Middlesbrough 0 - 0 Newcastle - 29/11/08 - post match reaction from page 17

[fredbob]

Just thinking about the game and to be honest, theres been a huge amount of positives to take from the game, mainly, our defending was superb, cant fault it really, the best ive seen for a while. thats 2 games where we've soaked up a lot of pressure and we didnt panic and played as a unit. Bassong was outstanding today and Colo was very good as well although a bit raw at times. Enrique is my only concern in defense, if he can get his confidence up a bit then we should see what we saw last year.

 

Im also happy that Zog is in the side, there were 2 instances in particular which outlined his value to the team, the runs he went on. Although overall he didnt play well those run alone are enough to justify his place in the squad, he can penetrate the opposition with those runs and its inaluable in creating space for other players.

 

Martins was unlucky to come off, Kinnear needs to make some brave decisions.

[Cheshire Mag]

Then we'll have 4 fit strikers and Smith.

 

Never know JK got Shola playing.

 

Hell fire, if Sir Alex Ferguson cant get Smith playing, what chance does JFK have?!

[Tooj]

Keegan never wanted to get Ameobi playing, there's a difference.

[Liam Liam Liam O]

Keegan never wanted to get Ameobi playing, there's a difference.

 

Another reason we're fortunate to be rid of him iyam.

 

This is Shola's year.

[chicago_shearer]

Keegan never wanted to get Ameobi playing, there's a difference.

 

Another reason we're fortunate to be rid of him iyam.

 

This is Shola's year.

 

Every year is Shola's year.  We could sign a forward pairing of RvN & David Villa and Shola would still find a way to make an appearance at some point.  He is like life itself...he always finds a way.

[Guest firetotheworks]

Keegan never wanted to get Ameobi playing, there's a difference.

 

Another reason we're fortunate to be rid of him iyam.

 

This is Shola's year.

 

Every year is Shola's year.  We could sign a forward pairing of RvN & David Villa and Shola would still find a way to make an appearance at some point.  He is like life itself...he always finds a way.

 

PAHAHA, I just imagined Sam Neill examining an egg and then noticing football stud marks in the ground, with the camera panning up to a herd of Ameobis there,  ala Jurassic Park when I read that.

[Tooj]

Keegan never wanted to get Ameobi playing, there's a difference.

 

Another reason we're fortunate to be rid of him iyam.

 

This is Shola's year.

 

Every year is Shola's year.  We could sign a forward pairing of RvN & David Villa and Shola would still find a way to make an appearance at some point.  He is like life itself...he always finds a way.

 

PAHAHA, I just imagined Sam Neill examining an egg and then noticing football stud marks in the ground, with the camera panning up to a herd of Ameobis there,  ala Jurassic Park when I read that.

 

[Slugsy]

Pleased by clean sheet but we need to start picking up some wins, scraping round the 3/4 gets more worrying as we get further into the season. 

[Neil]

Not got a lot to say that's different to most people's thoughts.

 

Good to see some defensive stability but really, this was a big chance missed. Against a team that's hardly going to strike fear into the opposition, there just seemed to be an anxiety in the 2nd half. The 3 points were within touching distance.

[Guest Heneage]

The key here is to keep it the same XI but work on creating. Try and get  Viduka to play asap.

[Offshore]

The key here is to keep it the same XI but work on creating. Try and get  Viduka to play asap.

 

Could try making the Zog wear a neck brace to keep his head up.

[Wullie]

A good point as long as we win next week against Stoke.

[Willow]

Viduka :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

loved that short post match interview, legend 

[Guest Heneage]

Jonas didn't feature much in highlights, poor game?

[Willow]

Jonas didn't feature much in highlights, poor game?

 

I'd say just a more muted game, MOTD editing can only show so much. I'm just still grinning at Viduka after the match, haha

[black_n_white]

A good point but we are riding our luck big time!! We are not playing well at all despite the decent defending, both chelsea and boro dominated the games. You can see that the team just isn't geling and we are not getting enough goals from midfield, how many goals have n'zogbia, butt, guthrie and jonas scored between them this season...i believe its 0, enough said! That said nexts week game v's stoke is a must win, and i'd be tempted to play owen, martins and viduka from the start to go for it!

[Wullie]

A good point but we are riding our luck big time!! We are not playing well at all despite the decent defending, both chelsea and boro dominated the games. You can see that the team just isn't geling and we are not getting enough goals from midfield, how many goals have n'zogbia, butt, guthrie and jonas scored between them this season...i believe its 0, enough said! That said nexts week game v's stoke is a must win, and i'd be tempted to play owen, martins and viduka from the start to go for it!

