Just back in and delighted with the afternoon. Even the sun shone! A great result built from an early goal after great passing from the half way line. Danny Simpson's cross - failed to find the five Ranger's men in the box - and was hacked clear to Joey Barton who slammed home despite a desperate attempt by a defender on the line. Confidence was high after a superb start, encouraged by a fine display by Nico Kranjcar with sublime control, flicks and one touch passing. Middlesbrough were toothless today, with all of their chances coming from errors in passing - largely emanating from Ali Faurlin or Tom Carroll who both looked short on touch and confidence. The referee ruined a fair and clean contest with a needless early booking and thereafter maintained the continuous awful decision making. The penalty - a clear handball - was justice for a stonewall trip that was ignored some moments earlier. At 2-0 the second half turned into a training drill with a fine passing and movement passage of play for 4 minutes or more brought to a halt after some 40+ passes. A standing ovation saluting a polar change in style from last season. I felt we could have got more had we been less complacent - perhaps the 2-0 allows our modest run to continue under the radar. Rob Green and the back four looked comfortable, but a bit too complacent with some fancy dan passing at times that was let off by good recovery or just plain awful attack play by Middlesbrough. Faurlin looks nervous and his passing and vision needs working on. Karl Henry replaced him late on and made one great crunching challenge. Tom Carroll looked good in parts, but like Faurlin, has a bad pass in his locker at times, also a bit too over confident at times. Joey Barton - took on the captain's arm band when Clint Hill departed - again grafted and showed a quality only bettered by Nico Kranjcar who was superb in the first half and reminded us of what Adel Taarabt would be if he had his head screwed on! Gary O'Neil another that grafted and shows a touch of class. Unlucky not to score. Won't have enjoyed ending up in the paddock. As expected the referee let the blatant push that sent him there go unpunished. Charlie Austin ratted around and put another good shift in. Never one to shirk a battle. Just wish he was a natural goal scorer. Heading to the corner flag when 3 yards out was unbelievable. A good idea to switch the penalty kick to the keeper's right after sending it to the left last week. Gambled and got it right! More of the same next week please lads!
I would agree that it was far from Ale Faurlin's best game but his runs beyond Charlie Austin created so much space for us. I can't remember when we last had a player that achieved this. Yes, Henry did make one crunching tackle but after he came on we stopped going forward & the passing became cautious. Nico made a great debut. Look forward to seeing him next week provided he is selected. I have come to the conclusion that the midfield is picked by drawing raffle tickets or by some vague attempt at trying to keep them all happy.
What was Ale doing that far up field? One of the major criticisms before today was Austin's isolation, I guess this was not the case today.
Quite surprisingly, he was played as the most advanced of the three central midfielders. However, the three did interchange their positions. It's just good to have seen us play proper football again!
An interesting change of philosophy. Once he picks his passing up he could be devastating further forwards, but as his tackling is so good it seems odd at first glance. Did he get up and down the pitch ok? Clearly he is not the fastest, but how was his engine?
Well I was there too and I completely disagree about Faurlin. Myself and everyone around me was purring at his touch and vision. I can only remember one really bad pass whereas Carroll played at least 3 which put us in loads of trouble. Faurlin got forward well and supported Austin, as Carroll was the deepest of the 3 centre mids. Almost back to his best today Ali!!
Weirdly Harry seemed to ignore him when he was subbed (from what I saw). No words of encouragement, no pats on the back
