It was interesting to read the post-match comments of Aitor Karanka, Charlton manager Guy Luzon and the match reports both online and in the newspapers following Boro's 3-1 win over Charlton on Saturday.
Luzon felt that the margin of victory was “flattering” and Ron Clarke of The Sunday Times believed that Boro “struggled to subdue a poor Charlton”.
They were only half right.
Forget Manager Of The Month curses and all that. Boro were victims of their own success at the back, as you'd expect from a team who'd only leaked one goal in 802 minutes of football. It's also become common, all too common, for a Patrick Bamford strike within the first ten minutes to pave the way for an easy victory, as it already has against Rotherham, Norwich and Derby.
So you could have been forgiven for thinking that the promotion contenders, once a goal up and monopolising both possession and chances, would have chalked up a landslide. Wrong!
Seconds after poor Milos Veljkovic dislocated his shoulder (on his Charlton debut!), his new team sneaked their way back into a match that really ought to have been beyond them with a Johann Berg Gudmunsson special, out of the blue. Big Boro had mistaken that Little Charlton would be a walk in the park, and had been given the wake up call of an equaliser or going behind for only the second time in more than two months.
With rivals Derby and Bournemouth well on their way to clinically disposing of their opposition, what were a side suddenly snapped out of their cruise control play supposed to do? Re-establish it, that's what. The A and M in the SAM Index discussed in my last column (adaptation and mentality) came into play in the half time team-talk, which I imagine went something like this:
“You're not used to conceding a goal. I know. But now you have. Nothing can be done about it. So just go out there, pretend it didn't happen and re-assert the calm, controlling dominance that earned you your lead.”
What AK actually said was that the worst thing Boro could have done was score in the first five minutes, as that led the team to believe everything was done. So rather than adapt tactics or playing personnel, he adapted Boro's mentality for the second half. And it worked, with the most maverick of Boro's front men – Jelle Vossen and Lee Tomlin – taking the plaudits at the start and the end of the second half.
Enough has been seen of AK's Boro by now to know that his teams don't deal direct, devastating blows in quick succession like Bournemouth and Derby would do. He prefers patient penetration in tandem with solidity, a formula tailored for success at the highest level. This makes Boro look, out of all the sides in the Championship's top six, the best equipped to deal with the Premier League but not necessarily the best equipped to get the right results in this division.
That's not really a weakness, however, if Boro can be more clinical. What Boro do need is more intervention from their mavericks – the most unpredictable and daring of their attacking personnel, who can create something out of nothing and aren't afraid to take on defenders when they're expected to pass the ball. The kind of player Lee Tomlin and Jelle Vossen now are, Albert Adomah used to be, and we hope Muzzy Carayol still is.
Consider Tomlin's volleyed goal against Charlton which clinched Saturday's game for us. One suspects that had Boro tried to clinch the game with a controlled team goal, as the national team of AK's homeland were wont to do with tiki-taka a few years ago, there would have been too much over-elaboration towards the perfect cross, the perfect pass or the perfect goal-scoring opportunity which would have wasted time and left the game on the edge.
Sometimes, it's necessary to encourage players to simply “have a go”. To trust fully in the match-winning capabilities of individuals. And while I'm happy to see that this is starting to happen consistently with Tomlin, it needs to happen more often still. With more players.
Onto Blackpool tonight then. The stadium where the Cherries won 6-1 is not a happy hunting ground for Boro; it took a trio of defeats, including 3-0 and 4-1 thrashings under Tony Mowbray before a late Carayol double gave AK victory on his first trip to Bloomfield Road.
Same again, then? Here's hoping. Of course there will be no Muzzy this time, as AK has wisely decided not to rush him back from injury, but we can almost certainly look forward to the return of Daniel Ayala in central defence now his suspension is complete. What's not so certain is whether or not AK will rotate further up to pitch – will he dare to give Adam Forshaw his first start at Adam Clayton's expense? To replace Albert Adomah with another Adam, Reach? Or to give Kike a start in place of Vossen?
All questions which I am, and I'm sure you are, looking forward to being answered.
Up The Boro!
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