Boro completely out classed, out played and out fought by Chelsea
By Shaun • Oct 18th, 2008 • Category: Featured Articles, Match NewsMiddlesbrough had garnered a reputation for being a tough team to play for the top teams at The Riverside, and with Chelsea decimated by injuries they may have travelled up north with a little apprehension. The reputation was well and truly put to the sword today as Chelsea completely blew a shambolic Middlesbrough side away.
Southgate made the decision to drop Afonso Alves from the Boro starting line up with Jeremie Aliadiere moving infield to support Mido and Adam Johnson coming in on the right flank.
In truth the first half was a shocking display from Middlesbrough and they could count themselves lucky to be going into the dressing room for half time trailing by just the one goal. Boro were completely out played in the midfield area with both Shawky and O’Neil nowhere near good enough to stay with Lampard, Beletti and Mikel. Once again I thought Gary O’Neil was awful in the centre of the Boro midfield, he was rarely close enough to trouble the Chelsea midfielders and when he did have the ball his use of it was wasteful, surely Southgate must see that he is just not good enough to play in the middle.
Salomon Kalou scores the opening goal
The first goal, when it came, was a scrappy one but boiled down to the fact that Chelsea had way too much time and space to play the ball around. A cross from Wayne Bridge was met by Wheater, his header was poor and fell to the feet of Juliano Beletti in the box. Beletti’s controlled shot was blocked by a combination of Wheater and Andrew Taylor and the ball dropped perfectly at the feet of Salomon Kalou who finished easily.
Boro rarely threatened in the first half, the only moment of any real quality was a run down the right from Adam Johnson as he beat Bridge and pulled a decent ball back to the edge of the area but no-one was following it up.
If Boro fans thought the first half was bad they were in for a rude awakening as Chelsea tore them to shreds in the second half and looked to able to create goalscoring opportunities at will. The second goal, and pick of the game, came from the Brazilian Juliano Beletti. He took a pass 25 yards out and unleashed a bullet into the top corner, giving Turnbull no chance at all.
Goal three saw more poor defending from Middlesbrough, particularly Taylor and Wheater. Kalou’s shot deflected off David Wheater and wrong footed Ross Turnbull in the goal. The fourth goal, and Chelsea once again cut through Boro like a hot knife through butter, Kalou’s delicate little chip was inch perfect for Frank Lampard and he met it with a diving header to bury it past Ross Turnbull.
The fifth, and final, goal was a poor one for Turnbull as Anelka struck a shot from just outside the box, Turnbull spilled his save onto the post and Florent Malouda was on hand to tap in the rebound.
5-0 to Chelsea, could’ve been 7, 8 or 9 and this was one of the poorest displays from a Middlesbrough team in a long time. Big decisions ahead for Gareth Southgate and Middlesbrough Football Club.
I’m not even going to bother with player ratings this week as nobody deserved a rating, but the poll on the right is up for your Boro Man of the Match if you can pick one!
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Shaun is A Boro fan and owner of BoroMania.com. Born and brought up in the North East. Favourite players are Juninho, Slaven and David Wheater.
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That central midfield is probably the worst I have seen at Boro for many a year. Yes they can both run around a bit and look busy but other than that they are pathetic and the awful performance today stemmed from the dreadful O’Neil and Shawky.
They were outclassed from the very start and something has to change!!!!
Get Walker and Digard in for the next game, anything to get O’Neil and Shawky out!
Everyone was awful today and I include Mido who a lot of people were praising. How many times did he hold onto the ball and try to beat a man when he had support!
Awful result, shocking performance, we need to improve and fast!
Southgate OUT!!!!!!!!
Maybe an overreaction but i thought he got it all wrong today. Everyone was shite and they should be ashamed, i expect to see a reaction in the next game
Turnbull never stood a chance for any of those goals… Shame about Malouda’s goal, looks like the ball nicked up as he went to collect the ball.. can’t blame him for that either. Absolutely shambolic defending infront of him aswell.
The only plus point is that Johnson actually got a start… although i could hardly call it good timing since he came into the team on the biggest defeat of the season so far, i hope Southgate doesnt use it as a reason to drop him.
Worst player on the pitch again = Downing. Downing out NOW!
Our midfield has been destroyed by Southgate, the current central players are not Prem standard!, letting Rocky, Cattermole & Boateng go would only be a good move if they had been adequately replaced, they weren`t & now we are paying the price.
The buck firmly stops with the manager
Well for me everyone was poor, but the defence we’re in part hung out dry by the non-existant midfield and O’Neil Shawky were not up to it. The saddest thing is, other than Mido, no-one seemed to give a toss, there was no passion, closing down, tackling or heart. Awful performance.
we have some potentially brilliant players in our academy, but taylor, grounds are not good enough and have never looked the part.
bring back mcmahon he was quality again based on that form he would solidify our defence, mido was brilliant he was holding the ball up, but he had rubbish like shawky and o’neil in his side which meant mido, johnno and ali didnt get in the game.
turnbull i worry about he looked really shellshocked thanks alot to the rest of the team play rubbish and destroy the goalie’s confidence
Andrew taylor looked genuinely scared when ever anyone ran at him. Poggy may not have as much going forward but with him back at least it will give our defence a huge boost. I hope arca comes back and finds some form soon aswel, we’re in desperate need of some creativity and passion in the centre of midfield. I like southgate but i have to say his tatics were appaulling. Why was downing upfront for a bit with alves on the bench? He keeps saying competiton for places is what we need and the problem we used to have was we had our “undroppables” well downing is heading that way. he needs to be dropped to give him a kick up the arse and a reason to play well. A big offer in jan for him and id be happy to see him leave with jinky replacing him. Lets not forget Porrit is comming up aswel!
To be honest i’ve tried to steer clear of the internet since Saturday, to bloody depressing!!!!
Southgate takes a lot of the blame as far as i’m concerned, he got his tactics wrong to begin with and he should’ve changed things at half time. Agree with william above, why was Alves sitting on the bench with Downing playing off Mido? Makes no sense. We had two left footed players on the right hand side at the start of the game (Grounds and Johnson) what was that about?!
Bad day at the office but i lost a little faith in Gareth after this one, it wasn’t the result, it was the manner of the result