 

Chelsea did, as you'd expect, but Boro did not dominate. A point was certainly a fair point, the game could have gone either way.

[Cronky]

Just going by the 60 minute highlights on Sky -

 

The Owen-Martins partnership looked just as crap in practice as it is in theory. If you're playing without a target man, surely one of the strikers has to be able to drop back a bit to link with the midfield. Today, that job fell to Owen, and predictably he failed to get involved. When Viduka came on, Owen could get further forward but of course we then lost the threat of Martins.

 

Martins' reaction when he was subbed was a bit of a worry. Owen's status and all this anxiety about him re-signing means that there's bound to be suspicion in the minds of fans and players that the manager is afraid to upset him, either by dropping or subbing him.

 

Bassong's a bit raw but he has the athleticism to recover when he makes mistakes and he does the main job of a CB very well ie he gets on the end of headers in his own penalty box. It looks like we've established our first choice centre back partnership.

 

[ElDiablo]

For Owen to drop back effectively he needs people going beyond him when he gets the ball other wise he has to pass it backwards. The reason it worked in the 433 last year was he had two players ahead of him plus usually a midfielder and a full back within 15 yards or so, the point of him dropping off isn't so he'll create it's so he can arrive late and use his anticipation to arrive on the end of things. If the players aren't getting beyond him there's no point as he won't have an outlet and the ball won't arrive anyway.

[Teasy]

Lets not forget Owen hasn't played much Football since his injury, it always takes him at least a few games to get his sharpness back.

[Dave]

Lets not forget Owen hasn't played much Football since his injury, it always takes him at least a few games to get his sharpness back.

 

Which he denies.

[Cronky]

For Owen to drop back effectively he needs people going beyond him when he gets the ball other wise he has to pass it backwards. The reason it worked in the 433 last year was he had two players ahead of him plus usually a midfielder and a full back within 15 yards or so, the point of him dropping off isn't so he'll create it's so he can arrive late and use his anticipation to arrive on the end of things. If the players aren't getting beyond him there's no point as he won't have an outlet and the ball won't arrive anyway.

 

As you say, he managed to get a few goals in the 433 through being able to make runs into the box unmarked, on to the end of chances. However, I don't think the creative side of his play was any better then, than now in a 442.

 

The trouble is, his close control and passing isn't that good. That's why he's been dropped from the England squad and the big four haven't been interested.

[afar]

Thought we did ok today, a draw was probably a fair result overall. We looked very solid at the back which is a good thing, but we lacked a bit of creativity in there, didn't think zog and jona had their best games for us. Thought Owen was poor today, should have come off when Viduka came on. Viduka did well in the small time on the pitch. We need to start winning though, unbeaten in the last 3 but we could have gotten the same points haul had we beaten Wigan at home, which are games we have to win.

 

Bolton fans are talikng about europe now, considering they were bottom of the league only a few weeks ago, shows how tight it is. There is a chance though to pull away from the 3 at the bottom right now, all of whom are in awful form, we must capitalise by starting to win a few.

[oldtype]

We have no attacking impetus through the center because Butt/Guthrie aren't really capable of pushing forward and being dangerous like Barton.

 

Therefore, when our wing players have a bad game, our offense suffers. cf) Jonas and Zog today.

[merlin]

A game which was, for the most part, like watching paint dry - we were lucky to get away with a point after a second-half in which Boro could(and should)have been 2 goals ahead by the time we had a brief flurry of activity near the end.

 

The ponderous build-up is the reason for our inability to score goals, and any attempt to speed it up by taking the long-ball approach usually resulted in losing possession again ; for me, a good target man and a creative, mobile centre midfield player are a must asap.

 

Although I am not a big fan, I thought  Martins was unlucky to be the one substituted ; Jonas was not pulling up any trees, and I would have taken him off and tried to win the game with Martins/Viduka up front and Owen just behind them.

Bassong did well, as did Coloccini in the main ; Beye was steady and a good support to the attack and Enrique was a mix of good and bad, but mainly OK.

 

Midfield as pedestrian as usual, and the only real threat came when N'Zogbia pushed forward at speed - he is the only one who can get opposition defenders back-pedalling.

 

We should have been capable of winning this game and may end up regretting not doing so later in the season but a point is better than nothing...