With up to ten senior players potentially unavailable for Saturday’s crucial encounter with Ipswich Town, it appears the situation could get even worse if two players get booked against ‘The Tractor Boys’.
Both Jonny Howson and Matt Crooks will trigger a one match suspension if they receive their fifth yellow card at any point during the game on Saturday. As they prepare for the home match against free-scoring Ipswich, the club are already having to contend with the loss of Tommy Smith, Lewis O’Brien, Darragh Lenihan, Riley McGree, Marcus Forss, Paddy McNair, Dael Fry and Hayden Hackney, all through injury and they will be without Isaiah Jones and Anfernee Dijksteel through suspension.
Pair walking disciplinary tightrope
Middlesbrough are threadbare at the moment, particularly in defence, but if defensive options are exacerbated, it may impact other areas. For example, (stay with me here) If Dael Fry does not recover in time for Ipswich, They will have only centre-backs Rav van den Berg, and Matt Clarke, and two left-back’s in Lukas Engel and Alex Bangura available. The big call for Carrick, is who then plays at right-back? It could mean that Jonny Howson is forced into filling in there.
That decision could potentially bring Crooks back into central midfield from his usual number ten role. Either way, those two players will be crucial in what promises to be an exciting contest, but the disciplinary tightrope they are walking will be giving the coaching staff nightmares.
Interestingly, Boro do not have a poor disciplinary record, in fact, they are in the top eight teams in terms of the fair play league in the Championship. But the suspensions have just arrived at a time when they can least afford to lose players. The kamikaze Leeds United battle saw Boro rack up 6 yellow cards, one of them being Anfernee Dijksteel’s second yellow equalling a red.
Head Coach pride
In spite of the injuries and suspensions, Head Coach Carrick is proud of his players and insists they are giving everything as they try to navigate through this difficult spell with the squad thin on the ground. The next few weeks should see a slight improvement in players coming back, with McGree and Forss surely not too far away and Fry and Hackney hopefully just nursing knocks.
The only other slightly positive news is that Jones and Dijksteel will of course be available for selection again once they have served their ban on Saturday, but Michael Carrick will hope that will be as well as Howson and Crooks rather than instead of.