Command, Composure And Confidence From Boro: Just In Time For Christmas

It hasn't always been easy to enjoy Boro's league games in 2015-16.

Despite regularly hovering around the top, if not at *the* top, of the Championship, doubts have lingered over whether Boro can make it count by May.

That the team's attacking qualities aren't being fully utilised, that they might not be able to fully bounce back from the most serious setbacks, and so on.

Almost every single element in those doubts was extinguished by a display of clinical, composed professionalism on Saturday afternoon: a crucial, confidence-building, hoodoo-breaking victory, the ultimate riposte to anyone who thought Aitor Karanka's Boro were simply all about stifling the opposition, winning ugly, clinging on to one goal leads and anything else associated with catenaccio.

Last season, when Boro had visited Ipswich and a promotion rival on the South Coast, they had walked away with 2-0 and 3-0 defeats respectively.

How delightful it is to head home for the Christmas season knowing that both scorelines are reversed, in performances that fully merit the scores, making it three wins out of five against top six teams this season.

(It may have been four but for Johnny Russell's late goal for Derby in August. No wonder Aitor was angry.)

In many ways, I believed Brighton to be 2015-16's Championship Bournemouth: South Coast Underdogs turned Top Dogs who seemed to regularly get the right result at the right time, with the added bonuses of an attacking style and some players who can really make a difference, including a talented Wilson up front.

A closer inspection will tell you the similarities stop there: where the Cherries scored by the bucket load, the Seagulls hadn't won by more than a single goal and had drawn too many.

Furthermore, Boro arrived at the Amex with a hugely impressive recent record at the stadium: three consecutive victories prior to Saturday, with one goal conceded.

Still, those were no reasons to take Brighton lightly. Chris Hughton's spirited side have, at least so far, shown themselves to be more than up to keeping pace with the other promotion challengers. Their until-recently-unbeaten league record is testament to this.

It was an occasion that called for organisation, creativity and ruthlessness from the men in red. All three qualities were present in the performance, the perfect table-topping Christmas present for Boro fans.

Even at 3-0 up, and with his currently unemployed mentor watching in the stands, Karanka had undoubtedly drilled a "no slacking" mindset into the team, his determination to keep yet another clean sheet passing through to them once more.

Every time, when one Boro defender slipped up, another player was ready to clear, tackle or bring the ball out in his place.

For a clean sheet is a statement of three C's – command, comfort and confidence. The less goals you concede, the more results you will get, and the more confidence will build, encouraging more openness in your play.

And there was plenty of that on Saturday. The first goal was as good as any Boro team goal I've seen this year, a string of passes featuring intelligent link play and off-the-ball movement along with individual skill from Adam Clayton and Albert Adomah.

It seemed a given that the hungry and eager-to-prove-a-point Kike would convert Adomah's cross. He later provided a cross of his own, converted by Cristhian Stuani. A resurgence worth celebrating, although we might not be celebrating it at all but for David Nugent's recent moment of madness. But that's football; one player's absence opens the door for another to surprise us all.

More surprising still was that Boro looked like they were doing a Typical Boro to Brighton! That is to say, it was not Boro, but Brighton who choked when the opportunity to establish themselves at the top presented itself, conceding at the worst possible times. All their possession simply didn't, or couldn't, matter.

With Emilio Nsue, Diego Fabbrini, Clayton and especially the imperious Dani Ayala all having notable cracks at goal, you felt Boro could score from anywhere, any time.

But perhaps most commendable was the way Karanka organised the "attacking three" behind the lone front man.

Kike, or Nugent, plays as a combination of a “False 9” and an actual number 9; that is to say, someone who can hold up the ball and run for the team, in addition to scoring goals. A true team player.

Sometimes, however, too much is demanded of the No. 9, to the point where he may be too exhausted to take the chances that come his way.

In my view, AK got around this at Brighton by playing Stewart Downing in his now favoured No. 10 role, giving Downing and Adam Clayton the freedom to pass the ball around in attack while Grant Leadbitter shielded the backline.

The offensive flanks, meanwhile, were nicely balanced: one orthodox winger to take on defenders and cross, one "supply striker" to carry the ball forward and cut inside if need be. Stuani was very good at this, especially on the break; his powerful presence on the right allowed Kike to move around accordingly in the area. By Kike's substitution, on the hour mark, they looked to have formed a good understanding.

If you then go with John Powls' theory from late November, that Nugent can be effective on the left, you have two options of a well balanced flank, with Adomah moving to his natural right in that case. Even if Adomah's not available, there's always Nsue; and with Tomas Kalas still around and with injured players to return, there will be plenty of cover at right-back.

That's all very well. But there is still room for improvement as we approach the transfer window. The idea of two wingers on the flanks as a game changing option is still tantalising: will AK recall Adam Reach or Yanic Wildschut while Carlos De Pena continues to settle in? And if he does, how will they adapt?

But that's for another time.

For now, Happy Holidays... and Up The Boro!

(Originally published online at the Teesside Gazette on December 23, 2015.) Read more...

Why Boro Can't Let Rivals' Results Affect Them

If I could have posed a question to Aitor Karanka at this week's press conference, it would have been this.

"At this stage of the season, do you let our rivals' results and playing styles affect you personally, or do you remain wholly focused on the job in hand at all times?"

It is a question, I feel, that needs to be asked in relation to the frustration that surely enters many a Boro fan's mind when our promotion rivals' win at the most irritating of times, in a manner we seem incapable of emulating.

Under Karanka we have regularly seen fit to either win matches by taking the lead or not win them at all, while our competitors appear to either blast away teams with a swagger or pull impossible escapes out of the bag when they have looked set to lose.

Last season we managed four goals against Charlton and Blackpool at home. Watford managed three times as many. We also strolled to a 2-0 win over Birmingham, only for Bournemouth to mercilessly quadruple that tally at St. Andrews.

And when they went 2-0 down to the Blues at home later in the season, we must have thought we'd gain some valuable ground on them. Then Callum Wilson and his penalty winning "skills" bailed them out.

Something similar happened last Saturday for Brighton against Charlton - two goals in the last ten minutes turned around a 2-1 deficit just when Boro thought it was safe to assume top spot would still be theirs.

Cue potential hurt and disappointment, brought upon by another team enjoying the position of leadership that we would love to be enjoying ourselves.

How hard done by we repeatedly feel when a commanding position is snatched from our grasp by external forces. It's a Typical Boro thing.

"If they can be that exciting and dramatic, why can't we?", we may ask.

But, despite the scoreline and the way everything unfolded, I don't believe Brighton's win was all that different from Boro's, in a way.

Like ourselves, Brighton were given the chance to bounce back from a below par first half, and in the second half, they kept knocking at the door until class told, although playing against ten men helped.

I am aware that an apples to apples comparison can't be made here, as, with due respect to the Addicks, an away fixture against Ipswich is a much sterner test than a home fixture against Charlton these days.

I am merely suggesting that we need not be discouraged by how our rivals win when everything is still there to be won.

The race to join the Premiership has been very topsy-turvy so far, and will continue to be so.

Furthermore, those who score lots of goals don't always win. What did Brendan Rodgers' swashbuckling Liverpool of 2014 have to show for their efforts?

The key, I think, is to keep the pressure on everyone until it is mathematically impossible to succeed. In 1998, we didn't think Sunderland could throw away a four point advantage over Boro. But they did. And Bryan Robson's men built their success on - wait for it - a solid defence.

Perhaps it is not so much about relying on other results as laying down the gauntlet, a challenge, to our rivals. A "we've won, and won well, so let's see if you can do better" mentality.

We aren't going to win every game. And neither are they.

That's something to be remembered as we now look to build upon our superb second half display at Ipswich by giving the Blues the blues. Something we can do, and do well - because that's what AKBoro at their best are all about. Read more...

Boro Are Looking Stronger Than Ever... But A Little More Magic Wouldn't Go Amiss

As the final whistle blew at Hillsborough nearly a fortnight ago, ending a hoodoo stretching back six years, my attention turned to the man-of-the-match performance of Aitor Karanka's Mr. Reliable, Daniel Ayala.

Towards the end of last season he brought a tear to the eye for both good and bad reasons – against the same opponents. Directly after a Carrow Road victory that would do more harm than good in the long run, it was impossible not to admire Ayala's progress under Karanka.

Once upon a time, he had been erratic, inconsistent and temperamental. Now he was a tower of strength, an indisputable force. (So too, incidentally, was Fernando Amorebieta in his brief substitute appearance, which is why Karanka's re-signing of him pleases me. Although I don't know what that means for Dael Fry. Maybe AK still wants him under the radar?)

That was just one of a series of consistently excellent performances from Ayala in 2014-15. Unfortunately, one tends not to be remembered for the quantity disappointing showings, no shows or mistakes, but the quality. When Ayala slipped up, it just happened to be in the play-off final at Wembley, and the one time he was beaten in the air at Derby this season, it led to an equaliser from the home side.

It's possible that AK couldn't turn on his protege, so he turned on Albert Adomah: one of many things that led to Albertgate. Although hopefully that's all water under the bridge now Adomah's back in training this week. We'll have to wait and see.

