Are we ready?
By Daniel • Aug 4th, 2009 • Category: Featured ArticlesSo, pre-season has come to a close, and the season starts in less than a week. The obvious question is 'are we ready?'
Gareth Southgate admitted last week that failing to get promoted at the first attempt would probably cost him his job. In truth, most Boro fans will probably start calling for his head if we fail to start the season with a bang.
The club's transfer activity has been pretty limited over the summer, which is generally thought of as a bad thing, as we haven't brought in many reinforcements to bolster the squad. On the other hand, the likes of Robert Huth, Gary O'Neil and Jeremie Aliadiere all seem set to stay, which we probably didn't expect in May.
Mido has gone, which is a boost to the club. Ross Turnbull has gone, which was a shame. Stewie Downing has gone, which was inevitable. Apart from that Tuncay and Afonso Alves' situations are still unresolved. Could either of them line up for us on Friday? Surely Alves could cut it in the Championship, and any matches we get out of Tuncay this season would be a bonus.
We have only brought in two players, which is disappointing. Mark Yeates looks exciting, and Danny Coyne looks like a good - and very necessary - addition to the squad. We fans would have expected more than a combined £500k transfer spend this summer, particularly when you offset it against the £12million received for Downing. Maybe there will be more developments in the next few days, and maybe not. Maybe we will have to wait until the end of August for some more transfer deadline drama. Maybe we just won't sign anyone else.
Let's work on a worst case scenario, and assume that Tuncay and Alves will both go before Friday, and that we don't bring anyone else in. What happens if we just have to work with what we have got?
We have Coyne and Brad Jones challenging for the Number 1 spot, and I suspect that Coyne is in pole position for that one. It will be interesting to see how he gets on.
We have something of a surplus of defenders - although popular comment amongst Boro fans is that we need a new left back - I genuinely believe we have enough options already. Emanuel Pogatetz, Andrew Taylor, Jonathan Grounds, Joe Bennett and Seb Hines could all play there. Our centre-backs should be amongst the best in the division, and we have several right back options. Defensively, we have enough individuals - we just need them organised in to a solid unit. We can't defend set-pieces like we did last season if we want to go up. Apparently Coyne's communication is one of his main strengths, so hopefully this will help.
In midfield the squad is thin, but there is some good talent there. Yeates, Didier Digard, O'Neil and Adam Johnson should be a quality midfield at this level. If Julio Arca regains form he will be a big player for us in the Championship too. Unless we get some more back up in though, we will desperately need to avoid the kind of injury crisis we had last Christmas. One possible surprise solution is the emergence of Rhys Williams as a goalscoring midfield dynamo in pre-season. Whether this could transfer from friendlies to league football remains to be seen.
Up front, the pace of Aliadiere and Marvin Emnes should cause problems. Jonathan Franks has been bigged up in pre-season, so let's hope he can step up. And, er, that's about it for strikers. Again, an injury or two would leave us desperately short.
I'm not as worried as some seem to be, but I would like to see a couple of experienced Championship players brought in, including at least one big centre-forward.
I don't think we're far off having a squad capable of getting us back to the Premiership, but it is so hard to predict this league. Reading, West Brom and Sheffield United will all be gunning for promotion, while teams like Roy Keane's Ipswich and Darren Ferguson's Peterborough could challenge. God knows what Newcastle will end up doing this season - they could win the league or get relegated for all I know!
I can't quite work out whether I'm excited, nervous or absolutely terrified about Friday's kick-off, but whichever way, I really can't wait now.
Daniel is a lifelong Boro fan, just old enough to remember 86, and young enough to have watched the early Robson/Juninho years through awestruck teenage eyes.
His earliest footballing memory is watching a reserve game between Boro and Man City. He sang his heart out, on his own, for 90 minutes solid. He was four years old, and he's followed the Boro with the same passion ever since.
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We’ll be rock solid in this league, without much flair.
When we were really struggling last season we still went to Wolverhampton Wanders and first 20 minutes aside we beat the Championship winners quite comfortably - even more pleasing considering our away record! The LITA acquisition is perfect in my eyes. An Andy Cole type player, albeit with a propensity for nights on the town, that has a track record in this league. The emergence of WILLIAMS as a midfield prodigy is perfectly timed, as he would have been loaned out to a Championship club anyway if we were still Premiership! I have to disagree Dan with the left back situation - I don’t believe Tayls or Poggy are decent enough. We would benefit greatly with specialist left back, ie can tackle and has pace.
