So, the Championship season has started **Spoilers**

Pft, 2-0 up... The mighty Middlesbrough should be at least 5 up at that point against these lowly championship sides! They should just be honoured to be playing on the same pitch.
 
We had a weird game today. Were getting ripped apart 2-1 by Bristol City until Freeman's double dragon-styled flying kick to Harlee Dean's head. Cotterill insisted that Dean had stooped to head the ball and that it should only have been a yellow card instead of the red he received... make your mind up for yourselves (28 secs):

We then dominated and finished them off 4-2. Can't really tell too much about that sort of game as we were against ten men for 2/3rds of the game, but I'm off up to Burnley next Saturday and hope we can get another three points.

In worse news Jota is out for 3-4 months :( That now makes:
- Jota 3-4 months
- Bjelland 8-10 months
- McLeod no indication he'll ever play for us, despite being signed as a first team regular
- Hogan 10 months
- McEachran 3-4 months

All of those are expected to be starting 11 players, and this is why FFP is a negative influence on football at this level. We could spend bucket loads of cash to replace them, or draft in excellent loans paying their full salaries, but we wouldn't be FFP compliant. On another note, we turned down £6m + £2m for Andre Gray, which seems outrageous money (we're after £7.5m + £2m) but he was involved in all our four goals today (1 goal, 2 assists and pressured a defender into scoring an OG). Adding to the goal he scored to get us back on track against Ipswich and his awesome record in preseason... I really don't want to lose him :(
 
I have faith in kike. Neve got a a good run last season. came off the bench looking great many a time then still got dropped

Fabbrini looked like a world beater today but obviously time will tell

Can't not Have faith in karanka though. Turned a leaky defence and keeper into something totally the opposite last year

I still believe :)
 
toshj said:
Tell me about it... example being:



Knowing more than your manager. Capped by Spain, winner of La Liga and the Champions League, and the person who spends hours each day with the squad, seeing them in training and analysing the opposition. Yet you questioned his line up that saw you 3-0 up at half time!?!



Got to be the epitome of how illogical football fans are! You were 2-0 up at this point and you thought it was a shame. Barmy! ;)
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One game doesn't change how the same formation cost us time and time again. You know, like the 0-0 at Preston? Where we didn't register a shot on target.............
That's why fans are illogical, and you're doing the same thing. One game and people forget.

Great, Kike scored 2. What about the other 40 games he hasn't scored one? He didn't get a shot on target against Preston...

People seem to have ridiculously short term memories when it comes to football.

You're also saying things I never said. There's absolutely nothing wrong with being critical, especially as it's a common opinion.
I think Karanka will be great for us to have in the PL however.
 
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"andy" said:
I have faith in kike. Neve got a a good run last season. came off the bench looking great many a time then still got dropped

Fabbrini looked like a world beater today but obviously time will tell

Can't not Have faith in karanka though. Turned a leaky defence and keeper into something totally the opposite last year

I still believe :)
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Kike got dropped because he stopped scoring and then had a horrible attitude.

Fabbrini looks like an upgrade on Tomlin (IF he continues as he is) and I'd be happy to see him made permanent.

And can't disagree about the defense. I do like Karanka, but at the same time I hate how defensive he can be, and in many games, it cost us vital points.

I dislike how he's bought players in and just basically letting them rot on the bench half the time (Or in Wildshut's case, just out of the squad, despite him seeming decent every time he's had a chance)
 
Martini1991 said:
One game doesn't change how the same formation cost us time and time again. You know, like the 0-0 at Preston? Where we didn't register a shot on target.............
That's why fans are illogical, and you're doing the same thing. One game and people forget.

Great, Kike scored 2. What about the other 40 games he hasn't scored one? He didn't get a shot on target against Preston...

People seem to have ridiculously short term memories when it comes to football.

You're also saying things I never said. There's absolutely nothing wrong with being critical, especially as it's a common opinion.
I think Karanka will be great for us to have in the PL however.
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I'm not forgetting anything, it's simply impatience on your behalf. It's the opening two games of the season and it's important for managers to get to know their sides and the opposition, it's time to let them figure it all out for themselves with nothing being won in the first two games! The Preston game is largely irrelevant (you also didn't lose), it was an opener and they quite literally tell you nothing about your own side and formation as there's so much adrenaline and excitement pumping throughout the players.

Also, what worked one season might not work the next and vice versa. We tried playing 4-3-3 in League One three seasons ago and fell short with things not clicking, but we played the exact same formation the following season and got promoted. Just because it didn't work last season in your opinion (bearing in mind that you were in for a shout with automatic promotion until the final few games on the season), it doesn't mean that it won't reap results this year, especially with the manager and players having had a years' experience playing that model. Our start to last season was DDLWDL, yet we ended up in the play-offs because it takes time to fine tune a system.

Also, your performance and ability to win isn't reliant on whether your striker can score goals. The underlying importance is the amount of chances that your side creates when that striker is on the pitch, including chances created by other people for him, chances created by him for other people and chances that he has no obvious involvement with. That's been proven to be more important that the goals' scored column in Kike's stats :)

You're claiming to know more than a guy (Karanka) with 25 years' experience in playing, coaching and managing. And you seem annoyed, actually annoyed, that you very comfortably won a game in the first half. Some Middlesbrough have literally turned Premiership in the space of a summer :p There's certainly nowt wrong with being critical, but criticising possibly the most impressive Championship performance and result of the weekend is madness.
 
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Familiar feeling at the end of the game last night. Although, shouldn't be too disappointed with a point at Derby.
 
Egon said:
Familiar feeling at the end of the game last night. Although, shouldn't be too disappointed with a point at Derby.
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A bit of a disappointing start for Clement, he seems to have stifled their attacking flair. I hope not another Mourinho tactician ;)
 
Well, we're off again!

I reckon my boys in Blue will do OK again this season. We've added pace, creativity and hard work to both wings. Added another quality striker and replaced Mings with what looks like another great find at left back!
 
I felt like calling the police last night, Reading were absolutely robbed of three points.

Strange start to the season, first game was fantastic (albeit against a poor opposition) and we never looked troubled, in total control. Flash forward to now and you would not think that these 11 players knew each other, let alone had played together or trained together before.

Poor first half from both sides, Reading are physical (pacey, agile, strong in the tackle (leaving the foot in)) but are not a 'good' footballing side. First half was two poor sides, struggling to find any rhythm. Second half Wednesday were just very poor, lacked any creativity, could not get passed the final third (would either pass back or sideways) and just looked directionless. Reading got the first goal and I would not agree with that they were in control, but they looked comfortable to let Wednesday just beat themselves. We did little to show we would score (first shot on target was on almost 70 minutes).

Reading took their forwards off and tried to 'shut up shop', which was the wrong thing to do, they should have carried on as they were. Anyway; totally unexpected goal, the Reading keeper dropped the ball and it rolled out to our winger whom finished with aplomb.

Strange match; Wednesday were terribad, Reading were not a lot better, and the pitch looked marvellous :cool:.

Huge concerns going in to the Leeds game Saturday afternoon.
 
Take the point and run!

Andre Gray turns down Bristol City after their £9m offer! :eek: We've announced we're looking at bringing in 4 new players before the window shuts due to our injury crisis, but I've no idea if that was based on money from Gray's impending transfer to Bristol City or not...
 
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