Will another poor Boro start give way to a second Carrick rampage - Interview Thursday, 31st Aug 2023 21:09 by Clive Whittingham Boro made the 22/23 play-offs after winning two of their first 11, so with one point from four games after a slew of summer departures should they be alarmed or is this another slow burn? We spoke with Dana Malt from The Boro Breakdown and our regular correspondent James Boothby. Weirdly bad start from Boro, again, what have you made of it? JB: Has definitely been a disappointing start. Off the ball seems to be the biggest problem for us right now, our pressing is poor and leaving big gaps between midfield and defence. And individual mistakes seem to be costing us big time - we are getting punished every time whilst not making the most of our chances when we do get them. Does seem to be a frustrating cycle of start a season poorly, make a run towards the end and just miss out. Whilst it was only a win against lower league opposition in the cup, it felt like a big win. A good second half, with numerous chances created will hopefully allow us to go in the weekends game with a bit of confidence. DM: It’s been strange. Given the change of personnel, I wasn’t naive enough to believe we would enjoy a flying start to the season - but maybe I *was* naive in not expecting such a slow one. We are experiencing significant structural problems at the moment. Due to our quite narrow approach in possession, and lack of a real outlet up front, we frequently lose the ball and are exposed on the turnover, gifting the opposition the ball and allowing them to attack us in dangerous areas. These are tactical issues that need ironing out, but perhaps the elusive first league win will help to alleviate a little bit of pressure. Boro in the league so far… Do you expect it to turn around in the manner of last season once the newbies have settled in? JB: I would certainly expect things to get better once everyone has settled in - whether it will be quite as good as last season remains to be seen. There have been signs attacking wise at least in the last couple of games that we are not a million miles away, but we need to get much tighter defensively. DM: Yes. Carrick has shown in a four-month period that he’s a good manager - clever tactically and composed from a player management perspective. Just how good is he though? We don’t know quite yet, but he’s still more than capable of creating a team to play razor-sharp, attacking football again. Some pretty disastrous play-out-from-the-back calamities at West Brom at the weekend - any grumblings about Carrick yet? JB: Apart from the small, but very vocal, lunatic wing on social media people are still happy with Carrick. It has been a big summer of change and we have lost £50-60 million pounds of talent in the loan players who have gone back and then been sold elsewhere. If we cut out the individual mistakes things should look a bit better, if it becomes systemic then we would have issues. The way Carrick wants us to play from the back - I think we are occasionally going to see mishaps like West Brom, last season we were scoring enough goals it didn't really matter. DM: There have been concerns regarding team selection, but we appear to be past that now. No one could blame Carrick for Saturday. The starting 11 was received without much protestation and there’s not much you can do when you’ve just spent 15 minutes at half-time telling the players they’re still in it, only to see us implode shortly after. Us Boro fans are a whiny bunch, as football supporters tend to be, but Carrick is in the clear… for now. Tell us about your summer transfer business, who's come and gone, what have you made of it, what's still to do? JB: The loan players are obviously a big miss and were key to our success - it's hard to replace the likes of Akpom/Archer/Giles/Ramsey. Morgan Rogers came in from Man City and looks a decent player in that number ten role, whilst Sammy Silvera came in from Australia and looks lively. He needs to learn that you don't need to rip the net out with every shot though - missed some gilt-edged chances. Emmanual Latte Lath has come in from Atalanta and hit the ground running, looks a threat up front and got his first goal at West Brom. Behind him though, the striker department looks a bit thin. Coburn is next in line but a load deal has already been agreed for him to go to Plymouth once we get someone else in and then you are looking at Rogers/Crooks as Forss has been used as a wideman rather than striker. Feeling is we want three in before the deadline - CM/AM/CF. And ideally proven players - we have a squad now filled with