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THE AWAY END - GOES RADIO GA-GA 8-10-07
John Powls
You've got to hand it to Sven - or maybe not; you don't know what he'd do with it or where he's been with that hand recently!
But there were certainly doubts when he took over; doubts about him - despite his track record in club management, doubts about the new owner despite the influx of cash, doubts about whether Sven had bought the right players with the cash and doubts about whether they could cope with the loss of Distin and Barton whilst settling in a shedload of new recruits.
And. famously, Gate was the one that came up with the Churchill/Iain Duncan-Smith comment about a Sven half-time team talk in an Eng-er-lund World Cup game. A bit of added spice there, then!
On top of the bought in newcomers Citeh are also featuring a number of lads brought in from their Academy, a couple of whom (in addition to Richards) have shone this season.
It's to the Swede's credit that the doubts are dispelled - at least for now - and Citeh fans are over their Blue Moon!
Even the notorious Alan Green, the splenetic Radio 5 commentator, has been moved to say that they are playing the most stylish and entertaining game he has seen outside Highbury/Emirates/Old Trafford for some seasons.
And they're winning. They've also shown that they can dig in and win ugly if they need to, like they did against Manchester United.
Micah Richards alongside Richard Dunne (Citeh like a dog with two Dicks?) has made it Sylvain who? And Elano in midfield means that the little Scouse stubber of cigars in team-mate's eyes is a distant memory.
Although, just the other day, the spectre of Barton raised its ugly head again with the startling claim from him that he is responsible for Citeh's success because of what he contributed last season before he went and because he went. How do you work that one out? I won't replay his sour-grape flavoured logic.
I say all this because I want us to come to bury Sven and Citeh - not to praise them.
But the more I thought about it - and leaving aside the new foreign owner - many of the aspects of what Citeh are now about seem to mirror the aspirations that Gate says he has for Boro with the backing of Gibbo and The Count.
So why has the start to our season been so different to theirs and what will today's encounter tell us about the different approaches to the same theme and how it's being developed. Gate has been telling us recently that his advantage as manager over when he was a player is that he can take the 'helicopter' view of things.
Maybe from his pilot's seat in his whirlybird - 'Budgie' (the same colour as Schwarz's kit this season) - he can offer us a clue why he thinks (as he says he does) that things are OK and moving in the right direction when we keep losing, missing chances and shipping goals.
His nostrum for doing better - score more, concede less. No s**t, Sherlock!
The main thing that might stymie such direct comparisons today is our shocking injury list with Jonah being a recent casualty. Ross Turnbull is pulled back from Cardiff to be on the bench. Simba has got a slight case of 'diplomatic back' which saves having to say he's dropped.
The websites this week (*see below) have been a-buzz with why we're having the problems we are and what we do about it on Sunday with whatever squad we have. Here's my six penn'orth.
If Tuncay or Mido can't be got back to partner Tom Craddock or eachother in a 4-4-2 - which must be favourite; it's the only style we look remotely comfortable in - then I see no alternative than to set out as a 4-5-1 converting to a 4-3-3 when we go forward with Stewie and O'Neil either side of Craddock. For today, this may be an option anyway.
Given that Citeh under Sven have been re-modelled as a play-on-the-break side with real pace and guile we have to be able to nail the threat of Petrov on the left wing by doubling up O'Neil and Young whenever we lose the ball.
Stewie and Tayls are going to have to watch Richards breaking or give him so much to think about in defence he can't think about venturing up front.
The other main threat is Elano, of course, and his feed to either of their two very quick forwards through the middle, likely M'Penza.
If we play a narrow three in the middle of the five then I would suggest that one of the trhee, someone we can trust to be the most disciplined (who the hell would that be?), is detailed off to man-to-man Elano and disrupt his game.
Just to add to the current debate on Catts. I have seen most of what he has done this season.
His pass completion has been no better than The Boat's and sometimes worse and his tackling no more certain or less likely to be yellow carded. Although he can get around quicker it's to no avail if he isn't getting to the right place. No difference there then.
He has proved that he has a better eye and touch for a goal than The Boat. His motivation, attitude and propensity for getting involved in angry exchanges risking a sending off is about equal.
But we sometimes forget how young he is and how variability in performance is to be expected because of that. Clearly, he lacks The Boat's experience which will always count with managers, particularly when hunkering down for a scrap to get out of trouble.
