Can someone explain the logic of Boro’s anti-football (19/3)

[gooner.ed]

http://www.onlinegooner.com/exclusive/index.php?id=561

usual thread starter…. You have to say this for the travelling Boro fans. Their sense of loyalty knows no bounds. I certainly wouldn’t travel those kind of distances to watch that standard of football! In fact, I would be reluctant to attend home matches, and looking at the attendances at the Riverside I guess I’m far from alone in that view. It’s a shame that there is so much mediocrity in the Premier League.

So, a question for you... Which three teams would you choose to go down because of their style of their football, regardless of the reality of the current table?

[Rainham Red]

Bolton,Boro,Birmingham.If not Brum Wigan because their pitch is a disgrace.

[Boro_Ads]

I can quite easily explain to you Boro's anti football....
....it's quite obviously effective against a superior footballing side like Arsenal (4 matches unbeaten against you in 2 seasons!!!). Even your manager has recognised that Boro have the potential to be plying their trade at the other end of the table but you cannot!! And as for you moaning about incorrect offside decisions please acknowledge that the goal you scored was illegal anyway due to a foul on Boateng so I think everyone has an axe to bear over bad decissions on sunday!!!

[Redexpress]

This is a real irritation to me this season, especially when teams like Boro get plaudits after the game for their fighting spirit etc and their manager talks about how proud he is of his players.

They were simply hoofing the ball out of defence as far as I can remember, and when an Arsenal defender collected the ball, there wasn't a single opponent even crossing the half way line.

It is very frustrating and, as I've said before, getting the first goal relatively early has become so important to try to open up the game a bit, and we are due to give someone a good hiding. (the invincibles were regularly 2 or 3 nil up after 20 minutes)

We should create more clear chances against the likes of chelsea and manure, and we will probably give away a few, but at least we will have watched something resembling a football match.

Walcott, on form, seems to be a good antidote to these negative tactics and should get more of a chance in games against these teams.

Still, keep believing! I am sure the might Bolton will do us a favour tonight! And, dare I say...... come on the sp... sp.... sp.... no I can't say it, suffice to say I hope Chelsea lose as well.

[peterfromredcar]

Can i just say a few words on behalf of Boro.
Firstly, we are not a massive city club with a massive conurbation - we are, as everyone keeps telling us, a small town in yorkshire.
For a team of our status to restrict mighty Arsenal to just one point this season is a tremendous achievement. Especially as AC Milan failed miserably the other week. Time and time again we fight above our weight against the 'big 4', but we can't do this by playing you off the park at your place (though we did at the Riverside). You have to change your mind set against bigger teams - its called tactics.
So often you are brilliant at your open flowing football (god, i wish we could watch football like that every week) but you can't expect teams like us to play to suit you. We were bound to be awkward - its up to you to figure a way round it.
I would gladly pay money to see Boro do the same next season, the battling, the gutsy defending, Mido actually raising his leg over 2 foot of the ground, and of course the all valuable point. For us teams near the bottom, a point at the Emirates is priceless (especially when you see what happens to a useless team like the mags). But it could have been a lot better. Alliadierre was clearly not interfering with play for his goal, Adebayor was offside when Hleb passed the ball (so it made no difference if Boateng touched it - read the rules) and Boateng was clearly fouled for the corner that you scored from. For the second game in a row(remember Villas' handball off Youngs back) we have been robbed of an away win at a top 6 club.
This is a results based business. You can play attractive football for 3 and a half seasons and not win ANYTHING. The important thing for Boro was that for the second time this season (and the fourth time in a row) WE GOT A RESULT.

[Rainham Red]

Peterfromredcar says `why can`t Boro play football like Arsenal` well why can`t you? Arsenal don`t buy big stars and pay £20/£30m for them we buy or find young players and teach them to play the game as it should be played.Why can`t Boro or any other teams do that?You have a decent young manager and a brilliant Chairman who always backs the manager,believe me you don`t have to watch the type of football you play at the moment just teach your youngsters how to pass accurately for a start.

[g88ner]

Anti-football or not - Boro still managed to score against us!

what does that say about our defence? or at least their focus?
- the Boro defence were able to stay focused & repel our world class forwards for the best part of 90mins; our defence were unable to deal with Boro's ONLY attack during the match.. and were guilty of falling asleep as Schwarzer played a 90yard assist!

