After years of tipping Middlesbrough for promotion and being left with egg on our face, this year we lost faith and stuck them 13th so of course they’re flying away in second place – Dana Malt from @Boro_Breakdown tries to explain how and why.
I have no idea. I keep looking at the league table and thinking ‘yeah, well… it doesn’t matter. This isn’t real, it’s just a figment of our imaginations.’ But we are actually second. It’s funny, despite keeping pace with the outright best team in the league, I’m still sitting here wondering how good we actually are. To that question, I don’t know, time will tell, but I know we’re not crap, so I’ll take that.
Boro in the league this season…
Boro 1-0 Swansea Fry 51
Millwall 0-3 Boro Hackney 49, Jones 87, Burgzorg 90
Norwich 1-2 Boro Sargent 85 – Azaz 43, Conway 45
Boro 1-0 Sheff Utd Conway 64
Preston 2-2 Boro Dobbin 22, Storey 88 – Targett 72, Hansen 90
Boro 2-1 West Brom Strelec 26, Sene 61 – Heggebo 90
Southampton 1-1 Boro Armstrong 61 – Sene 77
Boro 0-0 Stoke
Pompey 1-0 Boro Min-Hyeok 23
Boro 2-1 Ipswich Kipre og 45, Whittaker 55 – O’Shea 76
Sheff Wed 0-1 Boro Whittaker 6
Boro 1-1 Wrexham Hackney 80 – Windass 7
Watford 3-0 Boro Louza 15, Kjerrumgaard 32, Doumbia 49
Leicester 1-1 Boro Ayew pen 45 – Ayling 90
Boro 2-1 Birmingham Fry 17, Hackney 45 – Gray 29
Oxford 1-1 Boro Harris 28 – Whittaker 54
Boro 2-4 Coventry Whittaker 32, Thomas og 49 – Simms 10, 86, Kitching 14, 85
Boro 2-1 Derby Targett 75, Whittaker 84 – Agyemang 2
Hull 1-4 Boro Gelhardt pen 62 – Strelec 9, Gilbert 32, Whittaker 35, McGree 44
Charlton 1-2 Boro Edmundson og 81 -McGree 33, Whittaker 45
*Frank Lampard serious face*, no but seriously, how's it been, highlights and low lights?
Remarkably, considering we usually stink the gaff out at the beginning of the season, there’s not been many lowlights… on the pitch at least. Losing to Portsmouth hasn’t aged well, because neither has their season so far, so there’s that. We also lost to Coventry, but then again we always do. Same with Watford at Vicarage Road. Two fixtures there that Boro fans dread.
In regards to highlights, this is our best points tally at this stage of a season since 2015/16. For the uninitiated, Boro got promoted that year. Is that a good omen or am I deluded? I keep checking one specific account on Twitter/X - the PPG Prophet. That’s how locked in I am on this season. The sheer fact we’re ‘up there’ is the overwhelming positive.
Rob Edwards giving it the full Mick Beale, must have been annoying just as you finally start motoring, thoughts on his brief reign and departure?
Ha. I do wonder if Rob Edwards has posters of Mick Beale in his office. Both of them must’ve been born from the pits of LinkedIn. ‘How to activate a positive mindset with your 6am coffee!’ type spiel. I can summarise his short tenure as this: he said nice things, wooed fans, won some games and left.
His departure sparked a lot of ill-feeling within the fanbase. A lot - and I mean A LOT - of Boro fans didn’t even want Rob Edwards to start with. They saw the broken man that played a big role in Luton’s relegation into League One and thought he was infected with eternal shitness. He won those very fans over with his words, genuinely before a ball was even kicked.
‘This is a big football club’, ‘We’re a family, if we want to achieve something we have to be together’ (ironic), ‘I’ve fallen in love with the fans’, ‘I’m so lucky and privileged to be here’. Big words, completely diminished by one action: him leaving after 14 games. Cheers Rob.
I actually think it’s been a blessing in disguise that he took off though. We’d only won two of his last eight and there was a strong feeling amongst the fanbase that we were faltering. Although Boro were much improved defensively compared to last season, Edwards couldn’t get a tune out of the attack, no matter what he tried. It meant we weren’t great to watch, and when results aren’t really being delivered either, it starts to get tricky. I do think we’d have gone on to fall down the table under him. Instead, there’s a new lease of life now; different ideas and an improvement in results.
We've obviously got a few contacts at Hammarby after hiring Cifuentes from there, my guy said of your new man... "deep tactical thinker, bit of a natural evolution of Cifuentes, loves to play out from the back, fck it up sometimes, was big on the Guardiola centre back jumping into midfield and pushing midfield on to create attacking overloads but ultimately Hammarby conceded too many goals this year. TLDR version, Cifuentes but much faster and more attacking football. Don’t be surprised if Boro see plenty of 3-3s second half of the season"... so, how's it going so far?
