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THE AWAY END - IS THE GLASS HALF FULL OR HALF EMPTY? 28-12-07
John Powls
'Is The Glass Half Full Or Half Empty' - should we be looking to a top up of New Year fizz or to drain the dregs of our farewell to the Prem brewed from the bitter harvest of what we've been served so far?
This is a Seasonal, or should it be half-seasonal, review of Boro's Prem season at the half-way point and before the January window opens (to an icy blast?!) and follows the Boxing Day game at Birmingham, Boro's nineteenth in the league.
Back in October I wrote The Ten Game Test. Why The Ten Game Test? Well it's often said - and with some evidence to back it up - that where you are after ten games, just over a quarter season gone, is a solid predictor of where you'll finish. How does it predict half way?
Back then I started with the stats.
P10 W2 D2 L6 F10 A18 Pts:8 Position:17th
So let's start that way again and then use the same headings as before for the analysis.
P19 W4 D5 L10 F17 A33 Pts:17 Position:16th
So, no surprises there then. And I'm tempted to say 'the glass is half empty' and leave it there.
Now, as then, we're being kept out of the bottom three (having only slipped in there once to date) by the determination of some below us to try to set new records for Premiership lows, including The Mackems, thankfully.
This continues to indicate that our survival, if it is to be so, may be as much to do with there being three teams who turn out to be worse than us, as to anything we do.
That's a thin and fraying thread to let yourself hang over the drop by.
How have the squad performed?
To sum up; too often injured or ill, largely blunt in attack, mostly a soft touch in defence, mainly missing in midfield and usually totally devoid of belief - almost the relegation full house.
Amidst the performance poverty some are worthy of a 'glass half full' rating:-
Stewie - for still being our provider in chief, despite it all.
Tuncay - for producing his best more frequently, despite Gate restricting his chances and not knowing what he bought him to do or where to play him.
Gary O'Neil - for being generally outstanding, for doing what we knew he could do and being Boro's best player overall.
Wheats - despite some costly individual errors the most improved defender on the books.
And in the 'glass half empty - and it's stale bitter' section:-
Simba - why? Just, why? Mainly, why is he still being picked?
Shawky - for still 'not being ready' after half a season and then disappearing to the African Nations Cup.
Mido - for winning a game on his own on his debut at Fulham just to taunt us with what he could do before going into hiding.
Catts - for leading the growing faction at the club that seem to believe that 'glass half empty - re-fill, please' is how professional footballers train, particularly when your form is poor, the team is in trouble and the crowds stay away.
What about the manager and coaches?
Nothing 'half full' here, I'm afraid.
They have demonstrated lack of grip, lack of understanding, lack of influence or ability to motivate and get consistency, lack of nous, lack of any strategy, tactics or how to select and set out a team, lack of knowledge of what is wrong and how to put it right and lack of evident leadership.
With the exception of attackers - where we are saddled with the manager's non-scoring or unfit choices - the playing resources available to Boro are capable of much better and, if properly marshalled, should mean we were comfortably mid-table in what is generally a poor Premiership. That we are far from that is testament enough to the performance of those charged with the marshalling.
Everyone is sympathetic and sad to criticise because they like the individuals and realise they got given the clarty end of the stick when The Ex left but we all know they're not up to it.
And the public face, mostly through Gate, is most often the truthful but disturbing 'rabbit in the headlights, wearing a cardi' appearance. The 'still learning' line has worn thin - particularly when the mistakes keep being repeated unlike the successes which appear, out of the blue, as one-offs.
Collectively, they know about as much as we do about how the team is going to perform on any given day or why - it depends entirely on which Boro steps off team coach and has nothing to do with what is done with them between games.
And I still don't know what Malcolm Crosby does.
What can we do?
We have a thin squad and we must buy, and buy well in the transfer window. Priorities are strikers, a goalkeeper, cover at left back and our perennial right sided midfielder to cover O'Neil or to free him to move inside where he will be even more influential in a box-to-box role.
We have some surplus in some positions that could be sold or loaned and some dead wood that must be removed from the squad and the wage bill. We must guard against some of our best being tempted away.
Gibbo must be provided with the mobile numbers for Martin Jol and Slaven Bilic and advised to get over his 'Little Englander/Small Town Not In Europe' obsession and make the calls before he consigns us to the drop and before he gives the current lot any cash to spend in the window.
Unless The Championship is his ambition, as yet unstated - in which case he should tell us straight and let us make up our minds about him and The Count continuing to 'steward' our club for us.
Or we can do what I suspect we will do - nothing. This is exactly how we reacted at 'The Ten Game Test' time and it's what has kept us on the same heading, rudderless and just hoping that there are three teams worse than us come mid-May.
So the glass is half-empty and I predict it's going to stay so. Won't stop me trekking to Fratton Park on Saturday and hoping that, somehow, it'll all be different this time.
The Away End will be back after the Portsmouth game on 29 December.
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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.
RETURN TO AWAY END INDEX HERE
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