**Boro V MCFC Official Match Day Thread**

[irblinx]

Calculated risk paid off.

I was really impressed with Boyata. Made few mistakes yeah and obviously not finished article yet but there's future Premiership defender there I feel.

Stupid risk imo after last year & lost our momentum from last few games but luckily Boro were hopeless & Wheater missed his big free header moment along with Riggott.

Very impressed with Boyata but wouldn't like to see him against PL strikers for another year or two. Weiss didn't do himself any favours though & looked a lesser player than Adam Johnson on the day.

very early in the cup versus a lower league team that are struggling for form and have very few attacking options weighed up against a midweek semi final game against Prem opposition. Sounds like the right thing to do considering all our injuries tbh.

Having said that, Johnson going off ended the match as a contest, it might have been considerably more harum scarum if he'd stayed on

[Beefymcfc]

4 wins on the trot, 3 clean sheets, still in both cups and 5th in the Prem! Could life be better as a City fan???

We could be top of the prem and in the chumps league?? I mean you did ask!

All in good time VHero, all in good time!

[Douglas Higginbottom]

Good job well done. I would say it went about how Mancini would have expected it to apart from not scoring the 2nd. If NDJ and Micah didn't have injuries I think he was taking a bit of chance in the 2nd half with 4 forwards and they did have one or 2 close things 2nd half especially when Barry kept giving away free kicks. We seemed to keep them at arms length better in the first half than when we looked to attack more but I still don't think Shay had anything to do all match.

Fun reading through the thread from half time. Thx for the advice guys but I think I will pop in more often not less during games as some of you are really funny panic merchants. Some of the stuff you type in is hilarious.

As for Benjani I won't suggest he is a top player or had a great game but he scored the winner in a 1 nil win. I think that's called doing your job and last week when Torres did it he had a crap game too but was given man of the match :)

[rick1894citizen]

Well thank christ for that and hopefully we have a few more fit for wednesday, in the next round il take Leeds at home ;)

[feedthegreek]

acc to the stats last 5 teams who have knocked out boro
have gone on to reach wembley.
wait for it , and lost in the final.

[carl_feedthegoat]

Calculated risk paid off.

I was really impressed with Boyata. Made few mistakes yeah and obviously not finished article yet but there's future Premiership defender there I feel.

Stupid risk imo after last year & lost our momentum from last few games but luckily Boro were hopeless & Wheater missed his big free header moment along with Riggott.

Very impressed with Boyata but wouldn't like to see him against PL strikers for another year or two. Weiss didn't do himself any favours though & looked a lesser player than Adam Johnson on the day.

100% AGREE - HE,S NOT READY FOR THE PL YET.

ON THE RISK FACTOR ID RAHTHER RESTED PLAYERS FOR THE SCUM GAME THAN FOR THIS ONE...I RECKON THAT WAS IN MANCINIS THINKING GOING ON HIS LINE UP.

[The Original Special One]

Calculated risk paid off.

I was really impressed with Boyata. Made few mistakes yeah and obviously not finished article yet but there's future Premiership defender there I feel.

Stupid risk imo after last year & lost our momentum from last few games but luckily Boro were hopeless & Wheater missed his big free header moment along with Riggott.

Very impressed with Boyata but wouldn't like to see him against PL strikers for another year or two. Weiss didn't do himself any favours though & looked a lesser player than Adam Johnson on the day.

from what I heard on FiveLive Weiss was disappearing up his own stepovers; Danny Mills never got an opportunity to say what he thought of Boyata but I know they mentioned one outstanding penalty box tackle, so it sounded like he was relatively comfortable.
Will be interesting to see will he get a start against ManUre

[dazby]

Job done. Some flashes of class got us through today. They never really looked like scoring although there were some hairy moments. It's a shame for them that Johnson went off injured as he looked to be tearing Spanish Gaz a new arsehole. It was good for them that the Dutch feller went off cos he was crap and the third sub was decent.

Anyways, in the hat for the next round and another clean sheet. Nice one.

[Beefymcfc]

Calculated risk paid off.

I was really impressed with Boyata. Made few mistakes yeah and obviously not finished article yet but there's future Premiership defender there I feel.

Stupid risk imo after last year & lost our momentum from last few games but luckily Boro were hopeless & Wheater missed his big free header moment along with Riggott.

Very impressed with Boyata but wouldn't like to see him against PL strikers for another year or two. Weiss didn't do himself any favours though & looked a lesser player than Adam Johnson on the day.

100% AGREE - HE,S NOT READY FOR THE PL YET.

