Boro (43 Viewers)

[Ccfcisparks]

Hackney is a bit overrated

I think he's a really good player

 

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[CCFCSteve]

Thought they played good football , its only because we are so well drilled that we won that , you can see why they do well

Spot on. Lampard was saying in the post match interview about the amount off the ball work done in training in the last week. The first half pressure/pressing/physical side was as good as I’ve seen us do this season

Boro played some great stuff but like us can be ‘out physicalled’ (for want of a better word) and will give up chances. I thought SU would’ve got a draw against them if they’d kept 11 on the pitch

Saying that, they’re a very good side and looking at their fixtures, I’m worried they won’t drop too many points between now and the end of the season. Might have to hope they can do a job on Ipswich and Ipswich are the ones struggling to make up the gap

 

[SKYBLUES90]

It's not a back-handed compliment at all "about your style" as your style for the first half of the season was very different.

It's just finding different ways to play, which you needed to do and did so.

Please re read your last post. To summarise you implied we beat you because of hoodoo. You have the best defence and midfield in the league and no strikers….Fair play for being complementary about our goal keeper though

For the so called best championship team there’s ever been you looked bang average last night. You move the ball around nice though, I’ll give you that.

 

[David O'Day]

Hackney is good but I am not sure he is as good as people say.

He does think he's Xavi and Iniesta mixed together though.

 

[David O'Day]

Please re read your last post. To summarise you implied we beat you because of hoodoo. You have the best defence and midfield in the league and no strikers….Fair play for being complementary about our goal keeper though

For the so called best championship team there’s ever been you looked bang average last night. You move the ball around nice though, I’ll give you that.

They are deluding themselves into thinking they have the best defence in the league?

Wallopers

 

[lord_garrincha]

Hackney is a bit overrated

He's undoubtedly good but I don't see his ceiling as high as a couple who recently played in Champ. Firstly, Alex Scott... and nowhere near Wharton.

I could be miles off in a couple of years time.

 

[Ipad Boro]

Right! The notion that the hoodoo played a factor in us winning is not giving us our dues.

Lampard out thought Hellberg and our players out played theirs. I'm not sure why its hard to say that.

Part of me thought it was tongue in cheek to start with but the fact its mentioned in every post suggests not.

It's not taking anything away from you though. Hoodoos can be maintained by a variety of reasons, one team overperforms, the other underperforms, various injuries, the ref, the bounce of the ball, etc etc. It is only when they go on for a period of time beyond the normal boundaries of coincidence that they become so. I know superstition tends to get little notice in this day and age and with most examples of it I'd agree with you...But this is a little different.

I'm not taking anything away from your performance, you developed a game plan and were excellent at sticking to it. It was well thought out and utilised your bigger squad. Clearly you'd done your homework and your players put in the kind of effort you'd been missing the last few months.

In retrospect, we shouldn't have started with Ayling for such a game also. Fry would have been a far better option, bigger, more experienced and whilst not as good a ball player, a better classic defender.

The penalty was just one of those things that happen, not intentional contact IMHO, but by the laws of the game it was a penalty, I wouldn't argue against it.

This individual game was won for the reasons above in the main and by itself would not be considered part of a Hoodoo. But when viewed in a long series.... It's different. In the same way that Preston at home being a physical side who generally had Robins' number I get too. But that hasn't been the way throughout your history, which is where the whole Hoodoo factor comes from. They're also part mental of course, that is undeniable.

 

[clint van damme]

It's not a back-handed compliment at all "about your style" as your style for the first half of the season was very different.
It's just finding different ways to play, which you needed to do and did so.

Agree.
People moan Lampard has no plan B, well there it was. At tbis stage of the season winning big games more important than entertaining the 500 people watching on Sky!

 

[Ccfcisparks]

It's not taking anything away from you though. Hoodoos can be maintained by a variety of reasons, one team overperforms, the other underperforms, various injuries, the ref, the bounce of the ball, etc etc. It is only when they go on for a period of time beyond the normal boundaries of coincidence that they become so. I know superstition tends to get little notice in this day and age and with most examples of it I'd agree with you...But this is a little different.

