Good morning?

[HawkingsHalfpint]

MJ is no wing-back. Grant perhaps owing to the work rate, but MJ looks more than a little lost in our own half when we don’t have the ball. We all know where (and in what formation) MJ is at his very effective best.

[Bob Fossil]

I think we are losing sight of the opposition. Boro are head and shoulders above us this season and, given our current form, a positive result was not to be expected. Given all that and factoring in Ramsay had 3 days, I’d say we did ok.

During the game we had periods of solid defence, promising counterattacks and sustained pressure, all positives. Challenge is to do all at once.

Looking at their goals, the first was an error. If Heggebo could have finished his chance as well as Taylor finished his, we could have gone in with the scoreline reversed.
The second goal is the most concerning as, yet again, we failed numerous times to get a challenge in. This will be Ramsay’s biggest challenge. The third was just brilliant one touch football. Yes we should have done better, but better defences than ours would have had the same result.

Then to the comeback. Yet again denied a stonewall penalty, but instead of feeling sorry for themselves they worked a sublime free kick. Wallace added pace and passion and finished off a good move with an exceptional goal. We looked the more likely winner at that point, unfortunately the greater quality shone through in the end.

Plenty of positives, therefore for me, further enhanced by Ramsay’s intelligent and studious reflection.

[B68Baggy]

I dont mind that he threw MJ in to test him out. He know nows that MJ is at his best in final third tight spaces where he can use his trickery, rather than running hard at defenders. We saw this first half when he had a run from his own half and got the full back one on one....who just crunched him and took the ball. Don't think he tried again after that. He could still play an important role, but not ad a definite starter. That feeks ok if the team and results improve.

I'm not sure anybody should really be judging Eric on decisions made after two training sessions. He needs to do his learning early, and be trying things out now to put plans in place. We have loan spaces to fill. If he doesn't think Gilchrist or Campbell can play RWB he may look for that option to be taken. SIJ looked well suited to LWB and i'm confident Styles would also do a good job when not needed in CM.

I like the fact that with a little bit of savvy recruitment we should be able to set up flexibly and not be wedded to a single formation. The constant is that he wants players who can keep a shape, snap into the tackle and win personal duels. Those are his expectations. Also great to see us trying to zip the ball forward quickly with one and two touch play and overload in their box. My kind of basics to build on.

Make no mistakes, this team was going down under Mason. They had found the Holy Grail of getting relegated....play badly and lose of course, but then also play really well and still lose, in the most painful ways. Changing that mindset and losing habit will take some good coaching and possibly those couple of new faces. But, it coukd still go either way. I just feel a bit more confident today that we have a better leader at the helm.

[CIM]

I'm going to cut right across the generally positive vibe in this thread. Ramsay came in and imposed his "vision" on the team from day one. Three CBs but no RWB. He made the wrong choice, either Grant or Wallace would have been a better bet there, even Price perhaps.

To play a proper 3 CB system, the CBs need to be more mobile, read the game better and interact better.  Any three from Phillips, Mepham, Taylor and Campbell is likely to be more chaotic than any two from the same group. Bielik is our best CB by a country mile. Let's hope he gets to play there once we have some midfield players back.

The wing backs need to be specialists, capable of both defending and attacking. We only have two players who remotely fit that description, and both are left-sided. We are in the grip of a relegation struggle. Is now the time to re-train players to fit a different system? Can Nestor make a couple of meaningful signings to make it all work?

Some may point out that Meggo played 3 CBs after saying "these players aren't good enough to play 4-4-2". But he unashamedly played a back five, with little expectation of both full backs doing much attacking. Last night Ramsay made some serious errors of judgement. Excusable because he only had 3 days with the squad. He needs to learn these lessons very quickly. Another defeat on Tuesday changes the whole perspective, plunges us into a situation that still seemed avoidable on the night Mason was sacked.

I'm more with you Chesh. Concerned he's trying to shoe horn players to fit his system. Early days yet but I'm not feeling the optimism many seem to be.

[man in the corner shop]

I don't care what they say after the match. I don't care for moments or blinks if the result is the same.
I have no more faith in ER than I did RM.
Anyone can talk like that after a Loughborough University degree and a bit of media coaching. I only care for winning, not the quality of the post-match dissection after losing (again).
I will judge ER on results.
In the meantime I have hope in ER. Just as I did in RM.
Look where that got me. Hope is overrated eh!

