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

[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...

[Baggio]

Two draws away from home have been good results since Owen's contribution in them has meant we've been playing with 10 men.

[The Wise Guy]

It was a boring game on our part and I was very frustrated by the smog or fog or whatever you want to call it. It was pretty much like the Chelsea game, we had to do more defending than we were attacking, and that is always expected when you are playing away from home but Im a little disappointed that we didnt create too much chances for ourselves and we could have easily gone to a goal or two down, but fortunately for us, our defence stood strong once again and it was being help by the fact that Boro themselves missed several good opportunities to get on the scoreboard, similar to the Chelsea game as well.

The one thing that bewildered me and I think everyone else for that matter is the fact that Joe decided to substitute Oba for Viduka. I can understand the reason for bringing Viduka on but why must it come at the expense of Oba because he was clearly the better of the two up front. He could have kept Oba and Owen playing and bringing Viduka in and play the 4-3-3 formation which has worked ever so well in the later stages of last season. I mean Jonas didnt offer anything up front and N'Zogbia was good at going forward but always give the ball away at the crucial points. So I could understand why Oba was clearly frustrated when he came off and he has every reason to be so.

The good thing I guess about the match was that Viduka is back playing and I though he did well, created a few opportunities for himself and almost got a goal at the end. It just shows what we have been missing so far and I cant wait for him to regain his full fitness because he would be immense once that happens. A clean sheet, another point away from home, I was hoping for three points, but that will do for now. We better get back to winning ways on the road soon because we cant just rely on our home form if we want to get out from the relegation zone.

[Blefuscu]

Can't really complain at that, dissapointing we couldnt find the net, but a point is all we deserved today and its a point that could very well come in handy down the road.

For me Bassong MOM closely followed by Guthrie for the second week in a row.

Given 7 - Had little to do but was fantastic whenever called into action, fantastic in the air under nasty conditions

Beye 6 - Solid enough, didnt get forward enough for me, he and Jonas arent clicking regularly yet.

Colo 7 - Pretty solid and calm all the way through, although had two slips or moments of madness.

Bassong 8 - What a player this guy is turning out to be, although we have seen it before with youngsters coming in, does he get ground down or does he make the step up, if its the latter we will at worst see a lot of money coming our way from a bigger club.

Enrique 4.5 - not convinced, head isnt in the game and the little good he does do he throws away with moments of madness, lapses of concentration or just woeful decision making, I hope he stays with us but we need a better LB for him to learn from, the talent is there if he can buckle down and master it.

Jonas 6 - Was never really unleashed, matter of time before the majority of the board is ripping him to shreds for having no end product or vision to shoot. Works so hard, was running rings around boro players in the first half. Will benefit with Vidukas return.

Butt 6 - A decent showing more than not his passes were good, improving on his normal extremes of sublime ball followed by a shocker. Battled hard and like Jonas, shockingly ran rings round some boro players on more than one occasion.

Guthrie 7.5 - This guy has a huge upside, the execution isnt quite there at times but he had another massive game, the game time will be improving him with each minute, will be interesting to see how his position is defined over the next couple of years.

N'Zog 6 - Some shocking balls in the first half, but worked very hard got a little more space in the second and looked more of a threat, was lively did he do enough to hoist Duff out of the team for next week? ask JFK on that one.

Owen 5 - Mr Anonymous, not to say he didnt work hard, but had little to feed off should have been taken off for Viduka.

Martins 6 - Lively, caused problems, could have done better at times but was our biggest threat infront of goal. Right to be upset when taken off, his contribution was as big as anyones, would have caused more problems than MO did alongside Viduka.

Viduka 5 - certainly added when he came on, will be a huge addition if we can keep him fit.

JFK 7 - Worth an 8, docked a point for subbing Martins, stuck with last weeks team as well as he could, defence is in great shape. I can see his gamble with Martins, MO is more clinical if he gets a chance however Oba looked more dangerous and worked harder.

A point and cleansheet is a decent result, if we can do this away and pick up points at home we will be in much better shape. Shame the results around us havent helped us (again).

Ref had a good game overall too.

Would agree with this.

[nufc_kev]

Loved the duke's interview on MOTD:

"So Mark, what's it like being the comedy villian?"

"They all love me really"

"erm......no"

[The Wise Guy]

Loved the duke's interview on MOTD:

"So Mark, what's it like being the comedy villian?"

"They all love me really"

"erm......no"

I think what he meant was that they all love to hate me. But who cares what the Boro fans true feelings are about Viduka, at least I know that I love him as in between a player and a fan relationship and not anything else.

[Phil K]

Always thought the accurate music for Middlesbrouugh fans would be that hit from the early 70's - "I'm nobody's child" they could change it to "We're nobody's derby"
"Nobody wants us...we're nobody's derby..."

[Greg]

Never again am I getting so p*ssed before a match, I can't remember any of the match apart from being able to see two Shay Givens because I was that p*ssed.

