***fa cup 4th round - city v 'boro - match thread***

[Goaters 103]

Id love someone high up at the club to explain the wisdom of pissing off to Abu Dhabi and then doing a long haul flight the day before a game. Smacked of sheer arrogance and the chickens have come home to roost. That first Boro goal would be an embarrassment for a sunday Pub side and Fernando just needed a red nose and a large shoes to complete his part in it.

City wilted and were lead legged in that 2nd half when they needed to up the pace, which is utterly unforgivable. Aguero played like he as dragging a shed behind him and again gave us little or nothing up top; Kompany too still looks way out of sorts out seems immune to criticism.

I suppose the club can celebrate by pissing off to Abu Dhabi again in 3 weeks and now don't have a Cup tie to come back to. Can we also leave Fernando and Navas out there too as both aren't good enough, plain and simple.

We have exited the last 3 Cup competitions with defeats on our own turf, twice to Championship sides and the other the Newcastle reserves; that is not acceptable. Effectively forfeiting the FA Cup through taking on a needless long haul trip smacked of blind stupidity and we deserved what we got today. We collapsed after Boro scored, plain and simple.

[Nick]

fuckin joke, fuck fernando off and stick a rocket up the arses of players like vince and kun.

play the fuckin kids or we will get hammered some time soon

[london blue 2]

At least they had a nice break to look back on. Cunts

[City64]

THATS TWO GAMES IN A ROW WE HAVE DEFENDED LIKE A PUB TEAM , FUCKING SHAMBOLIC . SO MANY OUT OF FORM OUT OF IDEAS AND LOOKING LIKE SHIT , OUR SEASON COULD BE OVER 7.15 PM NEXT SATURDAY ........... PELLEGRINI NEEDS A FUCKING ROCKET !!! GET IT FUCKING SORTED !!!!!

[Ted Hughes]

Id love someone high up at the club to explain the wisdom of pissing off to Abu Dhabi and then doing a long haul flight the day before a game. Smacked of sheer arrogance and the chickens have come home to roost. That first Boro goal would be an embarrassment for a sunday Pub side and Fernando just needed a red nose and a large shoes to complete his part in it.

City wilted and were lead legged in that 2nd half when they needed to up the pace, which is utterly unforgivable. Aguero played like he as dragging a shed behind him and again gave us little or nothing up top; Kompany too still looks way out of sorts out seems immune to criticism.

I suppose the club can celebrate by pissing off to Abu Dhabi again in 3 weeks and now don't have a Cup tie to come back to. Can we also leave Fernando and Navas out there too as both aren't good enough, plain and simple.

We have exited the last 3 Cup competitions with defeats on our own turf, twice to Championship sides and the other the Newcastle reserves; that is not acceptable. Effectively forfeiting the FA Cup through taking on a needless long haul trip smacked of blind stupidity and we deserved what we got today. We collapsed after Boro scored, plain and simple.

We were the same v Arsenal. Boro were better than them imo; same defending but more threat on the break, so imo we were actually better today as at least we created chances.
Same v Newcastle in the League Cup. Same v Sheff Wed. Same v Wigan.

Should have played some kids v Newcastle & Sheff & occasionally off the bench in league games, then they may by this time have been options & given us a livener & extra energy today.

We have completely wasted two cup competitions neither having a run, nor blooding kids.

[Goaters 103]

Just read someone on Twitter make the excellent point that we've spent the last 3 years largely buying squad players - not top class ones. Very accurate. Our 5 key players are the same 5 that they were in 2011/12 first title season.

[iwasthere2012]

Fair summation Ted.

[Im_Spartacus]

Just read someone on Twitter make the excellent point that we've spent the last 3 years largely buying squad players - not top class ones. Very accurate. Our 5 key players are the same 5 that they were in 2011/12 first title season.

Which pretty much sums up my support for Gary Neville's assertion that we have not moved forward since then

[Original Dub]

No lame excuses about penalties not given, the ref, the conspirancy or anything like that. Fact is boro should have been 4-0 up before 60 mins.
Willy the wonder boy was lucky he didn't make a total clown of himself.

4 nil up. "No lame excuses about penalties".

Pass the j you fucking loon.

Oh dear. What a pity.

Pity you wouldn't pass what you were smoking?

Basically, you said we should have been four nil down to boro within a hour, which is total horseshit all by itself, as we had far more chances to score than they did.

You also say we can't point to two clear penalties we should have had. Like that doesn't matter or something?

So basically, we only count the chances boro had, disregarding everything else?

Maybe you were joking. Maybe you were smoking. I went with smoking.

I apologise if it was the other.

[South Stand Balti]

Just home from the game. It strikes me our main problems are off the field. Three things:
1. The trip- I don't know what difference the trip to Abu made but travelling there and back in 5 days before this match seems bonkers. I don't think we would do this before a Barca game.
2. Who is buying our players? MP must be furious to be given the likes of erratic Willy and Fernsndo, who were the examples today. There are others that are out of form or returning from injury but they have proven themselves in the past and won us trophies. It is difficult to buy well- look at the money spent by the Scum and scouse scum, but £32m for Mangala! If I was MP I would be asking who bought the players when Mancini started and ask if we can have him back.
3. The crowd - I have been going for decades but the atmos is worse this season than I can remember. The lads could have done with a lift today having been dragged around the world but all they could hear was Boro. We did nt help much today.
On the positive side Komps and Aguero and Edin got some minutes today to get back to fitness. The Ivory Coast did nt win so fingers crossed there. We have won several trophies recently so I'm not too despondent but we need to fix our off field probs if we are to move forward.