All in all, I fear that we'd only have near the quality of driving midfielder that we need if we nailed the two of them together!
Shawky's an unknown quantity in this league but with the right pedigree from his previous league and the Egyptian International side but what I saw in the first half at Spurs tells me he isn't ready just yet.
What all that tells me is that if we play 4-5-1, we should play both The Boat and Catts either side of Rocky in the centre of midfield.
Catts should be given the freer role and The Boat told to concentrate only on shackling Elano by man marking and if he gets the ball to lay it off to the NEAREST red shirt.
We will need Woody to pick up his form and get a grip on their breaking forwards with Wheats, intercepting where they can, rather than letting them get on the ball and turn.
Given the way they are now playing and their form this season the message from Gate (echoed by Woody) about giving 100%, being disciplined and compact and attacking and defending as a team unit are even more important than usual.
We also know that, being Citeh, they will give us chances in the game too; when the chances come we MUST nail them.
I think we could (only this once) listen to Fat Sam's comments about going to Eastlands to entertain. He said that he'd heard plenty about their game being entertaining when they played there but when he woke up on the Sunday morning and read the newspapers they'd still lost 3-1.
He said that he, the players and - he had no doubt - the fans would rather have travelled back with a point or three from a game where they'd stifled Citeh.
Away from home it's their job to entertain - it's ours to get away with the point we started with or more. That starts with stopping them playing before we look for the opportunity ourselves.
I can't get to the game and it's not televised or on a national radio commentary. Can I get the BBC Tees internet commentary to work? Well, no --- but Phil can!
Unfortunately, when we've downloaded all the software, all the BBC local radio sites on their website, including Radio Tees, are running a pre-recorded message that the programmes aren't available for either technical or contractual reasons! We try for half an hour but no change.
My Dad, who used to listen to every game on Century with Ali and Bernie, now has to listen to Radio Tees, reluctantly, and he tells me they're always advertising how easy it is to get them on the internet - yerjokin'aren'ya!
So I have to settle for Gillette Soccer Special on Sky with Ian Payne in the Jeff Stelling position. Tony Cottee's covering the game.
He gives the teams. Not surprisingly they're unchanged. Very strangely, Tuncay is fit but starting on the bench so we are going to go 4-5-1 despite us having two fit strikers. Gate has also dropped Wheats for Riggs.
Is he holding Wheats responsible for the goals we're shipping (it would be unfair to single him out) or is he trying not to damage his confidence.
I try to picture Eastlands. I've never been but what always surprises me is when you see a game there on TV there's acres of empty blue plastic but when you see the attendance - 40,000 plus, like today.
The pattern is set early with Citeh going forward and Boro trying to stifle and hit on the counter. Cottee thinks we're looking for a 0-0 draw, but on ten all of that goes out of the window as Dunne flicks at the ball after a corner and Riggs deflects it goalward and Schwarz can't stop it finding its way in.
Yet again Gate's master plan fails and we concede early from a set piece and have to chase the game.
Cottee reports that the goal has made Boro show some ambition but that Citeh are really comfortable. By half way through the half he can say that Elano is pulling the strings - "sensational" is the word he uses - and we are struggling.
What a surprise that Elano should be running things. Have we not studied their recent games, looked at the websites this week or even read this morning's Sunday's which have big feature articles on the Brazilian? Whatever, we have no tactics or individual to cope with him.
On thirty Cottee exclaims, "At last a chance for Boro!" It's a Catts header from a Rocky cross that Hart pushes wide.
This only serves to set us up for the inevitable. On thirty-three we give Elano a ten yard square of free turf on the edge of our box. You can almost sense his glee even from the report as he has ages to pick his spot and rifle in.
He has other chances but Schwarz saves.
The game goes on in the same vein and for the rest of the half Boro are getting frustrated. Cottee says Craddock is chasing everything but is isolated. Woody tries to bring the ball out of defence and finds that there's no-one to pass to. Stewie and Rocky are arguing with each other.
At half time we get a picture of Elano leaving the pitch with a broad smile on his face and then a wide shot of our bedraggled bunch trooping off the green plaid of the Eastlands pitch.