My point is, we CANNOT criticise Boro for their style of play. They scored against us & sat back - and I think that is normal for a little club at the Emirates.

Its criminal that our world class defenders were caught out by a Schwarzer 90 yard hoof up field.

Would we have conceded that Aliadiere goal against Milan?? I doubt it - I'm fairly sure our defence would have been fully focused on their task...

Basically, I'm suggesting we didn't give Boro the same respect we gave Milan - and ultimately, that lack of focus change the dynamics of the game, and ended up costing us 2 points.

Anyway, its happened now - lets look forward to our MUST WIN game at Chelsea on Sunday!

[GoonerBen]

come on guys! to expect teams like boro, wigan, birmingham, even bolton to open themselves up and try to play 'total football' agaainst teams as good as us is only gonna end up as a massive win for the arsenal/any other top 4 side.

fair play to them for coming to our home and scraping a point (they almost bloody won). I wasnt expecting anything less than a scrap and so it proved, some gunners need to be a bit more realistic about this ' football is entertainment'issue. if ur chelsea, having spent silly money on some of the best players in the world then yes, defiantely they have a responsibility to try and play good football. But if your boro, who are unashamedly a smaller club with lesser ambitions than us, then nicking a goal and then shutting up shop is absolutely fair enuf, as the boro fan just said, its up to us to break them down

[N17 Gooner]

http://www.onlinegooner.com/exclusive/index.php?id=561

usual thread starter…. You have to say this for the travelling Boro fans. Their sense of loyalty knows no bounds. I certainly wouldn’t travel those kind of distances to watch that standard of football! In fact, I would be reluctant to attend home matches, and looking at the attendances at the Riverside I guess I’m far from alone in that view. It’s a shame that there is so much mediocrity in the Premier League.

So, a question for you... Which three teams would you choose to go down because of their style of their football, regardless of the reality of the current table?

You could say the same about the Arsenal fans who followed our shit football in the 70s and 80s. Would you stop travelling if they went back to that (well ok we are richer so don't really have the excuses of a Boro)?

Like it or not, Boro and others don't have the means to buy loads of fantastic players and fantastic coaches to recreate Brazil 1970. They are working within a horrible but realisitic mindset.

It is up to us to break that down. That's what makes champions, the ability to weather any storm, not just play football when the conditions are in your favour. That's why Man united have succeeded so well (and Chelsea for a brief period), they can mix beautiful with ugly.

We have to do that to become winners again. It's no use trying to patronize other clubs and tell them what to do. It's pointless and makes us look like moaning old tarts.

[Red Gunner]

You could say the same about the Arsenal fans who followed our shit football in the 70s and 80s. Would you stop travelling if they went back to that (well ok we are richer so don't really have the excuses of a Boro)?

Like it or not, Boro and others don't have the means to buy loads of fantastic players and fantastic coaches to recreate Brazil 1970. They are working within a horrible but realisitic mindset.

It is up to us to break that down. That's what makes champions, the ability to weather any storm, not just play football when the conditions are in your favour. That's why Man united have succeeded so well (and Chelsea for a brief period), they can mix beautiful with ugly.

We have to do that to become winners again. It's no use trying to patronize other clubs and tell them what to do. It's pointless and makes us look like moaning old tarts.

I agree with N17 Gooner on that. It is up to us to break down Middlesbrough. We can't expect them to come and open up. Even AC Milan didn't do that when they came to our stadium so why would a relegation-scrap side do that?

So, a question for you... Which three teams would you choose to go down because of their style of their football, regardless of the reality of the current table?

