Boro Mania

Beware the backlash

The newly rich, Manchester City, travel to the Riverside Stadium tonight with memories still fresh in the mind from their last visit. On that day, the final day of the last Premiership campaign, Boro thrashed city 8-1 with Afonso Alves grabbing a hat-trick. As City travel to Teesside looking for revenge they have their own Brazilian hat-trick hero in the mercurial Robinho.

In truth the Manchester City side that will line up against Boro tonight will be much different from the side that capitulated in their last visit. City, now the richest club in the world, have spent big in the summer, bringing in high calibre players like the aforementioned Robinho, his compatriot Jo (who is a doubt for the game) and former fans favourite Shaun Wright-Phillips. As well as the seemingly bottomless pit of money the club now has they also have a very admirable Academy system and a couple of recent graduates may also play some part in the game, Ched Evans and Daniel Sturridge have impressed me this season when i've seen them play and have been involved in the first team recently. Those two, along with the likes of Ireland, Richards and Michael Johnson show that City are also capable of producing thier own top talent, hopefully they will not end up losing their places to expensive foreign imports once the transfer window re-opens.

Middlesbrough: Possible formation, line-up and Team Talk

4-4-2: Turnbull, Wheater, Taylor, Riggott, Pogatetz, Aliadiere, Downing, Digard, O’Neil, Alves, Tuncay

Following the 5-0 drubbing at the hands of Chelsea Boro bounced back and almost sneaked an away win at Ewood Park against Blackburn. Tuncay Sanli made his long awaited return to the Boro starting 11 and injected some life and quality into the Boro side, his fitness will be key to our season, of that I have no doubt. I expect the back four to remain unchanged from that match with Huth out and Hoyte struggling we should see Wheater remain at right back, Taylor at left back with Poggy and Riggott in the centre. Not our best back four by a long shot but probably the best we have available, some people have been calling for Taylor to be dropped in favour of Grounds or Bennett but despite his poor form of late I would stick with Taylor, I think he will improve with more matches under his belt.

News from MFC is that Julio Arca should be fit to make the squad which is great news, though I can't see him making the starting 11. With this in mind I would start with Ali and Downing on the wings with Digard and O'Neil in the middle. Didier Digard needs more games if he is going to get up to speed with the English game and I would play him ahead of Shawky in the middle. Up front I would go with, what I would consider our strongest pairing, Afonso Alves and Tuncay. I think Alves thrives alongside the busy Tuncay and with him getting a goal in his last match i'm hopeful of him hitting the goal trail now. Mido is a doubt with the injury that ruled him out of the Blackburn game though he may make the bench.

Manchester City: Possible formation and Line-up

4-4-2: Hart, Richards, Dunne, Ben Haim, Garrido, Wright-Phillips, Ireland, Kompany, Elano, Robinho, Evans

City will be missing Jo from their starting lineup and Mark Hughes is expected to choose between Ched Evans and Danny Sturridge to play up top. Richard Dunne is expected to play after coming off with an injury against Stoke. I'm expecting them to lineup in a 4-4-2 formation but it may end up more a 4-4-1-1 formation with Evans playing right up top and Robinho dropping a little deeper or moving wide to see more of the ball.

The key area for me is going to be in midfield and whoever Soutgate picks to play in the middle are going to have to get stuck into the City midfield and not give them time to play otherwise players like Elano and Ireland will hurt us.

Match Prediction

With Tuncay back I'm a lot more confident of picking up points in this game than I previously was, though we weren't great at Blackburn we picked up a good point and looked a lot more solid. Tuncay and Aliadiere were very busy and I feel their pace and trickery could potentially cause City problems and with Alves grabbing a goal his confidence should be up.

City are without doubt a much stronger team than last season and on paper they should beat us comfortably but, the recent Chelsea game aside, Boro do tend to raise their game at home when they are made massive underdogs. It'll be a cold cold night at the Riverside and hopefully Robinho will not be too keen on the Teesside weather and have an off day.

My head says a draw will be a good result, my heart says 2-1 Boro with Alves getting both. COME ON BORO!