With Ipswich Town manager, Kieran McKenna an old friend and colleague of Michael Carrick, it was always going to be a difficult game for Middesbrough strategically, especially given that, as Carrick put it, the pair have ’emptied their football brains on each other’ in the past.
It appeared that Carrick, who usually sticks quite rigidly to his core principles in terms of the footballing approach from his team, deviated slightly in his footballing philosophy during the game against the high-flying ‘Tractor Boys’ to try to avoid being predictable and impose a subtle element of shock value on his opposing number. Needless to say the 2-0 scoreline meant it didn’t go to plan for Boro.
Hardly surprising in some ways, because Middlesbrough were without nine senior players for the match. The Boro Head Coach probably felt that he had to win the tactical battle to have any chance of success.
Lack of support from midfielders
Middlesbrough are known for wanting to monopolise the ball and keep possession for long periods, inviting the opposition to come out and vacate space for them to exploit. The possession is not aimless either, Carrick’s side like to impose themselves by having the ball in the opponents half. That was not the case on Saturday against Ipswich though. They played in a more contained and withdrawn way. Most of the closing down only happened in Middlesbrough’s own half, particularly in the opening 45 minutes.
When the likes of Morgan Rogers or Latte Lath did try to press the opposition defence, it didn’t trigger a coordinated press from the rest of the team. There was often a large, vacant space created as a consequence of the midfielders not pushing up to join. Jonny Howson and Dan Barlaser, whilst excellent players, both tend to play deeper than Hayden Hackney.
The still image taken from the extended highlights shown by the EFL site shows the space between centre forward Emannuel Latte Lath and his supporting attackers. It was too big a gap for him to be able to fashion anything. On numerous occasions, he had to just go it alone.
It was like their was too much respect at times for an Ipswich side that, despite enjoying some great form, had still only won once in the last five league games away from home. They certainly didn’t look unbeatable.
A more direct approach from Boro
One of the other observations from the match, was that, where Boro had insisted on continually playing out from the back against Leeds, (to their detriment at times), they adopted a more direct approach and played more percentage balls down the channel when under pressure against Ipswich. There could be a number of explanations for this, Matt Clarke only starting for the first time is certainly one of them. They were maybe also aware that against Leeds, the ultra-aggressive press caught them out far too often and prompted mistakes. They did not want to repeat that feat against another top team.
The caveat with that, is that a team that has been drilled so well to do something, are then told to change their approach and it feels alien. For example, the central midfielders are used to being close to the defence when playing out, in order to keep the ball in neat triangles, building up the play patiently. If you then try to change it up and play more direct up to the striker (in this case Emannuel Latte Lath) hoping to counter, you do not have the support or the shape you want, because the players are not expecting to be haring forward to win the second ball.
A flat performance
All in all, it was a flat performance, but in fairness to Michael Carrick, he is missing some very influential players. The way that Middlesbrough normally prefer to play is being somewhat hindered by the personnel available. The likes of Riley McGree, Hayden Hackney, and Marcus Forss, are all more accustomed to the way Boro play and will add some much needed dynamism to a side that was too pedestrian against Ipswich. Even when the players got higher up the pitch in the second half, they were not quick enough to close down and McKenna’s side simply made one pass through the centre of the pitch, cutting out the whole Boro defence which ultimately led to the second goal.
It is by no means a witch-hunt, Michael Carrick will no doubt put out eleven players that are ready to go again at home against Hull City on Wednesday evening. The Ipswich encounter was one of those where too many had an ‘off day’. You can’t blame Carrick for wanting to steal a march strategically, but it just didn’t come off. Surely Boro must go back to their tried and tested possession based football and hope to have a little more success in the final third.