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Johno
bmg033
As said previously, we needed to win all our games this month to prepare us for a tough December. It started out well as we thumped rivals Newcastle 6-2 with two players getting hattricks. Next we beat Villarreal in Europe but our form only got worse from there. A draw away at Stoke isn't too bad considering how well they're doing but the losses to Swansea and Red Star were terrible. A factor in those losses were injuries to our main strikers Tom Walker and Kike.
Despite that average form, we are still in contention for a Champions League place. Its getting very tight as we approach December with 3rd and 9th separated by just three points. We are sitting in 5th place, behind Man utd on goal difference.
The defeat to Red Star meant that with one game to go, either of us could still go through to the next round. We will be playing unbeaten group winners Dinamo Moscow.
Johno
bmg033
I know, although we are still in the mix for a CL football spot for now
bmg033
After that poor November form, it was a surprise to see December go so well. Especially considering it contained five tricky games in a row. I decided to drop half the team for the first couple of games and it worked a treat with Bakkali and Benzia coming in and securing us six points from the first two games. But after a below par performance agaisnt Wigan, I felt I had to bring back the starters for the crucial Europa League game. A win would guarantee us a spot in the next round because we were 1 point ahead of Red Star at the start of matchday 6. A win is what we got against group winners Dinamo Moscow.
Next up we managed to get a draw with title chasing Chelsea before suffering our only December defeat to Chelseas main title rivals, Man Utd, on boxing day. We finished the month with four points from games against struggling Southampton and Liverpool.
Chelsea and Man Utd seem to be pulling away from everyone else and into a two way title fight. We find ourselves four points off of 4th place with half the season gone, but having won less than half of our games so far, we have to start improving, otherwise we will miss out on the Champions League places.
As said earlier, we progressed from our Europa League group. In the end, we could've lost and still gone through as Red Star lost to Villarreal.
bmg033
Just the two players joined us in January. It seems we end up signing a free transfer from Argentina every year. Aaron Kuhl, from Reading, was the only other incoming player and was a bargain at just £1m!
Four players left Boro. Martinez didn't have a work permit and Chapman wasn't good enough for the first team. Ayala and Samaris have been overtaken by new faces and their departure will benefit both them and the club.
Now onto the fixtures. The less said about the West Brom and Spurs games, the better. Apart from those shocking performances, we won every other game. I am particularly pleased with the QPR win because we were 2-0 down at one point. The Europa League returns in February as we face Hoffenheim from Germany.
Overall, our league form in January was pretty good. We are now just three points off of third placed Man City. Its all looking promising in the league.
bmg033
Sadly our four game winning streak turned into a four game winless streak. They were all tough games, but I had targeted eight points from those fixtures so to come away with just three isn't good enough. Thankfully our bad form didn't carry over the Europa League games. Hoffenheim gave us two good games, but in the end we used our superior quality to beat them 6-3 on aggregate and progress to face Standard Liege in the next round.
As expected, claiming just three points this month has seen us slip away from the top four. We are now nine points behind fourth placed Spurs, but there are still ten rounds of fixtures to go and one of them is against Spurs. If we can win that then all we need is for them to slip up twice and we will be level.
Johno
Will be tough to catch the top 4
bmg033
Haven't played this for a while, but I haven't forgotten about it. March was a vast improvement on Febraury as we won all five games, including both of our Europa League games. Walker started the month with back to back trebles but unfortunatly suffered an injury during the Standard Liege first leg. Benzia and Kike have managed to score five goals since Walker has been injured so thankfully we are doing well without him.
Those league wins have done nothing for our Champions League hopes because fourth placed Spurs also won all of their games. Top 4 will be very difficult to get, but we are still mathematically in with a chance so we will not give up the chase!
bmg033
I decided to mash April and May together in one update. Our great form in March quickly vanished as we went on to win just one of our remaining league games, losing all the others. That was terrible, but I think the only reason the board didn't kick me out the door was because we seem to be saving our best for the Europa League.