ON THE RISK FACTOR ID RAHTHER RESTED PLAYERS FOR THE SCUM GAME THAN FOR THIS ONE...I RECKON THAT WAS IN MANCINIS THINKING GOING ON HIS LINE UP.

Just a point to note, but how many people were saying that Vlad should be getting a start in the prem under Hughes? Hopefully that will be put to bed and Vlad can put this game behind him.

[Somerset Blue]

When's the Fourth Round draw? After tomorrow's games have finished?

[Kyle]

Calculated risk paid off.

I was really impressed with Boyata. Made few mistakes yeah and obviously not finished article yet but there's future Premiership defender there I feel.

Stupid risk imo after last year & lost our momentum from last few games but luckily Boro were hopeless & Wheater missed his big free header moment along with Riggott.

Very impressed with Boyata but wouldn't like to see him against PL strikers for another year or two. Weiss didn't do himself any favours though & looked a lesser player than Adam Johnson on the day.

100% AGREE - HE,S NOT READY FOR THE PL YET.

ON THE RISK FACTOR ID RAHTHER RESTED PLAYERS FOR THE SCUM GAME THAN FOR THIS ONE...I RECKON THAT WAS IN MANCINIS THINKING GOING ON HIS LINE UP.

Just a point to note, but how many people were saying that Vlad should be getting a start in the prem under Hughes? Hopefully that will be put to bed and Vlad can put this game behind him.

I don't know though, I think I would rather see Vlad out with a midfield of de jong, barry, ireland as opposed to kompany, de jong, and sylvinho. I think with a better quality of link up play the better he plays. All he really had to link up with was petrov...

[Fidel Castro]

Calculated risk paid off.

I was really impressed with Boyata. Made few mistakes yeah and obviously not finished article yet but there's future Premiership defender there I feel.

Stupid risk imo after last year & lost our momentum from last few games but luckily Boro were hopeless & Wheater missed his big free header moment along with Riggott.

Very impressed with Boyata but wouldn't like to see him against PL strikers for another year or two. Weiss didn't do himself any favours though & looked a lesser player than Adam Johnson on the day.

100% AGREE - HE,S NOT READY FOR THE PL YET.

ON THE RISK FACTOR ID RAHTHER RESTED PLAYERS FOR THE SCUM GAME THAN FOR THIS ONE...I RECKON THAT WAS IN MANCINIS THINKING GOING ON HIS LINE UP.

Just a point to note, but how many people were saying that Vlad should be getting a start in the prem under Hughes? Hopefully that will be put to bed and Vlad can put this game behind him.

I don't know though, I think I would rather see Vlad out with a midfield of de jong, barry, ireland as opposed to kompany, de jong, and sylvinho. I think with a better quality of link up play the better he plays. All he really had to link up with was petrov...

Good point there Minogue. The main problem was our 2 central midfielders were 2 very defensively minded players so we had no midfield going forward and a lamppost upfront in Benjani

[CityFanFromRome]

Good job done but we should have put it to bed with all the chances we had. Solid debut for Boyata, I guess Mancini was right in seeing something good in the lad and bringing him on the bench in the first two games, and then making him play today.

Would have never guessed that Benji would score the winner the way he played, but that's football.

[Socrates]

Calculated risk paid off.

I was really impressed with Boyata. Made few mistakes yeah and obviously not finished article yet but there's future Premiership defender there I feel.

Stupid risk imo after last year & lost our momentum from last few games but luckily Boro were hopeless & Wheater missed his big free header moment along with Riggott.

Very impressed with Boyata but wouldn't like to see him against PL strikers for another year or two. Weiss didn't do himself any favours though & looked a lesser player than Adam Johnson on the day.

Bit of an unfair comparison don't you think? Johnson has well over 100 first team appearances behind him, including 70 in the Premier League and 4 in the UEFA Cup.

[bluej]

Calculated risk paid off.

I was really impressed with Boyata. Made few mistakes yeah and obviously not finished article yet but there's future Premiership defender there I feel.

Stupid risk imo after last year & lost our momentum from last few games but luckily Boro were hopeless & Wheater missed his big free header moment along with Riggott.

Very impressed with Boyata but wouldn't like to see him against PL strikers for another year or two. Weiss didn't do himself any favours though & looked a lesser player than Adam Johnson on the day.

100% AGREE - HE,S NOT READY FOR THE PL YET.

ON THE RISK FACTOR ID RAHTHER RESTED PLAYERS FOR THE SCUM GAME THAN FOR THIS ONE...I RECKON THAT WAS IN MANCINIS THINKING GOING ON HIS LINE UP.

