A crucial component of Boro’s game will need to be addressed by whoever succeeds Rob Edwards.
The new head coach of Middlesbrough will start by refining his attack. Alright, it was amazing to see how each player gave it their all for the badge during the victory over Birmingham.
With the players running themselves into the ground and the spectators making more noise than ever in the stands, it was an amazing contest and atmosphere. Again, it was a midfielder and a defense who scored both goals. Boro is again back in second place, but until your forwards score a respectable number of goals, you won’t win anything in a full season.
After fifteen games, we have yet to see Middlesbrough’s new attacking shape reach its peak. Together, Tommy Conway, Kaly Sene, and David Strelec have only scored five goals if they are to be considered the team’s three traditional strikers.
Indeed, searching for flaws after a game where Boro was a fantastic team on a day when they had something to prove—to Rob Edwards, at the very least—seems a little unfair.
The athletes won’t always replicate the same intense level of motivation, as much as we would love to see. The team’s offensive build-up will continue to be an issue once the euphoria has subsided a little. Although Boro does a lot of impressive things in the box, they don’t seem to be making the game-changing passes.
The number of times this season that Conway and Strelec have been in space in front of goal but have not been given the ball is too numerous to count. As you may remember, following Ben Doak’s injury in the second half of the previous season, this was the issue.
Even worse, Finn Azaz, who was a key player in almost every Boro attack during the previous season and was constantly looking to select the front men, is no longer with the team. While they wait for the news boys to get under the table, Boro is missing Azaz.
God forbid that we are going through what happened in January, when the new forward intake didn’t work out. Since it’s clear that the players are giving it their all and seem to have gelled as a team, it’s unjust to be overly harsh.
There are choices in midfield, particularly with Riley McGree returning, and defensively, Edwards has placed the new head coach in a fantastic position. The supporting attacking players are the issue. People like Morgan Whittaker, Sontje Hansen, Sverre Nypan, and Delano Burgzorg need to do more.
In the early games, it seemed as though Burgzorg had moved up a few spots, but he hasn’t been able to maintain any consistency thereafter. Whittaker, too. He hasn’t had much of an impact subsequently, despite our expectations that the two goals in two games would be the catalyst for his success.
Perhaps it was anticipated that Hansen would significantly impact Boro’s offensive production and assist cover the void created by Doak and Finn. The offensive midfielder, who was born in the Netherlands, hasn’t caught on yet, though.
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