Carrick tone change & frank Middlesbrough admission after Cardiff draw
PORTSMOUTH, Preston, Bristol City, Coventry, Blackburn, Sheffield Wednesday and Cardiff. All teams below Middlesbrough in the Championship table; all teams who have taken points off Boro at the Riverside this season.
Saturday’s underwhelming 1-1 draw with Cardiff City means Boro have won just six of their 14 home games so far.
It was put to a disappointed Michael Carrick after the game that the home form simply has to be better if Boro are to stand a chance of winning promotion this season.
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Eight teams in the league have a better home record than Boro and they’ve all player fewer games at their own ground. And for all Boro have scored more goals than most on home turf with 20, five of those came against Luton, three Sheffield Wednesday and three Hull. Boro have failed to score more than a single goal in nine of their 14 Riverside games.
Cardiff was a game Riverside regulars have seen before. Lowly opponents with little attacking ambition sitting deep and making life difficult for Boro, who bossed the ball but struggled to turn possession into clear cut chances. Boro had more than 75% of possession but only one more shot on goal than Cardiff, who had something to cling to and defend after Calum Chambers cancelled out Emmanuel Latte Lath’s opener and 10th of the season. For ex-Boro loanee Chambers, it was a first goal in almost three years.
For long parts, Boro played like they had in the first half at Hull: too ponderous and predictable. Ben Doak apart, they rarely looked like hurting Cardiff. Even though he wasn’t at his unplayable best, this was a reminder, after Crystal Palace and Ipswich’s failed bids for Doak on Friday, of how much of a blow it would be to lose the Liverpool winger this month.
The display and the dropped points angered Carrick, who said: “I’m not frustrated, we can be better than we were today.
“Frustrated is part of the issue, getting frustrated during the game and letting it fizzle out in some ways.
“I’m a bit disappointed in the second half that we didn’t work the keeper or create enough opportunities. The boys are trying to do a lot of good things, but frustration, not really, we can better than we were today
And the home form. How does he fix that? Key, he says, is fighting frustration on the pitch and the stands.
“I say it to you all the time, it’s a number of things,” he said.
“Maybe teams set up a bit differently, which is football. That’s fine, we do it sometimes. Maybe that expectation and the energy between me, the players and the supporters. Frustration is not the right place to be when you’re in a football game trying to win it. “We have to be more positive and make things happen and believe that things are going to happen. You give yourself a better chance if that’s the case. It’s everyone.
“We played some really good football in the first half. Letting the lead slip was a big part of the game. The longer the game goes, the deeper they end up defending and the less space there is. Sometimes you have to take that as an opportunity to go and make things happen. It’s a mindset for me, the players, the supporters as well, it’s important when we’re chasing games we don’t focus on what’s just happened but what’s next and creating that energy and positivity.
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