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...

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...

Back In Time Special: Did The Sale Of Emerson In 1997-98 Make That Much Of A Difference?

In January, The Teesside Gazette's Eric Paylor named a certain curly-haired star as one of the contenders for Boro's Greatest Ever Player. The third of Boro's three famous "Samba Kings" (although Branco was king in size only), Emerson was described as the kind who would (take) to the pitch like a powerhouse, dominate games from start to finish and leave us all gobsmacked.

At the time, I concurred, commenting that he was the perfect midfielder, an anchorman, playmaker, destroyer and match-winner rolled into one... on his day.

Therein lay the problem. Building the team around him during a season when his off-days were more likely than his on-days was never going to be healthy. It's documented that his move to Tenerife came about because of his off-field activities, but it's also been said that the best of Emerson's league form for Boro deserted him after his troublesome trip home to Brazil. This is simply not the case.

Eyebrows were raised when, for whatever reason, Emerson chose to commit himself to Boro when we were relegated in 1997, even though Juninho and Fabrizio Ravanelli would soon depart. Yet it would appear that Ravanelli's move away enabled both Paul Merson and Emerson to find both form and an understanding. With the moody, broody White Feather gone, back came the defence splitting passes, thunderous blockbusters and the kind of energy we had only seen in fits and starts from the trip to Rio onwards.

Still etched in the memory are his superb through ball for Merson away to Ipswich, his deadlock-breaking drive in Boro's first ever match at the Stadium Of Light from a Merson pull-back, and a full-hearted farewell display at home to Reading that prompted a flood of Christmas cards from Boro fans wanting him to stay.

He had that knack of popping up at the right place at the right time to give Boro the extra element of magic they needed to truly look a class above their opponents. Essentially, he did in half a season what Fabio Rochemback did in one match – delivering the goods at the very moment we were resigned to him hopping off.

And when he got ready to hop off, in December 1997, Boro initially found it hard to adjust, losing 2-0 at then-struggling Manchester City before entering one of their more laboured phases of 1997-98. The loss of a maverick unreliable had robbed us of a creative edge and made the season more problematic. But had it really?

With Emerson in the squad, Boro's record was: 13 wins, 6 draws and 3 defeats, with 39 goals scored and 17 conceded.

Without him, Boro's record was: 14 wins, 4 draws and 6 defeats, with 38 goals scored and 24 conceded.

The difference is minute: 45 points vs. 46 points with one extra game played. That also includes a relatively bad period for Boro in March and early April 1998, which saw the team take just seven points from seven games and suffer four league defeats in five away matches.

Among those defeats was a truly bizarre nine-goal leakage in the first week of March which saw 4-0 and 5-0 losses to Nottingham Forest and QPR respectively.

The presence of Andy Dibble in goal for those two games was symptomatic of one of Boro's real failings during the Bryan Robson years: poor decisions at the wrong times. Dibble played like the temporary stop gap he ultimately was; he looked unreliable despite making a number of fine saves.

Talent and squad depth are all very well, but where a club finishes also has much to do with attitude, organisation and choices.

That seemed especially true back then, where rotation and over-complication were less a trend and more a rarity. Essentially, if you had a strong spine, the right amount of match-winners and a dependable, classy strike force, you were all but guaranteed the right result.

Nottingham Forest had just that with Pierre Van Hooijdonk and Kevin Campbell, ditto Sunderland, with Niall Quinn and Kevin Phillips. Boro had... well... Merson, and whatever forward was in form enough to play with him. Nowadays, of course, Boro rotate their forwards regularly, but the mid-to-late 1990s were a different decade.

And at times, unfortunately, egotism and misguided tactics would trump sense and sensibility during the second half of 1997-98.

What was the true purpose of Robbo signing a fading Paul Gascoigne so close to both the League Cup final and the crucial end of the season, apart from to try and maintain a big club image by signing a big name player?

It had a slightly destabilising effect, and dependable midfield heroes like Neil Maddison and Craig Hignett had proven more than capable of magic moments themselves. Particularly Hignett, who was dropped from the cup final squad and was soon to leave Boro altogether.

