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WEITER, WEITKOMMEN, WEITSCHWEIFIG 22-2-05
Greetings and after a Graz style mid-winter break, welcome to the new, improved, streamline howl, without the lupine fantasy bit at the start and with even more insight, comment and analysis on the Boro. And unlike Graz I promise this won't be as rusty or as poor as it could possibly be.
So I hope you like the new format I have adopted and enjoy what I will write in this space in the coming months. Expect a fresh one every four weeks and, as usual, any criticisms or conjectures would be received gratefully. Please send them to the usual address. So here we go into the new look lupine lair for the first time. Bear with me, the smell of creosote can be somewhat over-powering...
On January and the malaise that is the FA Premier League
After a dismal January in which we managed to collect a mere two points and record only one win, and that was against Nott's County, February has been somewhat of a transformation. A narrow defeat to Portsmouth apart, a game that we played well enough to get a point out of, was eclipsed by our first league win of the new year against Blackburn and competent performances against Bolton and Graz last night.
Suddenly the pessimism that had started to engulf Teesside like the smog for which we are so famous has started to lift and, with the prospect of some key injured players coming back in the next few weeks there is no reason why we cannot start challenging the top four again.
For we were lucky during our barren spell because many of the teams we have been and will be competing against for that final Champions League spot, along with the three UEFA Cup places have also had dips in form in recent games. Thus throughout January we sat comfortably in sixth, granted with some teams, for example Tottenham starting to close the gap behind us. But the threat was never really as potent as it could have been. It is this more than anything that demonstrates how poor the Premier League is this season.
With our first choice side out, there is no doubt that we could finish around fourth or fifth in the table. But then I am sure there are another six or seven teams who believe the same of themselves too. The fact that in such a dismal month for picking up points, no one capitalised on our dip in form is telling of the lack of quality in the League this season. Had this quality been present, it would inevitably have shone through.
Obviously this is to our advantage, as a poor league would naturally imply that our side, which is full of quality players (and Doriva) should have a good chance of finishing in at least in the UEFA Cup spots, which certainly seems to be possible at the moment.
Contrary to this however, I accept that some might say that no one capitalising on our failings demonstrates how unpredictable and even the League is this season, that this is why the Premier League is 'the most exciting league in the world'. An argument can certainly be made, particularly when we consider the teams who are currently fifth to eleventh, as to predict these games would be akin to tossing a coin.
However a question must be asked about the generally poor standard of football. Many of these sides are filled with workman-like, unspectacular players who seem far removed from the halcyon days of the League some ten years ago. Indeed I would argue that formation and playing to your strengths is more important than ever now, and is the reason why the likes of Bolton, Charlton and this season, Everton, teams that contain average players at best, are doing so well.
On Tactics
And this knocks on to McClaren's tactical nous and raises some interesting points, for whilst I accept that 4-5-1 is the way to play away from home in Europe, McClaren resorts to a loan striker slightly too much for my liking. This is enhanced when we consider that that striker is Hasselbaink who for some reason often finds himself on the wings, and is not the greatest holder up of the ball.
I accept that this state of affairs is largely due to our injury problems, and particularly the absence of Viduka who, despite his lack of scoring this season, plays an important Emile Heskey like role in our strike force. Thus Hasselbaink does not work well as a loan striker and more often than not it is the midfielders who contribute to the scoring when we play this formation, rather than Hasselbaink himself, despite it being more defensive.
This has also been demonstrated in the number of chances Hasselbaink gets when he plays alongside another striker such as Job, although it is often the latter who is better at getting into positions than his ex-Chelsea team-mate. Indeed I believe that Job would be a good striker if he had that extra bit of confidence in front of goal because his positional sense is exceptional. This was most clearly demonstrated at the Reebok last Saturday with the chance he had in the second minute of the game.
If it had been Hasselbaink in that position (a position that Hasselbaink rarely gets into) then you would have put money on him scoring. However as it was Job there were doubts, not least in the striker's mind. If he can exorcise these doubts and gain that extra bit of confidence he needs then he could become a very valuable asset to us indeed. After all, despite limited appearances he has scored a considerable number of goals and he is integral to the side when he plays. I just hope the training staff can increase this confidence somewhat- maybe he should have finishing lessons off Jimmy or something...
On the Defence
This more defensive 4-5-1 policy that has been played in recent weeks may be due to the regrettable absence of George Boateng in the midfield. Indeed there is no doubt in my mind that he should be our player of the season because it is not until you take someone out of the side that you realise how much you miss them, and George has been sorely, sorely missed.
This is largely because we lack even competent defensive midfield cover. Doriva played well last season but something seems to have happened in recent months and he is currently playing like a headless chicken, bereft of any idea of what is going on. Thus the midfield is being overrun far too easily and the defence has little confidence in what is in front of them. This dangerous cocktail is completed when we add Schwarzer's erratic form over the last few weeks.
I had hoped that once the contract disputes had been resolved, Schwarzer would become more focussed on the field and start to play like the (almost) infallible keeper of old. Thus I gave him the benefit of the doubt in some of his early mistakes. But what I failed to realise was that mistakes are contagious, as once proved by David James. If you make one, it is hard to mentally recover and you keep on making them.
