Has Gareth finally got lucky?

Has Gareth finally got lucky?

After witnessing Boro’s mini-revival in the past week – I use the word ‘revival’ loosely given that our game at Spurs kicks off in about three hours at time of typing – I could not help wonder if it is down to Gareth Southgate’s newly-found tactical genius or pure luck?

Personally the way Gareth has messed about with his squad in the past few months he always appeared to be like a motor mechanic who can’t find a fault with a car so he keeps tinkering here, there and everywhere until he strikes it lucky and the engine finally starts up!

So when the side trotted out against West Ham last Wednesday and Afonso Alves was finally relieved of his lone striker duties for a more ambitious forward line of Jeremie Aliadiere and Tuncay eyebrows were certainly raised.

Low and behold the ‘deadly’ duo ran themselves ragged for the duration they were on the pitch, while Tuncay also won the free kick from which Stewy Downing scored from before adding the second himself all inside 20 minutes!

Could this be the solution to Boro’s miss-firing engine? Gareth obviously thought so as he pondered his selection for the visit of Liverpool on Saturday!

Despite the football odds stacked in favour of Rafa’s Reds, Southgate stuck with a winning team and was rewarded with another impressive overall performance, a bit of luck from the Alonso own goal and another Tuncay goal – set up nicely by Aliadiere!

A 2-0 victory for the second successive match as Boro also ended their Premier League goal drought not to mention grabbing a first league win at the 15th time of asking!

Gareth could rightly claim that he has been devoid of some key men in the middle of Boro’s dismal run such as the injury absences of Robert Huth and Aliadiere in particular. Both are now back fit and have been influential in Boro’s backline, which has now kept four clean sheets in six, and invigorated attack respectively.

Getting Downing back out on the left wing from central midfield has improved his performances in the past two games, while centre-back Matthew Bates has excelled in the middle of the park. A bit of good fortune for Southgate given that he looked intent on sticking with Downing behind a lone striker and, as for Bates, the gaffer deserved that bit of luck after losing Didier Digard for the season due to injury.

The key is that the Boro can now take the good recent home form on the road, starting at Tottenham, as we are nowhere near out of the woods in terms of the threat of relegation looming over us!

So fingers crossed we won’t be struck down by more injury problems, lady luck stays with us and we can motor up that table!

Written by Craig Smithson, a Middlesbrough season-ticket holder and a sports writer who blogs about football betting.

More Boro news...

Welcome to oneBoro

Welcome to oneBoro, bringing you the latest Boro news, transfers, team news, fixtures and results from Middlesbrough FC.

The Boro blog delivers opinion, discussion, views and news from MFC.

Check out the oneBoro Forum to join in the debate with over 975,000 posts and growing!