I'm not taking anything away from your performance, you developed a game plan and were excellent at sticking to it. It was well thought out and utilised your bigger squad. Clearly you'd done your homework and your players put in the kind of effort you'd been missing the last few months.

In retrospect, we shouldn't have started with Ayling for such a game also. Fry would have been a far better option, bigger, more experienced and whilst not as good a ball player, a better classic defender.

The penalty was just one of those things that happen, not intentional contact IMHO, but by the laws of the game it was a penalty, I wouldn't argue against it.

This individual game was won for the reasons above in the main and by itself would not be considered part of a Hoodoo. But when viewed in a long series.... It's different. In the same way that Preston at home being a physical side who generally had Robins' number I get too. But that hasn't been the way throughout your history, which is where the whole Hoodoo factor comes from. They're also part mental of course, that is undeniable.

Preston have had our number for years way before Robins. The hoodoo factor is something thats fan created and wont even cross the players or managements mind.

 

[lord_garrincha]

Agree.
People moan Lampard has no plan B, well there it was. At tbis stage of the season winning big games more important than entertaining the 500 people watching on Sky!

Don't forget the 3,000 people watching on ITV 4 who were expecting a rerun of The Chase!

 

[SKYBLUES90]

It's not taking anything away from you though. Hoodoos can be maintained by a variety of reasons, one team overperforms, the other underperforms, various injuries, the ref, the bounce of the ball, etc etc. It is only when they go on for a period of time beyond the normal boundaries of coincidence that they become so. I know superstition tends to get little notice in this day and age and with most examples of it I'd agree with you...But this is a little different.

I'm not taking anything away from your performance, you developed a game plan and were excellent at sticking to it. It was well thought out and utilised your bigger squad. Clearly you'd done your homework and your players put in the kind of effort you'd been missing the last few months.

In retrospect, we shouldn't have started with Ayling for such a game also. Fry would have been a far better option, bigger, more experienced and whilst not as good a ball player, a better classic defender.

The penalty was just one of those things that happen, not intentional contact IMHO, but by the laws of the game it was a penalty, I wouldn't argue against it.

This individual game was won for the reasons above in the main and by itself would not be considered part of a Hoodoo. But when viewed in a long series.... It's different. In the same way that Preston at home being a physical side who generally had Robins' number I get too. But that hasn't been the way throughout your history, which is where the whole Hoodoo factor comes from. They're also part mental of course, that is undeniable.

Give it a fucking rest

 

[David O'Day]

Boro fans are starting to should like the Southampton fans a couple of years ago, how dare these teams n ot play into our hands and let us dick about with the ball all game.

 

[olderskyblue]

I thought Boro looked a very good outfit, and could/should easily have scored a couple more goals.

we turned up for this one. Now Need to turn up for every game to the end of the season.

 

[David O'Day]

I thought Boro looked a very good outfit, and could/should easily have scored a couple more goals.

we turned up for this one. Now Need to turn up for every game to the end of the season.

no way at all the should have scored a couple more

 

[TomRad85]

I thought Boro looked a very good outfit, and could/should easily have scored a couple more goals.

we turned up for this one. Now Need to turn up for every game to the end of the season.

Should they have scored a couple more? Struggling to see it. You are over thinking the possession.

 

[Ccfcisparks]

Should they have scored a couple more? Struggling to see it. You are over thinking the possession.

They had the one off the post, but yet so did we.

I can't think of Rushworth making any major saves.

 

[jto123]

Personally thought they were impressive. We’ll have to raise our game to finish above them. Don’t expect them to have same problems at home to Oxford as we had.

 

[olderskyblue]

Should they have scored a couple more? Struggling to see it. You are over thinking the possession.

They had 2 clear chances 2nd half when they were through on goal and should have scored. Take your sky blue tinted glasses off.