I knew PSV would be a tough test, but after winning 4-2 away in the first leg, progression to the semi final was almost assured. We went 4-0 up in the second leg to finish off PSV, despite Ben Gibson getting sent off and conceding three times in the second half. The semis saw us go up against Porto. By this time I realised the only way we could make it into the Champions League was by winning the Europa League. I rested a few players before the first leg and it worked a treat. We won the first leg 3-2 at home before going away to the Estadio do Dragao and winning 2-0!
Despite getting humped by nearly everyone we played in the league, we still managed to finish the season with a positive goal difference (just). Our initial 4th place finish objective was failed, by a long way. Sixteen points and three places to be exact. Not a great season in the league.
bmg033
I literally can't say anything about this game without using several dozen expletives.
2-0 up and then 94th minute...
Damn you Rodriguez, was not great success!
VP.
bmg033
Thats three straight seasons outside the top 4 for Arsenal now. You can blame Pep Guardiola and Didier Deschamps for that!
Johno
Gutted to see you lost to injury winner against Real
bmg033
Yeah, we couldn't get top 4 so I rested a load of players against Chelsea for the Europa League final. They were going all out for the win because a win would guarantee them the title. Thats 17 goals conceded in the last two visits to Stamford Bridge...
Johno
See where you coming from now
bmg033
Cymro
bmg033
After that total collapse at the end of last season, I decided to axe a load of players.
Neto conceded, on average, over two goals per game, so he quickly left and I even managed to make a £2.5m profit on him. I had been chasing another goalie for a few weeks and this extra £10m gave me just enough to cover his costs.
Morris was never going to get any game time so I let him go to the first team that came in.
Ameobi and Nsue both played good roles in getting Boro promoted back in 2016 in my first season, but they were never going to cut it in the Premier League and had been backup for a few seasons.
Nathan wasn't someone I wanted to leave, but Man City activated a £35m release clause in his contract and left me powerless.
Benzia, Rugani and Robert were all free transfers last season but were never able to make a spot in the team their own. So £18.4m for three players I spent nothing on is great!
I had initially thought getting Bamford for £1.5m was a bargain. Turned out to be crap and ended up on loan at Ipswich for 18 months. West Ham came in with £700k and I instantly accepted.
As i'm sure most of you know, Scuffet develops into a world class goalie. I was surprised to see him still at Udinese and went straight in to get him as a replacement for Neto.
The purchase of Hughes only came about because of the forced sale of Nathan. He had initially been lined up to play AMC, but I have since moved him into MC alongside fellow new recruit Renato. Renato has already managed to get 55 U20 appearences so he has clearly been identified as a talented youngster for some time. He has a £65m buyout clause in his contract which should easily fund a replacement should someone come in and take him away.
Jorge is another promising Brazilian youngster at the club. Clyne was the only right back in the first team squad and isn't too far off of 30 years old, so I decided to splash some cash on Jorge.
bmg033
Thanks, although the sacking was totally my fault because I applied for the Bayern job....
Took a few months to get a new club but Boro were getting desperate and gave me a chance.
bmg033
August - December
There has been quite a change this season and it started with a 2-0 defeat at Chelsea on the opening day. From my very first game at Stoke to that Chelsea game, I have used the exact same tactics in all my games. The idea was to score more than the opposition do and it worked to a point, but too often we underperformed and completely folded and conceded huge amounts of goals. We needed a change and while I kept the 4-2-3-1 formation, I completely changed our style of play. Now we are much more fluid and a bit better at the back while playing a more possession based game.
The first game with the new style was at home to Swansea which we won with ease. Since then, my decision to change the style has been justified as we went into January in third place in the league and also have a semi final against Southampton in the League Cup. We also managed to reach a winning streak of ten games before Man City beat us at the end of December.
