MIDDLESBROUGH headed into the international break on the back of a thumping Wear-Tees derby win at the Stadium of Light that rounded off a successful month for Michael Carrick’s side.
How are Boro looking – and what might be around the corner when club football resumes later this month?
HOW HAS THE SEASON GONE SO FAR?
It’s definitely improving. When Boro signed off for the last international break in early September with a 2-0 home defeat to QPR, they found themselves rooted to the foot of the Championship table with just one point from their opening five league games.
Fast forward just over a month, and the picture is an awful lot brighter. Since stumbling to a 1-1 draw with a struggling Sheffield Wednesday side at Hillsborough, Boro have recorded four straight victories over Southampton, Watford, Cardiff and Sunderland, a run that has lifted them to within four points of the play-off places.
Crucially, it isn’t just results that have improved, there has also been a marked uplift in performances levels, culminating in Saturday’s second-half stroll at the Stadium of Light. Yes, Boro were playing against ten men, but the way in which Michael Carrick’s side put their opponents to the sword after the interval was reminiscent of some of the swashbuckling displays that took them to the play-offs last season. For the first time this term, the attacking fluency was back.
The Carabao Cup has also been a key feature of the first two months of the season, with away wins at Huddersfield, Bolton and Bradford having set up a fourth-round game at Exeter City. Carrick will be taking nothing for granted, but a game against League One opposition offers a great chance to make the quarter-finals.
WHAT HAVE BEEN THE MAJOR POSITIVES?
Carrick deserves huge credit for holding his nerve after such a shaky start, and having been on something of a roll for most of last season, the Boro boss has successfully passed a key test in his managerial career.
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When the chips were down, Carrick stood firm, sticking to his principles in terms of playing style and steadfastly continuing to back his players, both in public and within the confines of the dressing room. Things were never going to be smooth forever – by coming through the last couple of months so successfully, Carrick has burnished his own reputation while also strengthening his own relationship with his squad.
Isaiah Jones’ return to the first-team fold has been another major plus point in the last few weeks, with the winger seemingly now over the mental issues that were holding him back last season. If Jones is fit and firing, he is one of the best wide players in the Championship.
Josh Coburn has proved he belongs at this level, while Hayden Hackney’s development into a top-class central midfielder continues to gather pace. When it comes to the new arrivals, Rav van den Berg has been the standout so far.
ANY CAUSES FOR CONCERN?
While it remains early days for the players who were signed in the summer, the jury has to remain out on a number of the close-season acquisitions.
Lukas Engel has made an impressive return to the team in the last two games, but the memory of his first-half meltdown at Hillsborough remains a worry. Morgan Rogers has only really played in patches, Sammy Silvera currently looks more useful as an impact player rather than a starter and the same is probably true of Emmanuel Latte Lath, for all that he has scored and claimed an assist in his last two substitute outings.
Boro need Latte Lath to play a significant role as, while they might have scored four goals in the space of a single half at the weekend, they are not overrun with attacking options. Latte Lath and Coburn are the only obvious alternatives for the central striker spot, with Rogers, Sam Greenwood and Matt Crooks seemingly battling it out for the ‘number ten’ role. Replacing Chuba Akpom’s goals was never going to be easy – at the moment, it looks as though Boro are going to have to share the goalscoring responsibility around a number of different players.
Injuries are also a bit of a worry, with Lewis O’Brien out for the long term, van den Berg nursing a niggling issue that seems to keep reappearing, and Darragh Lenihan, Jonny Howson and Marcus Forss all having been missing at various points in the last month. Hopefully, the international break will help Carrick replenish his matchday squad.
WHAT CHALLENGES ARE COMING UP?
The league programme resumes with a home game against Birmingham on October 21, a match that assumed added spice earlier today when Wayne Rooney was confirmed as the new Blues boss. Carrick v Rooney is an obvious subplot to whatever else unfolds at the Riverside.
The Birmingham game kicks off a run of four matches in the space of 11 days, with a midweek trip to Norwich City preceding a home game against a struggling Stoke. Given the way in which they have been playing in the last two or three weeks, Boro can realistically target a haul of at least six points from those matches, which would almost certainly lift Carrick’s side into the top half of the table.
Boro’s October schedule ends with the League Cup trip to St James’ Park (no, not that one) to face Exeter, and while Carrick has shuffled his pack in the previous rounds of the competition, it will be interesting to see if he changes tack with a quarter-final place at stake. With Exeter currently 11th in League One, having lost six of their last seven games in all competitions, this feels like a great opportunity.
WHAT MIGHT HAPPEN IN JANUARY?
Thoughts are turning towards the end of the year, but having been extremely busy in the summer, it would be a surprise if Boro were to conduct a large amount of business in the January window.
That said, however, the January arrival of Cameron Archer and Aaron Ramsey was crucial to last season’s run to the play-offs, so Boro’s recruitment team could well decide to test the water again when it comes to potential Premier League loans at the turn of the year.
Loans are certainly more likely than permanent acquisitions, although there is an understandable reluctance to get into the same position as the start of this summer, when the departure of key players at the end of their respective loan deals left gaping gaps in the Boro squad.
Another striker to help support Coburn and Latte Lath would be a big help, although if Hackney continues his current rate of development over the next couple of months, holding on to their prize midfield asset could become the key January priority. Given how well Hackney is playing at the moment, it would not be a surprise if Premier League clubs were to come calling.
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