Boro: Post Match

[Robbie-9-Fowler]

By the way.. Lambert as captain??! Exactly what you need when you're feeling the pressure and the 'weight of the shirt'.. The weight of the armband. Didn't like that personally.

Also he was ****ing dire, which is a shame.

[Roboklopp]

I can't do anything right on this bloody site

[Buzzo]

I think Balo was an unplanned buy because of the price. All our dealings up to then suggested we were planning on playing one up top surrounded by attacking mids like tonight.

With Sturridges injury record we were definitely in the market for a forward, Mario will come good. He's not getting much service.

[Robbie-9-Fowler]

With Sturridges injury record we were definitely in the market for a forward, Mario will come good. He's not getting much service.

I like Balotelli but I agree in thinking he was bought because of his price and our need still for a striker quite late in the market. Remy was a better fit for our system and thats probably the reason we looked at him first.

[SK]

Do you think so? I thought that apart from a few minutes leading up to our second goal we were just as bad, if not worse. Which I suppose is understandable given the makeshift nature of the team. But all the same I'm not going to dress it up. We were awful. It has to be said.

To be fair mate we were ****

i seriously disagree

defensive issues need adresing but as far as our attack goes, the ball was moving faster around the pitch, players were making the right runs and ball were being played to the roght places but just didn't go through because of their numbers at the back.

i was never in doubt we'd score, but against villa there was no way we'd get a goal, i saw serious improvement tonight.

still that defence and set pieces need to be addressed

[danperkins]

Balotelli cannot play up top on his own..looks noneffective. Needs someone like Sturridge up top with him. Lallana and Sterling were excellent and both will be so important for us this season, i thought Manquillo was superb too. His end product was bit off at times but he was up and down like a Berlin hooker.

Apart from that, we are crap. Oh and Mignolet is a weak link.

[Venton]

But if our forwards are running into bunches of defenders and we're trying to pass to them we're either not making the right runs or the balls aren't being played to the right places... We'll have to disagree. I prefer my version but I also hope that yours is the right one

[Gazzla]

I like Balotelli but I agree in thinking he was bought because of his price and our need still for a striker quite late in the market. Remy was a better fit for our system and thats probably the reason we looked at him first.

Balotelli is different class to Remy, he's a match winner.

[Lecter]

what the hell is it with people and the damn negativity tonight, there were serious improvments to our build up play over the last few games we've played, yes there were defensive ****ups, why they still happen is beyond me and more in dr. peters department, but our play was way, way better than anything we produced against either villa or wham

Our play was better but its all in front of defences and its too intricate

I dont see this as a marker really massive improvement needed. Lallana looks as though hes going to be a decent buy

[SK]

But if our forwards are running into bunches of defenders and we're trying to pass to them we're either not making the right runs or the balls aren't being played to the right places... We'll have to disagree. I prefer my version but I also hope that yours is the right one

ok slightly better through balls and slightly better runs, but it's all there,with the added quality of sturridge and perhaps balotelli out wide we'll be an even bigger threat, slowly but surely we'll get there.

lallana getting into match shape will help a lot too

[RedRum]

The new players will improve. A year on and hopefully we'll be like Liverpool of last season except with way more squad depth and a slightly improved defence haha maybe...

[Fredo]

I quite enjoyed it and I've seen worse. We'll get there.

[DannyMan2006]

Well I actually think everyone was okay tonight. I wouldn't say anyone had a bad game in general. For the first Boro goal, maybe there's a question of the positioning, but if you have the defence pretty much right on top of the keeper, there's still a question mark if it goes in. Just need tighter marking by Enrique, who doesn't cover the front post in time. But tbh, it was just a perfect ball in, with a perfect run in.

For the pen, Raheem being daft, should have kept it further up the pitch. Seem Gerrard do similar twice before, even worse. Toure should have jockeyed and not dived in, but Bamford was fresh and clever.

They also hit a post from a ridiculous angle, never looked like going in. Aside from all that, they chucked some crosses in but we coped very well.by and large we completely dominated the game, but the possession for the most part was very sterile. I thought we should have shot on a few occasions when on the edge of the box, just tried to be too clever and "Arsenal like" a few times. Final ball let us down also.

I would say the biggest problem was the forward players didn't seem to know how to play off first Lambert and then Mario. Lambert is very good on the ball, but there was poor service into him and this was mainly because players were reading him wrong, or he was reading the play wrong. Just little communication and know how between the players.

We saw last season against Chelsea that if there is a defensive block ahead of you, even if players know each others games, it's still very difficult to create chances. This season we've conceded some poor goals and then found it difficult to break teams down. Pretty much same tonight really.

[ChesterDave]

Well that was different.

Could have avoided all that **** if the handball was given in normal time though.

Or if we played like the start of ET 2nd half from the very start of the match.

[brightred]

For 20 mill marko looked ****e!