I would like to give Southgate the benefit this season but my greatest fear for the up coming season is finding Jinky on the right wing, or Jeremy on the right. Square pegs in round holes again. AHGGGG
COYNE
MACCA WHEATER HUTH POGGY
EMNES ONEILL WILLIAMS JINKY
YEATS
LITA
Team to start at home to Sheff Utd. Imho.
Anybody see Joe Bennett playing for the England side in the recent tournament? He looked superb and could well be the answer to our Left Back woes
Is Poggy fit? He doesn’t seem to have played much in pre-season
I think the line-up might be:
Coyne
Hoyte Wheater Huth Taylor
Yeates Digard O’Neil Johnson
Emnes Aliadiere
I don’t expect Lita to start due to lack of match fitness, but he’ll probably come on in the second half.
I know you’re right with that line up - but do you as a fan want to watch that forward line up at home to Sheff Utd and their brutes of centre backs? But remember the impact that Mido made, he was never match fit, against Fulham and the geordies. I’m not saying play him for 90 minutes but see how keen he is to run around “for the cause”!
Yeah Poggy has no date for return according to the club’s website. 8-(
As we write we still have Tuncay.Mmmmmmmm.
What about
COYNE
MACCA WHEATER HUTH TAYLS
DIGARD
YEATES TUNCAY JINKY
EMNES LITA
At last one or two options! I know I dream.
Is Alves injured or are just assuming he will play no part? I don’t recall him playing much, if at all, pre-season
I was working on the assumption Alves is finished as a Boro player. I think he picked up a knock in training hence no pre-season games (although the cynic would read that as official club version, whereas he probably just can’t be arsed)
You could start with Lita , but I expect Emnes to hit the ground running this year, and I do think Ali’s pace will cause problems in the champo. I think Southgate’s track record shows he is not one to rush players in to the team (for example Emnes, Digard, Shawky and Alves, with varying levels of success!)
If Tuncay is still on the books on Friday I think he’ll play, although up front or in midfield is anyone’s guess. I don’t see him as the type to sit in the stands sulking.
The two natural wingers should make us more exciting going forward, regardless of which strikers and central midfielders play.
Franks is naturally a right winger though so i wouldn’t expect him to be playing up front if any of our strikers are fit. He’ll probably play as backup to Yeates, but he’s definately got bags of quality. I’ve been waiting for him to break in for a year and a half already.
Personally, im losing faith in Aliadiere… he doesn’t score nearly as many goals as he’s capable of, and has looked pretty poor in pre-season also against opposition lower than ourselves. If i was Gate, i wouldn’t start him and i’d probably struggle to put him on the bench at the moment.
I do think Emnes will be a performer this season though, and i also think he’ll score more goals than Aliadiere, who i think will struggle to net more than 5 in the entire season.
yeah just read Alves aggravated his foot injury in training, I guess that means he doesn’t want to play. I thought he’d be long gone by now along with Mido and Tuncay
Davwind, you do know Williams is actually a Centre-back by trade?
Your talking about square pegs in round holes and then putting a defender in midfield…
Of course you are technically right Ross, but I like the look of Williams. The snippets I’ve seen of pre-season with him playing centre-mid have looked good. He started as a centre half, but has played very well at RB for Burnley.
To coin a GS phrase: ‘Good players can play anywhere.’ We also have a history of centre backs who have turned in to midielders: John Wark (albeit long before he ever came to us!), Matty Bates and …. er ….. Paul Okon.
On a serious note, Williams could prove to be a useful player in midfield and he seems to have an eye for goal too. We’ll have to wait and see.
Ill give Williams credit though, he does have 4 goals to his name in pre season… but every goal has come from a different position almost.
Against Dumbarton, he replaced Digard but his goal was a typical defender’s close range headed finish, Macclesfield he played in his natural position in the centre of defence, Carlisle he played at left back, oldham at right back and millwall in midfield, but i do agree when he’s played there he’s looked pretty influential. Still though, i wouldn’t throw him straight in there… i’d need to see how he plays there off the bench perhaps in some competitive games before i thought he could play there every week.