But any fears that Albertgate might wear the team down against Sheffield Wednesday were unfounded. UTB, aka Up The Boro, became UBK, aka United Behind Karanka, as Boro pulled together and produced the away performance of the season so far.

Naturally, there were pre-match grumblings. Why Adam Reach? Why is Muzzy Carayol being sent out on loan again? Why can't AK and Albert just work out their differences? Why is Christian Stuani playing on the right wing (even though he has played there for Uruguay)? Why Emilio Nsue, not Tomas Kalas? And so on.

But those issues shouldn't have mattered, and ultimately didn't. What mattered was that the players Karanka put out on the pitch had a job to do, and they went out there and did it well. Kike, Reach, Stuani, Diego Fabbrini, Stewart Downing, David Nugent and every other red shirted player on the pitch all stood up to be counted, exhibiting a strength in depth that was amplified with another cracking cameo from Adam Forshaw.

Ah yes. Adam Forshaw. I'm sure many will be hoping that Karanka “comes to his senses” and starts him in place of either Grant Leadbitter or Adam Clayton in the next game. And I personally admit that it would be good to see him given a start against MK Dons. But I'm also aware that many were clamouring for Reach to be given more games under Tony Mowbray when virtually all we knew him for were those Reachy Rockets. We may want to see more of the Frys and Forshaws at the expense of more established players, but AK will be all too aware of the danger of getting ahead of ourselves.

He'll also be aware that we have hardly had the most consistent opening to this campaign, despite a record that pretty much mirrors that of 1997-98's first five league matches: two wins, two draws, one defeat and seven goals, with the defeat at home to an unheralded side (for Bristol City today, read Stoke City back then).

Then again, it is arguable that consistency can be over-rated in some ways.

As Len Masterman has said on Untypical Boro, fear of failure, or making mistakes, is damaging to creativity. Over-emphasis on control and the right result at all costs runs the risk of nullifying spontaneity, mystery and imagination.

Take the record-breaking Wayne Rooney. He may have been scoring goals regularly for years, and may continue to score them regularly. But what happened to those eye-popping runs, jaw dropping finishes and game-changing moments that briefly had numerous punters and pundits believing they'd seen the English Pele?

We will always welcome consistency (there's that word again) and teamwork, yet it is football's unpredictabilities, even its frustrating imperfections, that make the sport, those who play it and the clubs we follow what they are. It's what separates the Adam Claytons of this world from the Diego Fabbrinis and Lee Tomlins: we will always admire the former, but with the latter, there will always be the chance that you'll see something you won't quite believe.

This is why I wholeheartedly applaud the arrival of Carlos De Pena.

He looks like a genuine "wild card", the relatively unknown joker in the pack who might just turn a game or amaze us all with a pass, turn, shot, dummy or cross. Or maybe all five.

He's given us another reason to look forward to Saturday: the possibility that there might be a little more magic on the pitch.

And for that, I am exceptionally grateful.

Up The Boro! Read more...

Raised Expectations May Be Boro's Biggest Problem

Anthony "Paulista Park" McCarthy, one of the great contributors to Untypical Boro's comments section - joining such luminaries as Len Masterman, Werdermouth, Redcar Red and Nikeboro - made the cutting statement that "Karanka is Mourinho lite, Boro are a Diet Chelsea", before the season began.

It's a comment that may have been a little extreme, but it was effective in bluntly highlighting Boro's strengths and deficiencies in nine words.

Really, it seemed more a warning of what was to come if Boro didn't sharpen up over the course of 2015-16.

Now, having read Sunday Times journalist Jonathan Northcroft's match report and column on Manchester United's draw with Newcastle United, I ask myself another question: is Aitor Karanka, love him though we do, displaying elements of a Championship Van Gaal?

In analysing the United game, Northcroft concluded that United's class of 2015-16 have many positives: a solid defence, an organised midfield, and tactics and passing worthy of controlling games. But he also wrote that "teams who want to win titles, or finish in the top four even, need surer ways of turning the good things they do into goals."

The gist of his match report, and Newcastle's defensive showing, threw light on United's predictability and rigidity, hinting that United needed more pace and variation, or opponents would "get too used to them".

I got uncomfortable deja vu reading those words.

Northcroft may as well have been talking about Boro in the Championship: like United in the Premiership, we appear to have an enviable amount of attacking resources to go with a solid defence and organised midfield at this level. But, apart from the first half against Bolton: to what end?

We have only conceded two goals in four league games, but two very crucial goals they have turned out to be. Take them out of the equation, toss in one converted chance against Bristol City, and we may well have had 10 points from 12 instead of five. Fine margins indeed.

I wasn't actually alarmed at the last starting line-up, despite Tomas Kalas' unease at centre-back. He had Daniel Ayala alongside him, after all, and the same back four, with Emilio Nsue in to (allegedly) provide extra attacking threat, had worked against Bolton.

Even the presence of Yanic Wildschut at Albert Adomah's expense didn't appear to be too much of a problem - his pace, and Stewart Downing's deliveries from the left flank, would surely provide plenty of opportunities for the goal-hungry Christian Stuani and David Nugent.

Then I found that AK had pigeonholed them into his traditional 4-2-3-1 formation with Stuani on the right wing, Downing in the centre and Wildschut on the left. Ouch.

But there were still enough good players out there on the pitch to defeat a winless Bristol City. Surely.

Except the Robins have established a reputation as regular Riverside party-poopers.

Joe Bryan's early strike made it three wins and three draws from six visits.

Another chance for AK to prove that his Boro did not need to take the lead first or establish control to win a match passed him by, in a virtual replay of last year's home encounter against Leeds; huffing, puffing, chances, a man-of-the-match performance by the opposition goalkeeper, but no goals for the home side.

The burden of being promotion favourites is clearly weighing heavily on Boro.

And the fear, again, is that if opposition sides can weather the opening (as Bolton didn't do, and as Bristol City did) get stuck in and prevent Boro from establishing a pattern of control, they will have at least a point to take home with them.

It's worse for Boro if the opposition nick an early goal and derail their host's big plans, as Leeds, Reading and now Bristol City have done in the course of a year.

The home team's entire mentality is burdened by pressure and panic, especially if they don't equalise soon: what initially looks like a commanding walk in the park becomes all about damage reparation, a question of whether or not the team is strong enough to mentally and physically adapt.

It really is psychological, isn't it? And it's telling, I think, that none of our promotion rivals last season quite felt the pressure like Boro do now.

Bournemouth had never played in the Premiership, Watford had never established themselves in the Premiership, and Norwich had parachute payments, Premier League experience and the hot young manager of the moment.

Karanka may yet be "hot" again, but his ways are no longer "new". And the backdrop of recent prosperous history in the Premier League – more than a decade of cup finals, big names, European runs and a cup win – strongly lingers in the Boro psyche.

Furthermore, having believed that we had finally found a coach to break the Typical Boro curse, we find ourselves experiencing it all over again. It is upsetting.

To think that, when Boro were 1-0 up and seemingly on their way to victory at Derby, we were all singing about AK. A matter of footballing minutes later and there are mutterings about tactical cluelessness.

Please! I know what AK was doing against Bristol City didn't seem logical, but on the other hand, whoever said football was logical?

Big Jack Charlton fielded four centre backs, placed the legendary playmaker Ronnie Whelan at left full-back, and won 1-0 with Ireland at Hampden Park. Sometimes things work out, sometimes they don't.

Maybe there's logic to Karanka's rotation. Maybe he wants to keep opposing sides guessing, or take full advantage of squad depth.

That's all very well, except that rotation can create unsettling friction amongst our own players. And AK may also find, as he did last season, that too many gifted individuals want to play in similar areas.

While it's easy to say this in hindsight, playing Lee Tomlin and Patrick Bamford on the wing ultimately stifled Boro's class of 2014-15. No matter how well Jelle Vossen worked with Kike or Bamford, having all those centrally minded players on the pitch at once left Boro lacking in attacking width.

So how will AK approach our upcoming visit to Hillsborough? Bring back what worked well against Bolton? Perhaps. Obviously the cup win against Burton Albion will have given AK ideas; it will have been a learning experience, for better or worse.

It'll have to be. Because if we fail to achieve our end-of-season goals, it will not be because of recent dropped points. It will be because we didn't learn from our foibles, vices and mistakes while the chance was still there.

So let's get it right next time. Shall we?

Up The Boro!

(Originally published at GazetteLive on August 25, 2015. For my thoughts on the Albert Adomah situation, click here.) Read more...

Brilliant Boro Can Leave Derby In A Daze

On Saturday afternoon, thousands of football fans marched into the Riverside Stadium with a relatively newly-titled match day programme in their hands.

For this year we have said goodbye to Red Square and hello to #UTB, and there was certainly no square fare by the banks of the Tees as brilliant Boro battered bemused Bolton in a manner that already suggests that it will be a case of Up The Boro in 2015-16 – to the Premiership, that is.

The terrified Trotters were no match for the stylish craft of an absolutely Fab Fabbrini, as Deadly Diego enhanced his already blossoming reputation as a Boro cult hero with a genuinely curtain-raising long range strike before laying two further goals on a plate for the unfairly-maligned Enrique Garcia Martinez, aka Kike.

