Middlesbrough vs Dean Smith's Claret and Blue Army Post-Match Thread

[PeterWithesShin]

OS post-match interview https://twitter.com/AVFCOfficial/status/1068966329917587458

[john e]

Bruce has gone lads, let it go, enjoy what's in front of you, it's been a long time coming.

your right of course

but it's difficult with every passing game which highlights just how mega shit he actually was

[Mister E]

I love going to Boro ‘cos it means I can get home within an hour!
The team was great tonight: calm, confident and largely expansive. 5-0 wouldn’t have been flattering.
I thought El G was excellent - what a change in this player!
Taylor, Elmo, Tuanzebe - all played well.
Bolasie did okay, but he ain’t that quick and runs out of stamina fairly quickly.
Hogan made the 3rd goal, with a great little run into the box.

When Grealish and Hourihane start releasing the ball forward a little earlier, we will be very difficult to defend against.

[clash city rocker]

My daughter who is now 21 and I have been taking up to villa park since she was 5 said to me tonight.....dad is this like the old days you keep on about.

[Louzie0]

Tell her it was ABM

Absolutely Bloody Marvellous 

[David_Nab]

Tonight Boro reminded me of Villa under Bruce when we played Brentford a few times and got spanked. Pullis must also subscribe to the Bruce School of pre match planning as he clearly didn't take any notice of Hourane's struggle's against Forrest with pressure but on him and midfield runners and set up a team to sit back and allowed Conner space and time on the ball to pass it around.

What noticeable to me is that Smith has got the team less reliant on Grealish which means when teams double up on him space is created and taken advantage of by others.For years now watching us it seemed at times we were playing with 10 men as other teams always seemed to have more options on the pitch tonight we made Boro look like they had less players as we always had options to pass too in space

Great performance ..onto the next

[clash city rocker]

Tell her it was ABM

Absolutely Bloody Marvellous 

The excitement is alien to her.

[john e]

I wonder if on the Boro sites tonight they are banging on about 'stability' and Pulis's past record

[PeterWithesShin]

Dean Sky post-match interview

Dean Smith WM https://audioboom.com/posts/7104571-dean-smith-on-the-3-0-win-at-middlesbrough

Pulis Sky post-match interview

[Louzie0]

Tell her it was ABM

Absolutely Bloody Marvellous 

The excitement is alien to her.

I think Deano’s changing all expectations.
Excitement has been alien for all of us for so long.
Tell her to hang on for the ride!


Edit I mean like an F1 ride, obv.
Not a roller coaster.
Or a constipated submarine.

[Lastfootstamper]

It looked so effortless. We had blokes just seemingly standing around waiting for a pass.

It really is a simple game.

[jwarry]

My daughter who is now 21 and I have been taking up to villa park since she was 5 said to me tonight.....dad is this like the old days you keep on about.

If only we had a ‘like’ button 👍

[The Edge]

It's quite remarkable the change since Bruce went and Dean Smith came in. Same players, different everything.

We’ve been eating offal for years, suddenly we’re eating filet mignon and it’s delicious.

I'm having a doner kebab and chips. Even that tastes better tonight for some reason

[McGraths Dry Cleaning]

Smith seems to have brought a lot of changes but I can't get over the improvement in fitness - seems a remarkable transformation.

[PeterWithesShin]

Having the ball most of the time rather than chasing after it like a hyper puppy on speed makes a difference to stamina. We control most of the games we play now.