Table
As said previously we are in third place in the table. Our goal was the same as last seasons, qualify for the Champions League. I didn't expect us to be doing this well due to the change in tactics, but we are now a serious challenger for fourth and if we can keep up our form, then maybe we could even challenge for the title. Who knows?
bmg033
The second half of the season started with a hectic January. Eight games in three different competitions but not a single defeat! We scraped past lower league Burnley and MK Dons by a single goal in the FA Cup but also beat Southampton 4-1 on aggregate in the League Cup to advance to the final. Middlesbrough have only ever won one piece of silverware in their entire history, also the League Cup in 2004, so the final is going to be a huge game against Spurs.
February was just as hectic as January with seven games, making it fifteen games in just two months. Our unbeaten start in 2021 came to an end when we lost to Arsenal in the FA Cup 5th round. This was the start to a nightmare week as we then lost to Spurs and Arsenal in the the league this time to make it three straight losses. Not what we wanted just one week away from a final. But I didn't go into the final with any fears as I took it the players were saving themselves for their Wembley appearence. This turned out to be true as we battered Spurs and came home with the League Cup after a convincing 4-1 victory with Salah scoring three times. Boro's second ever major trophy and my first as a manager.
After all of that, we now had to focus on the league and try to claim a place in the top four. Chelsea and Man Utd had run away and were engaged in a battle of their own for the title, That left us fighting with Liverpool, Arsenal, Man City and Spurs for the remaining two Champions League places. There has been many examples in the past of teams falling away after winning the League Cup, but we didn't join that list. Our form was possibly the best its been in my reign as manager. We hit West Ham for six in the first game after the final and then beat Liverpool in a must win game. A defeat to Man Utd wasn't too much of a big deal as we were never going to catch them. After that, we embarked on a run that saw five clean sheets in six games which is unheard of for a team of mine! The Southampton defeat didn't deal any damage because Liverpool, our closest rivals, also lost. The Spurs loss was disapointing, but they had fallen away slightly as they were still competing in the Champions League against Real Madrid and Bayern Munich.
The next game was possibly the biggest in Middlesbrough's history. We needed to go to Man City and win to guarantee a top four place with one game remaining. That may sound hard, but we have gone to the Etihad and won in each of the last three seasons. This season was no different as we went there and came out with a 3-2 victory and seal our place in next seasons Champions League. All that was left now was to decide who would be third and fourth with us and Liverpool. We beat Everton on the last day to avoid the qualification round and go straight into the group stages.
Table
The glorious sight of the league table. Fourth place was the goal at the start of the season, but we have come away with third! Everton who finished in the bottom half also got a Europa League spot. That took the total of English teams in Europe to seven, but it didn't stop there....
As we had made it to the Champions League, I had a look at who had been busy winning it to figure out who we wanted to avoid in the group stages. What I found was very surprising. Only one foreign team has stopped an English team from winning the trophy, Real Madrid back in 2015. Since then Man City twice, Chelsea once and Spurs three times have brought the trophy back to England. Every final has had an English team and four of the seven have been all English. A good omen for us maybe?
bmg033
After last seasons third place finish, we went straight into the Champions League groups stages. I was kind of hoping for a 'group of death' draw, but instead we got the kindest group of the lot. All the other groups have at least two teams that could potentially challenge for the trophy, but looking at ours, we probably just have to beat either Atletico or Monchengladbach to progress. Our fixture list has been made slightly better by the fact we play away at Atletico and Monchengladbach in the first three group games.
seannn
Johno
Congrats on finishing 3rd last season
bmg033
Thanks! My old tactics were a bit mental, it was basically all out attack. It could only take me to about 6th/7th in the league though so i've had to create a new system which has worked wonders so far!
We got the 'easiest' group of the lot. Monchengladbach are beatable and Copenhagen will most likely finish bottom. Atletico will be the main problem but i'm confident we can progress.
bmg033
Just had this pop up. Wayne Rooney is taking his first steps into management!
bmg033
Not much happened in the summer transfer window, mainly because I spent all our money last season. I signed two players on loan and sold another. We also loaned out about 5493 players.
Bouhriss was signed as a backup to Walker because Kike has rapidly declined over the last year.
