BFTG - Middlesbrough

[Royality creeps In]

Don't really know where to start.
A complete shambles is putting it mildly.
Why was Mcshane playing right Back?
Players going for the same ball because they weren't sure where they were playing.
At one point Kelly was last man, then VDB.
Barrow on the bench and Beerens starting WTF!
An utter utter mess.
I could go on and on.

He then comes up with a load of absolute tosh in his post match press conference
I'm beginning to think Stam is having a laugh at our expense. He doesn't care. He gets the sack and then gets compensated to the tune of millions in order to pay of his contract. We the fans, then suffer the indignity of playing in the lower leagues whilst he adds to his millions doing Media shit.
FUMING!

Get out now!

[strap]

Don't really know where to start.
A complete shambles is putting it mildly.
Why was Mcshane playing right Back?
Players going for the same ball because they weren't sure where they were playing.
At one point Kelly was last man, then VDB.
Barrow on the bench and Beerens starting WTF!
An utter utter mess.
I could go on and on.

He then comes up with a load of absolute tosh in his post match press conference
I'm beginning to think Stam is having a laugh at our expense. He doesn't care. He gets the sack and then gets compensated to the tune of millions in order to pay of his contract. We the fans, then suffer the indignity of playing in the lower leagues whilst he adds to his millions doing Media shit.
FUMING!

Get out now!

I think he signed a new 2 yr contract at the start of this season, which presumably was on better terms than his first contract due to the 3rd place finish last season. No idea what his basic salary is though. Surely it can't be more than 10k a week (c.500k a year?) for a total novice. Frankly if it's that, burning £1M to get rid, whilst galling, would be cheaper than slipping into League 1 playing non-football.

Haha maybe do a Crowd Funding exercise. Judging by the reaction to today's game, I doubt it would take long to reach the target!

[Zammo]

Fell out of the fcuking bus upon arrival at the Mad Stad and twisted my ankle badly. I just about made it to my seat (in pain), then I had to sit and watch that for 84 mins (+7 first half injury time).

First half was alright, tbf. Second was an utter shambles. LOL @ us breaking with pace in the second half, then slowing it right down as we reached their penalty box and PASSING IT BACKWARDS. No one IN THE ENTIRE FOOTBALLING WORLD plays like this. NO ONE. If Stam isn't gone by the time the Forest game starts, you can count me out*

*I still may not be able to walk by then

**See you Tuesday

***Stam Out

[Royal_jimmy]

The funny thing is I actually think Stam chose the right team today, the players just did not perform. My ratings:

Mannone - 4. Shit distribution and poor for the 2nd. I don't rate him that highly and think Jaakkola should actually get a chance
Gunter - 6. Was ok but made some errors. Gets an extra point for his quality run and cross where Smith nearly scored. He needs to do that more often
Moore - 5. Pretty meh, likely affected by the blow to the head. Should have marked better for the 2nd
Tiago - 4 He was pretty poor until the unfortunate clash. Hopefully he won't be out for long
McShane - 5 Seemed ok at times. Could have handled the sledging with Assombalonga better considering he is our captain
Beerens - 3. Poor, couldn't get past his man. He's slow and brings little to the team. He needs to be dropped
Van den Berg - 4. Some ok play but what was he doing for the penalty incident. So unnecessary
Kelly - 4. Shadow of the player he was last season. I think Boro need credit on how they countered him. They dropped players back near ours on the wings and up front when he had the ball. He's too predictable and needs to learn to mix his game up
Swift - 3. Pathetic. The less said the better. He's so much better than what he showed today
Aluko - 4. Poor too, doesn't help that he is out of position
Smith - 7. Showed plenty of passion and energy with some good runs. Unlucky not to score today but I thought he did look lightweight. He gets a 7 for effort

Subs
Blackett - 2 Needs to look hard at himself. Such poor concentration and its so concerning. Hope Stam doesn't start him Tuesday
Barrow - 6 Lively but didn't get enough of the ball
Kermorgant - 6 Had a difficult chance to score. He needs to hit the ground running and its concerning how reliant we are on him considering his age and fragility from his injury

Boro - worst side who have come to our ground (except maybe Hull).

Referee - shocking. Britt Assombalonga deserved a 2nd yellow

Next games line up (3-5-2): Jaakkola, Gunter, McShane, Moore, Aluko, Kelly, Swift, Evans, Barrow, Smith, Kermorgant

[Norfolk Royal]

Having looked at the penalty on the highlights. Really? JVDB barely touched him and he flung himself to the floor. I've seen players booked for simulation on that sort of thing.