Just a point to note, but how many people were saying that Vlad should be getting a start in the prem under Hughes? Hopefully that will be put to bed and Vlad can put this game behind him.

I don't know though, I think I would rather see Vlad out with a midfield of de jong, barry, ireland as opposed to kompany, de jong, and sylvinho. I think with a better quality of link up play the better he plays. All he really had to link up with was petrov...

When the likes of Tevez and Barry were on though (therefore pushing Petrov into midfield) he still didn't do a lot.

[Beefymcfc]

Calculated risk paid off.

I was really impressed with Boyata. Made few mistakes yeah and obviously not finished article yet but there's future Premiership defender there I feel.

Stupid risk imo after last year & lost our momentum from last few games but luckily Boro were hopeless & Wheater missed his big free header moment along with Riggott.

Very impressed with Boyata but wouldn't like to see him against PL strikers for another year or two. Weiss didn't do himself any favours though & looked a lesser player than Adam Johnson on the day.

100% AGREE - HE,S NOT READY FOR THE PL YET.

ON THE RISK FACTOR ID RAHTHER RESTED PLAYERS FOR THE SCUM GAME THAN FOR THIS ONE...I RECKON THAT WAS IN MANCINIS THINKING GOING ON HIS LINE UP.

Just a point to note, but how many people were saying that Vlad should be getting a start in the prem under Hughes? Hopefully that will be put to bed and Vlad can put this game behind him.

I don't know though, I think I would rather see Vlad out with a midfield of de jong, barry, ireland as opposed to kompany, de jong, and sylvinho. I think with a better quality of link up play the better he plays. All he really had to link up with was petrov...

I know where you are coming from mate, but a starting berth for such a young and light player is always going to be difficult. He wants to take the world on and if it doesn't come off, like today, it can affect his confidence. I'd much rather he was on the bench with run-outs once we have won the game. He may not get as much playing time, but at least he can go on knowing there's not too many worries if he gets it wrong. If you know what I mean?

[King Kev]

When's the Fourth Round draw? After tomorrow's games have finished?

I have spent the last 10 minutes trying to find this out and it would seem that it is a secret!

[Kyle]

I don't know though, I think I would rather see Vlad out with a midfield of de jong, barry, ireland as opposed to kompany, de jong, and sylvinho. I think with a better quality of link up play the better he plays. All he really had to link up with was petrov...

I know where you are coming from mate, but a starting berth for such a young and light player is always going to be difficult. He wants to take the world on and if it doesn't come off, like today, it can affect his confidence. I'd much rather he was on the bench with run-outs once we have won the game. He may not get as much playing time, but at least he can go on knowing there's not too many worries if he gets it wrong. If you know what I mean?[/quote]

Oh we share the same sentiment there. I think his confidence would be much better served playing from seventy on against the likes of wolves with our better players out there. Defense doesn't see him as as much of a threat as our starters, he gets more space and does more with it. As opposed to playing in the snow with benjani to link up with... He looked a lot more comfortable when he was the one with all the possesion working it around, and kompany and de jong appeared to not agree with that and everytime he passed to one of them, they dropped it back to the back 4... Even though not a lot came off for him today though I wouldn't say he had an awful performance, he can learn a few things and I believe Mancini was right to sub him when he did... I was just frustrated because Mancini and Hughes threw other players on late in games when the opportunity was perfect for Weiss.

[ronk]

4 wins on the trot, 3 clean sheets, still in both cups and 5th in the Prem! Could life be better as a City fan???

Yes, of course.

[ronk]

Weiss is a very good player but he had a few limitations. He's looked top for Slovakia when he pulls the strings and everything goes through him. This is where his talent lies.

His movement off the ball isn't that strong when he's not involved and he can get isolated easily and drift out of the game. Borough were pressurising us early on we were having difficulty passing the ball forward. I thought better movement would have helped, but I wouldn't lay the blame only at his door.

Several times he got the ball and drifted inside on top of one of our midfielders, he was just going where he wants to go rather than thinking about where he should be in terms of the overall team. It was a bit headless, it seemed that he would have been more effective in some of those situations getting back wide and creating space. It's fixable but holding him back.

He's doing hard things really well but sometimes failing to just do the simple thing.


I was impressed with Boyata. I liked his attitude, he was solid enough defending and responded well to Strachen targeting and practically taunting him in the hope forcing him to make a mistake is possession. It was a nervous time for him but he bounced back and started looking far more comfortable on the ball once he had adjusted to the pace of the game. That's very promising, especially for someone who doesn't yet have a wikipedia page.