The possibility that Robbo was dealt an unlucky hand with Emerson leaving and Mikkel Beck's loss of form doesn't wash with the money he spent and the match-winning skills of Madhouse, Higgy, Merse, Marco Branca and Alun Armstrong.

One suspects Robbo was exceptionally grateful – as we were – when future Irish international hero Matt Holland inspired Ipswich to the 2-0 win over Sunderland that handed promotion to Boro.

Of course Emerson's departure made a difference, but it was hardly a serious one. Saying it was so would be unjust on the men who bravely saw Boro over the finish line, albeit a little later and less comfortably than we hoped. No, it wasn't easy, but whatever is with Boro?

Originally published online at Gazette Live on February 2, 2015. 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...

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...

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...

The Karankaversary: From Chumps To (Possibly) Champs, Despite Concerns

If you asked me to sum up the upward trajectory of the Karankanaut – twelve months of revolution under Aitor Karanka that have indisputably transformed Boro for the better – I'd use two words: belief and alternatives, highlighted by two significant events.

While it's a cliché to state that “it's all about belief”, never was that truer than in the indelible, stomach-churning and ultimately wrenching 2-2 draw and penalty shoot out defeat at Anfield. A meaningless game it may seem in the eyes of a second tier club who should be prioritising promotion, but in truth, it was anything but; by the time of Albert Adomah's miss, this fan, this writer, was almost misty-eyed. One should resist the temptation to overplay heroic failures, near misses and gallant loser stories, for ultimately the gallant loser ends up with nothing.

Except Boro didn't end up with nothing. The fans, the club and most importantly every player on the pitch did Boro proud. Identity, inspiration and positive ideals unified as one for a club who, regardless of the outcome, could genuinely take heart from believing that they were on the rise. A belief that has been passed through to league results that have carried Boro to the fringes of top spot in the Championship.

The second significant event is a goal, the first scored by Patrick Bamford at home to Norwich. Boro's traditionally successful system under Karanka has featured two wingers either side of a lone front man with an attacking midfielder, almost always Lee Tomlin, behind him.

Not so against the Canaries. A mere eight minutes into the game and our usual front man, Kike, is in the middle third of the pitch along with Tomlin. Meaning that when his excellent pass finds Adomah on the left – who still has much to do to get in his cross – we would be in danger of a winger's cross being put to waste because the centralized front men were too deep.

But AK has played Bamford in a right-wing-forward position directly beside Kike: a position where Bamford is less likely to step on Kike's toes. For the goal, acts as neither a winger, nor an orthodox partner, but an alternative No. 9 to the Spaniard on the pitch. And he plays the No. 9 role to perfection – as the sole forward in the six yard box, the cross is ideal for him, and he puts it away with his head. It's 1-0, later to be 4-0, and Boro fans have a new cult hero.

This is just one of many alternatives dotted around the pitch. One knows that Kike, Bamford and Daniel Ayala can all head the ball, but so can Grant Leadbitter, as proved by the third goal against Norwich. Albert and Adam (Reach) can cross, but so can Ayala, as the second goal at Brighton showed.

Even when he doesn't score, Tomlin's decidedly Foggon-esque direct runs can distract defences and leave spaces open for Boro's offence to dictate. And even when Kike doesn't get on the scoresheet, he has much to offer through vision and hard work - as the Norwich match illustrated. It's arguable that Tomlin and Kike combined recall the essence of a second tier David Villa: "Villa is not only there to finish plays. Villa is synonymous with depth. It means always being ready to open passing lanes, to draw defenders and thus freeing space for others." (Johan Cruyff)

It's a frankly mouthwatering prospect. And the fact that Boro's players have developed under Karanka in such a multi-faceted manner throws the need for a solitary tactical Plan B out the window. It is less about a "Plan B" and more about a Plan Of Alternatives that is as much, if not more, about player ability than any system or formation a coach can think of. A coach can pick a team, he can set game plans, he can study the opposition... but he can only do so much. Once the players are on the pitch, it's more up to them.

"More up to them". That is the difference between the Aitor Karanka of last season and the Aitor Karanka of today. 2013-14 was more about solving our defensive problems, getting the team organised and steering us in the right direction.