[NewCorkSeth]

I didnt think we actually played that badly. Controversial I know.
I understand the frustration but I thought there was a marked improvement from the players. They seemed up for it for much of the match despite going down to a penalty I had thought was unfortunate to be given against us.
Mannone pulled off one good save and was god with the ball at his feet but he probably could have done better for the second goal.
Defensively we were stronger in attack than we were in defense which was a little disappointing. I dont think its great when the only good notes I made about our defenders were that they helped the attacks well.
Our midfield seemed a little unbalanced which allowed Boro to sneak through a little more than I would have liked.
Beerens didnt really offer much.
Aluko was all over the shop..
Contrary to what most of you have said I thought Smith was completely average. He made one good run early on in the first half then did nothing for the rest of the game of any value. I didnt think he moved well off the ball at all and twice (in my memory) ran the wrong way without looking for the pass. I call that poor anticipation but it seems many of you are suggesting the tactics were at fault.
I honestly thought after the game I would see a lot of comments on here admitting perhaps the 19 year old striker isnt the answer.

[wingnut]

Yeah that was garbage.

It’s just so fcuking boring watching us these days - everyone looks like they’re wading through treacle when we have the ball. I end up longing for the opposition to get the ball because at least it’ll then be moved around quickly.

As others have said I just can’t understand our recruitment policy over the summer - just endless midfielders signed, no sign of backup full backs never mind new forwards. Mind you given how toilet Swift and Kelly were today maybe it was the right thing to do.

[72 bus]

Contrary to what most of you have said I thought Smith was completely average. He made one good run early on in the first half then did nothing for the rest of the game of any value. I didnt think he moved well off the ball at all and twice (in my memory) ran the wrong way without looking for the pass. I call that poor anticipation but it seems many of you are suggesting the tactics were at fault.

Were you actually at the game ? , Smiths positioning was spot on for almost every chance we created.

[Hound]

Seth if it was a one off, I’d maybe agree it wasn’t a terrible performance. But every home games goes like that these days, and we seem unable to change it

But teams just set up against us so easily these days. Boro didn’t press - they just sat back, scored their first 2 chances and sat back and had their easiest game of the season

[Ascotexgunner]

I didnt think we actually played that badly. Controversial I know.
I understand the frustration but I thought there was a marked improvement from the players. They seemed up for it for much of the match despite going down to a penalty I had thought was unfortunate to be given against us.
Mannone pulled off one good save and was god with the ball at his feet but he probably could have done better for the second goal.
Defensively we were stronger in attack than we were in defense which was a little disappointing. I dont think its great when the only good notes I made about our defenders were that they helped the attacks well.
Our midfield seemed a little unbalanced which allowed Boro to sneak through a little more than I would have liked.
Beerens didnt really offer much.
Aluko was all over the shop..
Contrary to what most of you have said I thought Smith was completely average. He made one good run early on in the first half then did nothing for the rest of the game of any value. I didnt think he moved well off the ball at all and twice (in my memory) ran the wrong way without looking for the pass. I call that poor anticipation but it seems many of you are suggesting the tactics were at fault.
I honestly thought after the game I would see a lot of comments on here admitting perhaps the 19 year old striker isnt the answer.

Really? Two shots in the whole of the half from a home team? I thought Smith did brilliant putting himself about, didn't achieve much but sadly the rubbish supply of ball he got didn't help. I can't see how today was an improvement in any shape or form, we lost to a team who quit frankly arnt that good.
All I could think of watching us today was that fantastic game last night between Leeds and Sheffield and how I wish we could have a manager like them that can generate excitement and passion in his team. I wouldn't mind finishing mid table if we played football like that.....instead we play this turgid,dull, uninspiring crap......

[NewCorkSeth]

Contrary to what most of you have said I thought Smith was completely average. He made one good run early on in the first half then did nothing for the rest of the game of any value. I didnt think he moved well off the ball at all and twice (in my memory) ran the wrong way without looking for the pass. I call that poor anticipation but it seems many of you are suggesting the tactics were at fault.

Were you actually at the game ? , Smiths positioning was spot on for almost every chance we created.

Nope I was watching the game on Ifollow with the added benefit of infinite replays. I can assure you he was not.

[NewCorkSeth]

Seth if it was a one off, I’d maybe agree it wasn’t a terrible performance. But every home games goes like that these days, and we seem unable to change it

But teams just set up against us so easily these days. Boro didn’t press - they just sat back, scored their first 2 chances and sat back and had their easiest game of the season

First game in long time I have seen us actually play football. We were beaten but in other games we have been much, much worse (imo)

[NewCorkSeth]

I didnt think we actually played that badly. Controversial I know.
I understand the frustration but I thought there was a marked improvement from the players. They seemed up for it for much of the match despite going down to a penalty I had thought was unfortunate to be given against us.
Mannone pulled off one good save and was god with the ball at his feet but he probably could have done better for the second goal.
Defensively we were stronger in attack than we were in defense which was a little disappointing. I dont think its great when the only good notes I made about our defenders were that they helped the attacks well.
Our midfield seemed a little unbalanced which allowed Boro to sneak through a little more than I would have liked.
Beerens didnt really offer much.
Aluko was all over the shop..
Contrary to what most of you have said I thought Smith was completely average. He made one good run early on in the first half then did nothing for the rest of the game of any value. I didnt think he moved well off the ball at all and twice (in my memory) ran the wrong way without looking for the pass. I call that poor anticipation but it seems many of you are suggesting the tactics were at fault.
I honestly thought after the game I would see a lot of comments on here admitting perhaps the 19 year old striker isnt the answer.

