Match Day Thread Hull City v Middlesbrough

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City win?

  • City

  • Draw

  • Boro

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jhe10 said:
We've scored a lot of goals this season, which has papered over the gaping cracks in our squad and in our performance. A central midfield of Slater and Amir is a long way off the quality needed at this level. Opposition teams, even ones much lower in the table, find it easy to play around our press, while we find it next to impossible to play around a determined opposition press. Joseph coughs up possession nine times out of ten for all his hard work without the ball. If you press us and force Pandur to play it long, we're lucky if the ball goes anyway near one of our players let alone gives them a chance to compete for it. Our defence is horribly disorganised, and we are almost never winning second balls. Some of this is down to the fact that we don't have that many players truly at the level for the top of the table. Some of it has to laid at the feet of the manager, for all his positive qualities, he hasn't made us much better defensively or at finding ways to play through the lines.

I don't know what the solution is, which is why I'm not a manager in the Championship, but I'm hoping Sergei has some ideas. If it was me I would recognise the evidence of my own eyes, that we play better with Crooks deeper, and with Belloumi on the field. Maybe for Wrexham we could just go for it with Millar, Belloumi, McBurnie and Gelhardt ahead of Crooks and (reluctantly) Slater.
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Maybe he's acutely aware of the defensive issues (you'd hope so) and has decided rightly or wrongly the best form of defence is to attack, hence the goals. I think he's earnt enough brownie points to be given a pass for tonight. Without sounding like the broken record, what the **** does the defensive coach do other than earn a salary. Even Pandur is an accident waiting to happen and every game, no matter how many save she makes... that cant be confidence instilling to those infant of him. If we had the money and were allowed to spend it, a keeper, right back, experienced no nonsense centre back or two. What we have is powder puff.
 
bradymk2 said:
as much as gelhardt may be better on the right

we cant have crooks in the middle high up anymore, two in midfield always get outnumbered, how have we not learnt by now?
but especially slater and amir who are not even close to defensive midfielders

so belloumi has to start, just so we might not get out matched in midfield from kick off ONCE AGAIN
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Fully agree. If he doesn't go Crooks deeper on Wednesday then I'd worry about him.

Same team as tonight probably with Hughes in for Egan, Belloumi in for Hadziahmetovic is what I'd expect. Millar and McBurnie cameos.

Wonder if Drameh will be back?
 
kingstontiger said:
Ive wondered about this but assume it won't happen. Feel he has the attributes to play there and his weakness in the air and impetuous diving in wouldn't be so exposed.
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Same. He's composed on the ball, his passing range is great, and he's likes a tackle. Problem is, we probably need him at the back too
 
We were really bad but it was maybe a game too much for some of our second string. Midfield has to include one of Lundstram or Crooks because we have no control in games without them. Midfield is a bigger problem than the defence imo but having said that it was probably Egan & Ajayi’s worst game for us tonight, they’re usually reliable.

Belloumi must be fit enough to start very soon and Millar can’t be far off either which will make us better and if Mcburnie was on the bench he must be close to fitness too so plenty to look forward to.

Anyway, a really poor night overall but a nice touch from Pandur wearing the ear defenders with the mascot when the teams were coming out, which is about the only positive to come out of tonight.
 
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Anyone else hear loads of chants aimed at Boro coming from e9 area in the last 20 minutes?

As for the game, we were poor but they were good and will go up. Incredible fanbase on a night like tonight too!
 
TIGERSCAVE said:
I think he's earnt enough brownie points to be given a pass for tonight.
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Absolutely, he's way in credit on brownie points. I wasn't trying to slag off the manager, just hoping he could address some of the recurring issues.
 
Baldrick's Cunning Plan said:
The score is exactly as I predicted - except the other team won.
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tbf you weren't the only one to predict a handsome City victory, but I'm well used to those pinheads, and frequently have a go at their quality of prediction. Or lack of it. I doubt if that will change anytime soon. I have to admit I did take you to be more level headed, so I guess I was wrong.
 
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The issue is the midfield.

Lads, I’ve been saying it for over three years now but this team still hasn’t sorted out one of the key positions and that is a proper defensive midfielder.

I like Hadžiahmetović. He’s a tidy player but he is not a defensive midfielder. Notice that he and Slater both join the press and like to pop up in slightly advanced areas. A defensive midfielder’s job is to sit back in front of the defence. All of our midfielders like to ‘wander’. At least one of them needs to not do that and just stay back. We also need a bit more athleticism in midfield. Crooks, Hadžiahmetović and Lundstram all move like oil tankers. Slater’s a bit more agile but lacks the physicality.

