It's already gone horribly wrong. With all due respect to Middlesbrough, we shouldn't be losing to them. I'd rather we tried to chase down a two goal deficit and risked losing heavily tbh
I'm worried that we will lose midfield. I would of been more inclined to go three at the back or take Howson off.
So we start the second half 8th (but only 4 points off the top) and could be second in 45 minutes. OTBC!
It'll probably work as 4-4-2 when defending and 4-2-4 in attack I'd guess. And Turner probably the only source of defensive nous on the pitch.
If you are risking putting numbers forward, why take off your most mobile midfielder to handle any counter attacks.
This worries me. It's what happened last season. We concede with seemingly every other shot on target. I don't like pointing at Ruddy, but you have to ask the question. Rudd's a brilliant shot stopper - is it time to give him a go? I have to disagree slightly - lately I feel Whittaker's been getting a lot of stick. He is a decent attacking fullback, very experienced, though admittedly shaky defensively. In and of itself, I have no problem with him being at right back. Similarly with Martin - he does some things well at CB, he obviously isn't rubbish there and I'm comfortable him playing there. However, I do agree that having both of them in those positions means we look very dodgy - I don't know whether it's because neither has enough confidence in the other, or they're trying to cover each other, or they simply need to communicate better. Either way, it's not working.
Yeah for me, the problem is not getting three points against the minnows, we shouldn't expect to beat Boro away.
Whittaker has to go. He is starting to be consistently poor. No matter how much they try, Scottish players just do not have a good enough footballing education to be any good.
On a side note, I think a defensively-competent attacking right back should be our priority signing in January. We could possibly do with another winger as well.
That's a slightly different point. I just meant I have no problem us stepping up the risk. But anyway, I disagree. Howson is very mobile and better going forward, O'Neill isn't too slow and is better at passing than Tettey. So as a remaining combo, I'd say taking off Tettey gives the best balance. Plus Tettey doesn't seem to be having too great a game. A bit strong perhaps, and I don't mean we are automatically entitled to beat them, but our squad is substantially stronger than theirs and being 2 down in this manner is, IMO, an embarrassing situation. It's pitiful. You can make all the excuses in the world about their form, luck, etc, but our team is more than capable of getting a point here.
I remember an epic 4-4 draw against these guys a few years ago coming back from 3-0 in the process I think. I can only hope Adams' halftime chat was a good one.
