v Middlesbrough (a) - 16/3/24

[ABBEY]

3 hours ago, harryhealless1928 said:

By the "Cov lad" Im supposing Abbey means ORiordan from Crewe.

It worked with Sutton agreed. ORiordan has scored a pretty respectable 6 goals in 50+ appearances for Crewe. After all he is a central defender(knows Gilsenan from the Republic of Ireland set-up). It might be worth a punt-some

defenders can score and I just dont see Tel getting anywhere near 6 goals.

George Hirst & Jack Vale are the worst two Ive seen in the JDT/JE eras.

At the very least,he would be another big lad to help the defending from set-pieces. 

oops my bad yup i did haha. age thing.

Edited March 10 by ABBEY

[davulsukur]

Eustace gets what he wants this week. A full week "on the grass" and as there is no midweek game, the players should be "rested". So no excuse culture indeed.

He's had a good run of fixtures in order to grab at least 1 win and he's failed to get any, which means he's going to have to do it the hard way.

As we are away from home I can't see him changing from a back 5. Assume he'll put Chrisene in place of Fadz. Think he needs to drop it and go 4-2-3-1.

Gallagher always seems to turn up against Boro, so need to start him.

[NeilInBristol]

5 hours ago, Miller11 said:

                              Pears

O’Riordan    Hyam    Wharton   Pickering

Dolan           Ayari       Chrisene   Hedges

                            Gilsenan

                           Szmodics

Yep if Buckley is available then I would pick him up over chrisene but otherwise this looks strong

[Mattyblue]

If that’s what counts as ‘strong’, no wonder we are struggling.

[Miller11]

2 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

That is a frightening team.

Has Chrisene ever played in central midfield? Not the best on the ball. And has O'Riordan ever played at full back? A big gangly centre back. I know that Buckley has started to show that perhaps he wasn't necessarily our heir to the Wharton throne but he has to be a more suitable player there than Chrisene, and I know you really cannot stomach Brittain (I am not his biggest fan, unsure if your dislike of him is more because you was so fond of Nyambe who himself wasnt particularly good) but he surely is a better option than sticking a young centre back there.

Gilsenan seems to be getting more and more popular every week that he is not selected but I am wary of being too excited just because hes scored a few goals for the under 21s, Jack Vale and even Harry Leonard showed how big the gap in quality is. Deserves a spot on the bench over players like Telalovic though.

Gallagher looked good when he came back into the team, his last 2 or 3 performances have been totally ineffective perhaps partly due to playing so much after injury, but mainly because of Eustace shoving him on the wing in a side that rarely attacks. He usually does well at Boro, I would play him up top rather than Szmodics who is best behind a striker.

Apparently Chrisene has played centre midfield. We lack physicality in there without Tronstad. I thought Ayari was a lot better than Buckley on Saturday.

I’m confident O’Riordan is a better and more willing defender than Brittain. I wouldn’t want him worrying at all about attacking, so I’d give him a go. 

Ideally I’d like to find a way to get several other players out of our starting 11 as they appear totally defeated and useless in a scrap, unfortunately our squad is a depleted, disjointed, unbalanced mess.

[NeilInBristol]

Just now, Miller11 said:

Apparently Chrisene has played centre midfield. We lack physicality in there without Tronstad. I thought Ayari was a lot better than Buckley on Saturday.

I’m confident O’Riordan is a better and more willing defender than Brittain. I wouldn’t want him worrying at all about attacking, so I’d give him a go. 

Ideally I’d like to find a way to get several other players out of our starting 11 as they appear totally defeated and useless in a scrap, unfortunately our squad is a depleted, disjointed, unbalanced mess.

Yeh looks like tronstad is out for a couple weeks.

[neophox]

Think Ayari is a player who wants to do well to force hos way back to Brightons first team plans for next season so he will surely play well.

[neophox]

Could Hayden Carter do a job in midfeld when fit... reminds me of Phil Jones.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

2 minutes ago, neophox said:

Could Hayden Carter do a job in midfeld when fit... reminds me of Phil Jones.

That’ll be next season then.

[neophox]

Koumetio could come in instead of McFadzean ...the lad has pace...did well when coming on against Newcastle.

Would start.

Pears

Brittain, Hyam, Wharton, Koumetio

Ayari, Buckley

Hedges/Moran, Szmodics, Siggy/ or Dolan,

Gally

Edited March 10 by neophox

[RTM08]

Ultimately, this is the biggest test yet - not necessarily in terms of opposition but Eustace has a week to prepare. If we're still as bad as we have been in the last week or so then I don't see how he can possibly be here after the international break (he wouldn't be at a serious club at least). 

