Aitor Karanka wants to “fix” Boro’s habit of failing to kill off the opposition.
The closing stages of recent games have been nerve-wracking occasions for everyone connected with the club.
Tuesday’s scrappy victory over Bolton typified the problem. Boro dominated the match but failed to add to their opening goal.
The meant the four minutes of stoppage time were agony for the fans – and the management – as Bolton pushed forward in search of an equaliser.
It was a similar story at Blackpool when the referee awarded six minutes of added time while, against Leeds, Boro created countless chance but failed to take any.
“I can understand it when we play against teams and we haven’t had chances to score and you have only one and score and then have problems (late on),” said Karanka.
“But usually we have two, three, four clear chances and the other team keeper is the man of the match and you arrive in the final minutes with problems. It is a problem we have to fix.”
Karanka was particularly forceful in his criticism of his players after Tuesday’s game claiming he didn’t recognise some of them in the second half of a moderate game.
He does admit, however, that the club’s hectic schedule may be taking its toll.
Boro have already played six games so far this month and face three more in eight days starting with Saturday’s fixture at Sheffield Wednesday.
Karanka said: “It’s not normal, physical fatigue but it could be mental because we have had a lot of games.
“Travelling to games like Arsenal demands a lot of effort, especially mental effort, but it’s the calender and we knew we had the fixtures and we were very happy because we could beat Manchester City and play against Arsenal .
“So we now have to rest, think about the future and we have to think that we have two months to do something about it.”
No comments:
Post a Comment