The space between the defensive line and the midfield is absurd. Boro have a lot of technical players, Hackney especially, so it was even more apparent tonight but it is far too easy for opposition centre-backs and midfielders to drill straight passes along the ground straight to their strikers who have time and space to turn and carry the ball forward and/or play it to their wingers. Teams can just bypass our midfield with a single pass. That’s not normal. There’s no compactness between the lines. As bad as Ajayi was tonight coughing up possession and making mistakes, I think our defensive issues are tactical and Jakirović needs to address it.
 
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Shocker of a first half. So many mistakes. I think what frustrated me was Boro barely had to work for it. We gifted it to them.

Ajayi was atrocious.

Only positives were Belloumi and Millar and McBurnie on the bench.

Im very very very damp. And not in a good way.
 
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Kalman II said:
The issue is the midfield.

Lads, I’ve been saying it for over three years now but this team still hasn’t sorted out one of the key positions and that is a proper defensive midfielder.

I like Hadžiahmetović. He’s a tidy player but he is not a defensive midfielder. Notice that he and Slater both join the press and like to pop up in slightly advanced areas. A defensive midfielder’s job is to sit back in front of the defence. All of our midfielders like to ‘wander’. At least one of them needs to not do that and just stay back. We also need a bit more athleticism in midfield. Crooks, Hadžiahmetović and Lundstram all move like oil tankers. Slater’s a bit more agile but lacks the physicality.

The space between the defensive line and the midfield is absurd. Boro have a lot of technical players, Hackney especially, so it was even more apparent tonight but it is far too easy for opposition centre-backs and midfielders to drill straight passes along the ground straight to their strikers who have time and space to turn and carry the ball forward and/or play it to their wingers. Teams can just bypass our midfield with a single pass. That’s not normal. There’s no compactness between the lines. As bad as Ajayi was tonight coughing up possession and making mistakes, I think the issue is tactical and Jakirović needs to address it.
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thats exactly what it is as its proved

doesn't matter if its egan or hughes, or egan and ajayi

when they have to defend dozens of chances, theyre going to mess up
championship centerbacks dont need to be maldini to get promoted
won and lost in the midfield first

and its concerning that once again we started like this with 2 non defensive mids. you could see everytime boro got the ball they shot forward in numbers, they had a plan for our weakness. we didnt

its tiring how often we start games terribly and need to change it at half time so drastically
 
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Kalman II said:
The issue is the midfield.

Lads, I’ve been saying it for over three years now but this team still hasn’t sorted out one of the key positions and that is a proper defensive midfielder.

I like Hadžiahmetović. He’s a tidy player but he is not a defensive midfielder. Notice that he and Slater both join the press and like to pop up in slightly advanced areas. A defensive midfielder’s job is to sit back in front of the defence. All of our midfielders like to ‘wander’. At least one of them needs to not do that and just stay back. We also need a bit more athleticism in midfield. Crooks, Hadžiahmetović and Lundstram all move like oil tankers. Slater’s a bit more agile but lacks the physicality.

The space between the defensive line and the midfield is absurd. Boro have a lot of technical players, Hackney especially, so it was even more apparent tonight but it is far too easy for opposition centre-backs and midfielders to drill straight passes along the ground straight to their strikers who have time and space to turn and carry the ball forward and/or play it to their wingers. Teams can just bypass our midfield with a single pass. That’s not normal. There’s no compactness between the lines. As bad as Ajayi was tonight coughing up possession and making mistakes, I think our defensive issues are tactical and Jakirović needs to address it.
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I think it’s the midfield personnel combined with suicidal pressing structure. I cannot believe our attempt at trying to stop Hackney playing today…
 
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Dylan Groak said:
Anyone else hear loads of chants aimed at Boro coming from e9 area in the last 20 minutes?

As for the game, we were poor but they were good and will go up. Incredible fanbase on a night like tonight too!
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Way to early to say they will go up, to many decent sides in this league and with it been a two hr drive and second from the top I would expect them to sell out. We’ve seen some great games this season and others are right we let other teams have to many chances yet we have got away with it. However I’ve never seen us give the ball away so much as we did in that first half. It was embarrassing, manager got tactics wrong, players were shocking. Need changes and a massive improvement on Wednesday.
 
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NewcastleTiger said:
I think it’s the midfield personnel combined with suicidal pressing structure. I cannot believe our attempt at trying to stop Hackney playing today…
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The way we pressed was really naive. Hackney’s one of the best midfielders in the Championship on the ball, if not the best. He should probably be playing in the Prem right now. We should’ve been compact between the lines and try to hit them on the counter. Instead, we did disorganised kamikaze pressing and leaving enough room to land a Boeing 747 between the midfield and defence. Boro just took the piss out of us today and effectively did rondos around us for 90 minutes.
 
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