 

[TomRad85]

They had the one off the post, but yet so did we.

I can't think of Rushworth making any major saves.

Rushworth was good but he did nothing outstanding. Just a safe pair of hands as we expect from him now.
Even the Sarmiento one was an excellent shot from distance rather than a "should have scored" moment. They created little clear cut.

 

[TomRad85]

They had 2 clear chances 2nd half when they were through on goal and should have scored. Take your sky blue tinted glasses off.

Sorry you are making it up.

 

[Ccfcisparks]

They had 2 clear chances 2nd half when they were through on goal and should have scored. Take your sky blue tinted glasses off.

Who had them and what minute?

 

[olderskyblue]

Sorry you are making it up.

I’ll be watching it back today, so i”ll let you know if you're right

 

[fernandopartridge]

Some balanced views.

The difference between Hellberg and Carrick is the defensive side. Granted last night wasn/t great defensively, on the whole its worlds apart. Ayling has stepped into the middle when both Fry and Jones (Our best defender) got injured. Most teams sit back against us so Ayling's ability on the ball has been very important and Malanda looks a real player. Last night, Fry would have been better than Ayling but i can understand why Hellberg stuck with him, why change anything from a team on a six game winning streak but he will learn from last night.

Our midfield is our strength but i thought you did a great job at shutting down, especially first half. We still had some great chances but poor finishing. I think most Boro fans had hoped for a striker in January. Conway, is excellent in overall play. Last night i dont think he was the same after he took a knock but he is not a clinical finisher and last night was a game where that was needed but goals have not been an issue of late.

Im confident we will bounce back.

Which great chances were these? You got into some promising positions but the only great chance you had was your goal.

 

[fernandopartridge]

They had 2 clear chances 2nd half when they were through on goal and should have scored. Take your sky blue tinted glasses off.

Are you talking about the Middlesbrough game?

 

[Grendel]

Rushworth was good but he did nothing outstanding. Just a safe pair of hands as we expect from him now.
Even the Sarmiento one was an excellent shot from distance rather than a "should have scored" moment. They created little clear cut.

They did have chances and towards the end we were allowing them far too many opportunities to get the ball in the box. The one player who struggled I thought was Mason Clarke and bringing Esse on to essentially provide left sided cover seemed a bit odd

 

[TomRad85]

I’ll be watching it back today, so i”ll let you know if you're right

I'm not being argumentative for the sake of it, I just really don't recall there being these great chances you speak of. Even the one they got was a bit flukey as it just slapped off Latis face right into the Boro player.

 

[TomRad85]

They did have chances and towards the end we were allowing them far too many opportunities to get the ball in the box. The one player who struggled I thought was Mason Clarke and bringing Esse on to essentially provide left sided cover seemed a bit odd

They got into positions where they could have created chances sure, but I don't class chances to make chances as chances.

 

[SkyBlue_Bear83]

It's not a back-handed compliment at all "about your style" as your style for the first half of the season was very different.

It's just finding different ways to play, which you needed to do and did so.

Long balls and big lad was clearly thinly veilved disrespect at Lampard and Haji, particularly the big lad comment, that primarily comes with negative implications about the players footballing ability making him sound like some clogger.

That 'big lad' would walk into your team and be the top goal scorer without getting out of second gear.

 

[ptr]

Alfie Jones is a big miss for them, him and Malenda probably as good as it gets in this league.

I thought they looked like a decent side and they’ll push Ipswich for sure, but goalkeeper is a weakness. Where have we seen that before?

 

[David O'Day]

Long balls and big lad was clearly thinly veilved disrespect at Lampard and Haji, particularly the big lad comment, that primarily comes with negative implications about the players footballing ability making him sound like some clogger.

That 'big lad' would walk into your team and be the top goal scorer without getting out of second gear.

The Keeper doing the the "long balls" would last walk into their side.

