Ricardo's report v Boro

[ricardo 7,395]

A fine late summer day here in Norfolk, just right for football although several must have felt more like doing other things judging by the number of empty seats. With Captain Hanley missing, my thinking was that a point from this game would be a decent result. Rhodes on the bench was the big surprise and seeing the size of the Boro back four it seemed obvious that Teemu Pukki might be in for a difficult afternoon.The early pressure came from from the visitors with a series of long throws into the box that City only cleared with difficulty. With City outnumbered by about five to three by the plus six footers any high ball into the box spelt danger. However, the home side rode this early onslaught well and when Leitner finally got some room to work in, Pukki was sent away in the inside  right position to get away a scuffed shot that drifted comfortably wide of Randolph''s far post.Boro looked like a typical Pullis side,big, strong and uncompromising and very direct. They almost worked an early opening when a ball in from the right beat everybody before Aarons biffed it away. The home side were taking a while to get going but after the first quarter they began to hog possession and Leitner and Buendia particularly began to spread play to the wings and push the visitors back. Hernandez jinked into a good position after some neat play around the box but his low shot went a couple of yards wide. Tetty was the first to get one on target when Hernandez pulled the ball back and although he got good power behind the volley it was straight down Randolph''s throat. Then Aarons and Leitner worked some lovely short stuff along the bye line only for the massed Boro defence to scramble it clear.Stiepermann made a nice interception and got City going again as the pressure mounted, Buendia and Leitner exchanged passes with some delightful play and the little Argentinian almost picked out Stieperman with a lob over a defender. It all looked very promising but Boro came again after half an hour and Krul had to make a an important save when a blocked shot from the lively Assombalonga fell into Howsons path and the ex-City midfielder had his close range effort beaten away for a corner. Krul then had to claw away an in swinging corner before Tetty relieved the pressure.The much maligned Marco Stieperman finally seems to have got to grips with the English game and once again powered forward before unleashing one from twenty five yards but again it was straight at the Boro keeper. City were queuing up at times on the edge of the Boro box as Tetty poked one over the top and even Tim Klose came up for a shy as halftime approached but skewed the ball horribly high and wide.All in all it was a satisfactory half with some nice football from the home side. They had resisted the urge to chuck in high balls against the Boro giants but had not really engineered anything like a clear opening on goal.The second half resumed with City dominant in possession but often unable to make progress beyond the thirty yard mark. Alex Tetty finally got a shot off on fifty six minutes after Hernandez had been forced across the edge of the box, but once again it was meat and drink for Randolph. The next Boro attack was broken up and at last the ball was switched quickly forward and after some neat passing on the right of the box, Aarons found Pukki about six yards out and the little Finn wasted no time tucking the ball past a startled Randolph to give City a deserved lead.Boro finally had to step up the game and an immediate reposte was ended when a free kick was blocked and Krul pounced on the loose ball. Now we had a bit of ariel stuff from the visitors but the City centre backs dealt with it well and Krul plucked a couple of balls out of the air with what seemed renewed confidence. Indeed the City keeper was called upon to make another fine stop with his legs when Braithwaite got clear on the right of the box.It was now breakaways for City and on several occasions might have gone two clear with a bit more composure. A powerful shot from Marco Stiepermann just cleared the bar after a sweeping City move caught Boro on the back foot and then Hernandez was just over from the angle but in truth it was now Boro who were really starting to push. Buendia and Stiepermann went off to good applause as we moved into the final quarter, to be replaced by Vrancic and Tom Trybull and City had to stand really tall as the ariel pressure mounted. A header from Ayala looped just over as the minutes ticked away and we thought we were going down to ten men when Klose was shown a red for pulling back Braithwaite. Fortunately this was overturned after the ref had a chat with the linesman and a free kick was given for offside.Rhodes came on fro Pukki with five minutes left as the goalscorer milked the clock as he walked off to huge applause. Krul then pulled in another couple of crosses as we moved into six added minutes and with all Boro players committed forward Vrancic just didn''t have enough pace to get away from a defender as Hernandez put him clear and Rhodes could only hit it at Randolph as he followed up. Cue ecstasy at the final whistle with a whole raft of players in line for Rickys MOM.Some may find my choice surprising and I wouldn''t argue if you thought it was Herrnandez, Aarons, Buendia, Pukki or Lewis but I was really impressed with Marco Stiepermann''s performance today[Y]

[Indy 3,300]

Thanks Ricardo, good read as usual.

[hogesar 9,671]

Stiepermann was a nuisance and physical in the final third which we would have strongly lacked otherwise. He also helped out aarons in the air from goal kicks etc. He was a fair shout but mine would be Leitner.