Citeh don't need either Churchill or IDS to tell them 'same again' at the interval. But who will appear in our dressing room? Whoever it is, it's the same advice and change as we got at half-time in the Carling Cup game at Spurs - with, predictably, almost the same outcome.
Gate has taken The Boat off and brought Tuncay on up front. He gets into the action early and the return to 4-4-2 (or maybe it's a 4-3-3 as O'Neil seems to have gone inside and Tuncay is wide right) peps up our game a little - just as it did at The Lane.
Tuncay feeds Young who drags wide when he should have scored and Hart saves from Craddock. Cottee reports that we have come out and tried whilst City have got sloppy.
Despite the goals, it seems Schwarz has made some decent saves.
Craddock is withdrawn on fifty-eight, having run his socks off and is replaced by Ben Hutchinson. Cottee says that Boro have blown themselves out and that City are comfortable again - just like at Spurs.
Then, on sixty-three Woody gives away a free kick on the edge of the box and picks up a booking, adding to our unenviable total for this season. Just to show that we haven't learned (have we, Gate?) the lesson yet, Elano gives us another demo and it's 3-0.
Ian Payne ask Cottee about Boro's prospects and you can see him struggling because he seems a nice guy and not the sort to stick the boot in but he says, "If they continue in this form they're in real trouble. You can talk about the injuries and bringing the youngsters in but this is a really easy 3-0 for City."
The game begins to die as a spectacle because the outcome is inevitable. O'Neil picks up a booking for a challenge on Hart that went out of fashion with cork studs. Young joins him for a hat-trick of yellows.
It's the only hat-trick we're likely to see anytime soon and Elano is robbed of his as he is subbed.
On eighty-nine we have a too-little-too-late flourish and Ben Hutchinson nets a debut goal from a rebound off the keeper of a good Tuncay effort. Nice for the lad but of no use to us as we finish a poor second best yet again and another three goals shipped. So, maybe it wasn't Wheats, Gate. But it's hard to drop Woody.
And what happened to 'score more, concede less'?
Interestingly, at the end of the game Sky choose to show the interview with Gate rather than with Sven. Do they sense blood in the water?
He's in his best, depressed 'Marvin the Paranoid Android' mood. He admits that it was a disappointing result and that "we came with a plan to keep it tight but yet again lost an early goal from a set piece."
He's hardly inspiring when he's asked about what happens now to get out of the Chinese length we're doing down the league. He says that, "It's a difficult period. The last International break came at a difficult time for us because we were doing well - maybe this International break comes at the right time for us."
Well, yes, but isn't that a bit like whistling in the dark? Maybe Harry, who's supposed to be a good defensive coach with Gate and Coops, defenders too, can usefully spend the time organising our defence but who is going to deal with a central midfield that isn't helping the defence or the attack and strikers who can't score?
Gate goes on, "You could let it get you down. It can only be sorted out by those in the club. (True - but why does this not fill me with confidence?) I am determined that we will"
If you want to know what a 'weasel word' determined is just make a note of how many times politicians use it.
It's no big feat of imagination to get to what I'm sure I'm missing on the after game radio phone-ins.
Selling tickets for the Chelski game isn't going to be easy. It would have been a tough ask anyway because of the way MFC have treated fans but with the run we're on the only hope you can offer at present is that a resurgent Chelski will lose some players to injuries in the internationals. We might have some more back - for what use that is - and that we beat them last year in another turn up.
What is it about lightning and striking twice....
Later, on MOTD 2 the word from Shearer when Lineker asks him about Boro is, "I fear for them." The two words used most often in reports on websites and teletext are 'disappointing' and 'lethargic'. 'Nuff said.
*The Websites This Week:- my favourite comment this week is from Redcar Red in a debate about the latest machinations of Sepp Blatter about limiting foreign imports on Anthony Vicker's Blog;
"If a Septic Bladder would prevent us from suffering a Rash of Simba then I'm all for it!
Hold the antibiotics!"
Thanks RR!
I will be back with a special on the 'Ten Game Test' (where you are and how you're doing after Ten games is a strong indicator of where you'll finish the season) after the Chelski game.
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John Powls is a published poet with five books of his work in print. He is a regular performer of his work at major literary festivals and exhibitions in the UK and America, often working with musicians, painters with photographer Carol Ballenger.
Check out Red Shoes 250 for more of John Powls, right here.
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