Having done all that, AK gave us licence to attack. And for the most part, how we have responded. Against Norwich, it sometimes felt less like a 4-2-3-1 and more like a 4-3-3, with Ryan Fredericks and George Friend free to charge either side of an engine room of three reliables, Grant Leadbitter, Adam Clayton and Ben Gibson, and one hot head, Daniel Ayala. AK has brought balance to Boro, with enough dependable players on the pitch to keep the temperamental impulses of the mavericks in check.

When they're not picking up unnecessary cards, that is.

But is that a flaw? I don't really believe it is. Cards are part and parcel of a strong, ambitious side. If there are any serious chinks in the armour, apart from the lack of playing time for Jelle Vossen (though I am sure that will be rectified in time), they have less to do with Karanka and more to do with his country of origin. Sometimes, when I recall Spain's tiki-takanaccio, I marvel at their solidity, technical skill, ball retention and clinical finishing, but one can't help but long for greater risk. More action.

And, apart from Tomlin, do Boro have a direct, all-action attacking threat from midfield? One could, naturally, point to the wide men, but if an opposing manager spots the threat in advance - as Eddie Howe so smartly did when Bournemouth came to the Riverside - where does that leave us? Boro weren't allowed to dictate and that game finished in a frustrating, if not wholly disappointing, stalemate, despite our best efforts.

Len Masterman, a regular and invaluable commenter at Untypical Boro, has understood these concerns and expanded on them. He perceptively and correctly argues that by too often playing the ball directly to our wingers, we are asking too much of them. A "perfectly judged pass inside the full back" for them to run onto wouldn't go amiss.

He is also concerned that both Leadbitter and Clayton are being asked to sit too deep when they could offer so much more to attack. Pessimistic and slightly harsh though he may sound, he has a point. It is evident, in my eyes, that AK's Boro can still be a little too cautious when they're not in control: their belief then revolves around prioritising a result at the expense of the swagger or arrogance which might produce that extra goal or two. It's kind of reminiscent of the knockout stages at the World Cup in Brazil, where desire to not lose repeatedly overtook desire to win.

I suppose the Typical Boro psyche still has a lot to do with it. We've been burnt too many times before: while there are countless reasons to believe that this solid, strong and at their best genuinely exciting Boro side is really going to get somewhere, we had similar sentiments at the end of 2011.

The more cynical of us, too, might feel that our home record still isn't good enough and that we showed Bournemouth, form team or not, too much respect: yes, along with Derby, they have scored more than anyone else, but their Brum deal helps explain why. But truthfully the 0-0 draw was more emblematic of a fixture list that had taken its toll; Boro looked tired, laboured and in need of a well-timed international break.

When we return to action, Aitor Karanka will face his new test of keeping Boro at the top throughout the winter and into the New Year. And I am looking forward to seeing how he handles it.

(Originally published at Gazette Live on Wednesday November 19 2014.) Read more...

Looking Back And To The Future With Boro

It's nearly a year since Tony Mowbray was sacked. Si's Insights looks at his legacy and Aitor Karanka's start in the hot seat

Logic can be a very funny thing sometimes.

Logic suggests that we all learn and improve with experience or time, and football managers should be no different. When you look at Boro bosses, however, it’s a different story.

Hard though it may seem to believe, Bryan Robson was once in line to succeed Terry Venables, but it was Terry Venables that ended up succeeding him. Did Robbo learn from the mistakes of 1996-97? Yes he did. But we eventually paid the literal price with a “New Robbo” that always played it safe and continued throwing money at problems to solve them.

From 2003 onwards, Steve McClaren visibly scrapped his long-term plans at the expense of short-term achievements, leaving his successor with an extremely difficult, even impossible, task. Hence arguments that Gareth Southgate was finally finding his bearings in the Championship until his time was crudely cut short will continue to this day.

The more Strachanistas arrived, the worse Boro became. And Tony Mowbray? He was as Typical Boro as they come, building our hopes up with too-good-to-be-true runs that could not be sustained after Christmas. Mogga’s most heartwarming achievement, and one cannot underestimate it, was restoring belief and communal identity in the post-Gordon Strachan era. While it remains ironic that as Strachan’s spine – particularly Nicky Bailey, Scott McDonald and Barry Robson – departed, Mogga’s Boro gradually declined, the club’s identity remained intact.