Three goals, three points, a clean sheet and home debuts for both Christian Stuani and David Nugent. It really doesn't get more promising or tantalising than this. What a pity that Channel 5's Football League Tonight, aka The Football League Show with adverts and a more showbizzy spin (yes, I'm already not fond of it) could only spare around thirty seconds for our heroes.

Some will understandably point out that the win was against a very poor Bolton side, but you can only beat who you are playing against. And the importance of passing your first big test in front of your own fans can never, ever be underestimated. Gordon Strachan will tell you that: remember when his “title hopefuls” limply collapsed to Ipswich on the opening day of 2010-11? Within weeks Boro were hovering outside the drop zone, he was out of a job, and it took time before Tony Mowbray's rescue operation restored everyone's confidence.

Opening league wins can be misleading, but they can also set the pattern for what to expect for the season. The latter is far more likely, with the Boro squad looking stronger than it ever previously has under Aitor Karanka.

The challenge now is, of course, to maintain the positivity both on the pitch and off it. With that I turn to the much harder test of Derby County away from home.

Paul Clement's side will know all about promotion heartbreak. An undeserved loss to QPR in the 2014 play-off final was followed by a season in which Steve McClaren's men all too often looked like they couldn't not go up. Similar to Boro then, although at least we had a play-off place and final to show for our efforts in 2015, while they ended up with nothing.

Hence they will be even hungrier to put things right this time, despite a rather dodgy start to the season. And the question now is: what starting eleven will AK pick to combat Clement's?

Up front seems to provide the biggest dilemma, with Kike providing the most recent goals (form), Christian Stuani arguably the greatest physicality (fitness) and David Nugent the largest price tag (reputation and talent). It's a real head scratcher, but logic suggests that strikers thrive best on form, meaning that AK should start with Kike again and keep his other two front men in reserve.

With Albert Adomah, Fabbrini and Stewart Downing all having exceptional games against Bolton, the attacking midfield trio should pick itself, and I believe the dual defensive shield, regardless of how much it may stifle our own creativity, should remain in place to contain Derby's attacking threat. It worked well last season, after all; we had two wins and two clean sheets against the Rams to show for it.

What might not work so well is the presence of Emilio Nsue at right back instead of Tomas Kalas, regardless of how well he and Adomah linked up at the weekend. I'm aware that the absence of Dael Fry from the starting line-up at Nsue's expense raised more than a handful of eyebrows on Saturday – including mine – as Nsue is not renowned for his physicality. The fear is that the best sides in the Championship, and Derby are certainly one of him, will have him for breakfast on their home turf.

Fry, on the other hand, looks like a truly remarkable defensive talent. When watching him at Preston I saw elements of a teenage Daniel Ayala – a good header of the ball with strong positional sense who is sharp in the tackle and reads the game well, even though his ball-playing skills have yet to fully develop. He seems a defensive rarity, the sort who complements a similarly inclined partner rather than imbalances him.

He also looks extremely keen to prove he is ready. We must be equally keen to remind him that it's early days. AK will also be aware of the attention the young man has been receiving from Manchester United scouts and will surely be keen to keep him under the radar.

What to do, then? Play Fry again and use Kalas to keep the right flank tight? Or move Kalas to the centre again, giving Ayala the extra physical presence that a fit Ben Gibson would provide, while having faith in Nsue to come good away from home?

So many questions, so little time. Here's to AK and the players finding the right answers, and getting the right result, tonight.

Up The Boro!

(Originally published online at GazetteLive on August 17, 2015.) Read more...

The Centre Of The Park And The Team's Ability To Adapt Under Pressure Will Decide Boro's Season

The opening week of 2015-16 has seen a series of Tales Of The Unexpected on Planet Boro.

Unexpected results, for those of us who expected a walk in the park at Deepdale.

Unexpected depth, as a virtual second string side, despite a few scrapes here and there, strolled to a commanding victory at Oldham Athletic in the League Cup.

And, most pleasingly of all, unexpected heroes, with the Italian Diego ( Maradona? Yes, we'd like to believe you, Albert, but you're overdoing it ) Fabbrini and the Uruguayan Christian Stuani emerging as new stars, along with the increasingly confident Dael Fry and the understatedly classy Jack Stephens.

It's all about circumstance.

Had injuries, a long, drawn out saga with Venky's and typical cup rotation not intervened, we may well have been appreciating the defensive versatility of Alex Baptiste, the continuing maturity of Ben Gibson, and the old-new attacking duo of Stewart Downing and Jordan Rhodes.

The Prodigal Son - newly reinvented as a playmaker - and Blackburn's star striker were billed as the answer to Boro's troubling lack of a cutting edge, which many believed short circuited last year's promotion charge.

All the talk was about Downing and much of it was about Rhodes, or at least another striker – the latest being new signing David Nugent – before the campaign officially began.

Now, the question we, and Aitor Karanka, find ourselves asking is: where will they fit in?

Necessity, as it has been wont to do with many a classic film on a tight budget, can bring out creativity.

Of course, one can't look too deeply into a cup win at Oldham, but the bravery, composure, spontaneity and drive of Fabbrini, Fry, Stuani, Adam Forshaw and Yanic Wildschut cannot help but fill one with belief.

Men who don't feel hung over from Wembley. Men not burdened by hype and hysteria. Men with points to prove.

And so far, they are proving them. The Oldham win was one of those instances where the manner of the victory can exceed the importance of the victory itself.

It also provides vindication, in a way, for Karanka's experimental rotation policy, and makes a case for choosing players on fitness and form rather than pedigree and talent.

But is it experimentation, or adaptation?

With that in mind, I rewind the clock even further, to the very start of Karanka's reign as Boro manager.

In his very early days, AK turned to Tony Mowbray's wingers and “magic men” for inspiration once he had put the solid foundations that would become KarankaBoro's trademark in place.

It's often forgotten that the now out-of-favour Muzzy Carayol scored five times in AK's first six away league games, while the flickering presence that was Emmanuel Ledesma enjoyed a brief spell as Boro's totem.

Opposition sides caught on and kept the flanks tight while Ledesma faded, forcing AK to adapt for the first time.

The painful Boro Nil period disheartened fans but developed the squad, with the manager encouraging the wide men to enhance their all around footballing abilities while building attacks through the middle, with Nathaniel Chalobah, Jacob Butterfield, Lee Tomlin and Danny Graham the new central point of the team's attack.

The eventual result was six wins in the final eight league games, setting Boro up nicely for the much better season that would follow.

Of course, not everyone has fully appreciated Karanka's ways.

While it's inarguable that Adam Clayton, Downing, Kike and Stuani are upgrades on Butterfield, Tomlin and Graham, AK's “safety first” methodology has seen fans looking enviously at Bournemouth's fearless attacking strategy, even going as far to wish we played like Eddie Howe's cheery Cherries.

And were we to look back at the closing days of Mogga's ultimately failed reign, we would see a Boro side that came from behind to beat Yeovil convincingly, that nearly clawed back a 3-0 deficit against Barnsley, and would have turned around a 0-2 scoreline to beat Bournemouth had it not been for a late own goal.

Never mind that the wounds in all three matches were obviously self-inflicted, and both Barnsley and Yeovil would be relegated by season's end.

The fantasy – that Mogga's “magic formula” only needed a little bit of tinkering – seems easy to go with in hindsight.

The reality is more complicated.

Like Southgate's Arsenal-lite plan, no amount of positive thinking, hard work, dominant spells of play and magic moments could mask the fact that Boro largely looked vulnerable under both managers.

I enjoyed watching the free-scoring Albert, Tomlinho's turns and Jacob's crackers as much as anyone, but there was never enough evidence to suggest that all three players would thrive on the big stage when it mattered most.

Those who wanted us to be more like bubbling Bournemouth in 2014-15 missed the point entirely. It wasn't so much the amount of goals and match-winning moments that saw Boro fall short last season as when and where they happened, or didn't happen.

For example, when Tomlin really showed the full range of his talents, it was under no pressure, in a game Boro had been expected to lose beforehand. At Bournemouth, Watford and Wembley, games which could have made all the difference, he was nowhere to be seen.

It is why I fully encourage the arrival of the hard-working Fabbrini and the return of Downing and the re-introduction of Wildschut in place of Tomlin and possibly Adam Reach. A combination of commitment, craft and pace combined in place of relatively periodic creativity.

Completing the midfield package is the development of Adomah under Karanka, which reached fruition with the award of the captain's armband in midweek. His pass from deep to set Wildschut away for the opening goal against Oldham was a joy to watch.

This, for me, is how Boro's fate this season will be decided – not up front, but in midfield. If there's one lesson that can definitely be learned from Eddie Howe, it's that however potent your strike force is, or isn't, midfield is a great source of goals and the prime source of invention. Especially in the Championship.

How we perform against Bolton will depend on how expressive the midfield chosen by Karanka is, or is allowed to be. Whether or not they can adapt accordingly at the right time, and whether or not they can deal with the pressure of being overwhelming favourites in the first home game of the season.

