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THE GEORDIES ARE THERE TO BE BEATEN 20-10-06
Karl Watson and Tom Warnock
Watson says...
The feeling of deja vu is a feeling many of us Middlesbrough fans face frequently and after Saturdays result, it was a feeling we knew all too well.
Gareth Southgate must have a great headache every morning and the issue of consistency must be at the forefront of his mind. It isn't just painful to see our team defeat Chelsea and then lose against Portsmouth, it is also very frustrating. Not many of us doubt the fact that our team has a great deal of talent, the only problem is extracting that talent week in week out, something we rarely achieve.
The result on Saturday was a great one, especially knowing if results didn't go our way we could have been sitting at the foot of the Barclays Premiership by 10 o'clock Monday night. What was particularly encouraging was the performance. We fully merited the three points and in all honesty the game should have been well and truly wrapped up before Tim Cahill's solo strike left us all glancing at our watches. It made for an uncomfortable finish at the Riverside.
We went at Everton from the off and although the first twenty or so minutes was a game of cat and mouse, it wasn't as if we had won by a last minute goal off Joseph Yobo's backside. What desperately annoyed me against Blackburn Rovers was the way in which the team was set out. Playing one in attack in front of your own fans is something we all do not want to see. I have argued that the reason why we fell so far behind in UEFA cup games last season was because we didn't play to our natural style. Once we fell behind and we started to play with pace and flair we were able to kill teams off and score many goals.
Against Everton this appeared to be the intention. Southgate sent the team out with an attacking frame of mind and we managed to create many chances. Although we didn't take as many as we should, you can't win games without scoring goals, but how can you score goals if you don't create chances? An attacking Middlesbrough at home is what we all want to see and hopefully we will begin to play like this in the forthcoming fixtures at the Riverside.
The players need to start finding a little bit of consistency if our season is to be a successful one. I don't believe Southgate knows his best eleven, and until he knows this it can be argued that inconsistency will continue to haunt us.
On Saturday Gareth was extremely bold, leaving out a player that can change games in Fabio Rockemback, and playing a young defensive midfielder on the right side in Lee Cattermole. It certainly showed The U-19 England captain's versatility and it would not surprise me to see him on that right side against Newcastle on Sunday.
The game against Newcastle will show just how good we really are. Newcastle have established themselves this season as a very mediocre side, for example being defeated by Bolton and only gaining a draw against Everton, both at home, shows they are not firing on all cylinders.
We have been far from great this season and the fact that Newcastle are below us in the league shows that things are far from rosy on Tyneside. Although this is the first Tees-Tyne derby of the season the fact is, we are at home against a team that is out of form and confidence and are below us in the table and this is a game we must win.
Newcastle have a terrible defence that is worthy of the Championship. Playing Titus Bramble is surely more of a boost to the team in red and not that awful black and white. Newcastle appear to be struggling a lot with set pieces which highlights that they will give away many free kick in or around twenty five yards. This is where we must exploit them and where Yakubu and Viduka must show their strength, movement, and deadliness in front of goal. I believe if our strikers play well, they will score goals on Sunday.
Newcastle are having problems of their own scoring goals. For example, the previous two goals they have scored have been a goal from Shola Ameobi that was comfortably offside (yet he still did his best to miss), and a debatable penalty. Martins looks like money badly spent and playing alongside Shola Ameobi is hardly going to bring the best out of him.
The fact is, Newcastle can't score goals right now, and they can only score if the referee or linesman gifts them goals. They constantly look for penalties as this is the only way they can win. Let's be honest, we would have won so many more of this fixture in recent years if referees had made the correct decisions.
Robert Huth had a great debut on Saturday and he proved a lot of critics wrong (including myself) as to why we paid so much for the former Chelsea rock. Hopefully Jonathan Woodgate will be fit to play against the Geordies and if these two make up the partnership on Sunday, I do not know where Newcastle's goals will come from. Surely we would have to gift them goals?
This is a fixture we rarely win. Can everyone remember Geremi's stunning header against them at the Riverside, because believe it or not this was the last time we defeated them. It would be typical Middlesbrough to get beat on Sunday, and after watching Newcastle in recent games it would make me red like beetroot. I was left kicking my seat at St. James' last year when they equalised. This is a fixture that means so much to Tom and I, and I have spent the last week daydreaming about what I want to happen.