It’s this identity that Aitor Karanka, still, in my mind, not fully accepted by every Boro fan, has been accused of trampling on, his mere presence a sign of the Chelsification that envelops the club. The loss of local heroes Jason Steele and Richie Smallwood are further strikes against him. Yet under his guidance we have built a stable, strong squad and are challenging for top spot in the Championship once again.

Yet the Karanka project doesn’t seem like one for the future – how many players, one wonders, are either loannees or on not-very-lengthy contracts? On the other hand, look closer: Albert Adomah, George Friend, Ben Gibson, Adam Reach, Luke Williams, Dean Whitehead, Daniel Ayala and of course Grant Leadbitter.

These are all Mogga Men that have become integral to AK’s Boro this season.

On the other hand, there’s the unwanted media attention that began to stem from the draw and penalty shootout at Anfield that had to be experienced to be believed. But if we can’t deal with that, we’re not fit to compete with the best in this division. A raised profile is a predictable price that comes with being a “top team” in any league, as are the vultures that, as Jeff Winter pointed out, will begin to circle over our key players – and our manager.

But, again, it is the cost of successful small clubs or even small national teams ambitious to join or rejoin the big time (see also: Walter Smith and Alex McLeish for Scotland, Lawrie Sanchez for Northern Ireland). This is also where the fickleness of fans is tested. We are behind players and managers all the way when everything is upwardly mobile, but when things aren’t going so well, or worse, badly, what was once a love affair turns to apathy (see: Rhys Williams and Matthew Bates. Beloved in 2011, who talks about them now? Sad, but true) and potentially hatred.

Gareth Southgate and Tony Mowbray found that out the hard way. Even as I admired Gate and Mogga’s values, I remembered the words of Irish journalist Dave Hannigan: progress at the top level demands a degree of distasteful ruthlessness. Something that Bryan Robson, Steve Gibson and now Aitor Karanka have all shown.

Now, were I to grade Karanka on his first year in charge, I’d award him a B+.

He has retained Boro’s essence while adding depth and meticulousness not seen in the Mogga regime (although, to be fair, this wasn’t all Mogga’s fault, considering the money available to him). But we have achieved nothing yet, and I am still not sure Boro have the elan required to achieve the right results on a consistent basis, even against the weakest opposition in the league.

The task now for Karanka and Boro is to ensure that the hard work of the current set-up does not go to waste, either in the short-term or the long-term. Success can breed complacency, lethargy or worse, egotism on the pitch: all traps that Boro must seek to avoid.

Much better to use Southampton and Swansea as role models: positive, upwardly mobile playing philosophies that fans can believe in and enjoy at the top level, regardless of which manager is at the helm. The absence of belief and identity renders results far, far less relevant, something that was clear under Strachan; even as he led us to the fringes of the play-offs, we were apathetic. Because it wasn’t Boro we were watching, but a generic breed of “warriors” and so-called Bravehearts in red.

Something we are definitely not watching at Boro today – and we are all the better for it.

(Originally published at Gazette Live on Friday October 17 2014.) Read more...

Boudewijn "Bolo" Zenden: An Appreciation

The manner of the Carling Cup hero's exit left a sour taste in the mouth, but history will remember him as one of the Riverside's best match-winners

In the all important third place final at the 1998 World Cup Finals, a game that usually manages to be even more enjoyable than the final itself, Holland's twenty-two year old left winger, Boudewijn “Bolo” Zenden, goes on a solo run at the Croatian defence. It's really a consolation match, and he's little to lose. So he looks up and probably thinks "hm, why not?" before firing a powerful drive over the outstretched hand of goalkeeper Drazen Ladic and into the net. It's 1-1, and Zenden runs off to celebrate with an acrobatic somersault – but lands on his head. Ouch.

It is the sort of unpredictability that, for better or worse, defined Bolo Zenden during two memorable years at the Riverside Stadium. Never the kind to set or control the tone of the game, but always the kind to elevate it, he was an equal blend of selfishness and unselfishness personified; a player born to succeed on the right stage, in the right company, and at the right time. Little wonder that he played a key role in securing silverware and European football – twice – for Boro. If memories of him are not positive, they should be.

