I cannot wait for Friday. Boro look to be genuine contenders, this will be another test of our credentials.

We’re a few weeks from our first International break which will be good to give the players a bit of a rest from matches.

This is without a doubt different to last year.

Flint, Ayala and Friend all with a goal each from defence. Lots of height to deal with is my main worry.

Also the return of our old midfield in Clayton and Howson.

Downing still decent and of course Assombalonga cannot be ignored.

Interesting one for sure.

I’d be interested to see what happens at the international break

Berardi, Douglas, cooper, jansson, alioski, BBF, Klich, Dallas plus various players at youth level could feature during international breaks over the season.

Add to that roofe could feature for Jamaica and Bamford could go Irish if they so chose and I’m not sure that international breaks as a whole will be the respite people hope they are.

comment by Sir Kenneth Bates (U8238)
posted 26 minutes ago
Flint, Ayala and Friend all with a goal each from defence. Lots of height to deal with is my main worry.

Also the return of our old midfield in Clayton and Howson.

Downing still decent and of course Assombalonga cannot be ignored.

Interesting one for sure.
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Putting it like that SKB scares me, Also Braithwaite has scored 3 so far. They have brought in that speed machine Traore too

I think they sold him

comment by Kamara's left foot (U21862)
Putting it like that SKB scares me, Also Braithwaite has scored 3 so far. They have brought in that speed machine Traore too
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Traore left them for Wolves?

Oh ok, maybe we have a chance then

Bamford will start

I watched their game on Friday and they were truly awful. Solid in defence as expected and were never in real trouble from West Brom but bad, long ball football. They got a win with a lucky, scrappy goal at the end, with a handball. That's PulisBall and it's effective. Boro fans get sensitive if you call their football bad, but that's not saying they're a bad team.

We'll struggle with set pieces and they'll be hard to break down. They won't commit people forward and it will be similar to the Rotherham game just with more quality to defend against. Tough game but at our best and we win.

I watched them on Friday and I don't think they were awful at all. They bossed the game against a decent WBA side. Howson was MOTM

No idea why I copied the Boro board in, their last post of note was 24/4/18

Seems like a pattern, team we are due to come up against plays below par on a Friday.
They were not awful but lucky to get the win.

I'm sure Pulis will park the bus & try hit us on the break

Outwood, don't get me wrong, they were in control of the match completely. But the football was really poor. Howson was man of the match but only played 28 passes with a 68% completion.

It's effective football but awful to watch was my point.

comment by Best Fans - Leeds are falling apart again (U2196)
posted 24 minutes ago
Outwood, don't get me wrong, they were in control of the match completely. But the football was really poor. Howson was man of the match but only played 28 passes with a 68% completion.

It's effective football but awful to watch was my point.
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Its getting the balance between both that's what we want.

Pulis didn’t do too well last time he went up against Guardiola.

It’ll be interesting to see how he copes against the guy Guardiola learned it all from.

Having a manager like Bielsa who analyses the opposition to the n'th degree and then uses that to formulate a plan is refreshing.

Boro will be our toughest test so far. I can't predict this one - will all come down to fine margins on the night I think.

I signed in, because I wanted to comment, but when I had completed the sign in, I had completely forgotten what I wanted to say...

Oh; yes... it's all coming back to me now...errr...? yes, I think this was it:

Like with Rotherham, and Swansea I think we will struggle with tall, physical players. Can they cope?
BTW; Ayala is a nasty piece of work.

I think a lot depends on Samu. He can cause them no end of problems, but he has to be smarter about his final ball. He should also work on his shots, because he gets into fantastic positions, but seems to bottle it at the end. He had an open goal against Norwich and should have made it 3-0 but he fluffed his lines. Still, I wouldn't swap him. Unless Gareth Bale is looking for a job.

I expect 'Boro to play a similar game to Stoke and Derby. If we play to our strengths I think we'll win by a couple.

They're a good team but so are we.

Really interesting test this one. Boro have good players all over the park, and being a pulis team some big physical lads. So far we’ve shown how effective we can be against ball playing sides who give us some space, but made harder work of it against Rotherham parking the bus and countering. Last year we had a terrible record against the ‘traditional’ British football sides.

They look like they have the perfect antidote to us on paper and the quality to make their opportunities count if we give them some. The big lumps at set pieces will be a problem.

So we have to dominate possession and get our mobile attackers to pull those big lump centre halves out of position. Over to you Marcelo.

A real clash of footballing philosophies and a teal marker for our season. Can’t wait.

Most were very apprehensive at the tough start we were presented with but we've come through with flying colours , even battling back away at Swansea.

Boro is a real test, need to do what we did against Stoke be very quick to close their midfield down. - a win is definitely possible.

They will be wondering how to deal with our midfield. If we are anything like we were on Saturday, we will cause them a lot of problems. They look even less mobile than Norwich at the back.