I believe they can. And I'm looking forward to seeing how they rise to the challenge – as I'm sure you are.

(The original version of this piece was published online at GazetteLive on August 14, 2015.) Read more...

Wembley Heartbreak Must Be A Springboard For Greater Achievements

One of the biggest challenges any football person – be he or she a fan, a writer, a player, a manager or a chairperson – faces, after a season packed to the brim with what if's, if only's and happy memories ends on what feels like the saddest note of them all, is this: how do you regroup, recharge and brace yourself for the task that lies ahead, knowing that everything that's happened could be just as spirit-crushing as revitalising?

I was as devastated as any of you when Mike Dean got ready to blow the final whistle on both the play-off final and Boro's hopes of promotion in 2014-15. For what seemed like quite a while, I sat there with my head in my hands, and not a word was spoken or written as I came to terms with the harsh reality of a season that promised everything ultimately amounting to nothing.

But I am prioritising reflection over sentiment. I cannot, and I will not, dwell on near misses, stories of injustice and hard luck stories. They happen for every club. Everything adds up over the course of a season. It would be far too easy to point fingers at the two defeats to rivals Leeds that were hardly deserved, the dropped points against Blackburn, or two points out of twelve, and a solitary goal, against the two automatically promoted teams.

You could just as easily point to the one point from four games against Sheffield Wednesday and Reading. There is no guarantee that Boro would have gone up automatically had they taken six points, not two, from the Blackburn games. Nor is it certain that Boro would have gotten all the right results if Daniel Ayala, and later Patrick Bamford, hadn't succumbed to injury. Teams adjust and try to improve according to their rivals' results, their own disappointing results, and their own injuries. That's football.

It comes down to how one looks at it. Some may look back on the season as a whole and acknowledge that Boro were simply found wanting when it mattered most, that they just fell short at the final hurdle against superior opposition. Others may refuse to accept that Boro's class of 2014-15 were simply not good enough to win promotion, let alone the Championship, however attainable both aims may have once seemed.

Yet the fact is, painful though it is to admit it, Alex Neil's Norwich made Boro look ordinary. And for those who believed that there was no way Boro could not go up after that Jolly January, that was an extremely bitter pill to swallow. The season's magnificent memories, which were aplenty, were temporarily replaced by something akin to the post-Eindhoven hangover, a year's work seemingly wiped out in a matter of minutes, the brave Boro heroes being outclassed, out fought and outplayed.

The hidden fear of Aitor Karanka's over reliance on composure, control and clean sheets exploded into a plodding and painful reality on a Bank Holiday Monday. It was a problem evident from the very beginning of the season. As far back as Boro's 1-0 defeat to Leeds last August, the team had exhibited a preference for stylishly imposing a platform of dictation on their way to victory. Later on in the season, early goals, extremely stingy defending, or both, would tend to lead to memorable wins.

All of those things were on display at Wembley – from the team in yellow! Sebastian Bassong was everything Daniel Ayala normally is and a little bit more, a tower of strength with great positional sense and a muscular build. Ayala himself will be remembered for the wrong reasons, his gamble on Mike Dean awarding a free kick that never game horribly backfiring. Whether Dean was wrong or not is irrelevant. Footballers have a responsibility to play to the whistle, and Ayala didn't, opening the door for a slightly unexpected Cameron Jerome opener and a heartbreaking second from Nathan Redmond not long after.

We hoped that the team would summon the Spirit Of Steaua, that they would adapt to such unexpected setbacks. But this wasn't Brentford, Huddersfield or Blackpool. This was a Norwich side with plenty of Premiership experience, who had learned their lessons from losing twice to Boro in the league. They repeatedly marked in trios or quartets, squeezing the penetration out of Boro's passing and skilfully cutting off all supply to an isolated Patrick Bamford.

Boro had built a reputation on making strong attacks, especially Manchester City's, virtually redundant by not allowing them the time and space to do their thing, draining their confidence and gleefully poking holes in their defence. What felt most painful of all was Norwich's reversal of the roles: to put it simply, Alex Neil's side did a Boro on Boro.

Once again we had learnt the hard way that things were all well and good until Boro played a team good enough or pacy enough to rough them out of their rhythm, to upset their mentality. Heretical though this sounds, the tag of Boro's Clean Sheet Kings was both a blessing and a curse. We weren't so commanding when we didn't keep a clean sheet or didn't score the first goal.

We now face 2015-16 in a less certain state of mind. Everyone now knows how to play Boro. The stock of both the manager and certain players has risen; hungry vultures may be gearing up to swoop and put a spanner in Boro's works. Bamford, Dean Whitehead and Ryan Fredericks have already gone, and more will surely follow.

I can hear the voices. “Like Liverpool last year, we may never get a better chance than this to succeed...”, “We only had to draw against Watford and Bournemouth...”, “We've underachieved...”

Wait, hang on. “Underachieved”?

Looking at the final match of the season from another point-of-view suggests that Boro might have, in fact, overachieved a little. We actually have plenty to be proud of, as the Gazette writers and my fellow bloggers have rightly pointed out.

Behind the gloss of being managed by The Special One's Apprentice and attracting some big names of the future, albeit on loan, it should also be remembered that Aitor Karanka is only in his first full season, and the majority of most of the squad's experience is in the Football League. Being shown up as a slower and more ponderous version of Norwich during one game simply suggests something that Karanka may have known all along: pace was never going to be Boro's strongest point, so he prioritised faith, work rate, organisation, power, placement and control. True, we also lacked width and spontaneity, but there is nothing to suggest that these can't be worked upon in the close season.

Remember too that Boro's was the best defensive model in the division. That's “defensive model”, not just “defence.” By sticking to this blueprint, Boro will retain the foundations for a promotion campaign no matter who remains in charge of the Riverside. Or who plays.

A properly prepared model is everything. It took Southampton seven years to return to the top flight, but along with Swansea, they are arguably enjoying the most consistent level of success out of all the teams promoted to the Premier League since 2010. This despite a relatively frequent changeover of managerial and playing personnel.

What Boro proved in 2014-15, and Karanka would surely agree with this, is that they were almost, but not quite, good enough for promotion. It is time for Boro to appreciate their achievements and push on rather than lament on a “near-miss”. For appreciation encourages improvement, and the chance for Boro to expand the methods that have served them so well recently into something more expressive. That way, the season will not be thought of as a missed opportunity, but a learning experience.

Here's to that. And Up The Boro!

(Originally published online at GazetteLive on June 4, 2015.) Read more...

The Final Countdown... Keys To Success At Wembley For Aitor Karanka's Lads

Boro's big day, perhaps the biggest of all, is getting nearer, hour by hour, minute by minute. The nerves and excitement inside every fan of this proud football club are rising to what must breaking point as the £120 million Wembley challenge approaches.

The Championship Play-Off Final. It hasn't been as big as this for Boro since, well, the UEFA Cup Final in Eindhoven, and that was nearly a decade ago. Time really waits for no one. At once we are equally fearful and equally cheerful ahead of a match that does not seem more equally balanced than this.

We are facing a Norwich side managed by Alex Neil, the 33-year-old Championship managerial darling of the moment. The Canaries have not lost a single game away from home throughout his reign. And there's no such thing as Typical Norwich. While Boro may well feel burdened by years of historical near misses, Neil's men claim to be treating this like any other game, as if there is no pressure on them whatever happens. A 20% success rate in cup finals post-1995 doesn't exactly bode well for Boro either, with Cardiff in 2004 being an exception rather than the rule.

But, as my friend and fellow Boro fan Paul Ahdal has pointed out, Norwich have failed to score against Boro this season, both league games ending in 4-0 (albeit under Neil Adams) and 1-0 (albeit rather unluckily) Boro victories respectively. Additionally, Norwich's Nathan Redmond has labelled both wins "lucky", stating that his club have the better players. Perfect motivation for Aitor Karanka, who has shown, time and time again, that he doesn't do Typical Boro.

And as for Neil... the question remains. Is he truly a brilliant manager or is he simply riding the crest of a wave, basking in the glow of a honeymoon period that a top notch Championship squad have contributed to? Memories of how Stuart Pearce very nearly guided Manchester City into Europe at Boro's expense in 2005 come to mind; although Boro had been in the driving seat for much of the season, as they have been this season, Pearce's City found the right, revitalising momentum at just the right time to take the battle right to the wire. Less a case of managerial magic and more of a team unified behind the cause, if you ask me.

Boro approach Wembley with a bit of both, in the perfect state of mind to take on their formidable Championship challengers. Here, in my view, are a "magnificent" seven keys to Boro succeeding tomorrow.

MAKING ATMOSPHERE COUNT. As the Gazette's Anthony Vickers has put it, we don't want another Eindhoven where a day's worth of partying and drinking left Boro fans outsung by the Sevilla fans in the stand. And Boro's team were ruthlessly outfought and outclassed by Juande Ramos's side. We simply can't let that happen again.

We're not going to get a Giants Stadium circa 1994, where the first round match between Ireland and Italy in New York saw observers feast their eyes on a cascade of green with Italians nowhere to be seen. But we've got to try. We've got to make our voices heard tomorrow for the right reasons. And judging by what I've seen in photos from Trafalgar Square tonight, we can do it.