Ross - what’s a typical defenders close range finish? Is that the same as a penalty box poachers finish 8-D! And I suppose his effort against Millwall was alucky punt? I think we actually call this player as versatile. The lad has an undeniable eye for goal. We aren’t really over endowed with decent goal scoring midfielders are we? Others might say that if people are thinking of giving a full international cap he might just be ready to play in the Championship against the likes of Doncaster and Scunthorpe,,,,,,,,,,,,,just a thought.
In his post match Millwall interview Williams declared that he was a centre midfielder before he came to this country and feels its his natural position……….Come Gaffa be brave!
It was a close range header from some good positional play if i remember correctly. I never said his effort was a lucky punt, and wasn’t taking any credit away from the lad.
I must have missed that part where he claimed he was naturally a centre mid then, i’ve always been under the impression that he was a central defender, Southgate has said this previously, and he’s also played many games at right back. I can’t say i’ve seen him play anywhere other than in the back four until pre-season this year so its come as a bit of a surprise…
What do you guys think think the prospect of seeing Nathan Porrit is? I’ve been wanting to see how good he is since his name first started to get touted around, especially when he was doing well at youth national levels. Have barely seen anything of him, but now Boro are in the Championship hopefully we can finally get to see how good he is.
I think Porritt will be a sporadic name on the bench this season playing second fiddle to Johnson.
He’ll be in the same position as Johnson behind Downing, only that Porritt is tipped to be as good as Johnson potential wise. I think we’ll see him come into his own this season and progress further than Downing did.
Porritt will probably get his chance in one of the cup competitions and probably get a few sub appearances but i can’t see him playing any more than a bit part unless Johnson is injured.. Yeates would probably get moved over though if Porritt wasn’t showing any signs of being ready.
Porritt has disappointed me recently, I thought last season whenever I watched the reserves he drifted in and out of games too much, though he did have flashes of genuine quality. I’d like to see both him and Franks push on and challenge for the first team though I agree with Ross’ assessment above.
I think we almost got a team capable of winning the league, but look a bit short on numbers up front and in midfield, although defence looks best in the league. The team for Sheffield united should look something like this : danny coyne
justin hoyte david wheater robert huth andrew taylor
mark yeates gary o’neil julio arca adam johnson
marvin emnes leroy lita/
jeremie aliadiere
wichever of the 2 is fittest basicly. Tunnys got tonsalitus and wont play, lita not very fit, aliadiere is ill but may still play if lita still looks worse of, mido now gone of course and alves, whom i expect will stay simpily cause no one would want him is injured now anyhow. digard, o’neil, arca all 50/50 according to the club site. we only need at least 1 of them to play with walker though, but ideally 2 of them. oh and also brad jones definatly cant play cause of injury, hense coyne in goal.
I think we almost got a team capable of winning the league, but look a bit short on numbers up front and in midfield, although defence looks best in the league. The team for Sheffield united should look something like this : danny coyne
justin hoyte david wheater robert huth andrew taylor
mark yeates gary o’neil julio arca adam johnson
marvin emnes leroy lita or
jeremie aliadiere
wichever of the 2 is fittest basicly. Tunnys got tonsalitus and wont play, lita not very fit, aliadiere is ill but may still play if lita still looks worse of, mido now gone of course and alves, whom i expect will stay simpily cause no one would want him is injured now anyhow. digard, o’neil, arca all 50/50 according to the club site. we only need at least 1 of them to play with walker though, but ideally 2 of them. oh and also brad jones definatly cant play cause of injury, hense coyne in goal.
Sean, to be honest I agree that we have a team well capable of winning this league.
IMHO this league is competitive because of the immense amount of really average teams competing in it, aswell as the number of games each club has to play. If we can pad out the squad with a few more signings, whether loans come into the equation I don’t know.
We know that we are more than capable of beating any team in this division if the real BORO turn up. We will hopefully hit the ground running but remember that WOLVES won this Championship and still lost 10 games! Glad to see that Ross Macormack is being linked with a move up a division aswell as one time BORO target James Harper. This moves can only help the situation. My fears are IPSWICH still strengthening and READING who still have a lot of quality for this league. Finally if CARDIFF are selling we could do a lot worse than try and pick up Joe Ledley.
Prediction - a one sided 2-0 to the BORO