We already have Oviedo and Gibson, but I decided to bring in Salazar as a backup left back. Gibson can also play center back and as we only have three other center backs, he'll need to play there sometimes.
As i've already said, we've loaned out a load of players, including Kike to Watford, but there was only one player sold over the summer.
Cleverley has been good for us, but he isn't really going to be getting any game time so I decided to let him go.
The season started off well with five wins in the opening six games. That included a 5-0 win in our very first Champions League game against Kobenhavn. We fielded a reserve team in the League Cup game against Tranmere because the board didn't care how well we did in the competition and I wanted to focus on progressing through the group stage in Europe. Unfortunatly we then lost our next two games to Wigan and Atletico. But after that, we managed to reach the new year after suffering just two more defeats. One of them was again to Atletico, but it didn't matter because we had already qualified for the first knockout round of the Champions League.
Our form has been much the same as last season and as a result we are in the top four once again. Chelsea have begun to pull away a little, but if we can get at least second place, then the season will be a success. The board want a title challenge though so we will of course give it our all to give the top teams a good fight.
Something missing from that top half of the league, right? I had a look to see what had happened to Man City and I found this!
bmg033
We entered January in high spirits. We were on a five match winning streak and had also qualified for the knockout stages of the Champions League. We had been drawn against Bayern Munich and all eyes would be on that. But there were ten domestic games before our big night against the Bavarians and our form from those games couldn't have been much better. Eight wins, including a 1-0 at Old Trafford in the FA Cup meant we could go into the tie with confidence. We gave them a good game and managed to avoid defeat with a 2-2 draw at home in the first leg. In the four games between the first and second leg, we scored 14 goals with Salah getting five goals in three games.
We went to the Allianz knowing that we would have to produce something special to eliminate the German giants. Despite not losing the first leg, Bayern had the advantage with two away goals. Just three minutes into the second leg Salah gave us an early, shock lead. Then just twelve minutes later Salah banged in a second goal to wipe away Bayerns two away goals and give us a two goal lead on aggregate. Bayern seemed to be struggling with Salahs direct runs at their center backs and then with just nine minutes of the first half remaining, Salah scored his third goal of the half to really put us in control. We continued to attack Bayern in the second half but with our dominance clearly not showing any signs of stopping they resorted to just stopping us scoring rather than trying to get back into the game. 3-0 full time and Middlesbrough through into the quarter finals!
At this point, it was clear that we would be finishing in the top four for a second consecutive season. With our participation in the FA Cup and Champions League still to look forward to, we started to focus on them due to Chelsea building up a big lead at the top of the table. The next opponent for us in Europe was Juventus. This tie saw the two most valuable players in the world go head-to-head. Paul Pogba of Juve and ">Renato of Boro. Both are central midfielders so they would actually be facing each other directly on the pitch. Our European adventure looked set to take us to the semi finals as we beat Juventues 2-0 at home. But in the second leg Juve responded by going 2-0 up themselves only for Salah to win the tie for us once again with a late goal to seal our progression.
Before the Champions League semi final, we beat Arsenal in a 5-3 thriller after extra time in the FA Cup semi final. The final would see us face lower league Burnley, a great opportunity for Boro to win a very first FA Cup trophy! That would come later at the end of the season and first we had a Champions League semi against Liverpool. The first leg was an end to end game and in the end finished 3-3. That meant we had to win at Anfield or draw 4-4 or more. It was a difficult game and with the score locked at 2-2, one goal would've had us into the final. This time though, Liverpool were able to hold us off and our adventure ended at the semi final stage. A superb run, exceeding expectations and a name made around Europe.
The FA Cup final was hugely in our favour. A day before the final though, Tom Walker became ill and was forced to miss the final. It was a frustrating game as Burnley managed to hold us out for 120 minutes. So penalties it was and it was fitting that the winning penalty was scored by Boro club icon Kike. A second major trophy in two seasons for me and Middlesbrough!
As said earlier, we had virtually secured a top four finish. Another third place, but this time with four more points. Next season could really see us challenge for the title with one or two additions if possible..
bmg033