 

[Ipad Boro]

Long balls and big lad was clearly thinly veilved disrespect at Lampard and Haji, particularly the big lad comment, that primarily comes with negative implications about the players footballing ability making him sound like some clogger.

That 'big lad' would walk into your team and be the top goal scorer without getting out of second gear.

No, that's the meaning you're choosing to take from it, there's a difference.

Did you play the long ball game last night to bypass the midfield where possible? Yes. Did you utilise the height of some of your players against ours and their physicality? Yes. To deny either would be ridiculous.

It's not your style from earlier in the season, but it's a style you did indeed adopt to win the game, which it did. You may choose to continue with this style to complement your press, depending on the opponent, which is up to Lampard really. If you gain more points from it in the remaining games then you'd be insane not to. I don't see the problem.

You need to enjoy the win more, rather than develop a whole chip on the shoulder and an "Everyone is out to get us and I'll choose to take every comment as a personal insult if I can find a way to interpret it that way" mentality.

That's NOT a Coventry thing, just in case you were thinking, we have a few with that mentality on our board too. Try not to be like them as it's tiring debating with someone who makes you feel your conversation has to walk on eggshells the whole time.

 

[Brighton Sky Blue]

It isn't. There's clearly some psychology going on there, but in recent years, it's mostly been that they play a brand of physical football that our teams have generally struggled against.

This year, we just let them off the hook, and it was extremely frustrating.

It's really boring that we never win there, but there's nothing supernatural about it.

I’m not seriously saying there’s a genuine ‘hoodoo’ but it stretches back a very long time and crossed lots of different teams and managers. It’s pretty uncanny, but so is Barnsley’s record in Coventry.

 

[Shannerz]

I’m not seriously saying there’s a genuine ‘hoodoo’ but it stretches back a very long time and crossed lots of different teams and managers. It’s pretty uncanny, but so is Barnsley’s record in Coventry.

I never know how serious people are with belief in these things. Our Middlesbrough supporting friend seems fairly convinced; he may just be enjoying how annoyed it makes me, though.

It does stretch back a long time; in fact, in the league, to the very dawn of time itself. From the Big Bang and the very inception of the universe, we have not won a league fixture in Preston.

For a long time, for the first 13.8 billion years or so, there was no concept of Coventry or Preston, so it was difficult to get a result. For the last c150 years, chances have improved, but we've failed to capitalise. To be fair, for a lot of the early days, they were top flight, and we were lower leagues, so we didn't face them; we had a handful of games against them in the 50s and 60s (5 seasons, I make it), and then we were top flight, and they were lower leagues. It's only really since the millennium that we've started playing them regularly.

So yeah, in that time, our record against them at their place has been shit, but it's hardly unprecedented. There's been some psychological block at times, no doubt, but in recent years, it's just they bully us and we don't cope with it.

It's fucking annoying, I grant you, but not particularly uncanny, really.

 

[Ccfcisparks]

No, that's the meaning you're choosing to take from it, there's a difference.

Did you play the long ball game last night to bypass the midfield where possible? Yes. Did you utilise the height of some of your players against ours and their physicality? Yes. To deny either would be ridiculous.

It's not your style from earlier in the season, but it's a style you did indeed adopt to win the game, which it did. You may choose to continue with this style to complement your press, depending on the opponent, which is up to Lampard really. If you gain more points from it in the remaining games then you'd be insane not to. I don't see the problem.

You need to enjoy the win more, rather than develop a whole chip on the shoulder and an "Everyone is out to get us and I'll choose to take every comment as a personal insult if I can find a way to interpret it that way" mentality.

That's NOT a Coventry thing, just in case you were thinking, we have a few with that mentality on our board too. Try not to be like them as it's tiring debating with someone who makes you feel your conversation has to walk on eggshells the whole time.

I think most just want to talk with Coventry fans on the Coventry board is all.

 

[Brighton Sky Blue]

I think most just want to talk with Coventry fans on the Coventry board is all.

Nowt wrong with him, and at least he comes on here after losing instead of that suspicious Ipswich chap.