Derby - because they don't even play football, they are shit

Bolton - no explanation needed

Blackburn - but not on current form, although they still are the worst in "fair-play" table, they've improved their style of play recently

To say the truth you could get rid of the majority Premiership sides because of their style

[peterfromredcar]

Peterfromredcar says `why can`t Boro play football like Arsenal` well why can`t you? Arsenal don`t buy big stars and pay £20/£30m for them we buy or find young players and teach them to play the game as it should be played.Why can`t Boro or any other teams do that?You have a decent young manager and a brilliant Chairman who always backs the manager,believe me you don`t have to watch the type of football you play at the moment just teach your youngsters how to pass accurately for a start.

come on guys - give us a break, we cant just raid the young cream of european football (i.e. Fabregas) and convince them to come to the bright lights of Teesside can we? All we can hope for is to buy one or two foreign imports and bring in LOCAL lads and try and bring them on through the ranks. I don't see many Gooners playing with a north london accent.
For a small, unfashionable club we haven't done too bad bringing young lads through (have you seen Capellos squad?)
Also, as i said before this is a RESULTS business. Our most exciting team ever (Juninho, Ravanelli, Emerson etc) got to two cup finals but were relegated. We must ensure our Premier League status so we dont become another 'exciting' team like Forest or Leeds.
There is almost 2 divisions in the premiership, 'big 4' and 'not big 4'.
Of those out of the top 4 we are one of the smallest clubs and yet consistently beat the top 4 and have reached 5 finals in the last 11 years on crowds of twenty odd thousand. Give us some credit.
But if you look at what we have achieved in the last 4 seasons; won the League Cup and got beat in a European final, it is as good as some of the more 'entertaining' teams ..........like Arsenal!

[proudtosaythatname]

I think the answer to the original question is - what other option do the poor b*stards have? The phrase is ' life sentence'; you know, the concept that once we have pledged allegiance to a particular team that's it for the rest of our lives. You could equally ask how Gooners could bear to watch George Graham's boring, boring Arsenal, though admittedly we were winning silverware. Also, no one appears to have mentioned that Aliadiere was 'first phase offside' but his goal was not disallowed as seemingly neither players, nor officials, nor commentators understand the offside rules come on Bolton!

[uglyrumour]

First, I would like to congratulate Arsenal on how much they have achieved in their short history since 1888, cf. Boro 1876.

Is anyone old enough to remember Arsenal playing Peter Storey at centreforward at Ayresome park? That wasn't much fun to watch either.

For most of my Boro supporting life, we have been great at home and awful away. Most teams used to come to Ayresome and try to shut up shop. I remember it being more satisfying to finally break down the fierce resistance of a defensively minded team in the last minute than to stroll through a 3-0. That said I don't condone time wasting, even by my own team, but can any of you gooners put your hands on your hearts and claim Arsenal have never done that. If so, I suggest you make an optician's appointment along with Arsene.

Having witnessed our being out-played by Cardiff the week before, I enjoyed watching my team defend for their lives having scored a great goal out of the blue. I was also able to admire some of Arsenal's first time passing, seeing as it did'nt yeild an end result. The match at the Riverside this season was a different story though wasn't it?

The explanation I would offer to you Ed Gooner for what you call anti-football is with the exception of the 7-1...ahem, recent results show that Gareth has got the tactical measure of Arsenal. I reckon Arsene needs to find a decent winger so that when teams like us clog up the middle, you have another option to stretch the play down the wings. You really should know better than to attempt to blame your opponents for that basic flaw in your team.

As for us, Gareth is still re-building the side as he wants it, and as Arsene so kindly implied, if we survive this year, I expect us to be challenging for a best of the rest spot next season.

[RaM]

So should Boro be expected the way we want them to?

Why should they?

They choose the tactics that work against us, and all credit to them, they've worked.


Its up to us to be adaptive enough to win against such opposition.

[Magic Hat]

Pogetetz was a huge time waster but as has been said, we are hardly innocent of it. peterfromredcar, Hleb's pass was to Van Persie who was onside, it was Boateng who diverted it to Ade and as the last player to touch the ball, meant Ade was onside.

I greatly admired Boro's performance at the Riverside, it wasn't all out attack but that is asking too much, it was a game based on defending very well and hitting us on the counter by using their quick forwards. It is a good style and can make for a good game, keep it along the ground and I will praise. The difference at Ashburton was Boro defended even better but just plain hoofed it rather then look to counter and that was so very disappointing from a side that can and does play good football.

If Boro defended so well every match and played as well as they did at the Riverside, they would be fighting for Europe but they seem so frustratingly inconsistent. As for boring sides, Bolton, Sunderland and Brummie under their new manager.