Gary Rowett previews Middlesbrough’s visit to the Kassam Stadium.
Despite the change in head coach, Gary Rowett expects Middlesbrough to look similar to his Oxford United side on Saturday.
After Rob Edwards left Boro for Wolves, Boro needed a new head coach. Kim Hellberg is set to be announced as the club’s new manager early next week, following an agreement with Hammarby.
Meanwhile, Adi Viveash is in interim command of Boro, and after leading the side to victory over Birmingham City last time out, he will take charge again when Boro travel to the Kassam this weekend. Though Viveash has had a whole week to prepare and possibly change things up, Rowett expects him to keep things basically the same.
Rowett stated: “That is part of the championship. I don’t think Saturday will be much different because I’m assuming a new manager will not be in place in time for the game.
“Adi is a seasoned professional who performed admirably as assistant manager and then as manager when he took over. So I don’t expect anything other than a well-organised Middlesbrough side seeking to take three points.”
Oxford enters the game 21st in the Championship, just three points above the relegation zone. They have only won one of their last five games. Rowett confesses that they went back to the drawing board during the international break.
He stated, “The pause has given us time to contemplate and review, and we now expect to return with a fresh perspective. We used the hiatus to attempt to get back to what we needed to achieve while maintaining that underdog mentality in some ways.
“Inconsistency is certainly unavoidable for us because we’re playing against some very big teams in a difficult league. I believe the objective for us is to achieve a consistent level of performance, regardless of the outcome – and then, ideally, success will follow.
“Perhaps this season we’ve strayed into attempting to play like a mid-table squad and been stuck in the middle a little. We’ve been clear about what we need to do during the break, and hopefully there will be a mental reset, with everyone understanding the importance of fighting for every point.
“I believe each game has been competitive and tight. But in a lot of games since maybe week five, we’ve felt like we’ve always come out second best in terms of results. We must find a method to fix that.”
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