Many of my friends are Newcastle fans and they believe if they continue to perform in the manner they have been recently they will find themselves in the bottom five at Christmas. They are playing woefully right now and if we produce a similar display to the one on Saturday we could win this fixture by quite a few goals. I feel if we are to win we must attack, attack, attack! I can't see them keeping a clean sheet unless we play terribly.
I just hope the players know what this means to some of the fans. I hope the likes of Lee Cattermole and Stewart Downing are pumped up from the moment they wake up on Sunday morning. All I ask of the players is to give 100%. If we give this and we are beaten by a better side on the day then I can't turn round and criticise. We would all have to hold up our hands and accept we were beaten by a better side.
But Newcastle are not a better side than us. COME ON BORO!!!!! Give your all on Sunday and let's show who the top dogs of the north-east really are. Let's go out there and smash them. Let them know who Middlesbrough are. Let's embarrass them and send them back home with tears in their eyes!
Warnock says...
Just when it began to look as if the Boro would find a degree of constituency, albeit only in losing, we're treated to an unexpected result by beating the previously unbeaten Everton. Not only beating Everton but playing the football which throws the question of how our season will go, wide open again.
The performance was more than solid, and besides a few hairy minutes towards the end it seemed comfortable. Yakubu was looking back to his best, despite looking sheepish after his second penalty was saved, he caused the Everton back line no-end of problems and they never got to grips with the big Yak.
He worked very hard and it paid dividends for the team and himself. He earned the penalties himself and it was baffling that Howard escaped a booking after he seemed to commit an 'American football-esque' tackle with no hope of winning the ball.
It was good to see the strikers getting back amongst the goals, Yakubu's form has been suffereing from an apparent lack of confidence and misses such as the one against Sheffield United didn't help, nor did his isolation in the field of play.
He has three goals now in eight starts in the league this season and is looking like being our leading scorer again. Many had doubted whether he had the strength of will to overcome his blip, but top-quality strikers always come through dry patches, and Yakubu is a top-quality striker.
Also pleasing was the Catt, who was asked to play out wide on the right, and he seemed to excel in this role. It's unlikely he will make the position his own but it gives the boss another option if needed.
The Boro faitful looked to Stewie Downing to prove the finger-pointing English media wrong in their criticism of him. At the very least the press couldn't blame our Stew for the woeful spectacle in Croatia, but they still refused to single out the ineptitudes of Lampard and Co.
Gareth Southgate jumped to Stewie's defence and the crowd were behind him on Saturday as well, and in true Boro spirit he responded. Of course it wasn't his best game but he gave Phil Neville more than enough to think about. Take note England critics.
The win on Saturday gives us a great platform to move forward. We're sitting in thirteenth and within touching distance of the top half. With the all the talk of relegation this season, tenth place seems like dizzy heights. And oh yes, it's the Skunks on Sunday, fresh from a home defeat to Bolton and with a UEFA cup group game hopefully having drained them, we must seize the opportunity and win on Sunday.
I don't want to be the one who says we've turned the corner just yet, as we've turned so many corners in the past without getting anywhere that you'd think we were in a maze.
It goes without saying, however that form is irrelevant in derby games and it's been over three years since we prevailed over our smug-faced enemies. With the possible return of Woodgate and his teaming up with Huth we looked as solid as ever at the back, and if Andy Johnson's muting is anything to go by then Woody and big Huth should have mini-Martins in their back pocket.
As for the midfield, it looks as if Newcastle may go with Parker and Emre in the middle and with Captain George back in the side it looks set to be an intriguing battle with a few tasty tackles. While Scott Parker is an excellent player I fully expect George to come out on top if he performs to his destructive best.
But as I said, this is a derby. Expect the unexpected, see the unforeseen and predict lots of, yes you guessed it, unpredictability. With the absence of any UEFA cup ties to look forward to, this has become a massive game for us, and if we play to our potential and every player is on form, we can truly turn this into a memorable encounter.
I suppose there's only one way to end this column, as is tradition in the week leading up to this clash, and that is with a collective, rallying battle cry; BRING ON THE GEORDIES!
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