[Tooj]

Never again am I getting so p*ssed before a match, I can't remember any of the match apart from being able to see two Shay Givens because I was that p*ssed.

I saw you in the 2nd half stumbling up the stairs to your seat looking absolutely wankered.

[Liam Liam Liam O]

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 is why he should play some reserve games first.

[Tooj]

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 is why he should play some reserve games first.

I had this discussion yesterday, reserve games now are basically just glorified youth teams.

[The Wise Guy]

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 is why he should play some reserve games first.

That would be very disrespectful for a player with a calibre such as Owen.

[WarrenBartonCentrePartin]

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 is why he should play some reserve games first.

That would be very disrespectful for a player with a calibre such as Owen.

he shouldn't be treated any differently to any other player in the squad.

[Greg]

Never again am I getting so p*ssed before a match, I can't remember any of the match apart from being able to see two Shay Givens because I was that p*ssed.

I saw you in the 2nd half stumbling up the stairs to your seat looking absolutely wankered.

Seriously I was wasted, never been like that at a match before and never want to be again, my problem was I slept in and nearly missed my train so forgot to eat anything at all.

[The Wise Guy]

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 is why he should play some reserve games first.

That would be very disrespectful for a player with a calibre such as Owen.

he shouldn't be treated any differently to any other player in the squad.

Yes he should. Hes our most important player for us in my opinion and we should do everything in our power to ensure that he stays with us. I think what Joe is trying to do with him is to make him happy so that he would want to sign a new contract with us and once that happen, we could take him off and make him start from the bench for as many times as Joe wants (as and when he deem it as necessary of course). In that way, everyone will be happy. Making sure that Owen stay at the club should be the priority at the moment.

[iklgizmo]

Never again am I getting so p*ssed before a match, I can't remember any of the match apart from being able to see two Shay Givens because I was that p*ssed.

I saw you in the 2nd half stumbling up the stairs to your seat looking absolutely wankered.

Seriously I was wasted, never been like that at a match before and never want to be again, my problem was I slept in and nearly missed my train so forgot to eat anything at all.

im suprised you didnt get chucked out, i saw 2 lasses being thrown at half time, and they didn't seem all that bad

[Consortium of one]

I thought the team got a boost when Viduka came on.  The offense played with a purpose that has been rarely seen this season.  Viduka can be a real weapon.  It's too bad he can never stay healthy. Maybe Xisco can learn from him.  With zero creativity coming from the central midfield, Viduka is necessary.

I've been pro-Taylor but am now quite happy with the Coloccini-Basson pairing.

[elbee909]

Sorry if it's been pointed out, just thought it amusing that Southgate said this:  "The atmosphere was brilliant. I don't know what happened at half-time - a bit of smog came down."

[Wullie]

Never again am I getting so p*ssed before a match, I can't remember any of the match apart from being able to see two Shay Givens because I was that p*ssed.

I saw you in the 2nd half stumbling up the stairs to your seat looking absolutely wankered.

 

[Otter]

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 is why he should play some reserve games first.

I had this discussion yesterday, reserve games now are basically just glorified youth teams.

It almost seems like its just not the done thing anymore to get injured players back to fitness by playing them in the reserves.

[Wallace]

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 is why he should play some reserve games first.

I had this discussion yesterday, reserve games now are basically just glorified youth teams.

It almost seems like its just not the done thing anymore to get injured players back to fitness by playing them in the reserves.

Owen did play a reserve game last season at Kingston Park.

[afar]

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.

I'm sorry but that's a load of bollocks. Both Zog and Jonas were wasteful on the ball today, their final pass was poor, except for one time right at the end when Jonas got to the byline. It's easy to point the finger at Butt and guthrie but TBH of the four midfielders those 2 played better today, Jonas and zog were not starved of the ball at all.

[buzza]

I thought zoggy was woeful yestedrday, he really lost every ball and until the last 15 minutes when he started to run at players he looked totally out of synch. One of the reasons enrique was suffereing so much yesteerday was that zoggy offered no help whatsoever and just sauntered back up the pitch on quite a few occasions, I was shouting at him to move his arrse about 10 times in the 1st half!!

The defense looked solid apart from enrique, why doesn-t he just do the simple pass instead of trying to do the platini pass all the time, very frustating. Got caugh out of position quite a bit aswell.

Thought butt and githrie had quite a good game, but arca and digard had a better one...

Owen was invisible the whole game and tbh Oba was the onlky one likely to score, can-t beleive joe took him off. I wouold also have gone for the 433 with jonas coming off as zogg started to play after 65 minutes.

Well, a point isn-t that bad!!

[Winn]

I can not belive when Viduka came on it was for Martins.  Martins was trying and invloved where as Owen didnt even touch the ball!!! Didnt even look interested.

I honestly think that was a disgraceful decision!! No wonder Martins stormed off.

JK OUT