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THE PETER HUGHES COLUMN - SWINGS AND ROUNDABOUTS 25-9-08
Peter Hughes
So far this season, the one phrase I have heard most is ‘unlucky Middlesbrough’.
It has been used in relation to us conceding own goals, missing penalties or conceding late goals in almost every match we’ve played this season.
If we had had a bit more luck, we could have beaten this team. If own goals didn’t count and a match finished after eighty-five minutes we’d be top of the League.
But they do, it doesn’t and we’re not.
Yet what we lose on the swings, we gain on the roundabouts.
Let’s get something straight here - as a devout atheist and non-believer in karma, life after death, guardian angels, poltergeists and UFOs, I would just like to point out that there is no such thing as luck!
Yes, some of us are dealt a better hand than others but it’s what you do with your life that makes you special.
Stevie Wonder, Ian Dury and Beethoven all had severe disabilities yet went on to have great careers. So did Einstein, Henry Ford, Stephen Hawking and Leonardo di Vinci. Even our current Prime Minister only has sight in one eye. All these men have gone on to be successful DESPITE what nature has dealt them.
None of them were lucky but all of them were successful because they worked hard and made the most of the skills they possessed.
Boro haven’t been unlucky missing two penalties.
It is often said by stupid commentators at the end of extra time in a cup final, “and now the lottery of penalties”.
Penalties aren’t won by the drawing of numbered balls. Penalties are football at its finest. A penalty is condensed football. No histrionics, no arguing, no diving, cheating or fouling. It is ‘mano a mano’, one on one, striker v goalie.
There are no dodgy offsides, no deflections off defenders and nowhere to hide if you send the ball six foot above the bar. Stewie cocked up big time.
I hate to say it but he can never take another penalty again for the Boro. A penalty should be taken by a player who is ‘full of himself’, a player who has that inner belief that he will beat the other man (the names Afonso Alves Martins Junior and Ahmed Hossam Hussein Abdelhamid come to mind).
But I am not going to have a go at Stewie. He probably kept us up last season and I still think he is the best English left winger by a distance. For a winger in a struggling team to get ten goals last season was magnificent. Can you imagine how many goals he would have scored playing for Manchester United?
But Stewie is a player who doesn’t seem to realise just how good he is. There are times when he is up against a lesser player and he passes inside instead of listening to the crowd shouting “skin him”. Anyone who has less confidence in himself than the crowd does will make himself popular and always thought of as one of our own. But would you want him taking a penalty above a cockier and more confident player?
So you put a nice lad, who hasn’t got a great record with penalties, into taking the pressure shots and he misses. Unlucky!
We concede an awful lot of goals late on in matches, how unlucky is that?
Well not very. We should have seen the warning signs in Portugal. If we hadn’t been so ‘unlucky’ in conceding those late goals against Celtic and Guimaraes, we would have won the tournament!
The reason we conceded late goals in those matches, and what seems like every match since, is because we invite pressure late on in a game.
I don’t know if it is a lack of confidence after a poor season last year, or a lack of belief that we can hang on. I certainly can’t believe we are tiring after Gareth’s focus on fitness in the close season.
What makes the ‘top’ teams top is their belief that they can win late on. We might have been shocked that Liverpool came back deep into stoppage time but they weren’t. It’s what ‘top’ teams do. After all, did Manchester United give up after eighty-nine minutes against Bayern Munich? NO.
We are ‘unlucky’ this season with own goals. How can any team concede three in three matches?
Well the answer is simple – we were being put under pressure.
When Huth headed into his own net it was from a difficult cross INTO THE AREA from Spurs.
When Pogatetz deflected into his own net, it was when Liverpool had smashed the ball INTO THE AREA.
Hey, guess what?! When Hoyte stumbled it into his own net, it was because Stoke had crossed the ball INTO THE AREA.
Even a Geordie can see the connection here. It’s nothing to do with luck, it’s to do with getting the ball in the part of the ground that causes the opposition most problems.
Why are the ‘Big Four’ so lucky? It’s because they get the ball in the dangerous areas much more than lesser teams do. That’s why they get more deflections, penalties and “luck”.
When West Ham scored a goal a couple of seasons ago that even Teddy Sheringham said was two feet in front of the line, my mate said “we never get luck like that”. I replied that there was no such thing as luck and that we would get a decision like that soon.
That decision came in the game at Fulham last season. Remember that goal? Lucky weren’t we? If only Boro could get some luck this season…
Ladies and Gentlemen, I gave you Didier Digard. He has come on late and miss-hit shots twice this season, once to Mido, once to Tuncay. Two miss-hits, two goals, two sets of fans leaving the Riverside thinking they were ‘unlucky’.
Swings and roundabouts… Swings and roundabouts.
BACK TO THE TALKING
TACTICS INDEX
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