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DREADING CHRISTMAS 23-11-06
Karl Watson and Tom Warnock
Warnock says...
Apologies for my absence last week due to illness, luckily though I managed to recover in time for the Liverpool game, although my recovery was short lived as I was soon infected with boredom and a large dose of un-inspiration which didn't help at all.
Let's not get picky - a point against Liverpool isn't a bad result. Gareth was quoted reciting all of Liverpool's away day woes, in an effort to say they were all upon visiting quality teams. Trying to justify playing one up front perhaps?
Liverpool weren't anything great, but we let them play. We let them get the ball, look around, and play it with ease and little pressure. Playing five in midfield means the midfield have to do their job and barring Morrison the midfield was woeful. Rochemback must be leaving the pitch every game wondering how he is playing Premiership football. He produced nothing going forward and as our main 'playmaker' through the middle this is not acceptable.
I was disappointed again with George Boateng. Granted he may have picked up a knock but I doubt this will have been a detriment to his game, because in recent months he has been playing with the mobility and drive of someone who looks injured all the time.
Nearly all of our ambitious play involved Morrison in some way. With Downing out the impetus was on him to get the ball wide and create openings. He did that, crossing on several occasions to good effect. To say I was baffled at his replacement would be putting it lightly. Massimo plays with his heart, yes and he scored some wonderful and vital goals for us, but any fan with sense knows in reality he is no more than average.
This is why I was annoyed to see Morrison leave and be replaced by Massimo. What's more baffling is Maccarone wasn't coming on as a forward - he merely replaced Morrison on the right wing, but to lesser effect.
It seems that without a fit Mark Viduka, we look lost when the ball reaches the final third. Perhaps Gareth foolishly thought we had more options up front when he agreed to let JFH depart south. After the Yak and Dukes, we really have no decent striking options. Even if Viduka was fit, how are we expected to change it up front or rotate in any way when we simply haven't got the calibre of players needed?
One theory is that more was expected from Fabio. He is intended to play an attacking role and to compliment the strikers, providing both service and support. He has never got going in the Premiership since he signed over a year ago. And again, perhaps we have nothing better in the squad, which is worrying. Had Lee Cattermole been fully fit, I'm convinced he would have started and not Rochemback.
There were positives from the performance of certain individuals. Woodgate did what the rest of the team struggle to grasp the concept of, which is play with consistency and he turned in a typically solid, reliable and impressively calm display. For a centre back, his passing, vision and calmness in possession puts some of our midfielders to shame.
With the lack of strength in depth and the current line-up not fulfilling its anonymous potential, the Christmas period is deeply concerning. Our top scorer is missing sitters; our 'flair' midfielder is feeling the cold and our best wingers are being substituted. With eight games in less than five weeks it must have Gareth asking 'how's that injury Mark?'
Watson Says...
It was announced earlier in the week that parenting classes have adopted a new approach for getting young children to sleep. No longer are these children been told bed time stories or being played slow repetitive music, but in fact parents were told to make them watch a Middlesbrough game, and boy did it work on Saturday.
There are times when I really enjoy watching the Boro, but on Saturday I was begging the referee the blow his whistle for full time because the game was absolutely awful.
Although the performance was not particularly great, believe it or not there were positives to take from the game. That's now two clean sheets in a row for the Boro and maybe Gareth has discovered a centre half partnership in Pogatetz and Woodgate.
Woodgate was quite clearly the man of the match for Middlesbrough on Saturday but Pogatetz pushed him close. Mad Dog did come out after the West Ham and say he felt he was very strong in the middle and felt this was his natural position. Based on his performances in that position this season, I don't think many people would disagree with the Austrian international.
I have written in previous articles that I don't think Gareth is afraid to drop certain figures and it appears he will play people on merit and not their price tag. I'm sure many expected after the transfer window had closed that it would be Woodgate and Huth at the heart of our defence. However the six million pound German has struggled to get ahead of Pogatetz, and rightly so.
I have been very impressed by Andrew Davies this season and he is a player I would like to see in the starting line up frequently. He gets forward, he puts decent balls into the box and he is not afraid to put his foot in. He has also defended very well and he is the type of player we have been missing.
In recent years our full backs have been reluctant to get forward and leave gaps at the back. However when Davies gets forward, he allows Morrison to cut inside effectively and create more space on the right. He always gives Morrison an option on that right hand side.
However without Downing on the left hand side we do look rather suspect. It was a shame that Adam Johnson did not return from Leeds a week earlier because he would have had a great chance to prove himself against good opposition. Julio Arca is not a defender I think we all saw that against Reading on the opening day.
After that defeat many have urged Gareth to play the Argentinean on the left hand side of midfield however I was far from impressed with him on Saturday. I will not judge Julio after just a few games. He has talent - we've all seen it at Sunderland - but if he is to force his way into the first team regularly as a left sided midfielder he has to show us all what he's made of when he gets the chance.
I was disappointed with the display on Saturday because it was not the Middlesbrough we know against the big boys. The attendance was bigger than usual and those who went on Saturday would have left wondering why they had even bothered going. We did see better performances from the likes of Fabio Rockemback however one decent performance out of twelve is not great viewing.
I was disappointed that Gareth started with 4-5-1 against a team that has only scored one goal away from home. Liverpool were nervous and venerable but we rarely exposed their defence frailties away from home. As I said in my last article I don't think Massimo is good enough to start and finish games however I never really felt we had a good go at Liverpool and maybe if we had played at a quicker pace we may have created so much more.
It's good to see Mark Viduka back in training because Jason Euell is not a goal scorer. Don't get me wrong, I like his determination to succeed but we all know the Big Aussie would have burst the net if he'd had a header like that. We are struggling for depth up front and the sooner we can play two up front the better.
Yes, draws do get points on the board but I cant help but feel if Viduka had been fit and we had played 4-4-2 we would have more points.
Our next three games are very very difficult, and if we perform like we did against Liverpool we won't pick up anything against any of them. Aston Villa are a team with great confidence right now and I feel we will find it very hard to create chances and I don't think we will be able to keep them out.
Villa away is just another pointless game in our season. I don't think we will create much, if anything at all, and I can see Villa dominating from start to finish. It will just be another away defeat we can all see happening before the game has even began.
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