At best we'll get a draw, but we've been lucky to even do that in the last week and even the customary Sammie goal won't be enough here.

Boro 3-1 Rovers.

[Upside Down]

Two nil loss in another gutless turgid performance.

[roversfan99]

30 minutes ago, neophox said:

Koumetio could come in instead of McFadzean ...the lad has pace...did well when coming on against Newcastle.

Would start.

Pears

Brittain, Hyam, Wharton, Koumetio

Ayari, Buckley

Hedges/Moran, Szmodics, Siggy/ or Dolan,

Gally

He was awful.

38 minutes ago, neophox said:

Think Ayari is a player who wants to do well to force hos way back to Brightons first team plans for next season so he will surely play well.

He wont be in their first team plans next season.

[simongarnerisgod]

31 minutes ago, neophox said:

Koumetio could come in instead of McFadzean ...the lad has pace...did well when coming on against Newcastle.

he looked very raw to me,i would`nt put him in an away match against a decent side,begs the question,wtf is he doing here

[Upside Down]

52 minutes ago, simongarnerisgod said:

he looked very raw to me,i would`nt put him in an away match against a decent side,begs the question,wtf is he doing here

He's alive, cheap and there's an agents commission involved.

[Ghost7]

Koumetio, Fleck and McGuire were the deadline day signings. I'd bring them all in for this one. 👍

[Andy]

Other than his brief appearance against Newcastle, I'd honestly never heard of Koumetio before.

However, my Liverpool-supporting mate told me the other night that he's pretty highly rated at Anfield and was surprised we'd got him in on loan.

Chuck him in against Boro - we're expecting defeat anyway, so no pressure.

[roversfan99]

1 hour ago, Andy said:

Other than his brief appearance against Newcastle, I'd honestly never heard of Koumetio before.

However, my Liverpool-supporting mate told me the other night that he's pretty highly rated at Anfield and was surprised we'd got him in on loan.

Chuck him in against Boro - we're expecting defeat anyway, so no pressure.

Surprised? He had just struggled for game time at a loan spell for a team near the bottom of the French second division having before that struggled to get game time in the Austrian league. 

And no pressure? I think there is. If Boro away is a foregone conclusion, surely theres no pressure in the whole relegation scrap.

[WacoRover]

I don’t know what to expect. But I do feel that playing on the road cannot be any worse than playing at home. I will leave it to Eustace to pick the best 11. 
 

 

[OldEwoodBlue]

Venkys

Suhail

Waggott

Eustace

All of them out please.

Boro ? Who cares.

[NeilInBristol]

7 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

Surprised? He had just struggled for game time at a loan spell for a team near the bottom of the French second division having before that struggled to get game time in the Austrian league. 

And no pressure? I think there is. If Boro away is a foregone conclusion, surely theres no pressure in the whole relegation scrap.

Koumetio had two season long loans to those clubs cut short but never featured for Liverpool. Wonder what that's all about. 

[philipl]

Before Millwall I said I was looking for a win and two draws in the 3 games coming up.

We have avoided catastrophic defeats against fellow strugglers Plymouth and Millwall so Boro has to be the win, please.

Boro are virtually safe. We need them to be motivated to finish the job against Brum and not us.

[sharpysharps86]

One thing to cling onto is just how inconsistent Boro are this season. They can go and beat Leicester away and then lose at home to Norwich. Playoffs seems a little out of reach for them at this point, so who knows, maybe they won't be able to get themselves up for it. Says a lot that I'm hoping Boro have an off day to give us any chance of something from the game 😂😭. Ultimately I think we'll lose something like 2-0, offering very little in attack unfortunately.

Maybe a bit early to predict a team but i'll have a go. I just don't see JE switching from 3 CB's away from home, so I'm expecting to see O'Riordan or Billy K start. Alternatively he could go with Chrisene as the left CB as I think that's where he started against Soke. If Tronstad and Hedges are back that is a massive boost, as I think Hedges energy getting up and down the pitch at wing back is crucial on the left.

Predicted JE team:

                                   Pears

                O'Riordan   Hyam   Wharton

       Brittain     Tronstad     Buckley     Hedges

                      Szmodics    Sigurdsson

                               Gallagher
 

The team I would consider going with:

                              Pears

     Brittain    Hyam    Wharton   Pickering

            Buckley    Tronstad    Hedges

      Gallagher     Szmodics    Sigurdsson

 

[pentelrobot]

Anyone know what's happened to Harry Leonard??

[lraC]

41 minutes ago, pentelrobot said:

Anyone know what's happened to Harry Leonard??

I think someone said he is out for the season.