JELLE VOSSEN. The Belgian's goals, or lack of them in contrast to goalden boy Patrick Bamford, have become secondary to his value as a supply striker. His persistence and good footwork is the perfect compliment to either Bamford or Kike. If Vossen and one of Boro's two other forwards combines well, Boro will play well.

LEE TOMLIN. Like the Brazilian Ronaldo, he has been mocked for being overweight. But "Tomlinho" is a man for the biggest stages of all - his turn at the Etihad and his brilliantly taken strike in the semi-final second leg are proof of this - and more miracles are possible.

THE SPINE. Dimi Konstantopoulos. Daniel Ayala. Ben Gibson. Grant Leadbitter. Adam Clayton. The central players, the engines of the side, the inspirations to all of those around them are the main reason why Boro have had such a mean defensive record this season. Their ability to keep things tight and keep things ticking over while the likes of Albert Adomah, Tomlin, Vossen, Kike, Bamford or even Adam Reach do their magic will be paramount. And let's not forget George Friend either....

DOING IT FOR MOGGA. It's easy to forget that nine of the fourteen players who played against Brentford in our last match were either signed or developed by Tony Mowbray and Mark Venus; the local heroes' invaluable contribution to the Karankanaut should not be cast aside. If that can't help inspire the lads on the pitch tomorrow to "do it for Teesside", I don't know what can.

KIKE. I know that the temptation to recall Patrick Bamford will bein Karanka's mind, but I genuinely think that allowing the £2.7 million signing to keep his place will be his best bet. While Bamford is only just recovering from an injury and has not scored since the 2-1 win over Wolves, Kike is fit, firing and surely in the mood to do more damage after that beautifully taken goal against Brentford. Mood defines many a striker's momentum; I think starting Kike is a risk worth taking.

THE CORRECT PSYCHOLOGICAL MENTALITY. Boro have already shown that they can adapt to going a goal down. But the final battle in this long war will surely be psychological. Here's why.

Back in January, at the Etihad, Boro were able to adopt a "Nothing To Lose, Everything To Win" mentality. With less pressure of expectation, the team were less inhibited, and simply focused on going out there and giving it their best. They knew that there was something to fall back on even in defeat, and, once they realised Manchester City were there for the taking, both belief and composure enhanced, paving the way for a deserved triumph.

Tomorrow, the expectations will be much higher in an atmosphere of no second chances, an atmosphere with big prizes of enhanced status and much more money at stake. As a certain Nigel once put it on Anthony Vickers' UntypicalBoro blog, it is a situation where "all we have to win" becomes "all we have to lose".

And, as he added, such negativity can drain the power from players, filling them with uncertainty and damaging the team pattern. This, in turn, transmits itself to the crowd, who are weighed down by the prospect of ending up as The Nearly Men.

Boro can't let this happen to them at Wembley.

And, knowing both Aitor Karanka and the team, they won't. There is enough of a positively charge around to suggest that this gifted coach and his well-organised charges are truly up to the task ahead of them tomorrow.

Need I say I'm now looking forward to it?

Here's to a wonderful Wembley experience.

Up The Boro! Read more...

Boro No Longer Beaten By Fear... Just In Time For Wembley

Ahead of what feels like Boro's biggest game since the Riverside Stadium opened, perhaps ever, I find myself recalling Boro's previous visit to the capital, that fateful Saturday afternoon at Craven Cottage where Boro nearly hauled back a two goal deficit, but where the team's title tilt, as The Sunday Times put it, was ultimately left in tatters.

I have concluded that the reason why Boro were sadly but deservedly beaten to the automatic promotion places by Bournemouth and Watford was not because we had a worse squad or lesser resources. Nor was it down to being more defensive, or even being less offensive.

Rather, Boro were too meticulously methodical.

Like a Championship version of Jose Mourinho's Chelsea, or Brendan Rodgers' Liverpool, too often Boro had to win their way – with an early goal, in control, a clean sheet, or maybe all three – or not at all, at least this season. Only once, at Bolton, have Boro come from behind to win a game in 2014-15.

The crazy second half of the game at Fulham was one of those rare occasions where Aitor Karanka's Boro threw all planning out the window and just went for it. Lose though the team did, it was neither for want of trying nor lack of proof that they could claw back deficits if need be. Boro may have lost both the game and their chance of automatic promotion, but they had gone down fighting. They had adapted when all seemed to have gone wrong.

And, to be frank, how welcome was that?

Karanka has done a magnificent job in leading us to fourth place in the Championship and the play-off final at Wembley. That cannot be doubted. And I would not be one to discredit his achievements or his presence, both invaluable assets to Middlesbrough Football Club.

Nonetheless, it must be pointed out that he appears the sort of manager who mostly, but not always, fears losing control. The kind who will take it particularly badly when his big match-winning plans are foiled.

This is not so apparent with Eddie Howe, Slavisa Jokanovic and even Alex Neil, who prefer to place the majority of their trust in the match-winning abilities of their players.

I don't discourage comfortable, controlled victories or ground out 1-0 wins. I enjoy them as much as anyone does. My joy at the final whistle of the second leg of the play-off semi-final against Brentford was proof of this.

But what happens when the team are not in control, or don't keep a clean sheet? It's a question I asked of Boro at the turn of the year, and they still haven't answered it often enough for my liking.

Not even in the super show against Brentford recently. Superb though the team were, and I will go on to applaud the performance later, that was as controlled a victory as they come.

This reminds me of why regular UntypicalBoro commenter Len Masterman, earlier in the season, couldn't help, as he put it, the heretical wish that we played like Eddie Howe's cheerful Cherries. In his words, Bournemouth were a team that made mistakes but played without fear, hence attaining a level of creativity and movement that surpassed Boro's. As Masterman says, fear of failure, of making mistakes, is death to any kind of creativity. And with Boro, all too often, fear of losing overtakes daring to win.

Hence the casting aside of Boro's inhibitions, previously seen at Blackpool and Fulham, and in the first leg of the play-off semi-final at Griffin Park, was both hugely welcome and timely.

The real reason to applaud Boro long and loud after the final whistle of the first leg was not for the pleasing return to the stingy, dogged defending of January's Clean Sheet Kings, stylishly replicated in the return leg at the Riverside also, but for the manner in which the team responded to conceding an unlikely equaliser. Not unlikely on the balance of play, but unlikely because, for all their possession, the Bees had rarely, truly stung Boro.

How easy would it have been for Boro to crumble after Dimi's mistake? How tempting would it have been for Albert Adomah, back to something resembling his best form just in time, to run into the corner and keep ball, in the knowledge that a 1-1 draw would have been a good result to take back to the Riverside?

Thankfully, both he, and Fernando Amorebieta, had other ideas.

The late, late goal was the net result of a raised tempo in Boro's game that had occurred from the very moment Andre Gray had scored; rather than fold, Boro had sprung back into life, knowing they could not now cruise to victory and had to fight for it.

And rather than induce complacency, this smash-and-grab victory was the platform from which Boro could dazzle us the following Friday in a packed Riverside. We #Believed, and the team responded on a heart-warming, spellbinding and unifying night as the right result was achieved in as accomplished a manner as we could have possibly hoped for.

No one will pretend the job is done, no matter how many statistics, particularly the 4-0 and 1-0 wins against Wembley opponents Norwich, point in Boro's favour. But Boro's latest generation of brave hearts and brave stars - for the future belongs not to the faint-hearted, but the brave - can deservedly travel to Wembley in the right frame of mind, having found their form and fearlessness at just the right time.

An amazing conclusion to a memorable season is well and truly on. Let's make it happen.

Up The Boro! And #Believe. Read more...

Gunned Down Boro Must Look Back Up

Let's start with a little trip down memory lane.

I still remember when a Boro fan from Stockton wrote into the now defunct football weekly 90 Minutes to state that the magazine ought to revise their prediction of 11th for the infamous class of 1996-97.

The fan was convinced that Curtis Fleming, Steve Vickers and Robbie Mustoe were quality players of the highest level (which is clearly overdoing it, love them though we do) and that Boro had earned the right to be classified as potential treble challengers (which was really overdoing it, love that though we would have).

Yet you couldn't blame him for getting excited. For he wrote that letter in the middle of September 1996, when we had recorded four straight victories, conceding just two goals and scoring a remarkable nineteen. Even if fifteen of those goals came against then fourth tier Hereford United and two struggling Premier League sides who would ironically survive at our expense.

Then, as 90 Minutes' reply put it, poor Vickers “gifted three points to the Arsenal” as Boro were comfortably swept away in a 2-0 defeat to the Gunners. Being the second highest scorers in the league with eleven goals at the Riverside had counted for little against a strong side who closed down our foreign legion brilliantly and poked holes in our defence. Struggling Southampton did the exact same at The Dell the following week and our league form began its downward spiral.

Something similar is extremely unlikely to happen today, particularly with our foundations being much stronger (albeit almost wholly in second tier football), but I couldn't help but get deja vu at the final whistle on Sunday. Marching into the Emirates on the back of SIX successive victories, with twelve scored, just three conceded and a great triumph at the home of the Premier League Champions in the bag, we had every reason to feel confident.