Really? Two shots in the whole of the half from a home team? I thought Smith did brilliant putting himself about, didn't achieve much but sadly the rubbish supply of ball he got didn't help. I can't see how today was an improvement in any shape or form, we lost to a team who quit frankly arnt that good.
All I could think of watching us today was that fantastic game last night between Leeds and Sheffield and how I wish we could have a manager like them that can generate excitement and passion in his team. I wouldn't mind finishing mid table if we played football like that.....instead we play this turgid,dull, uninspiring crap......

Yeah nothing came off for us this time round and it is incredibly frustrating but that game was surprisingly a lot better than we have been. Obviously I am still disappointed that we lost. We just were not as shite as we have been (imo)

[tmesis]

This really all stems from two things.

Firstly, our style of play does us no favours when we are a goal down. It's not just a problem this season either. We pretty much expected defeat when we went behind last year too, especially away. The flip side is that we were unbeatable if we went ahead. That just hasn't happened much this season.

Secondly, the 4-6-0 we've pretty much been forced to play all season has just drained players of confidence, and they no longer seem to have belief in their ability to score. They are usually ok until we go a goal down, but then give up, and will play the rest of the game playing "0-2 down with five minutes to go" football, kind of trying, but resigned to it not happening.


ps There were several references on Radio Berks to how Stam reacted after we let the 2nd goal in. What did he do?

[Hound]

Seth if it was a one off, I’d maybe agree it wasn’t a terrible performance. But every home games goes like that these days, and we seem unable to change it

But teams just set up against us so easily these days. Boro didn’t press - they just sat back, scored their first 2 chances and sat back and had their easiest game of the season

First game in long time I have seen us actually play football. We were beaten but in other games we have been much, much worse (imo)

My take on that would be (and as others have said) Boro really weren’t very good. You could see they were also low on confidence

They also let us play it about a bit knowing we had absolutely zero threat

I’m not sure viewing it on I follow quite shows the absolute lack of movement and lack of tactical discipline which I think are our major issues

Seriously we should rewatch the villa game, which I think is accepted as the high point of the season (Barrow,Clement and Popa up Top, all dropped today) then rewatch today’s game and focus on the wingers. The speed, movement and ambition couldn’t be any more different

[Snowflake Royal]

This really all stems from two things.

Firstly, our style of play does us no favours when we are a goal down. It's not just a problem this season either. We pretty much expected defeat when we went behind last year too, especially away. The flip side is that we were unbeatable if we went ahead. That just hasn't happened much this season.

Secondly, the 4-6-0 we've pretty much been forced to play all season has just drained players of confidence, and they no longer seem to have belief in their ability to score. They are usually ok until we go a goal down, but then give up, and will play the rest of the game playing "0-2 down with five minutes to go" football, kind of trying, but resigned to it not happening.


ps There were several references on Radio Berks to how Stam reacted after we let the 2nd goal in. What did he do?

Yeah, being almost totally incapable of scoring a first half goal, combined with some suicidal defending has totally screwed us. We were so close to a decent season. We were 1 mistake from beating Fulham, and any of four scuffed great chances going in from drawing / maybe beating Bristol.

Take those two horrendous sucker punches out and we go from LDWLWL to LWWLWW, it's an extra 5 points, significantly higher up the table after six games and a whole world more positivity and confidence. Our next 6 were DDLLWL - with some confidence and form we certainly could and should have bettered that. Particularly against Millwall.

[double d]

Stam is the Donald trump of football management. Having a oxf*rd laugh and making us look like mugs when everybody else is laughing at our expense

[tee peg]

Good squad,immature manager.Time for a change.

[Lower West]

. We were so close to a decent season. We were 1 mistake from beating Fulham, and any of four scuffed great chances going in from drawing / maybe beating Bristol.

We didn't though. In 13 league games we've only scored 2 goals twice. That's the bottom line.

[Jack Celliers]

Booo. Absolute rubbish. But better than Norwich.

Good players were:
Moore
Smith
Gunter

Utter crap:
Blackett
To think that the thickerati made the likes of Robson-Kanu or Gunter their escapegoats in recent years. Did they not realise what a really shite player was like?