When Steve McClaren signed Zenden on loan we were much in need of playing personnel – more than that, inspiring playing personnel. Injuries, suspensions and being beaten to the permanent signing of Geremi by moneybags Chelsea had clearly damaged morale: one point from our opening five games in 2003-04 was testament to that. The arrival of Gaizka Mendieta had been a step in the right direction, but we needed another spark, and Boudewijn Zenden and his unpronounceable name – hence the nickname “Bolo” - provided it. He was now Boro's Bolo, and would remain so for two full seasons – one as a loan signing, the other as a short-term permanent signing.

McClaren's conservatism, or lack of a reliable goalscorer, didn't help Bolo early on in his Boro career. The likes of Massimo Maccarone and Michael Ricketts, one lightweight, one heavyweight, were hardly going to set defences alight, leaving midfielders to be a primary source of Boro's goals in both the Carling Cup run and the league. And so it was with Mendieta, Juninho and now Zenden, although Joseph Job and Szilard Nemeth still finished among Boro's top scorers in 2003-04 (albeit with a mere sixteen goals between them).

Comparisons with Boro's iconic "little fella" are, naturally, warranted; both Bolo and "Juno" were inspirational in their own way. What Zenden offered that Juninho didn't was flexibility. If Juninho thrived in a trequartista-like role behind one front man or two, he was never as effective in any other role. He simultaneously helped and hindered the team during his best years at Boro: it felt like virtually every attacking move had to go through him.

Zenden, on the other hand, prospered as a left winger but even more so in the engine room, even if it was only injury to Mendieta and the emergence of a certain Stewart Downing that had forced him in there. It was a happy accident; his partnership with George Boateng, along with the arrival of Mark Viduka and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, led Boro to the fringes of a Champions League place.

At least until injuries intervened again. But Bolo remained no less adaptable, dovetailing with the less gifted likes of Ray Parlour and taking on additional defensive duties when necessary. Wherever he played on the pitch, one saw a sharp, enviable football brain and a big heart; when he EIO'd around the Millennium Stadium following our cup win, you felt as if he meant it.

There are enough passes, crosses and goals – fifteen of them, more than he managed for any other club – in the Zenden catalogue to make him some sort of Boro legend. No one will forget his great cross for Joseph Job in Cardiff or his brilliantly taken double strike – one piledriver, one looping header – against Lazio in front of a full Riverside. He was even a reliable penalty taker; something you could definitely not say about Boro's Greatest Brazilian icon. (Yes, we'll try to forget that the most important penalty he scored for us came off both his feet.)

Alas, his departure for Liverpool, a club who Boro still hold animosity towards for the Christian Ziege saga, cast a shadow over all this. In retrospect, disappointed fans have gone on to accept that Zenden had every right to leave, but only left a bad taste in the mouth because of his apparent “love for the club” and promises of staying if Boro qualified for Europe. Yes, it hurt that he moved to Liverpool, a club who Boro still hold animosity towards for (a) Rick Parry, (b) the Christian Ziege affair and (c) qualifying for the Champions League by the back door to entice Zenden, at a time when Boro feel they might have reached the competition themselves had it not been for those pesky injuries.

But why should that taint the memories? It was only a stark, realistic reminder that Liverpool had more to offer him, and that as far as Boro had come, they still had some way to go. It's not Zenden's fault that his replacement, the gifted, enigmatic, erratic Fabio Rochemback, failed to live up to expectations.

Far better to remember, instead, that no attacking midfielder of the Riverside years has been as versatile – or arguably as effective – as Bolo Zenden, as complete a team-playing action man as Boro are ever likely to find.

Originally published in August 2014's Northern Promise magazine as "Boro's Bolo". Read more...

Will It Be Pain Or Gain For Boro In 2014-15?

Oh facts, oh figures, how deceptive can you be!

The tale of Boro's haphazard 2013-14 is extremely interesting when you look at it from a strictly statistical perspective. Under Tony Mowbray and Mark Venus, Boro scored an incredible 25 goals in 15 games; under highly regarded Spanish boss Aitor Karanka, they scored 37 in 31. That's sixteen more games required to score a mere 12 extra goals. Boro also failed to score just twice under Mogga and Venus, as opposed to the eleven blanks under Karanka.

