MIDDLESBROUGH NEWSPAPER VIEW OF TODAY'S GAME

Neil Warnock's Cardiff are everything Tony Pulis' Middlesbrough aspire to be
By Anthony Vickers


Saturday 18th February 2018

The high-flying Bluebirds do everything Boro hope to but with clinical precision and power, writes Anthony Vickers


It was billed as a battle between two wily old dug-out pragmatists.

Tony Pulis and Neil Warnock have 1,000 games apiece under their trusty tracksuit waistbands and have both seen and dealt with every possible scenario the game has to offer.

The duo have deserved reputations for organising no-frills, low thrills teams to get a result.

So the boss will be angry - and fans worried - that in a head-to-head clash between the two, that newly-reshaped Boro were found wanting and his side was so easily beaten by Cardiff.

And it was easy for Warnock’s side. They were better in every department : faster, bigger, stronger, more organised, more potent, hungrier... Boro were bullied by exactly the kind of team they now aspire to be.

Cardiff are 13 points better off than Boro. And on that showing you can see why. They do everything this new Boro aim to do but do it with clinical precision and power.

For the first time under the new boss, Boro were out-fought and out-muscled by a physically imposing side that were just as functional but who deployed more oomph, were more direct and far more effective all over the pitch.

They were schooled, first years bullied by the playground big boys.

Under Pulis, Boro have not always been pretty. Cavalier flourishes like attacking full-backs, pretty possession and picking forward into the box have been eliminated in favour of functionalism.

The previous neither fish-nor-fowl tactical flux has been swept away with a strict tactical template imposed.

And while there have been residual problems - a lack of intensity going forward, a failure to bury sitters, flaccid frontmen not hurting the opposition - most people have welcomed the fact that Boro now have a shape, a solidity and an identity.

They are rigid at the back, play with a target man, get the ball forward wide and quickly and try to make set-plays count.

You may not like a style that dismisses aesthetics and aspirations for an entertaining utopian passing game - plenty don’t - but, we are told, it is frighteningly effective and will bring results. It is a tried and tested route to promotion.

Anyone who has doubted that as Boro have laboured through scrappy games in recent weeks should take a look at the way Cardiff minced Middlesbrough at a canter. That could be the shape of things to come.

The defeat was a major blow. Not necessary in mathematical terms; Boro remain four points shy of the play-offs (although that could stretch to seven if Bristol City beat Leeds) and have a run of games against the basement boys looming and if they cash them in then they can still in the mix.

But it was a blow in that such a comprehensive defeat by a better model of the same style showed exactly how far Boro are short of the team they aspire to be.

If Boro are to follow the pragmatic route to promotion then there is a lot of work to be done.


https://www.gazettelive.co.uk/sport/foo ... y-14304191

Good to see a local rag giving a truthful write up.

I thought it was a lot closer than that - we were defending for the last 30 minutes, hardly bossing Boro.

Paper talk pursuing a pre-determined agenda!

NW should read this out to the boys before all our remaining games,we'd piss it

Great to read an unbiased article from the opposition press

It was closer than the article suggests. A couple of times in the second half they had a two on one situation down the left and should have got a shot on goal. It was only when Patterson dropped deeper that we closed that hole. Thought Ken was super and deserves a break from some of the flak he gets.

Tried to watch what Pullis was doing but from The Ninian stand I could only see a pair of white daps jumping up and down.

Imagine this forum if it had been the other way around. It would have been the ref, dirty play, goal should not have stood, time wasting, everything other than the better team won. We won fair and square yesterday, just the same as other teams have deservedly got the better of us in some games. On a seperate note,having been disappointed with Zohore for a lot of this season, it was good to see him put in a tidy shift again. I just hope he can hit the net from time to time over the next few months.

I get the impression that the reporter whilst given us loads of credit is not a Tony Pullis fan and is using article to have a dig about his appointment? There are many a Boro fan who think they should be doing better than they are especially with the amount of money have spent trying to get there?

I think it's fair to say that Pullis'post match comments pretty well confirm what this article says.

" faster, bigger, stronger, more organised, more potent, hungrier... Boro were bullied "

Absolutely Love it !!!

Keep it going boys, we can do this