Middlesbrough suffered a disappointing 2-0 loss to relegation threatened Plymouth Argyle on Saturday, prompting a rendition of boos from the home fans.
The loss was their eighth home defeat of the season, with their last home win coming way back in December. The frustrated Boro faithful watched on as their players were comprehensively outplayed by a team that had struggled to win away all season. In fact, the Pilgrims had been victorious just once away from home during this campaign before meeting an indifferent and out-of-sorts Middlesbrough.
There has been a number of occasions where Michael Carrick‘s players have shown glimpses of the attractive football we all know they can play, without getting the reward. The recent Preston game is a case in point. But this time, they were not at the races. Actually, they were not even anywhere near their starting blocks and half the side appeared to be still in the dressing room doing up their laces as Plymouth swarmed the Middlesbrough midfield early on in the game, taking advantage of sloppy passing and sleepy marking.
Fans made their feelings known
Dan Barlaser and Lewis O’Brien both succumbed to early Plymouth pressure in their own half, with the home crowd’s discontent clearly audible.
The Leicester victory aside, results have not gone Middlesbrough’s way of late, with some particularly debilitating defeats endured at The Riverside. Fans were keen to make their feelings clear as they saw hopes of a play-off place all but fade away in front of them. The club are now 11 points off the play-offs and currently sit just nine points off the relegation places.
The boos began way before the half-time whistle, more so because of the insipid performance as opposed to the fact they were losing 2-0 at home. There was very little to get excited about and in truth the side never really looked like getting anything from the game.
Michael Carrick took responsibility
However, Carrick insisted afterwards that the performance was on him and not the players. He told Radio Tees Sport:
“I take full responsibility for that. I think first of all, I need to look at me really, I got some things wrong, and didn’t get things right so, it’s on me. The performance was nowhere near what we are capable of as a group. So, yeah, that’s on me.”
Whether he was so self-deprecating in the dressing room remains to be seen. It is possible he wanted to publicly protect his charges in the hope that they can retain what little confidence they appear to have for the remaining Championship games.
Carrick’s reference to getting things wrong could refer to the way he set his team up. The successful switch to three at the back against Leicester was dropped in favour of his usual 4-2-3-1 formation. The way in which the players individually integrated into that system was surprising though.
Strategy and set-up failed
Sami Silvera, who enjoyed lots of promising counter attacks (one of which resulted in a goal) versus Leicester, was again utilised in the match against Plymouth, but was deployed more on the left-hand side. Carrick clearly felt that that was an area Middlesbrough could exploit.
Carrick explained post-match that with Silvera holding the width on the left, Luke Thomas was brought in to play a more reserved role on the left side of defence, which should have meant a three-man defence when with the ball, as Luke Ayling was expected to provide the attacking intent going forward down the right.
The set-up also saw Riley McGree play a more advanced ‘false nine’ position through the middle. Needless to say, it just didn’t work. McGree is full of craft, but he does not have searing pace through the middle during a counter, nor is he comfortable playing with his back to goal in more patient build up phases.
The experiment of switching the full-back threat with Thomas and Ayling, also fell flat. The threat form the full-back areas has often been the left-side with Engel and last season Giles. Meaning the right full-back, be it Tommy Smith, Rav van den Berg or Luke Ayling has played closer to the centre-backs. Against Argyle, they tried to push Ayling further forward, but if you were to look at the touch maps of both players on the stats site Sofascore, they were playing in extremely similar sectors of the pitch, and neither to very good effect.
Unfortunately, the most telling statistic from them both was the amount of times they lost possession of the ball. Ayling lost possession 15 times and Thomas 16.
Still plenty to work with
The fall out from such a disappointing defeat could be analysed for hours, but it won’t turn the games we’ve lost into wins. The games have gone now, and the Middlesbrough boss is now tasked with how the club moves on, knowing that the likelihood of making the play-offs is near impossible.
There is a core of very good players in the squad, a nucleus that can be built around at the end of the season. Players like Hayden Hackney, Rav van den Berg, Riley McGree and Finn Azaz will surely be mainstays of the first team next season. Obviously the caveat with that is keeping those pivotal players at the club could be a big ask given the teams who are likely to show an interest.
There has been a high turn-over of players since the summer, some have been better than others and some are still developing. Carrick needs to figure out a system that not only plays good football, but gets the results to go with it. There have been lots of false nines, interchangeable 10’s and round pegs in square holes lately. Again, with reference to the Plymouth match, Silvera, McGree, Azaz and Forss played across the forward line, but it was difficult to decipher who was meant to be playing where. You would hope that the re-introduction of Emmanuel Latte Lath will ease that conundrum.
Last season, the Middlesbrough boss had a much more structured front line where everyone knew their job. In terms of the rest of the campaign, Carrick will want to find out whether the players he has currently, can play in the system he prefers. If not, he has the difficult decision of either replacing them, or adapting his approach to suit the individuals at his disposal.
Carrick the right man for Middlesbrough
He has always said that he backs his players 100% and believes in them, and it is worth pointing out, that the injury situation has prevented any kind of momentum being established. That being said, the team he has managed to put out has beaten Leicester on two separate occasions. But a season that has seen them play Bristol City twice, Rotherham twice, and Plymouth Argyle twice, and only come away with two points, can only represent disappointment.
The Middlesbrough supporters seem to be pragmatic in their belief that the rest of this campaign is now consigned to the ‘let’s prepare for next season’ phase. The general consensus is that Carrick is a good young Head Coach who will get it right. Middlesbrough supporters are largely behind him and many felt this season would be transitional, but they will not want to see too many performances like they witnessed on Saturday, especially at home.
Stability and some steady progress is what the fans will be looking for in the coming months. A few confidence boosting wins in readiness for next season’s assault would not go amiss too.