[Jacko]

Agree with OP. I've rewatched the full match aside from 10 minutes before half time it was a very good performance. Very good. The first goal was calamitous bad luck. The 2nd calamitous poor play and the winner calamitous Charlie Taylor playing his 210th minute in 5 days.

They scored with their only 2 really good shooting chances (both great finishes) and everything else Griffiths had to do was pretty basic stuff.

For us, we created 2 great chances in the first half. Heggebø miss particularly poor. We also created numerous non-Mason moments in the 2nd half.

Don't get me wrong there is plenty to work on, but that was our most structured performance of the season.

[HawkingsHalfpint]

Agree with OP. I've rewatched the full match aside from 10 minutes before half time it was a very good performance. Very good. The first goal was calamitous bad luck. The 2nd calamitous poor play and the winner calamitous Charlie Taylor playing his 210th minute in 5 days.

They scored with their only 2 really good shooting chances (both great finishes) and everything else Griffiths had to do was pretty basic stuff.

For us, we created 2 great chances in the first half. Heggebø miss particularly poor. We also created numerous non-Mason moments in the 2nd half.

Don't get me wrong there is plenty to work on, but that was our most structured performance of the season.

In fairness to Heggebø - who has been pretty clinical in recent weeks - Sol Brynn gets off his line brilliantly the second he senses danger. AH may well have done better but it was brilliant goalkeeping.

[Bob Fossil]

Agree with OP. I've rewatched the full match aside from 10 minutes before half time it was a very good performance. Very good. The first goal was calamitous bad luck. The 2nd calamitous poor play and the winner calamitous Charlie Taylor playing his 210th minute in 5 days.

They scored with their only 2 really good shooting chances (both great finishes) and everything else Griffiths had to do was pretty basic stuff.

For us, we created 2 great chances in the first half. Heggebø miss particularly poor. We also created numerous non-Mason moments in the 2nd half.

Don't get me wrong there is plenty to work on, but that was our most structured performance of the season.

In fairness to Heggebø - who has been pretty clinical in recent weeks - Sol Brynn gets off his line brilliantly the second he senses danger. AH may well have done better but it was brilliant goalkeeping.

He also got there a second before Grant in the second half.

[HeggebøsBarnDoor]

Agree with OP. I've rewatched the full match aside from 10 minutes before half time it was a very good performance. Very good. The first goal was calamitous bad luck. The 2nd calamitous poor play and the winner calamitous Charlie Taylor playing his 210th minute in 5 days.

They scored with their only 2 really good shooting chances (both great finishes) and everything else Griffiths had to do was pretty basic stuff.

For us, we created 2 great chances in the first half. Heggebø miss particularly poor. We also created numerous non-Mason moments in the 2nd half.

Don't get me wrong there is plenty to work on, but that was our most structured performance of the season.

In fairness to Heggebø - who has been pretty clinical in recent weeks - Sol Brynn gets off his line brilliantly the second he senses danger. AH may well have done better but it was brilliant goalkeeping.

The chance reminds me of the one he had against Portsmouth (and maybe one other?) - I find myself wanting him to pull the trigger sooner. 

I'm a big fan of Heggers and his headers / cross conversion are impressive but I really want to see the guy start scoring some other chances i.e. outside the box like Grant or the 1 on 1's. 

Sure it'll come.

[TartanRug]

Agree with OP. I've rewatched the full match aside from 10 minutes before half time it was a very good performance. Very good. The first goal was calamitous bad luck. The 2nd calamitous poor play and the winner calamitous Charlie Taylor playing his 210th minute in 5 days.

They scored with their only 2 really good shooting chances (both great finishes) and everything else Griffiths had to do was pretty basic stuff.

For us, we created 2 great chances in the first half. Heggebø miss particularly poor. We also created numerous non-Mason moments in the 2nd half.

Don't get me wrong there is plenty to work on, but that was our most structured performance of the season.

In fairness to Heggebø - who has been pretty clinical in recent weeks - Sol Brynn gets off his line brilliantly the second he senses danger. AH may well have done better but it was brilliant goalkeeping.

The chance reminds me of the one he had against Portsmouth (and maybe one other?) - I find myself wanting him to pull the trigger sooner. 

I'm a big fan of Heggers and his headers / cross conversion are impressive but I really want to see the guy start scoring some other chances i.e. outside the box like Grant or the 1 on 1's. 

Sure it'll come.

Yeah you can see watching it back that the best chance he has is hitting it early, he takes the extra touch and it's too late