players with potential, but need that bit of proven quality. DM: The loanees went back: Zack Steffen, Ryan Giles, Alex Mowatt, Aaron Ramsey, Cameron Archer. Even just reading those names upsets me. We’ve lost so much quality within that contingent that it makes me feel sick. Then it was compounded by the sale of Chuba Akpom to Ajax. To replace these outgoings we’ve brought in Seny Dieng, Lukas Engel, Rav van den Berg, Sammy Silvera, Morgan Rogers, Emmanuel Latte Lath and two more goalies for the collection. It’s been smart picking up players for relatively low fees who may have a higher resale value, but their actual quality is largely unknown. We still need another striker, a number ten and maybe even a left-back and central midfielder. Ins >>> Emmanuel Latte Lath, 24, CF, Atalanta, £4.5m >>> Seny Dieng, 28, GK, QPR, £2m >>> Lucas Engel, 24, LB, Silkeborg, £1.5m >>> Tom Glover, 25, GK, Melbourne, Free >>> Jamie Jones, 34, GK, Wigan, Free >>> Alex Gilbert, 21, LW, Brentford, Free >>> Morgan Rogers, 20, LW, Man City, Undisclosed >>> Rav van den Berg, 18, CB, Zwolle, Undisclosed >>> Sam Silvera, 22, LW, Central Coast, Undisclosed >>> Lewis O’Brien, 24, CM, Forest, Loan >>> Sam Greenwood, 21, AM, Leeds, Loan Outs >>> Chuba Akpom, 27, CF, Ajax, £12m >>> Grant Hall, 31, CB, Rotherham, Free >>> Luke Daniels, 35, GK< Forest Green, Free >>> Marc Bola, 25, LB, Samsunspor, Undisclosed >>> Joe Lumley, 28, GK, Southampton, Free >>> Darnell Fisher, 29, RB, Released >>> Matthew Hoppe, 22, CF, San Jose, Loan >>> Liam Roberts, 28, GK, Barnsley, Loan How's our former goalkeeper/social butterfly getting on for you? JB: He has actually been excellent so far and one of my standout players. Suits the way we play well, and has not dropped any major clangers so far. Often found slowly wandering towards the halfway line when DM: He’s actually been decent. I know he’s ranked bottom for save % and prevented goals, but on the eye test I’ve liked Dieng, and I’m definitely not the only one. I’d say he’s fared better at the start of this season than Zack Steffen did at the start of last. His distribution is really good for how we want to play and he’s not been at fault for any of the goals we’ve conceded so far. He just hasn’t scored yet, which is disappointing.
Stand out players and weak links? JB: Hard to pin down a standout player to be honest - as mentioned Dieng has looked fine in goal, Rogers and Silvera have settled well and Latte Lath looks like he will cause problems. McGree has also started well but is being used more of the bench in recent games. Right bback has been a problem so far, both Tommy Smith and Anfernee Dijksteel have been injured so has been a mixture of McNair and Van Den Berg playing there with mixed results. But defensively as a whole we look a bit shaky at the moment. DM: Stand out players: right, now Emmanuel Latte Lath. Our new number nine got off the mark at The Hawthorns on Saturday, and has looked extremely lively. His movement is good, so as long as we provide quick service into him we can be confident he will get the chances. This may be premature to say but I’m going to say it anyway, his finishing does look rather erratic and may need some refining, but he looks promising nonetheless. Weak links: It’s not so much personnel actually, it’s more our collective organisation. We’re too narrow, too passive and a bit messy in our shape at times. The midfield area is taking some heat, as there’s quite a few runs being made off Howson and Hackney. I do think we’ll get the blend right soon, but perhaps this is the best time to play us. Revised expectations for the season? JB: I still have my optimistic hat on and think we will still be fighting for top 6 - that is reliant on us getting what we need in the next few days however. Otherwise, whilst I don't think we will be in any trouble of relegation it could be a trickier season for us. DM: I'm still expecting an ascent at some point. We have talented players, a good manager and good coaches around him. We may not be cutting teams open at will but we’re still creating chances. Once we cut out the mistakes at the back and revert back to a similar set up to last season with a 3-2-5 build up, I think we’ll be good to properly kick-start our season. Links >>> Middlesbrough Official Website >>> Teeside Gazette — Local Paper >>> FMTTM — Message Board >>> Boro Breakdown – Podcast >>> One Boro — Forum >>> Bonkers for Boro — Blog >>> Boropolis — Podcast The Twitter @jamesyboz, @DanaMalt, @Boro_Breakdown, @loftforwords Pictures — Action Images Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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