Perhaps overconfident. The talk in the run up to the game, especially from the broadsheets, was of Towering Totem Tomlinho taking down the Gunners and Aitor Karanka claiming another Premier League scalp. Now, no one's doubting Lee Tomlin's ability or his improvement under Karanka, but come on; one great turn and shot against City and he's suddenly England's Next Great Hope? Please.

It's easy to say in hindsight, but perhaps AK, Tomlin and Boro needed their bubble burst to put things in perspective and remind them that promotion really is the priority. And if one casts a more critical eye over that great Etihad victory, one will find that City were going through a barren spell of just one league win in six, with a home draw and a near home defeat against struggling Burnley and Hull respectively.

By contrast, since losing at Stoke in December, Arsenal had won ten out of thirteen league and cup games prior to facing Boro. Not that this would deter Boro - “so much for the form book” is an often-uttered cliché – but this in-form Arsenal team were an entirely different beast to an out-of-form City.

This was not Eastlands, where Boro were able to match City's patient, pressing passing game with extremely stingy defending, penetrating midfield breaks and moments of Tomlin magic. Hampered by additional and unwanted nerves stemming from increased expectations and a raised profile, Boro found themselves feeling the full force of Arsene Wenger's classy collective from the very first whistle.

Inspired by the brilliant Santi Cazorla, the Gunners burst out of the blocks at a high tempo and, once Olivier Giroud's brace had established their lead, comfortably saw the game out, threatening to add to their margin of victory through a mixture of calm possession and penetrative, visionary passing.

It felt like tiki-taka with a difference, a combination of playmakers and match-winners who dreamed to dare, and effectively silenced the opposition's own attack through graceful dictation rather than dogged defending. If Boro weren't a threat, it wasn't so much because they limply folded. It was more because their style of play and mentality were not geared to take the Gunners on at their own game.

Arsenal's calm assertion took its toll on the entire Boro team, barring the excellent Tomas Mejias. Tomlin was virtually invisible, and Jelle Vossen and Kike fared little better. Grant Leadbitter, Adam Clayton and Patrick Bamford were all negligible as attacking threats, with Bamford really feeling the pressure from having to repeatedly drop deep to try and win the ball.

Even Boro's central defensive pairing were not as impressive as we hoped they'd be, Kenneth Omeruo's wretched distribution and uneven positional sense casting a shadow over an otherwise determined display from the Nigerian.

To their credit, our flankers – particularly Ryan Fredericks, George Friend and substitute Adam Reach – battled gamely to inject life into a blunted Boro. Yet it was not Fredericks' cross and Kike's post-hitting header that lingered longest, but poor Albert Adomah's short run and shot that flew wide. He had tried, and failed, to recapture the Adomah of old, gradually left behind after AK reigned in the attacking instincts of our wide men in a successful bid to tighten us up.

Now, to a point, there's nothing wrong with that. Especially when it's part of a platform to contain opposition attacks and establish dictation. But what happens when the team comes up against a side with the sharpness to deny them control and the vision to pierce their back line? And what if you don't have the requisite pace to counter theirs? (Here's where AK gambling on Yanic Wildschut or Emilio Nsue might not have been such a bad bet.)

Another big question AK should ask his men is why, after having repeatedly proven themselves full of attacking options, Boro looked almost entirely out of ideas once Tomlin was snuffed out.

Yes, I know we were playing Arsenal in their own backyard. Yes, I know teams have off days. But that doesn't mean that the game can be just swept under the carpet as if it never happened. It's the “We got a bad result, but no problem, we'll get it right next time” attitude.

The team may very well get the right result next time. But that's not the point. The point is, the longer you paper over cracks, the more likely they are to come back and bite you in the proverbial... as Liverpool found out last year when Steven Gerrard slipped against Chelsea.

And as we may find out, if we don't pull ourselves together and set out to right the wrongs at Birmingham and during every match that follows.

Here's hoping for much better at St. Andrews.

(Originally published online at GazetteLive on February 17, 2015.) Read more...

Pulling The Handbrake Off... Why Mavericks Are A Must For Boro

It was interesting to read the post-match comments of Aitor Karanka, Charlton manager Guy Luzon and the match reports both online and in the newspapers following Boro's 3-1 win over Charlton last Saturday.

Luzon felt that the margin of victory was “flattering” and Ron Clarke of The Sunday Times believed that Boro “struggled to subdue a poor Charlton”.

They were only half right.

Forget Manager Of The Month curses and all that. Boro were victims of their own success at the back, as you'd expect from a team who'd only leaked one goal in 802 minutes of football. It's also become common, all too common, for a Patrick Bamford strike within the first ten minutes to pave the way for an easy victory, as it already has against Rotherham, Norwich and Derby.

So you could have been forgiven for thinking that the promotion contenders, once a goal up and monopolising both possession and chances, would have chalked up a landslide. Wrong!

Seconds after poor Milos Veljkovic dislocated his shoulder (on his Charlton debut!), his new team sneaked their way back into a match that really ought to have been beyond them with a Johann Berg Gudmunsson special, out of the blue. Big Boro had mistaken that Little Charlton would be a walk in the park, and had been given the wake up call of an equaliser or going behind for only the second time in more than two months.

With rivals Derby and Bournemouth well on their way to clinically disposing of their opposition, what were a side suddenly snapped out of their cruise control play supposed to do? Re-establish it, that's what. The A and M in the SAM Index discussed in my last column (adaptation and mentality) came into play in the half time team-talk, which I imagine went something like this:

“You're not used to conceding a goal. I know. But now you have. Nothing can be done about it. So just go out there, pretend it didn't happen and re-assert the calm, controlling dominance that earned you your lead.”

What AK actually said was that the worst thing Boro could have done was score in the first five minutes, as that led the team to believe everything was done. So rather than adapt tactics or playing personnel, he adapted Boro's mentality for the second half. And it worked, with the most maverick of Boro's front men – Jelle Vossen and Lee Tomlin – taking the plaudits at the start and the end of the second half.

Enough has been seen of AK's Boro by now to know that his teams don't deal direct, devastating blows in quick succession like Bournemouth and Derby would do. He prefers patient penetration in tandem with solidity, a formula tailored for success at the highest level. This makes Boro look, out of all the sides in the Championship's top six, the best equipped to deal with the Premier League but not necessarily the best equipped to get the right results in this division.

That's not really a weakness, however, if Boro can be more clinical. What Boro do need is more intervention from their mavericks – the most unpredictable and daring of their attacking personnel, who can create something out of nothing and aren't afraid to take on defenders when they're expected to pass the ball. The kind of player Lee Tomlin and Jelle Vossen now are, Albert Adomah used to be, and we hope Muzzy Carayol still is.

Consider Tomlin's volleyed goal against Charlton which clinched last Saturday's game for us. One suspects that had Boro tried to clinch the game with a controlled team goal, as the national team of AK's homeland were wont to do with tiki-taka a few years ago, there would have been too much over-elaboration towards the perfect cross, the perfect pass or the perfect goal-scoring opportunity which would have wasted time and left the game on the edge.

Sometimes, it's necessary to encourage players to simply “have a go”. To trust fully in the match-winning capabilities of individuals. And while I'm happy to see that this is starting to happen consistently with Tomlin, it needs to happen more often still. With more players.

(The original version of this piece was published online at GazetteLive on February 10, 2015.) Read more...

The SAM Index - Structure, Adaptation, Mentality - Is Key To Boro's Jolly January

We reflect on key issues and memories from that rarest of Januaries for Boro – a generally happy one

It's been uttered ad infinitum, or worse, ad nauseam, that “Boro come down with the decorations”.

That any Boro squad who fill us with hope and glory in the closing months of one year will almost certainly let us down at the very beginning of the next, if not for longer.

The three straight league defeats that threw MoggaBoro's promotion push right off course in January 2012 come to mind. It was even worse the following year with the run of FIVE straight league defeats that began at Pride Park at the very beginning of 2013, a year of very few thrills for Boro.

Going back much, much further, who remembers when the “wise old heads” who won at Old Trafford before Christmas 1998 alarmingly metamorphosed, as one newspaper put it, into “horribly one-paced, goal shy pensioners” when they played at Elland Road in January? Even in the successful promotion campaign of 1997-98, we didn't escape January unscathed, a 3-0 hammering at Charlton being a lowlight. (Good job we only played twice in the league that month.)

Aitor Karanka's Boro and their delightful bucking of said trend has been more than a breath of fresh air – it's been, despite the odd hiccup, a pleasure. Five wins out of six in league and cup with a solitary goal conceded have hugely lifted spirits amongst Riversiders and the travelling Parmo Army. Especially the travelling Parmo Army who were there at the Etihad.

What's our secret? What have AK, Steve Agnew, Leo Percovich, the rest of the coaching staff and the players – for it really is a collaborative effort – done to create a side that, all being well, looks like it could be the most robust, solid and durable of the Riverside years?

There's no easy answer, but I put it down to what I call the SAM Index – Structure, Adaptation, Mentality. All three of which were fully in effect against Manchester City.