[Ted Hughes]

So we want Mark Hughes, plus Cook & Marwood back ?

[City64]

So we want Mark Hughes, plus Cook & Marwood back ?

Some just cant see that Pellegrini needs to sort his shit out Ted . ASAP

[Beefymcfc]

I hate to say the obvious but we miss a leader in the middle of the park, somebody the players can look to and pass the ball when they are under pressure.

Pity he's away at the moment.

[sheblue]

I hate to say the obvious but we miss a leader in the middle of the park, somebody the players can look to and pass the ball when they are under pressure.

Pity he's away at the moment.

It would be nice if it was just that, but it's not some of the defending was appalling, their first goal was woeful, and they missed several clear cut chances created by our sloppy defending.
The strikers aren't exactly banging in hat fulls at the mo either!!
But we must keep the faith and plough on.

[Beefymcfc]

I hate to say the obvious but we miss a leader in the middle of the park, somebody the players can look to and pass the ball when they are under pressure.

Pity he's away at the moment.

It would be nice if it was just that, but it's not some of the defending was appalling, their first goal was woeful, and they missed several clear cut chances created by our sloppy defending.
The strikers aren't exactly banging in hat fulls at the mo either!!
But we must keep the faith and plough on.

What Yaya allows is for an outlet from wherever on the pitch, giving the defence the confidence to get the ball away and the attack to show their flair. And when that's not happening he just ploughs through and scares the oppo defence to death.

What we're seeing now is a consequence of Yaya being missing with Pellers trying to force the star players back whilst still not up to scratch; he just doesn't trust in anything else as proved by his lack of youth players in the squad.

I don't blame him for it mind, he's judged on his performances, the problem is that in games like today, with half fit players and another complete change in defence, nobody actually trusts each other and when we're put under pressure everybody either looks after themselves or tries to cover a player who is already there.

For me, this isn't a player issue, it's a manager issue, and he needs to sort it pronto.

[Blue Since 76]

If he'd have played 4 or 5 kids or reserves, we could have moaned he wasn't taking it seriously, but at least there'd be a reason we lost. The worry is, that was basically the best team available and whilst we missed a few chances, we could have conceded 4 or 5.

So, out of two cups and not one player blooded for the future. Holistic.

[Douglas Higginbottom]

Just watched the game again albeit just extended highlights.We cannot get away from the fact that we were not good enough but today I thought we were actually quite a bit better going forward at least. Yes we didn't score and some would argue might never have done but their keeper did make a few good saves, we could have had a penalty at least once and we were unlucky with the one on the post.

At the back though we were just not looking or feeling safe. I thought Boyata was ok today with Vinnie the weaker link.He just commits to things at the wrong time and gets in bad positions.I just hope a lot of that is rustiness but I am not convinced. Zaba is struggling too but the area that worries me a lot is in front of the back 4 where the opposition seem to get too much space.There are times when both the F's do good things but others, too many others, where they get out of position or miss tackles usually trying to nick balls.

Our predictability is there for all to see and other teams to work out.When we are not at our best it gets worked out and we look slow and toothless.There is so much reliance on the ball inside the full back and low crosses but teams just get tighter together to stop a lot of it and they are also positioned perfectly to cut out low crosses.Whey the hell are we not first to a low cross? It has to be a low cross as we usually have no height for high crosses.

I did think Kun was much sharper today, not there yet but looking better. Overall we have to improve a lot and quickly so the season doesn't implode on us. Yaya is clearly a big miss but so too is Nasri as they both have something that unlocks defences.When it's only Silva it's a tough ask for him and the oppos do swamp him.

[Beefymcfc]

Just read someone on Twitter make the excellent point that we've spent the last 3 years largely buying squad players - not top class ones. Very accurate. Our 5 key players are the same 5 that they were in 2011/12 first title season.

This is the key issue for me. I'll support every player that puts on the shirt but it doesn't mean I am happy with the fact they are there in the first place.

The likes of Fernandinho turned out well, for half a season, but at 30 odd million, at his age, is that serious planning.

What about Mangala, is he worth 32 million?

What about Fernando, is he really an upgrade on Garcia?

Although, I can't really complain because we're still in for top honours, my biggest beef was with the season where we brought in Sinclair et al. Don't get me wrong, I'm not being a snob here but I understand that we are in a different market and should be looking at different players than what we got. Whether it be Mancini being an ass (reading his last interview, I don't think so), Marwood not having the say, or Txiki having more of a say than his powers should have deemed, we totally screwed up.

We were PL champions and we didn't support our manager.

[Cocacolajojo1]

Am I the only one who didn't think the first goal should have stood as the Middlesborough player absolutely smashed into Caballero as he won the ball?

[DoomMerchant]

Am I the only one who didn't think the first goal should have stood as the Middlesborough player absolutely smashed into Caballero as he won the ball?

Probably not.

Cheers