Were you to paint a picture of last season based on that information alone, you would wonder why Boro even appointed Karanka in the first place! But all it takes to put things in the proper perspective is... no, not Mogga's results over the course of 2013, though they do a perfect job in their own right... is the exclusion of the dreaded seven game Boro Nil period. Boro actually only blanked four times in Karanka's other 24 league games. Hardly a damning statistic.

Within weeks of his arrival, Karanka had brought stability, consistency and results to what was, despite what thrashings of Yeovil and Doncaster may have indicated, a sinking Boro ship. Yet even as the fleetingly fiery form of Emmanuel Ledesma briefly ignited play-off hopes, not everyone was convinced; AK's teams could certainly be criticised for letting fear of failure overtake inventive creativity, fears painfully, piercingly prominent when “Boro Nil” began.

Thankfully, the rot stopped when play-off pressure was lifted, Lee Tomlin had fully settled in and our first-choice striker, then Danny Graham, found his feet. At least to a point. Six wins in the last eight games, four goals each for Graham and Tomlin. And pre-season featured seven wins and just two defeats in nine games, with nineteen goals to enjoy.

You'd think that would leave us with something to look forward to for sure. But doubts still remain. Before AK had even taken charge, I likened him to his fellow Basque football man, Javier Clemente, and I retain that stance today. Until near the end of his reign as national team manager, Clemente's teams were renowned for their lack of class goalscorers; indeed, at times he played with no recognised centre forwards at all. Fast-forward to present day Boro. Barring new arrival Kike, an unknown quantity at Championship level, what centre forward can we truly believe in?

Clemente's Spanish sides, too, were notably assertive on their day, were deadly at punishing opposition errors, and were extremely difficult to beat. All attributes worthy of Aitor Karanka's Boro. But after that, you've got to ask, “Now what?” Consistency and quality do not always go hand in hand. If Boro are to have any chance of success this season, it will depend on how expressive AK allows our most creative players to be; and whether or not said players are capable of being as expressive as we want and need them to be.

PREDICTED STARTING XI AGAINST BIRMINGHAM:

Dimi Konstantopoulos; Emilio Nsue, Ben Gibson, Daniel Ayala, George Friend; Grant Leadbitter, Richie Smallwood; Albert Adomah, Lee Tomlin, Adam Reach; Kike.

Barring the right-back slot, there ought to be few questions about goalkeeping and defence. I agree with Anthony Vickers in that Dimi Konstantopoulos's experience should guarantee him a starting place ahead of Tomas Mejias. Vickers is also right regarding Kenneth Omeruo: he's not quite up to speed yet following his post-World Cup break. Therefore, it's not yet time for the much loved “Ken & Ben” partnership to rebloom; Daniel Ayala should start alongside Ben Gibson.

George Friend has made the left flank his own, but what about the right flank? As neither Damia Abella nor Emilio Nsue has received international clearance yet, Boro should be prepared to play David Atkinson there, just in case. Atkinson may well follow in the footsteps of David Wheater in 2007, cementing his place in defence due to unavailability of others. However, Nsue is likely to be cleared in time, and should certainly start on the right side of the back four if he is available. Along with Friend, he gives us a valuable additional attacking option should things go wrong.

Midfield is a little more complicated. The departure of Nate Chalobah leaves Boro without a clearly defined regista, someone who can set the tone of the game from deep with incisive passes. It will be left for Grant Leadbitter to play that role as best as he can alongside, ideally, Richie Smallwood, who I have always preferred to the more rigid Dean Whitehead. Perhaps last season's lone spell at Rotherham was merely AK's way of sending Smallwood out to gain experience while the likes of Chalobah helped build our confidence. Here's hoping.

That leaves the will-he-or-won't-he-stay Jacob Butterfield as our last viable midfield option. Butterfield, like the forgotten Kei Kamara, is extremely frustrating. You may enjoy watching him on his best days, but can you really count on him? Yes, he's offered fleeting moments of quality, sporadically flickering into life like the match-winning heroes we still dream of, but... but... I am still not convinced he knows where he really wants to play. His best hope, if he is to remain with Boro, is to re-invent himself as an alternative No. 10, something that Adam Clayton, were he to arrive, could not be. That gives us another option if injury, suspension or loss of form were to befall Lee Tomlin.