We will talk of Lee Tomlin's chipped pass to Albert Adomah, of Dean Whitehead keeping Sergio Aguero in his pocket, of Tomas Mejias finally winning over the doubters, of Patrick Bamford's dogged persistence, of Kike ending a goal-scoring drought and a “Tomlinho” turn that left Vincent Kompany for dead and deserved a goal it didn't get.

But there was no one hero from the display (although, if I had to pick one, it would be Daniel Ayala) – it was truly a team effort, build on rock solid foundations, flashes of maverick-like skill (from Tomlin) and the correct mental and organisational approach to the circumstances at hand.

In the centre of the park, Boro work best in pairs. That much is clear. And with our first-choice centre back pairing of Daniel Ayala & Ben Gibson available, and the engine room of Grant Leadbitter and Adam Clayton on song, the patient, probing passing game of Manchester City – which reminded me very much of our own passing game – was eventually drained of its effectiveness and induced with a panicky streak.

Boro, billed as the underdogs, thrived in the guise of such a tag; the reality was that one good team was taking on another, with the pompous and entitled bubble of the Premier League Champions set to be punctured.

You sensed that AK suspected that City were there for the taking, and told the players so at half time. And so it was that as City tired, Boro grew in confidence and countered their passing movements with penetrating, direct breaks through the centre of the park – two of which led to goals. Boro had adapted while a strong defensive structure and positive mental attitude had been maintained.

A degree of praise should be offered, too, to the previous managerial regime that helped lay the foundations for this success – Whitehead, Ayala, Gibson, George Friend, Leadbitter, Adam Reach and Albert Adomah, half of the fourteen who featured on the pitch, were all initially signed by or came through under Tony Mowbray and Mark Venus. It's enough to make any Boro fan feel immensely warm hearted.

Alas, there are downsides to all of this.

We talk about “strength in depth”, but those three words can so easily be exposed as myth when the right players are missing. It's not about quantity, but quality, and City have always lacked that extra zip in the absence of totem Yaya Toure. Nor should it be forgotten that once Manuel Pellegrini brought on a genuine midfield match winner in Frank Lampard, he almost got City out of jail.

The arrival of Adam Forshaw, who looks right at home in Boro's engine room, has given us much needed back-up in the centre of the park, but even so, are we anywhere near as effective without the pivotal Grant Leadbitter? Leads has been referred to as “Boro's Xavi” and while that is rather hyperbolic, his presence elevates the entire team performance.

And it was needed against Brentford last Saturday. Boro may have passed the Promotion Test of “winning while playing badly”, but virtually every note about that performance rang false. Mentally, it only differed from the Portman Road defeat in that Boro didn't get punished for not being at the races, particularly during one moment in the second half where all the defenders seemed to converge at the near post for a corner. So much for organisational skills.

Boro suffered the curse of a raised media profile, which leads to every opposition manager starting to pay more attention to your team. Lee Tomlin's three goals in two games and barnstorming match in Manchester hadn't gone unnoticed; every Brentford player seemed to have their eye on him. Mark Warburton's side worked hard to deny us room to break through the middle, forcing Boro to resort to almost aimless long balls, except the one that led to the converted penalty.

For a team that has, in my opinion, the three most technically gifted front men in the league and has shown endless attacking alternatives this season, it was surprising how short of ideas we seemed. Hopefully this will only be an aberration.

There were, of course, positives: our usual solid defending (once we'd woken up), Leads leading the way as only he could, Forshaw's commendable cameo and Ryan Fredericks working his way back to fitness. He will offer us an extra attacking outlay from the flank that we've been lacking recently.

But what of Albert Adomah? What, indeed? While Mogga-era players like Friend, Reach and Gibson have successfully adapted to and even improved under the AK regime, the flying winger we signed from Bristol City a year and a half ago doesn't look entirely comfortable.

His lack of confidence in front of goal is all too clear. It's quite probable that he would have converted that chip against City and that missed chance against Brentford last year. Such misses seem consequential of a change in footballing identity from individual match-winner to consistent team player. One who is more defensive and disciplined than daring and, arguably, directly visionary.

Clearly, AK believes in Adomah, but not in the way Adomah wants AK to believe in him: you sense Albert thrives on being the centre of attention in attack. I think if AA re-invents himself fully and gets back on the goalscoring trail, like Andy Cole did after a similar painful period at Manchester United years ago, it may well be one of the stories of the season.

And on that note, it's time to look forward to February - starting with Charlton.

Up The Boro!

(Originally published online at GazetteLive on February 6, 2015.) Read more...

It's A Matter Of Control For Boro

A matter of hours after everything good about Boro came to fruition in a dazzling second-half demolition of the not-so-Tricky Trees, a Rovers Return laced with realistic reflection and pitiful regret awaited for the 7,000 Boro fans who travelled to Ewood Park and back on a very frosty Sunday.

Another chance to maintain pace with the Championship’s top two was foiled by a spirited Blackburn side up for a battle. Once again, their Eastwood – Simon, that is – was not about to make our day, denying our forwards with clever positional sense and a handful of good saves.

It is a sign of how far we’ve come as a club in 2014 that we regret dropping points rather than realistically accept that an away point is a good point, especially against play-off chasers and especially in the midst of a congested fixture list, where player rotation feels mandatory. Lest the game sound one-sided, Blackburn had their chances too, most notably through Jordan Rhodes, Rudy Gestede and the excellent Tom Cairney.

And there were positives. Dean Whitehead played very well as a makeshift right-back. Ben Gibson and Daniel Ayala were superb, keeping Tabbs (sic) on Blackburn’s crosses where and when Boro’s backline against Ipswich couldn’t. In the second half, Grant Leadbitter stepped up a gear and drove Boro forward with urgency and skill.

On its own terms, the performance and result are commendable, but in the greater scheme of things, those terms are piddling. All fans will see is bubbling Bournemouth, irresistible Ipswich and deadly Derby creeping further and further away as our chances of automatic promotion seemingly thin.

Still, it is possible to misread or overlook things. For starters, I thought on Sunday that Milos Veljkovic had a poor match. He had been invisible; age, inexperience and being in Adam Clayton’s shadow had gotten the better of a player who lacked presence and ran out of steam in the second half. Only on reflection did I realise that he had likely been assigned a Michael Carrick-esque role of breaking up attacks so that the rest of the team could “get on with it” – a task he carried out impressively in the eyes of Philip Tallentire and Len Masterman. It’s the kind of individual performance that can easily be overlooked in the heat of a match you’re so keen to win.

Similarly, I wasn’t too impressed by Kike. I felt his attitude and poor decision-making had weighed down the team. Never mind that it later transpired that he had shown the three best first touches on the pitch, and that Boro could – not necessarily should – have put the game to bed long before his post-hitting thunderbolt, Patrick Bamford’s missed sitter or even Jelle Vossen’s first-half effort.

No, for me the definitive miss of the game was Adam Reach’s early, early chance, taken from him after a too heavy touch allowed Eastwood to make the save. It was the sort of opening you would have expected Reachy to put away, and by missing it Boro burdened themselves with unnecessary hassle and pressure.

But it’s not, and never has been, as simple as blaming our failings on individuals and individual foibles on the day. I recall that gloriously unexpected Saturday afternoon in February 2006 when the cracks began appearing in Jose Mourinho’s magic formula, thanks to Boro puncturing the aura of dominant fear he had managed to cast over nearly every team that had taken him on in the Premier League for two seasons. The magic of the early goal – scored by Fabio Rochemback that day, and scored by Patrick Bamford three times this season for Boro – is how it can spur teams like Boro on and fill them with belief they never knew they had. However, what if such teams do not capitalise on their early dominance? What if opposition sides are technically strong enough, spirited enough or well organised enough to deal with every single one of their forays?

Blackburn had both the spirit and organisation to prevent Boro dictation in either half. Our right flank was negligible as an attacking force; twice, Yanic Wildschut was forced to cut inside to create opportunities. Even when Bamford replaced Wildschut, Gary Bowyer’s side quickly adapted to closing down Boro’s goalden boy. When he hit the bar of a gaping goal, that summed up Boro’s day as a whole: a classic case of calm composure giving way to desperate frustration. The same frustration that played a part in Vossen disappearing (again), Lee Tomlin disappointing, Kike’s attitude and George Friend’s below par crosses. By game’s end, the swagger of the first ten minutes had vanished entirely.

And playing with a swagger has its ups and downs. It creates an image of superiority, enhancing both a team’s confidence and chances of victory because they feel like the big fish in a small pond. But it also creates entitlement, ensuring that said team is less likely to earn the admiration they clearly desire – it is a matter of trying to have their cake and eat it too. On one hand, Boro cry “Dude, Where’s Our Respect?” when we don’t get much time on the Football League Show; on the other hand, we don’t like it when our manager and players are linked with bigger and better things. It’s like trying to stay under the radar while being keen to be in the spotlight – and you can’t have it both ways.

Bournemouth overtake us in this regard, alas. Because, with their modest, affable fan of a manager, their small stadium, and their not-very-well known squad, they are the genuine “little big fish”. Their rise from the bottom to the top of the Football League is the stuff of dreams, made for Hollywood movies. Ask yourself, who is more likely to be everyone's favourite second team (TM)?

