Tuesday night as stated was brilliant and I think I would have preferred it if we had gone straight on to face a Liverpool, a Chelsea or an Arsenal! Indeed 'Boro' probably represented exactly what we didn't need. For they arrived and didn't get off the team bus rather drove it straight onto the pitch parking it firmly in there own half and refused to leave it! To say they were appalling first half was an under statement, showing no interest in playing football with at times ten men in defence! Never mind no attack there was at times no midfield! Simply hoofing long balls out to nowhere to create rest bite from our relentless pressure.
I do however think we made some fundamental mistakes in selection, for we picked a team to face a team that would attack us and I think we should have been more savvy to what Middlesborough were inevitably going to employ. In that you don't need to play both Fernandinho and Gundogan against such poor teams that simply don't attack. Surely these teams are the opportunity to play both Kev and Silva in the middle playing off each other, with only one more defence minded centre mid. In this case I would have played Gundogan and rested Fernandinho, as he had limped off in the Barcelona game and that guys legs do put in some serious miles and tackles for us. Freeing you up to play both Navas and Nolito, if Sterling needed a rest, giving us that extra dimension of attacking flare going forward, which is needed when a team camps so deep! Trust me we needed no more defensive cover than this. Looking back to the glory days of Yaya and Silva it was always most exciting when they played off each other in the middle and as I say Kev is the new and vastly improved Yaya and they can definitely play this in a lot of games against lower level opposition and maybe even some of the more difficult games such is Kev's tenacity and work rate! So when the second half started with Silva and Kev simply switched around with Kev once more wasted on the wing I was a little frustrated! Yes the ginger prince can whip in a wonderful cross like he did for Sergio's 150th goal, but such is his work rate he can do this from being based in the middle of the park! By the time this was changed with the arrival of Nolito and Kev pushed back into the middle with Silva at the expense of Gundogan it was too late! This factor when combined with two others firstly Lady Luck deserting us somewhat again, and secondly as I keep banging the drum this year we are not converting enough of our chances!!! I so hope this isn't the season where we look back and say it was down to not being clinical enough, a season of missed opportunities!
Colin Bell stand, Third Tier
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