Either side of Tomlin, the selection of Albert Adomah and Adam Reach should be a no-brainer; especially Reach, thanks to a good pre-season. And Kike is certain to start up front. Although, with Marvin Emnes, Lukas Jutkiewicz and Curtis Main jettisoned, Boro have no obvious alternative No. 9s. Kamara, as I have already mentioned, cannot be depended upon; Luke Williams, like the crocked Emmanuel Ledesma, flickers rather than glows; and Bradley Fewster is unproven. On the plus side, it is believed Karanka is trying to resign Danny Graham, but how would will he take being second choice to Kike? And does his recent record of 6 goals in 18 Boro games really inspire confidence?

So many doubts, so many unanswered questions. But all we know for now is that the big kick-off is getting nearer... and I'm really looking forward to it.

Up The Boro!

(Originally published online at GazetteLive on August 8, 2014.) Read more...

WORLD CUP 2014: Loew's Not Low Anymore; A Fitting Finale To A Compelling Tournament

In our final World Cup 2014 column, we proclaim Germany rightful Kings Of The Football World, and reveal our own tournament "award winners"

On a barmy, balmy night in Rio De Janeiro, Germany persisted to a deserved triumph over a valiant Argentinian side, winning the World Cup for the fourth time overall but for the first time as a unified nation, to follow West Germany's treble of wins in 1954, 1974 and 1990.

In doing so, they went from zeroes to heroes, and from chokers to champions, at long last putting aside the ghosts of Fabio Grosso, Fernando Torres, Carles Puyol, Mario Balotelli and every other obstacle that stood between the Jurgen Klinsmann-Jogi Loew long-term project and its worthy reward.

But it was not easy. This year's grand showpiece match rather disappointingly fell into the category of most knockout games in this World Cup: class eventually telling in a contest characterised by its goals, or lack of them.

Only the astounding thrashing of Brazil by Germany produced more than three goals per game following the first round of Brazil 2014, reducing what once promised to be among the highest ever goal averages at a World Cup to 2.67 - on par with France 98 and its 171 goals in 64 games, but below USA 94's 2.71.

And when considering the latest high-profile battle between Europe and South America in retrospect, it isn't hard to see why. With stakes heightening and matches becoming all about survival rather than goal difference and points, fear of losing regularly overtook daring to win. The result was, unsurprisingly, a slightly nervy Argentina and a seemingly overawed Germany scrapping with one another in the first half in the Maracana Stadium.

It is arguable that had they really believed in themselves and been more thoughtful with their attacks, Argentina could have been comfortably ahead by half-time. Although Germany dominated possession and were unlucky not to score themselves when Benedikt Howedes' close range header bounced off a post, Gonzalo Higuain had already fired wide with only Neuer to beat, and later mistimed a run to find himself rolling the ball past Neuer in a clearly offside position when he didn't need to be. The second half continued in a similar pattern, with players like Toni Kroos and Lionel Messi missing when you would have expected them to at least hit the target. Still, the replacement of the unfortunate Christoph Kramer (who had, in turn, stepped in at the last minute to replace Sami Khedira) with Andre Schurrle at least gave the Germans a little more attacking impetus.

And it was substitutions that eventually paid seven minutes from the end of extra time. Schurrle at last found space on the left flank, delivering the right cross for fellow substitute Mario Gotze to beat Sergio Romero from a tight angle. It had not been as brutal as the final of South Africa 2010. But, as had been the case four years ago, the Golden Boot contenders - in this case, Messi and Thomas Muller - were overshadowed in an exceptionally tight battle settled by a solitary goal from the deserving side close to the end.

Persistent, precise probing paid, for the purer football. And while short of being a brilliant team, the Germans at last showed that they did not, after all, lack the guts and the muscle for the games that really mattered. No longer would this gifted squad always promise, but never deliver - and that is something to be celebrated.

Of course, we must spare a thought for the poor Argentines, who all had faces like thunder at the end of the contest. To too many of them, it must have felt like the same kit, but an all-too-familiar outcome in a marginally cleaner but longer match than that filthfest in Rome in 1990. Marcos Rojo resembled Diego Maradona back then. Some tried in vain to put on a happy face as the Germans celebrated with their WAGs. It was all too much. And the consolation of the Golden Ball for Messi counted for little. He - and Argentina - had run out of steam, the general effect of a too restrictive, predominantly defensive game plan.