[FenwayFrank 2,459]

I agree about Steipermann, thought he had a really good game

[ROBFLECK 132]

Yep Stiepermann''s best game for ncfc I dare say...

[Rudolph Hucker 0]

Thanks Ricardo.

[SwindonCanary 455]

Another top report Ricardo, can I ask, do you spend the match taking notes ?

[paul moy 235]

As usual a good report from reliable Ricardo.

[Badger 2,405]

Thanks Ricardo - as ever the first report of the game that I look for. I agree about Stiepermann, thought he had a really good game - along with a number of others. We really do have a lot of options in the midfield this year.

[Drazen Muzinic 1,445]

What did you think of Tettey as captain Ricardo?

Although he has several yellow cards in him, I liked him leading the team. There were one or two moments of praise or ark round the shoulder you would expect from a good captain.

[Guest]

Pretty spot on Ricardo. I went for Aarons as MOTM as it was a assured performance in his second game.

Stieperman does get some stick and he did play well yesterday. His size was just what was needed in midfield against a very poor Boro midfield. But I suspect we made them look bad.

Do you think he was put in to combat them or picked on merit Ricardo? The middle did look balanced for a change and will take something to oust anyone from that side.

[ricardo 7,395]

I think he was picked on merit KG. He immediately impressed when coming on in the Cardiff cup match and as I remarked, he seems to have finally got to grips with what is needed in this League.

[ricardo 7,395]

Drazen, yes I think Tetty''s experience made him the ideal leader in the absence of Hanley.

Farke got it right yesterday and it was pleasing to see the way we out passed Boro yesterday. It won''t always go so well but the signs were very positive.

[Faded Jaded Semi Plastic SOB 1,023]

Good report as usual Ricardo, I think so many players had a good game that it would be difficult to argue against any one of them getting MOM......

[Essjayess 307]

Thx Ricardo, along with so many others im sure, appreciate the work you put into your reports and it was spot on to.

As others noted, its hard to pick a MOM from that performance, every City player came out of that with credit to their name. It was not before time that we wanted to see a good performance at home coupled with a good result, and it has shown that this weekend. Credit to for DF, he got his formation pretty spot on and hopefully will just shut up the Farke out brigade a bit more from now on, although one or two bad results and no doubt they will voice their predictable cries again.

This weekend showed that absolutely we do have a squad who can be very competitive in this division, we just need more positives like this result and the good vibes soon return.

[ron obvious 1,502]

Entertaining report as ever ricardo. Always a worthwhile read - many thanks.

Interesting to read some of the ''boro reports, they seem at a loss to explain their defeat. They ignore us on the whole, as if we weren''t there really, simply blotting out attacks we had, shots we made & our wonderful passing & blocking all over the pitch.

I think we showed them up for what they are. Big, organised & very limited. I wonder who their manager is??

[It's Character Forming 1,160]

Good report as always - thanks

 

Promising because Boro are the sort of side we''ve struggled against when playing Farke''s style.  Now it''s all about whether we can repeat this regularly in which case IMO we have a squad capable of the playoffs.

[Guest]

Promising because Boro are the sort of side we''ve struggled against when playing Farke''s style. Now it''s all about whether we can repeat this regularly in which case IMO we have a squad capable of the playoffs.

Although we beat them twice last season, same score as Saturday.

Three in a row.

[The Bristol Nest 513]

Cheers Ricardo.

[It's Character Forming 1,160]

[quote user="keelansgrandad"]Promising because Boro are the sort of side we''ve struggled against when playing Farke''s style. Now it''s all about whether we can repeat this regularly in which case IMO we have a squad capable of the playoffs. Although we beat them twice last season, same score as Saturday. Three in a row.[/quote]

 

True.  I went to the first game last season at Boro and that was before they had Pulis as a manager, and as far as I can remember they played more of a possession based style.  Checking on Wikipedia, Pulis joined them around Christmas so would have started to remould them into more of the style of team he favours, but how far that had gone by the second game last season I''ve no idea.

 

In general though I think we''ve often struggled against more direct Championship teams who are happy to let us pass it around at the back and attack us directly or take advantage of an intercepted pass to attack when we''ve players out of position.

[Woodman 92]

As always Pulis set them up as he does all his teams - devoid of finesse and attacking intent; sucking the life out of the game for 70-80 minutes, then a last ditch attempt at sneaking a 1-0 win.

I''m sure I saw them defending a free kick in the first half with 7 players positioned across the penalty box in a line no wider than the goal.

Fortunately (and due to how well we played), we got the goal and then they weren''t able to mount any sort of attacking momentum.