)come on boro had 35(thirty five) updates on Monday 27 november

3)fans on line had 70(seventy) updates on Monday 27 November

If you are going to change the boro forum,

I think fans on line would be a better choice 

 

 

 

Fans Online (or as its known in our quarters, FMTTM, after the club's fanzine) is a mess. I used to be a member when I didn't know many forums. It's one of the oldest forums on Boro yet it still looks and feels the same as it did about 15 years ago. It's really poorly moderated to top it all off, seems to be non-existent.

It's also not true that we've only had 3 updates on OneBoro yesterday. We just tend to keep discussions primarily in single threads rather than across multiple ones and I'm assuming when you said 3 updates, you meant 3 threads had been updated during that day.

I'm not trying to pull the wool over anyone's eyes mate, I'm not even a moderator on OneBoro, just a lowly regular user. 

1 hour ago, JoeAman08 said:

Yea I thought Boro would be better this season. They were not awful last season in the prem especially defensively. They just lacked goals. They addressed that with Assombolonga, Braitewaite and Fletcher on paper. Add that to Bamford and it seemed a strong core of strikers to help them go straight back up. 

Pretty much as you'd expect. Karanka sorted the defence out. But unfortunately, a tactic that worked in the Championship did not translate well to the Premier League. We got even deeper in the Premier League, going from 4-2-3-1 to 4-5-1, leaving Alvaro Negredo with everything to do and very little to work with. Somehow he still managed to score a fair few goals but he was very lonely on the goalscoring charts.

On paper, all 4 of those strikers would try and solve that problem. Add Gestede into that mix too, another proven Championship goalscorer with Blackburn.

Unfortunately, Fletcher is one of the worst footballers I've ever seen and we've been had paying £6.5m for him. Bamford has been all but frozen out for goodness knows what reason. Braithwaite and Gestede have had their injury problems though looks like we might finally have Gestede back for this game at the weekend. Assombalonga has been the only constant we can rely on to get goals this season but even he has drifted in and out of games.

[PHILINFRANCE]

12 hours ago, WolfOfWestStreet said:

I remember Asombalonga absolutely destroy us at home when he played for posh. Unplayable that day hope he's not the same player.

Just checked on WIKI - definitely the same player.

Ah. I see I am not the only one thinking along these lines. 

[WolfOfWestStreet]

21 minutes ago, PHILINFRANCE said:

Just checked on WIKI - definitely the same player.

Ah. I see I am not the only one thinking along these lines. 

 

4 hours ago, RedEyez said:

Beat me to it

 

12 hours ago, JamesBCFC said:

It's definitely the same player.

You all knew what i meant, he was about 19 at the time he destroyed us then had bad injury. Some players are never the same when they have a big lay off, maynard for emaxple.

[Rob k]

9 hours ago, You Do The Dziekanowski said:

Bolton, Burton, Millwall potentially Sheff Utd and Preston. The remainder will be able to afford 5.5m 

Preston could afford it with their chairman, but i agree with the rest, it’s also the wages we need to compete with.

[Red DNA]

Good effort from Boro, nice to see them play football the right way, no time wasting or trying to con the ref etc.

Boro will be beating a lot of top half teams this season, glad we got through that game with 3 points in the bag. Best of luck to them for the rest of the season, just keep your distance from us...