There’s shades of Michael Carrick in that, isn’t there? So far, it’s been genuinely exciting. I’m surprised at how quickly he’s got us playing well - and I don’t even think we’re close to seeing ‘Hellball’ being properly implemented either.
He’s come in, played an entirely new system for both he and Boro (a 4-2-2-2), and is getting our attacking players looking like the technically gifted footballers they are. I was watching the first half of our mid-week game at Charlton and getting giddy at the way we turned their players into training mannequins. Quick, forward thinking, incisive, creative. It was like there was a considerable weight lifted off us, because I haven’t really seen us play like that this season.
What's the style and set up? What Boro team are we facing this weekend?
So, on paper it’s a 4-2-2-2. Alex Gilbert has come in from the cold to play as a deep lying playmaker. If he starts again, he’ll operate either between the centre halves on build up, or just ahead of them. Hayden Hackney will be positioned in front of him with our full-backs, Alex Bangura and Callum Brittain, in space out wide. Not too high, and not too wide to start with, but crucially, in space.
Centrally, you’ll see four players in the attacking third, not including Hackney who will drive forward too as he usually does. Those four players are two 10s: Riley McGree, who is a delightful footballer to watch, and Morgan Whittaker, who is in some form after scoring 5 in 5. There’s then two 9s, likely Tommy Conway and David Strelec, provided the latter has recovered from illness.
What that has essentially created in a conundrum for our last two opponents. Compact the middle and we’ll stretch you out wide; press us out wide and we’ll punish you centrally.
Keeping Hackney and that midfield together unexpectedly through the summer felt key to the big start, will he stay through January? What needs doing in this transfer window?
That was the most important thing that happened to Boro in the summer, I think. He’s so good. He’s basically a Premier League player playing in the Championship. I can’t believe we still have him. I also can't believe some of our fans don’t rate him! ‘Overrated’, ‘believes his own hype. Absolute nonsense. He’s a quality operator at his level; a creative influence, a midfield dictator, a top class ball carrier and progresser. We are so fortunate that only Ipswich came in for him, and that he turned them down. I hope he stays, and I think, as long as we keep pace with the top of the league, he’ll see the rest of the season out.
In regards to January business, I don’t think we need much. Maybe another two full-backs for each side, just to provide stern competition for Bangura and Brittain. Other than that, we honestly just need to give our foreign lads time. We have plenty of talent, they just need to adjust.
Ins >>> David Strelec, 24, CF, Bratislava, £7m >>> Adilson Malanda, 23, CB, Charlotte, £6m >>> Sontje Hansen, 23, RW, Nijmegen, £3m >>> Abdoulaye Kante, 20, DM, Troyes, £2.5m >>> Kaly Sene, 24, CF, Lausanne, £1m >>> Alfie Jones, 27, CB, Hull, Undisclosed >>> Callum Brittain, 27, RB, Blackburn, Undisclosed >>> Jon McLaughlin, 37, GK, Swansea, Free >>> Sverre Nypan, 18, CM, Man City, Loan >>> Matt Targett, 29, LB, Newcastle, Loan >>> Alan Browne, 30, CM, Sunderland, Loan
Outs >>> Finn Azaz, 24, AM, Southampton, £10m >>> Rav van den Berg, 21, CB, Koln, £7m >>> Josh Coburn, 22, CF, Millwall, £5m >>> Anfernee Dijksteel, 28, RB, Kocaelispor, Free >>> Jonny Howson, 37, CM, Leeds, Free >>> George Gitau, 21, RB, Released >>> Tom Glover, 27, GK, Released >>> Adilson Malanda, 23, CB, Charlotte, Loan >>> Neto Borges, 28, LB, Bristol City, Loan >>> Marcus Forss, 26, CF, Bolton, Loan >>> Dan Barlaser, 28, DM, Hibs, Loan
Where is the team strong and where is it weak?
We’ve been strong at the back under Kim Hellberg. It may not seem like it, as we’ve conceded in each of his three games, but we’ve really not let up many chances owing to how much control we have seized in his games so far. There’s a few consequential errors, like George Edmundson scoring an own goal against Charlton and Sol Brynn conceding a penalty after a misjudged pass to him against Hull. We’ve not really been carved open though.
Our slick style of play means we’re strong all over the pitch and I’ve yet to see a notable weak link. Morgan Whittaker is in great form and will be looking to make it six goals in as many games, so I’d mark him as the dangerman for this one.
I do think it’s worth noting that Boro have endured drop-offs in their last two second halves, interestingly after both Hull and Charlton made half-time changes. That’s a potential vulnerability. Defend well, or ride your luck, or both, and keep in the game for as long as possible. Due to our intensity, on and off the ball, we may start to falter and that’s when it’s the perfect time to strike.
Revised expectations for the season, will you see this through?
On our season preview pod, my bold prediction was that Rob Edwards won’t last the season and whoever replaces him will get Boro promoted via the play-offs. Because of that I have to say one thing: we’re so going up.
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