So the real question, which seems no nearer to being answered, is: how are Boro going to cope on off days, when we will be required to grind out results and when we will not be in control of things? That, I believe, will ultimately define where we finish in 2014-15.

(The original version of this piece was published online at GazetteLive on January 2, 2015.) Read more...

Ho Ho No: Tractor Boys Leave Boro In The Mud

Well. You kind of saw that coming, didn't you?

Unbeaten in eight, seven goals in two matches, clinical demolitions of first, a bogey manager's team, and second, a "title rival" in quick succession. It no longer felt fanciful, but legitimate, to assume that the very least Aitor Karanka's mostly Untypical Boro would get at Portman Road was a draw. We believed in the team that much.

History told us otherwise, that Typical Boro were bound to show up sooner or later, particularly at a ground where we hadn't won in more than two decades. That old nemesis Daryl Murphy, whose late, late winner at the Stadium Of Light in 2008 and early, early starter for Ipswich in 2010 still stick in the craw, would get on the scoresheet again.

And so it was on a day where just about everything that could go wrong with Boro did. To my eyes the performance was a heart-breaker of sorts, not for being ghastly, but for being flat. Where we saw vibrance and belief against Blackburn, Millwall and Derby, we saw almost nothing at Portman Road.

It was a classic case of "not turning up" the moment Aitor Karanka's early plans went out the window. Denied the almost customary early Patrick Bamford goal that usually spurs the team on to a great victory (see: Norwich, Rotherham, Derby), Boro had to try and slowly take control of the game.

Along the way, it appeared that AK had instructed our defence to keep David McGoldrick quiet in the same way Mick McCarthy had clearly warned his players to beware of Patrick Bamford – Bamford's impact was minimal and Jelle Vossen never really got a kick. Needless to say that when McGoldrick found a way to get a shot on target, Murphy was waiting to respond to Dimi Konstantopoulos's parry, and it was all downhill from there. The "humiliation" of conceding a towering header from the rather diminutive Jay Tabb right on half time was clearly too much for our entire team to take.

At 2-0 down, what were Boro to do? Risk everything to save the game like Lord Fergie normally would, or settle instead for damage limitation, knowing that you will have the chance to put things right on a better day? In the end, the ambitious AK went for the former. A combination of dreadful deliveries from the flanks and an uncharacteristically malfunctioning engine room led to the call for Lee Tomlin; but even there, McCarthy was prepared, his well-drilled, sharp and organised side efficiently draining the life and hope out of Boro.

It was a painful reality check, a far cry from the Christmas present we desired. Ipswich could, and should, have scored more – even if you left Tommy Smith's post-hitting scuff out of the equation, Murphy, McCormick, Paul Anderson and Darren Ambrose always looked dangerous.

From a Southgatian victory punch to equally Southgatian "lessons learned" for Aitor Karanka as he was left to ponder why the usually imperious Grant Leadbitter was a shadow of his former self, why Vossen was a model of invisibility, why Dimi's distribution wasn't quite up to scratch and why arguably the most technically gifted defender at the club, Kenneth Omeruo, had such an off-day.

Saturday brought about the very uncomfortable reminder that when your defensive and midfield leaders, the core and heartbeat of your side, are genuinely off-key, the entire team is in serious danger of coming a cropper. You are left to rely on your match-winners – and with AK's Boro, where the team takes clear precedence over the individual, the likes of Ken Omeruo/Ben Gibson and Grant Leadbitter failing to perform is fatal.

The cynics will continue to ponder why Boro so often resorted to up-and-at-'em, hit and hope tactics and why the patient probing associated with AK's Boro was nowhere to be seen. This will almost inevitability lead to scapegoating – of the manager, of certain individual players, and so on.

But one of the great flaws of football analysis, especially from the fan's perspective, is that we are so focused on our own team's fortunes and foibles that we forget about the other team on the pitch. If we looked limited, if the likes of Bamford and Albert Adomah disappointed, it was because Ipswich denied them to room to be expressive.

Having been held by Bolton in their previous game, Mick McCarthy's side arrived with more of a point to prove, and they proved it. There was something of a complacent entitlement about Boro which descended into frustration; both shaken and irritated by the idea of “not being in control” (arguably our major weakness – we have only come from behind to win once in the league this season), we didn't just lose the game. We lost our way.

But what does the game really prove, apart from that every underdog has his day? Regardless of what the bookies said, we did have some kind of favourites tag going into this game, and it could be argued that our failure was a sign of failing to live up to newly-raised expectations. Sometimes, players just do not perform on the day, and that really should be that; unfortunately, being the fans we are, we will always be looking for answers, or lessons to be learnt.

And just as there were positives to be drawn from Saturday if you looked hard enough – Adam Reach was consistently on his game, and Daniel Ayala, George Friend, Adam Clayton and to a point Bamford beavered away gamely until their confidence dipped – there was another very uncomfortable negative about AK's team playing strategy. It was hard to forget the sight of Vossen and Bamford failing to click, Adomah receiving almost no service and, worst of all, the entire defence pushing up to support Emilio Nsue as he received the ball in the first half. Is it quite possible, now, that Vossen, Nsue and now Adomah cannot cope on their own? Do they always need the right support and supply to prosper?

It's a point worth pondering as we try to put this bubble-bursting game behind us. Let's hope that our visit to Portman Road is an aberrance rather than, heaven forbid, a hint at the traditional downward spiral post-Christmas.

Happy Holidays, everyone.

(Originally published online at Gazette Live on December 23, 2014.) Read more...

Karanka Trumps Big Mac – On The Pitch And Off It

Last week, I asked for Boro to be consistent – and boy, did they respond.

Consistent, that is, at passing or at least surviving the big tests. We are unbeaten against our closest rivals, with two draws and a near victory against Bournemouth, Watford and Blackburn respectively, and commanding victories against Brentford, Norwich and now Derby.

Beefy Boro did more than cheese off Big Mac – they flamed and grilled him with a winning whopper of a performance! One of the joys of being a football fan is seeing your team not just meet your expectations, but exceed them. To not merely relieve but virtually banish every legitimate doubt you had. Aitor Karanka’s Boro appear to be doing just that.

Yet the definitive moment of the game for me was not yet another well taken goal by Patrick Bamford (Bam Bam reduced the Rams to rubble, as John Powls brilliantly put it). It wasn’t Grant Leadbitter’s spot kick either, or even the performance itself. Rather, it was the sight of Karanka locked away in the stands, punching the air in delight as Boro got the second goal they deserved. A celebration of Southgatian proportions, a sign of a manager and man at one with the club he manages and we support. It was heart-warming.

After just over a year in charge at Boro, Aitor Karanka appears to have transcended the basics of his position and become "part of the furniture". He believes in us, and we believe in him - we truly are confident he can take the club forward. The right results are one thing; the right identity is another. And while it may be tempting fate to say it, it really does look like our Basque-born manager has found both.

I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that when AK was hired by Steve Gibson, he was given the difficult modus operandi of suppressing or undoing Typical Boro clichés. For that reason, he is often compared to Jack Charlton at both Boro and Ireland, the manager who got an undeniably potential-filled team over a hurdle that they couldn’t quite traverse... and proceeded to earn some sort of mythical or legendary status.

That brings us to the ugly side of success. If Charlton at Boro feels worthy of comparison to Karanka, Charlton with Ireland is more worthy of comparison to Steve McClaren. It’s said that real heroes are not renowned for needing adulation, but for doing their job both well and responsibly. And while no one doubts the achievements of Big Jack’s Ireland or Schteve’s Boro – in fact, I hugely admire them in many ways – it’s also very hard not to feel cynical about their tenures. For Charlton, the right balance between the Ireland job and his identity was eventually superseded by image and ego.

You could arguably say the same about McClaren: was it all about what he could do for Boro, or what Boro could do for his career and image? We paid the price after Eindhoven and, financially at least, we’re still paying it.

This is the trap that Aitor Karanka needs to avoid: to maintain a positive image amongst the Boro public without getting overly subsumed by success. To avoid being classed as one of the dreaded Me Generation: those who blatantly prioritise personal glory ahead of the needs of their club. McClaren turned many Boro fans against him by obviously wearing his ambition on his sleeve: as if the Leeds, Newcastle and England circuses were not bad enough (they were), how about brazenly stating that he had all the qualities to be the next England manager ahead of a Boro home match on Sky? (Which we lost 3-0, by the way – it was against Alan Curbishley’s Charlton.)

All this makes managers like Karanka, and Ipswich’s Mick McCarthy, a true breath of fresh air. McCarthy had his limitations as a player and made mistakes as Ireland manager, but has learned from his mistakes and deservedly earned respect in the eyes of most, if not all, of his fellow professionals. Loyalty is a word often associated with the boss of our upcoming opponents, yet I think his greatest quality is that he doesn’t feel disingenuous. He feels sincere.

And sincerity is the very asset which we should hope AK and our players will display, and continue to display, throughout the rest of 2014-15 and beyond.

(Originally published online at GazetteLive on December 19, 2014.) Read more...