|
|
THE ROCKLIFFE FILES - MORE MULE THAN EUELL 31-10-06
Toby Higgins
Last week's happy and jokey Anti-News style edition of this article has been replaced this week by the more serious and focused Rockcliffe Files, which I've no doubt some of you have no interest in reading. Hell, if you've made it this far, well done.
Firstly, for those who read this every week, thank you, but secondly, do you remember my rant after our last Monday night match, the 0-4 home spanking by 'arry's Pompy? Yep, me too.
However, this article won't be quite as brutal as the one thirty-three days ago, even if it is a little more controversial. That night against Portsmouth, everyone could see what was going wrong; I couldn't tell you anything you couldn't see yourselves. This article though will have opinions coming at you thick and fast. I hope, for your sake, you're ready for them.
To begin with.
. staying in this league will be much harder, maybe even impossible for us, if we don't compete for every single ball for the entire duration of the game. For the first fourty-five minutes, and for much of the second half, we simply weren't involved. We picked up in the last fifteen minutes, but it's too little too late. Games last ninety minutes, not seventy-five and the sooner we learn that, particularly away from home, the better.
Our only chances came towards the death, when Massimo hit the post twice. Allow me to step outside of this article for a moment.
Let's look at this guy. He arrived for a club record fee, the first Italian to represent his country while playing in Serie B for some twenty years and dubbed the new Ravanelli. You couldn't get much more expectancy on a pair of shoulders if you tried. In truth, he has failed to live up to the hype around him, but the fact is, four years later, he's still here.
The Massimo Maccarone of 2006 is nothing like the one of 2002. Then, he didn't tackle, didn't compete and quite simply, he didn't try. Szilard Nemeth and Joseph Desire-Job were both sent out on loan when it appeared their time at the club was up, like Maccarone. But unlike Mass, they were never to return. That determination to come back and be a success here allowed him to become a hero in the UEFA Cup last year.
Last night, Massimo made the biggest single contribution to the side of any player on the pitch. Yet, by all accounts, he could easily have just come on and wandered aimlessly around the pitch looking uninterested, like a few of his colleagues did last night. I almost wouldn't have blamed him; we've tried to replace and get rid of him enough times.
Now let me step back into the article. Jason Euell? Get him a bag of oats; he looks more like a Mule than a Euell to me. Compare Massimo's contribution in the fifteen minutes he was on the pitch to the contribution of Euell for the ninety he was there. In fact, if you can think of one single thing Euell did in the game, please feel free to let me know. I'd love to hear it.
Look at it like this. We gave Charlton Pathetic Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink for nothing and paid 300k for Jason Euell. As I'm sure you know, I'm anything but Euell's biggest fan; how anyone can go from Charlton's reserves to our first team is beyond me. In my honest opinion, it's one of the worst pieces of business the club has ever done, though maybe £3million for Michael Ricketts wins that prize. And I'm running out of patience with him.
If I was Massimo, I would be gutted. There wasn't a huge amount more he could have done last night, except the obvious thing which is stick it in the net. But he made his own runs which created his own chances and on another, more fortuitous night, he scores twice. Not only that, but Euell gets a game ahead of him.
Yakubu is another who is forced to make his own chances. The two penalties won against Everton were the result of Yakubu's efforts rather than creations of his team mates and while Downing's corner against Newcastle was a good one, Yak has to make these chances on his own, which isn't really his job.
The midfield simply doesn't create enough for strikers who thrive off good service. George Boateng and Lee Cattermole, who really struggled on the right hand side, looked bereft of ideas when it came to a forward pass, as did Fabio Rochemback. Boateng in particular looked too far off the pace, and while I hate to say 'I told you so', I did, last month after the Arsenal game.
THE ROCKLIFFE FILES - IS THE BOAT SINKING 12-9-06
We still haven't replaced Bolo Zenden, and that was so apparent last night. There is simply no link between midfield and attack, and there is certainly nobody willing to run beyond the strikers and get ten or more goals a season, like for example Tim Cahill does for Everton. While this continues, points away from home will be very hard to come by.
The goal we conceded could easily have been avoided too. At Sunday league level, the biggest bloke on your team marks the biggest bloke on theirs. Easy enough. So quite why Lee Cattermole, and not Robert Huth or Emmanuel Pogatetz, marked City's biggest aerial threat Richard Dunne, I do not know. Ultimately, the Catt was out jumped and we were a goal down.
Who else fancies Watford to break their winless Premiership run against us next week? Not just me, I'm sure.
There was one moment during the game however which did give some encouragement. With the clock ticking down, Boro were given a free kick and the ball rolled towards the centre circle. Gareth Southgate sprinted from his technical area, almost as far as the centre circle. to knock the ball towards where the free kick needed to be taken from. It shows, to me at least, that Southgate cares. He has passion, drive, and a will to win.
The sooner his player's heed him, the better.
Same time next week.
Up the Boro
BACK TO ROCKLIFFE FILES INDEX
|
|
|
|
