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CHRISTMAS COME EARLY 14-8-07
Toby Higgins
It seems that talk of presents, trees, stockings and mince pies gets closer and closer to August with every year that passes. If you can't see where this is going yet, then please, think a little harder.
Once the last discount price barbeques are sold to any family man gullible enough to believe that there is still one nice weekend left this year, the tinsel comes out, and that Coca Cola advert with all the polar bears finds its way back onto our screens.
Of course, Christmas came even earlier than usual for Blackburn Rovers when on Saturday they watched Roque Santa Cruz rise above a frozen Chris Riggott and send his header sailing passed Mark Schwarzer, who was left all at sea.
All that remained after that was for Matt Derbyshire to put the icing on the cake with a cracker of a finish from just inside the area. And if you read more pun/cliché filled paragraphs all season, I'd love to see them.
Let's be as clear as we can, as early as we can. The performance was not that of a side who are going to be in the bottom three indefinitely, with no hope of survival. Far from it.
To be in at half-time 1-0 up was probably a tad more than we deserved, given the way Blackburn's wall fell apart faster than Britney Spears' singing career after Stewart Downing's tame free-kick found the bottom corner of Brad Friedel's goal, but we were certainly no worse than a side who, let's remember, have been playing competitive football in the form of the Intertoto cup for weeks, and in Europe for good reason.
It was Blackburn's stamina, and ultimately, freshness, that allowed them to take the upper hand as the game went on, and it's no coincidence that they scored their vital goals in the latter stages of the game.
It was only as Downing and Tuncay Sanli began to tire that David Bentley and Morten Gamst Pedersen were able to find space, and indeed, it was Bentley who shook off the weary challenge of Downing to cross for Santa Cruz to nod home the leveller.
The second obvious difference between the two sides was Blackburn's array of talent in the final third. After Jason Roberts and Benni McCarthy had run Riggott and David Wheater into the ground with their muscular presence and constant movement, their replacements, Santa Cruz and Derbyshire were both able to capitalize on a defence which, by the looks of things, thought they had done their respective jobs once they had seen them off.
Compare this to our own brand of attackers. Yakubu, Jeremie Aliadiere and Dong Gook Lee have scored a total of zero goals in the last six months between them while Sanli Tuncay, the fourth option in attack, is unlikely to score a huge amount of goals from the wide position he looks set to adopt now that he's the only natural right winger the club possesses, since Gareth Southgate sold James Morrison to West Brom because the pieces don't fit anymore for him.
If Saturday is anything to go by, Tuncay's eagerness to play an extra pass, rather than take a shot himself, could seriously diminish his total come mid May, particularly if Yakubu is going to be the one on the end of his passes.
Of course, they is no guarantee that Yakubu will be a Boro player for much longer, particularly if the reports surrounding the arrival of Mido turn out to be accurate.
It's almost certain that the arrival of the latter will result in the departure of the former, and so look forward to reading a brief obituary of Yakubu's Boro career sometime next week, should the respective deals go through without a problem. Though given the trouble Yakubu had getting into the country when Portsmouth signed him, it's unlikely to go through without a hitch or two.
Yakubu appears to have divided fans into three distinct sections with his form since his arrival at the Riverside. Some look at the Nigerian and see a quick, powerful striker who is guaranteed to score over fifteen goals a season. Others see a clumsy, lazy, waste of space who could well score around fifteen goals a season, but at least five of them will come from the penalty spot and none of them will come after February.
The third section are somewhere in between the first two, not least of all his former manager Harry Redknapp, who said, "He has his good days and bad days but when he's at it he'll score goals for you" before adding, "But £10million for him is a lot of dough", a sentiment I couldn't agree with more. If we get back what we paid for him, I'll pack his bag myself.
There have been moments during Yakubu's Boro career that he has looked like a player who wouldn't look out of place in Chelsea blue or Manchester United red, and others where he looks like he might find it hard to break into Darlington's reserves. This is, in a nutshell, why the divides exist.
On Saturday though, he looked plain uninterested. His first touch was slack and his movement was none existent. It's difficult to remember him doing absolutely anything in the second half, and the only reason he sticks in the mind for his first half display is because he was the one who was fouled in the build up to Downing's goal.
Whether or not you rate Yakubu's football talent, it's fairly clear, to me at least, that he should have played his last game for the club on Saturday. We cannot afford passengers; we're just not good enough to play every week with ten and a half men every week, and Yakubu will not score fifteen goals this season if he's not prepared to put himself about a bit; it's not like there's not much of him, after all.
Aliadiere and Tuncay enjoyed solid, if not spectacular debuts, and once the pair settle into the side, they will both demonstrate their promise. Aliadiere looks very, very quick but found himself in a goal scoring position all too infrequently and while Tuncay worked hard, he too provided little in terms of real quality in the final third.
That is not to say that it's time to panic. The entire back four were reserves, if you accept Pogatetz could come in at left back, and the lack of concentration towards the end wouldn't have been allowed had Woodgate been in there marshalling the line.
Downing looked sharp, Andrew Taylor looked composed and George Boateng looked imposing. But mark my words, one day, Julio Arca will get caught out trying to do something clever in his own half, and it will be a day we rue.
Same time next week.
Up The Boro
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A GUARANTEED PROFIT OF AT LEAST £41.00 ON THE FA CUP FINAL
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Please note that the bonuses are valid for new customers only so if you already have an account with one or more of the bookies we are using, you won't be able to do this. If that is the case, mail us or phone us on 01642 223229 and we'll create an alternative bet for you using different bookies.
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