Warnock Weekly 5-3-08 || Middlesbrough F.C. news, reviews and comment

WARNOCK WEEKLY - ATTACKING OUR ATTACK - 5-3-08
Tom Warnock

If ever one single match highlighted the shortcomings of Gareth Southgate's Middlesbrough team, then look no further than the game against Reading.

We faced a team who had lost eight straight games, have conceded forty-nine goals in the league this season and hadn't won a game away from home all campaign.

Reading must have been rubbing their hands together before they played the league's best duck breaker in ourselves.

We weren't in the best shape after our unnecessary marathon against Sheffield United and this told. Alves' first league start brought pre-match promise but the game and the atmosphere was flat from the start and nothing really materialised.

We are the joint second lowest scorers in the top flight in a season that was proclaimed to be all about playing attacking football. I suppose that just shows that attacking football doesn't always mean that the attacking will be successful.

Our problem can be summarised in many ways. One of the most startling is that the team one place above us, Spurs, have scored more goals away from home than we have at home and their goal tally at home is more than double our measly fourteen.

We haven't even scored more than two goals in any league game this season. This is in stark contrast to previous seasons when we had Hasselbaink, Viduka and Yakubu burying the ball in the net on a regular basis.

What chance would we have in pulling back a three goal deficit in Europe on the current playing squad? We might create chances but we wouldn't score them.

To pick apart the issue, it's not as though we are short of supply. Downing and O'Neil provide unquestionable quality from each wing and indeed Arca, Rochemback and Tuncay offer many options going forward. The finishing is sub-standard and we've known this for a while now.

Our recent run of form has been based on solid foundations at the back. We have become overly reliant on a back four who until Saturday had carried our frontline for months. At the beginning of the season we weren't scoring or defending well enough, thus losing nearly every game.

Our success of late has been in the defence. This means that the strikers haven't been at the races all season. Gareth gave it a go but he must concede that this season really hasn't been about attacking football at all.

It's been messy at the best of times. Even games we've won we haven't been comfortable in and we've never been out of sight. The pressure has always been on the defence.

One thing in our favour is that our manager is the perfect man to solidify and unite a defensive unit. He seems to have found his back four for the foreseeable future. Gareth will be hard pushed to budge any of them unless he must.

The fact is that we are a goal or two shy of being a top seven team. We have the midfield, we have the defence, we just need our strikers to get it right. Desperately.

We can forget the league now at least. We aren't going up and we aren't going down - we're pretty much staying where we are.

The cup takes all priority now, without doubt. Getting through against Cardiff will be tough - you don't get to the quarter finals without having something about you.

Cardiff have nothing to lose whereas if we lose, our season is over. If Cardiff go out they can still qualify for the playoffs but I re-iterate, if we go out, our season will be over.

The Boro strikers need to work hard on their finishing because any FA Cup tie against a Chelsea or a Manchester United means we will concede. That means we need to score two to win, which is something that has not happened very often of late.

Let's hope the Riverside is sold out on Sunday. You don't get to see many FA Cup quarter finals for £15 (and even less for season card holders or kids).

Hats off to the club, they obviously realise that we need all the support we can get in what is the biggest game we've had since the same round in last year's competition.

Cardiff will be a bigger challenge than any of the previous rounds but the semi-finals are within reach. Let's not let this chance pass us by.

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