|
|
CITY PERFORMANCE NOT ENOUGH 2-11-06
Karl Watson and Tom Warnock
Watson says...
So Middlesbrough fans were all singing the blues once again on Wednesday morning - those away day blues. The performance on Monday night was dreadful and no one will be surprised to see many empty seats at the Riverside when West Ham United travel to Teesside for the next home game. However, empty seats are the last of our worries.
The character shown against Manchester City was pathetic. These so called professionals failed to motivate themselves adequately against a team that had been beaten 4-0 by Wigan a week previous. I am now beginning to strongly ask a question about these players' motivation and character, as performing like that every week will result in relegation.
I still don't believe we will be relegated and shouts of 'Southgate out' are from those using him as a scapegoats for what have been terrible performances by our so called 'big names'. No longer are these prima donnas leaps and bounds above the rest, they no longer deserve to be paid any higher than the youth players and I ask them now 'Are you even fit to wear that red shirt?'
I doubt whether any of these 'big names' even care about results. The only smile on their face will be when they visit their local building society to find that their so many thousands of pounds has been paid into their illustrious bank accounts. Its players such as Danny Graham my heart goes out to. He has tried desperately to gain a place in the first team and he has been shoved from pillar to post in the process. It just goes to show; maybe some of the players who would give their all every week will not get the chance as player's reputations merit starting roles.
Massimo Maccarone was desperately unlucky on Monday night and even though we did not deserve anything we were inches away on two occasions from taking a point away from home. We did see glimpses of that eight million pound fee with what were two immaculate first touches. My only fear is that when the chance comes for Massimo his touch and finish will desert him and he will continue to warm the bench.
Many are shouting for Massimo to start against Watford at the weekend, but maybe this game will be too physical for him. He is not the biggest or the strongest, and he does not have the ability to race past defenders. Watford will ultimately take to the pitch with an intention to hurt our internationals.
We all saw when Viduka and Cattermole came on against Chelsea that substitutes can change games but in the next game they failed to perform. Yes Massimo did well as a substitute on Monday night but it would not surprise me if he plays poorly against the Hornets if given a starting place. However what no one can argue against is his determination and effort. If all our players had shown these attributes from the off then maybe we would have had a shot on target over ninety minutes.
For those who watched the game on Sky Sports we all briefly saw a conversation between Aidy Boothroyd and Ian Dowie before that forgettable ninety minutes commenced. Unfortunately no one was able to catch a word that was said but I think I am not the only one who was praying that Dowie uttered, "Yes, Jimmy hasn't really cut the mustard here in London; he feels it would right to move back to Middlesbrough in January". Wishful thinking I know.
Aidy Boothroyd must have been rubbing his hands at full time with absolute delight. On Saturday his Watford side take on a Middlesbrough side that have yet to win away in the Premiership since last season's visit to the City of Manchester Stadium. So Watford have yet to win at home, and Middlesbrough have yet to win away. I'm sure many pundits will predict either a bore draw or a high scoring draw but as Middlesbrough fans we all know better.
So my bet of the week is the following: Watford to beat Middlesbrough at Vicarage Road on Saturday. Try and get a good price for that please, because when 5 O'clock comes on Saturday at least your winnings will put a smile on your face because I doubt the result will.
I'm sure it will be another typical Middlesbrough display against Watford. No grit, no determination, no character and we will all listen to Bernie saying 'were not at the races', 'we haven't got going', and 'we better wake up'. If we get turned over by Boothroyd's men results will show:
Points taken against all three newly promoted sides: 0 (yes, that's 0).
The only thing that did please me on Monday night was Gareth Southgate's post match comments. I always felt that McClaren would dish out a rollicking in the dressing room yet publicly praise the players in front of the media and not paint a true picture of what actually happened. Ever since Southgate filled the managerial vacancy his comments have been spot on, even if it that means admitting Lady Luck was firmly on our side.
On Monday his comments were just what I wanted to hear. We have to sort out how these players are approaching games, why they take to field with no grit, determination and character, and why we are struggling away from home. More importantly however, Gareth mentioned how we got what we deserved which was absolutely nothing and how this was not acceptable. I'm sure that although Gareth seems like a tame figure in front of the camera's he will be handing out a few harsh words in dressing rooms up and down the country.