And this has happened to Schwarzer throughout this new year, and indeed as the evidence of the Graz goals demonstrates, is still happening now. It's not as if he's become a bad keeper though, as his excellent clean-sheet display at Bolton demonstrated when he was quite comfortably man of the match. It just appears that his concentration and confidence is somewhat lacking. Thus he is rarely commanding in the area and this element of insecurity has passed on to the defence as a whole, with even Southgate experiencing doubts and making fundamental errors.
This, in turn however may be related to a lack of confidence Schwarzer has in his defence, hence why he has flapped at many crosses this season and come out of goal when he really shouldn't have done. And I'm thinking Rooney's 'wonder' goal in the FA Cup fourth round. Yet the blame should rest at Schwarzer because it is his job, along with Southgate's, to organise the defence and he does not appear to be doing it well.
This is most clearly demonstrated in the woeful marking that we have been displaying in recent times, particularly at set-pieces where we appear to be conceding most of our goals. The three goals in ten minutes against Norwich infuriated me, not necessarily because we conceded them to a poor side that we really should have beaten but because Cahill's goal for Everton the previous week was provided through an unmarked head-down by Ferguson. We had not learnt our lesson and to see the inevitable horror unfold out in front of me I questioned the training staff and McClaren himself. Along with the defence.
And indeed I still do as the chances Graz had last week also largely came down to a lack of marking and this should be Schwarzer's job to organise. It is a major part of Schwarzer's game that has been missing as many a goal has been conceded through general defensive confusion. I accept the injury list has forced us to make concessions we should not have had to make for whilst Colin Cooper rarely put a foot wrong, it is harsh to expect a 38 year old to play week-in week-out, including four games over the ten day Christmas period.
Indeed it is no coincidence that with Riggott back in the side at Bolton the defence looked more solid. It was the first time I had had confidence in the defence since Christmas. Yet in saying this, we have in Reiziger one of the most disappointing players I have seen play at right-back for a while and Queudrue who, whilst great going forward is also prone to lapses in defence. How Reiziger can be playing so poorly and still be keeping poor Tony McMahon out of the team, who not only being local, has played ten times better than the Dutchman this season makes me further question McClaren's allegiances.
It is evident that Reiziger is not the better player nor has he proved himself to be, so is McClaren going for the bigger named player rather than the better one? It's an interesting question because one benefit of the injury list this season has been our seeing McMahon play, and he must feel desperately desperately unlucky to be watching the play from the bench, when he really should be on the field. And in a situation when McClaren post-Graz bemoans our defending again, you have to question why he doesn't change it and put McMahon back in for one game. I guarantee we would be more solid. Because I am starting to be sick of McClaren talking about our defensive problems only for him to do nothing about it, the same errors cropping up again and again. It needs sorting, and needs sorting now before a concern becomes a full-scale worry.
On Injuries
Now they've been mentioned, we need to look at the injuries to discern what's going on, particularly when we consider the defensive problems we've had this season. For what we need to question is why the majority of them seem to be occurring in training. The question that is begging is what the hell are they doing that induces so many injuries? Because these are all of our own making and have already jeopardised our Champions League ambitions and could threaten any hope of qualification for the UEFA Cup as well.
This is particularly prevalent now we are out of the Carling Cup by fielding a weakened side and out of the FA Cup because we decided not to compete at Old Trafford. Indeed if we had had our first choice side out against United I am sure we could have worried them, if not won the game. But to go anywhere and not compete, irrespective of the personell you've got out is frankly unforgivable and in many games in recent weeks we have been almost expecting defeat.
As I keep saying, if you want to evolve into a big club, to do what Everton may do this season, you need to be in the running for the European places. Now all is not lost as the League was, and thankfully still is, the best chance we had of attaining this but we need to make sure that we do. And with other teams breathing down our necks we need to ensure we stay ahead of them. And with our injury situation this will become increasingly harder. Indeed the worrying aspect of this is that in Charlton and Villa, our next two opponents, we cannot afford to lose.
The old Boro probably would have done but this new revolution we are witnessing has filled me with more confidence and we can comfortably hold our own, particularly as both sides are no more than average. But they are two of our chief competitors and they will be difficult to beat, despite both games being winnable. We need to ensure that injuries are kept to a minimum and hope we can get some of our players back, namely Boateng and Viduka as previously mentioned.
Because too often this season the heart has been ripped from the team and we have suffered because of it. Indeed this season has, despite our optimism earlier on in the season, demonstrated that we do not quite have the strength in depth we thought we had, that we are not as strong as we thought we were. Granted many teams such as Liverpool are almost in identical situations to ourselves and indeed once more of the kids break through we could start pushing. Unless Man Utd steal all our best players of course. But until then we do not have enough good quality cover. Cooper, Doriva, Job, Nemeth, er no.
The kids? Maybe, at least they will fulfil UEFA's new home-grown players directive, I can hear Arsenal's panic as I type. But in the end the conclusion that must be drawn is that we have a good team but we do not have a good squad. It is this that is the reason why we are not sitting in that fourth Champions League spot although I would argue that we do not deserve to be there simply because in the seven games we have played against the current top four this season we have only managed to pick up one point.
Yet against the teams in fifth down, we have managed to score many victories and so it is well within our aim to get that first UEFA Cup position. And it is this we should aim for, because without it our season will be a failure, one that promised so much but one that let us down, just like Old Boro would do. And this is New Boro, and it won't happen. If we get our act together.
Until next time.
Packwolf
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