But the right team won. Just. And Mario Gotze rightly joins Helmut Rahn, Gerd Muller and Andy Brehme as World Cup goalscoring heroes while a fourth star now rests on top of Germany's football crest for all to see.

BEST WORLD CUP EVER...?

It is a fitting finale to a fine tournament that has ultimately promised more than it delivered. Brazil 2014's status as a very enjoyable World Cup should not be in doubt, but that it is being acclaimed in some quarters as the "best World Cup ever" speaks more of its recent competition (2002, 2006, 2010) than the tournament itself. It brings back that old food analogy: when you've been starved of a decent meal for so long, you'll regard the next "good" meal you get as a "great" one.

But it has produced countless memories. Several of which are worthy of "awards". And here are a handful of my own:

MOST ADMIRED TEAM OF THE TOURNAMENT? Germany, for adding resilience and toughness to go with their already proven flair. It helped lead them, in the end, to the ultimate prize. Honorable mention for their second round opponents Algeria.

FAVOURITE TEAM OF THE TOURNAMENT? Colombia. The most revelatory nation of this World Cup, blessed with a fearless attacking strategy, lots of goals and the finest No. 10 of them all. The absence of Falcao was forgotten... at least until they paid the poorest Brazil side in recent memory a little too much respect. Honorable mentions go to the spirited, well-organised Costa Rica and the never boring United States.

MOST UNDERRATED? Mexico and the two "honorable mentions" above. All three escaped from difficult groups to push technically superior opposition all the way in the knockout stages.

MOST OVERRATED? Croatia, Ivory Coast. Classic cases of gifted generations with the inability to deliver when it counted; in other words, they had all the gear, but no idea.

BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENTS? Where do I start? Spain's "Golden Generation" running out of steam in the most embarrassing manner? Holland starting with a bang before gradually deteriorating? A gutless Russia? Portugal, for relying too much on Cristiano Ronaldo (ditto Uruguay, and Luis Suarez)? France and Belgium, for being subsumed by unexpected timidity in the quarter-finals? A restrictive Argentine system eventually exhausting Lionel Messi? Alternatively, every Argentine attacking player barring Messi, especially Gonzalo Higuain? Every African nation bar Algeria? There are so many contenders, but I think the winner has to be Brutal Brazil and their midfield of clones. It's said one man doesn't make a team, but if you let him, as Brazil clearly did with Neymar, then you're in trouble...

MOST PLEASANT SURPRISES? Colombia, Algeria, Costa Rica, the United States and France (at least until the quarter-finals).

FAVOURITE GAME? Germany's 7-1 rout of Brazil has to top the list here. Honorable mentions for Holland's trouncing of Spain and the second period of extra-time in Belgium vs. USA.

FAVOURITE PLAYER? James Rodriguez of Colombia. An outstanding No. 10 in a field of already proven No. 10s.

MOST ADMIRED PLAYER? Tim Howard. His series of saves in the competition epitomise just how well he has bounced back from falling down the pecking order at Manchester United, once upon a time. Honorable mentions for Javier Mascherano for keeping Argentina ticking, and Miroslav Klose for breaking a certain record.

FAVOURITE GOAL? Rodriguez vs. Uruguay. Honorable mentions for Tim Cahill's volley against Holland, Robin van Persie's looping header against Spain and David Luiz's free kick against Colombia.

FAVOURITE CELEBRATION? Van Persie's celebration against Spain and any of the Colombian celebrations against Greece are favourites, but it is John Brooks' celebration for the USA against Ghana that really lingers. Forget overstatement; you knew that goal meant a lot to him. You just knew.

MOST AMUSING INTERNET MEME? Yes, we were disappointed in him at the time (and still are), but you have to admit the former Liverpool striker with plenty of bite gave us plenty of funny material to work with.

It's been quite a month, hasn't it? And on that note, it's time to consign Brazil 2014 to the record books and look forward to the new football season. For now....

Congratulations Germany!
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(Also published at Pulp Interest in July 2014.) Read more...