On Monday night I suddenly realised that our player of the season in George Boateng is not even half of the player he was last season. Last season George did all the ugly jobs, the jobs people never mentioned but it appears he struggles to do this on away days and as a result we are suffering. I am not saying all our problems point to George, far from it, but what I will say is that George is not classed as a 'big name' and we need people like George to start stringing together three or four good performances.
As a captain I am still uncertain, I never see George clapping his hands together motivating players, or shouting out abuse. For example, the likes of Roy Keane used to send shivers down the spines of players. If we had a captain like Keane I don't think we would have gone away from the ground on Monday without having a shot on target.
I don't want to sound like if we win a game or two we are going to do well this season and if we lose we are destined for relegation. I am one hundred percent behind Southgate; I am warming to him as our manager however what does annoy me is the manner of our defeats. Our good results seem to be somewhat fortuitous and our bad results are fully merited. We need to start getting a happy medium and we desperately need to address this consistency issue.
The game against Watford is not a game that will make or break our season and I don't think we will be able to read much from it when the game comes to an end. Of course the three points are all important in football but if we win one-nil on Saturday when we have been played off the pitch and scored via our only shot in ninety minutes then it will not bode well for the future. As Middlesbrough fans we all need to be reassured that this team can play well so why not start against Watford. They struggle to score goals and they have yet to win home or away this season.
I won't say these are games we must be winning because I would be happy with a point; I just hope we can play well because as we know everything evens itself out during the course of the season. It won't be long before we play like City did on Monday but the question is 'can we produce good performances week in week out'? Unfortunately the answer to that question now is a definite no.
Warnock says...
Cast your mind back to the City game, now put yourself in the shoes of a neutral, someone who knows little to nothing about Premiership football. Now tell me ten minutes in, which club is in crisis? Which club's hierarchy are in uproar over their disastrous campaign? Which club has never beaten their opponents in the Premiership to date? I'll leave you to decide, but it definitely didn't look like City.
Let's get to the point early on. We got what we deserved. We can't feel begrudged, nor can we look back at Massimo's late opportunities either, all we can do is accept the defeat, which is what the team did on Monday. I hate going into tactics, and this wasn't an issue of tactics, because we weren't outgunned on the drawing board or the training pitch. Manchester City's work rate and creativity eclipsed ours ten fold.
I could use every cliché in the book, but we just didn't have what it took. I'm not going to venture into the question of why we didn't have it - that's the manager's job. It was plain for all to see that in the first fourty-five we didn't get so much as a look in. We didn't get a defensive foothold, nor did we produce even a sniff of goal at the other end.
It's about time certain individuals were given an ultimatum - improve or you're dropped. Rochemback has made the same mistakes time and time again, booked for the second time in recent games for; quote 'persistent misconduct' Or shall I rephrase for the rest of us; booked for 'making another shit tackle'.
We conceded the goal on a corner, allowing Richard Dunne to score against us is a disgrace in itself. The marking was all wrong. It's obvious you shouldn't tell a five foot odd Lee Cattermole to mark a towering central defender. Let Woodgate mark him. He failed to track the run of his man and Dunne breezed past Lee and headed it in.
From here we showed no indication that we could or would turn it around. Perhaps the balance of the side was disrupted with Parnaby's injury, because neither Bates nor Cattermole are capable of making overlapping runs and delivering crosses. Even so, it would have been much wiser to have played Morrison from the start, and to drop Rochemback, and just focus on getting the ball wide.
With Rocky off form (again), George unable to pass for peanuts and Cattermole not even a winger, we had only Downing with any promise going forward until Morrison's introduction. Is it any wonder that the Yak had to be deeper than a submarine just to get a touch?
It was obvious from kick-off that we weren't going to get anything from this game and in truth, we never even got started. After the Newcastle game a certain Malcolm MacDonald said if the Boro play like that every week then we will lose more than we win. I wasn't the only one who laughed at that comment; maybe it wasn't just sour grapes. Maybe it was the truth, and based on Monday's abject performance, he was right.
What's most disappointing, yet not surprising, is just as we started to believe we might have turned our season around. We not only lose to crisis hit Manchester City but we dropped below them. And best of all it's Watford next, who haven't won a game this season. If you're a betting man, get your money on Watford. At least it may ease the pain.
TALK ABOUT IT IN THE NEW HOLGATE MESSAGE BOARD
BACK TO WATSON AND WARNOCK INDEX
|
|
|
|
