KIM Hellberg learned the hard way last season that the Championship schedule has teeth.
By the end of the season, he had lost Hayden Hackney to injury, and his Middlesbrough team had run out of steam.
More depth was desired. More depth was required. But depth brings trouble. How do you keep everybody happy? How can you rotate and change things around without losing momentum or rhythm?
Hellberg learned the hard way again in the first half against Cardiff on Saturday.
Will Lankshear was the headline omission, which is understandable, but the decision to rest the Championship’s leading scorer wasn’t the only one that cost Borough in the first 45 minutes.
Lankshear was greatly missed, and his value was demonstrated first by his absence and then by his effect from the bench at halftime.
But it was the side’s formation, not Lankshear’s position on the bench, that gave Borough another mountain to climb in the second half.
Sebastian Berhalter appeared tired in his match against Stoke. Okay, fair enough. Rather than a midfield switch, Hellberg opened with a back five, with Adilson Malanda and Luke Ayling coming in and out. Morris was doing the work of two men, and the balance was off.
It was especially surprising because Hellberg had two midfielders on the bench, Myles Peart-Harris and Connor Barron. Without Lankshear in the side, it did not stick up above.
In short, it appeared that Hellberg had overcomplicated the situation. Was this because it was a rare occasion when a team headed to the Riverside with the intention of controlling possession?
Resting Lankshear may have appeared to be Borough underestimating Cardiff, but perhaps Hellberg was paying too much heed to the Bluebirds?
Cardiff are a decent team, but they had only one point from a possible 15 on the road this season going to Saturday’s match. The half-time changes were effective, and with Borough playing to their strengths after the break, Cardiff struggled to keep up. The Bluebirds, who were reduced to ten men late on due to Gabriel Osho’s straight red card, did well to hold on for a point after Tommy Conway and Lankshear cancelled out superb first-half goals from Jack Moylan and Ollie Tanner.
Lankshear’s desire to control his workload is very understandable. He’s only 21, yet the only Borough players to have played more minutes than him this season are Callum Brittain, Adilson Malanda, and Aidan Morris – and that’s before his appearances for England Under-21s.
Borough cannot afford to be away from Lankshear for an extended period of time, so he must be cared for. The problem is, as demonstrated in the first half on Saturday, he is critical to the team. Borough needs him on the team.
One proposal is to take him out of games after an hour to keep him fresh, although Borough has never had three points after an hour this season. The games have been balanced. They have only once won by more than one goal.
Despite losing 2-0 at halftime on Saturday, Hellberg was sure that his team played well in the first half, citing the opportunities generated. But that’s kind of the idea; without Lankshear, opportunities were missed. In any event, Borough failed to capitalise on the strengths of his replacement, Kyle Joseph.
Lankshear made a significant impact on the game with his presence, all-around play, and goal.Hellberg said that he would miss a player like Will.Although being 2-0 down is not ideal, the first half had several positive aspects.During the discussion on resting or not resting, I made some mistakes. It’s possible that other guys who played every second should not have been included.That is the one thing that has disappointed me the most.
You’ll always miss Will. Kyle performed well in the first half, but we lacked consistency in passing opportunities.Then, when they had possibilities to score, we did not defend adequately. It’s a long haul, and you make judgements all the time based on what you see and what you have to work with.”
The essential takeaway from Saturday was not only not to rest Lankshear – though obviously you should do so as little as possible – but also not to tamper too much at once. Taking away the top scorer, a key midfielder, and changing the formation proved too much. If lessons are learned, Saturday may prove to be crucial.
“What I’ve learned through a season is that if I don’t rotate the team then everything you’re going to ask about in three or four months will be around us having no depth,” Hellberg said.The environment you create is determined by how you operate, regardless of whether you are in Madrid or elsewhere.You can start with good depth, but if I don’t rotate, the gap will grow, and in two months, we’ll be saying we only have 11 players, so it’s about striking the proper balance, which is difficult.”
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