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Lovely stuff Roberto :)

10.Goater_Legend wrote:Lovely stuff Roberto :)

Can't argue with that probably would've conceded goals under Hughes but he's also had a bit more luck.

Good result with a changed team. Another clean sheet increases confidence.

Lucky managers are winning managers. Bring on Wednesday.

Great to see us winning headers in and around our 6-yard box!

to be fair the teams we have beaten are hardly famed for their goalscoring exploits.

still, we can't help the fact Stoke, Wolves and Borer are shite and we have definately looked more alert. good stuff.

I only caught the game on FiveLive who made no reference to our zonal marking but it sounded to me like Middlesboro had no answer to it
Can anybody comment who saw the game?

The Man In Blue wrote:to be fair the teams we have beaten are hardly famed for their goalscoring exploits.

still, we can't help the fact Stoke, Wolves and Borer are shite and we have definately looked more alert. good stuff.

same could be said about likes of Bolton and Burnley.

Niall Quinns Discopants wrote:

The Man In Blue wrote:to be fair the teams we have beaten are hardly famed for their goalscoring exploits.

still, we can't help the fact Stoke, Wolves and Borer are shite and we have definately looked more alert. good stuff.

same could be said about likes of Bolton and Burnley.

go on lad - just say it. its ok.

The Original Special One wrote:I only caught the game on FiveLive who made no reference to our zonal marking but it sounded to me like Middlesboro had no answer to it
Can anybody comment who saw the game?

We seem to be attacking the ball in our area with at least two players which is great to see, a refreshing change from having a heart attack everytime the ball is floated towards our area. Considering the three teams we have played so far would place such a high emphasis on set pieces I think it bodes well. The acid test will be Wednesday though.

As an aside Liverpool's zonal system was exposed by Reading tonight and highlighted by the commentators.

Great feeling , isn't it ?

i can see the Scum game being quite high scoring. I think our little bubble will burst and but we will end up winning the tie.

Id fucking love to beat them at their ground though, convincingly, the confidence would be set up for the rest of the season and with a couple of good signings who knows what might happen!!

The Original Special One wrote:I only caught the game on FiveLive who made no reference to our zonal marking but it sounded to me like Middlesboro had no answer to it
Can anybody comment who saw the game?

Tactically they tried to counter with some short corners and change ups but they were too crap to make any of it count.

They didn't really look like scoring.

dazby wrote:

The Original Special One wrote:I only caught the game on FiveLive who made no reference to our zonal marking but it sounded to me like Middlesboro had no answer to it
Can anybody comment who saw the game?

Tactically they tried to counter with some short corners and change ups but they were too crap to make any of it count.

They didn't really look like scoring.

They got two free headers in good positions during the game & one free header further from goal but that's a big improvement over our usual 5-6 per game since Andy Morrison left.

The Man In Blue wrote:

Niall Quinns Discopants wrote:

The Man In Blue wrote:to be fair the teams we have beaten are hardly famed for their goalscoring exploits.

still, we can't help the fact Stoke, Wolves and Borer are shite and we have definately looked more alert. good stuff.

same could be said about likes of Bolton and Burnley.

go on lad - just say it. its ok.

PMSL, nice one.

The Man In Blue wrote:to be fair the teams we have beaten are hardly famed for their goalscoring exploits.

still, we can't help the fact Stoke, Wolves and Borer are shite and we have definately looked more alert. good stuff.

Thats the point though, you'd have to say even without the depleted squad, you wouldn't have fancied 3 clean sheets in a row under hughes
I thought we looked defensively very strong yesterday - when boro attacked all our players were lined up in the correct defensive positions - also was very impressed with Boyota

THE thing Mancini has worked on is the defensive shape of the team and it seems in particular controlling the attacking play of the full backs. The attacking, with the quality we have, can largely take care of itself but by holding the full backs in place virtually all the time we are not getting caught out of position. I also think that Kompany has taken his chance really well and shown the value of an " attack the ball" centre half.

Having said that we need to kepp our feet on the ground as it's only 3 games with 1 at home and 2 away games against teams with almost no attack! The semis will tell us a lot more.

We look a lot more assured at the back at all times so whatever Mancini is doing on the training pitch it is definately working. I have a lot more confidence of keeping Rooney & co out on Wednesday.