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MIDDLESBROUGH v ASTON VILLA ANALYSIS AND PLAYER RATINGS 16-4-07
Udayan Mukherjee
After a near perfect performance in the previous game, the boos that rang out at the end of Middlesbrough's game against Villa merely served to put an exclamation mark upon the problem with Middlesbrough Football Club.
The lack of fight and lack of some semblance of consistency is frightening among so called professionals. The games may no longer be life and death, but this shouldn't matter one bit. Pride in ones work is a trait that is present in those in 'dead end jobs', but seemingly not in a job which picking up £20,000 for being mediocre is de rigueur.
The character that Southgate and his predecessor seem so ready to point out is missing. It is something that seemed to have gone with the departure of several experienced pros from the first team last summer.
Indeed, it may be that since the departure of Paul Ince many moons ago we have lacked a truly vocal inspiration in the centre of midfield. Boateng, for all his verve, has not grabbed the team by the scruff of the neck this season, and his colleagues in this position may lack the strength of mind to fill the playmaker role; someone who can boss that midfield and dictate.
We now have a difficult run in towards the end of the season and as one fan pointed out to me - it may now be difficult to pick any more up. Every league position that we climb will give us £485,000, something that can be put back into the club and used to fund new talent.
The club is in a position to make changes at the end of the season with the windfall that awaits from TV money. The club must plan and be clever in the way they use it. A balance must be struck between reducing prices and bringing in fresh talent.
In a way, the increased TV revenue gives clubs, especially clubs like Middlesbrough, no excuse to not reduce the prices. On Saturday against Villa the attendance was 26,000, perceived as quite a healthy attendance given the change in the football climate over the past few years. Reducing prices and filling the ground with 35,000 will result in a revenue that equals that of 26,000 punters who attend the games on higher prices.
More fans while retaining, more or less, the same revenue surely makes perfect business sense, and in a sense it is simply greed and the promise of full houses against the likes of Manchester United and Newcastle that has prevented a change in the tide previously. The benefits of a full ground are multi fold - visually, if not necessarily vocally (see Old Trafford) it makes for an intimidating spectacle.
A fully packed Riverside stadium means the outside impression of the Boro gets improved and immediately makes the prospect of playing for the club a better proposition for incoming players. In turn, the media will ignore us less, and it will again make Middlesbrough a decidedly more important club, or crucially, seem like a bigger club to the masses.
The windfall gives teams like Boro a massive opportunity if they play their cards right. Prices for English talent, given the extra money, may price young talent like Giles Barnes or David Nugent out of the market.
It is on foreign soil that Middlesbrough must attempt to find the talent. If Arsenal can unearth the likes of Fabregas, then surely Middlesbrough can find someone of at least half the quality? Several clever additions in our problem areas will not cost as much if brought from abroad, and will be bankrolled by the extra revenue given to us by the TV money.
Players from big clubs in places like Romania or Russia will surely see the Premier League as an opportunity to flourish, as an improvement in their careers. The trick is to entice these players ahead of the other clubs in the same boat as us. It is conceivable that every other club has the same ambition, but we must work diligently to procure the best talent we can.
The improvement I talk about in terms of personnel is not simply a wish. It is a must if Middlesbrough are to avoid relegation next season. The sad fact remains that Mark Viduka, a player unfairly derided as lazy and as fat all through his career, is the glue to our play and the Boro machine falls apart if deprived of it.
Unfortunately, with the exception of a select few, I find it hard to imagine that I would be sorry if any of the others left. With this column being in the public domain, I don't feel the need to specify which players I feel need to be shipped out, but I have my opinions, and I'm sure that any Boro fan reading this will as well.
The team, on the basis of the season, and indeed on the basis of the last few years has a serious dearth of pace, something that shouldn't necessarily be the case. Stewart Downing and Yakubu are two players who have this pace in abundance but seem to require a written invitation to use it. Other members of the team are nothing short of pedestrian.
I have defended Yakubu regularly in these columns and on the New Holgate Message Board, but the main problem with him is that unless he is in his vein of goal scoring form, then all he is actually good at is grinning like an idiot and taking penalties in a supremely lazy fashion. His heading is absolutely atrocious, leading to a deficiency in the Boro side that is compounded by Mark Viduka not being very good at attacking the ball either. Its all very well having quality coming into the box, but when there is no-one to head the bugger in, then you are going to have problems.
With the lack of pace, heading ability and goals from midfield, Middlesbrough Football Club seem ridiculously one dimensional with very few options in attack, and defensively shaky. It seems a tremendous departure from the positive nature of the article last week, but without improvements Boro are in for a torrid time next season.
The match itself could and should have resulted in at least a point due to the fact that Boro took the lead, albeit in dodgy circumstances. By the time Villa scored their third however, the promise of a fun afternoon watching Boro had long disappeared, along with the majority of the supporters in the ground.
Indeed the only fun to be had was in the brief moment where I thought how good it would be if Gareth Southgate got hold of a microphone and said "Middlesbrough 1, Aston Villa 3, you Brummie twats. There is a perfectly good scoreboard up there. You must be blind AND stupid because it is not hard to count to three", in response to Villa's chants of " Southgate what's the score? Southgate, Southgate what's the score?" That's how bored I was towards the end. In fact the only thing that prevented me walking out before the end was the fact that I have never left early before and I wasn't about to start on Saturday.
With games against Liverpool (we never win at Anfield) and Manchester United (league leaders) coming up away from home, we may have to rely on the final two home games to bring us points.
The players may as well have gone for their summer vacations already. Viduka and Woodgate may not return from it. We need to actively plan for next season and gain some kind of advantage in biddings for players. Give the fans a reason to come back and it will be a win-win situation.
Player Ratings
Mark Schwarzer - Poor, could have at least moved for the goals. 6
Andrew Taylor - One of the only players to come out of this with any credit whatsoever. 7.5
Jonathan Woodgate - Slightly better than average. 6.5
Huth - Struggled with Villa's pace. 5
Abel Xavier - Played quite well. Xavier has been a consistently positive influence this season. 7
Adam Johnson - Was not quite as good as in his previous games, but still created opportunities as well as having a couple of efforts. His removal signalled the beginning of the end. 7
Boateng - Struggled 6
Rochemback - Scored an extremely fortuitous goal, but his passing was shite as was his unwavering ability to give away daft free kicks. 6
Downing - Nothing special at all. 6.5
Yakubu - Anonymous. As per usual these days. 5
Christie - So poor it was almost laughable. Paying twenty plus quid to see players that are 'laughable' is no joke. I used to like his attitude, but now he is surely on a one way road out of here. 5
Subs
Lee Dong Gook - Goodness knows why he didn't start. Didn't have the chance to prove himself when he did come on. 6
Chris Riggott - Was alright, but gave away too much space. 6
Lee Cattermole - Poor. 5
Sign him on
Stillian Petrov is the type of player we need to sign: quick and direct with an eye for goal. Signing him from Villa after a season is probably out of the question however.
That's all folks.
Udayan Mukherjee
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