Swansea hosted Middlesbrough in a must win six-pointer for both teams. The game began unusually with Boro showing some signs of an attacking threat. Early chances from Downing and Negredo indicated Boro may have shaken off the lack of creativity they suffered under Aitor Karanka. However, after the first 20 minutes, Swansea began to come into the game and pushed Middlesbrough for much of the game.
Despite that Swansea had very few chances and greatly missed regular goalscorer, Fernando Llorente. Although the Swans had 15 shots, they only managed to put 3 on target, all from long range. This resulted in a cagey 90 minutes 0-0 with neither team really creating too many clear cut chances. The result leaves Swansea 17th, one point above safety. On the other hand, Middlesbrough remain 19th, five points from safety with their midweek trip to Hull now a 100% must win game.
Middlesbrough’s lack of creativity, again
Middlesbrough’s key problem this season has been scoring goals. Boro have scored just 20 goals in 29 games and are yet to register an away goal in 2017. This was largely the reason for Aitor Karanka departing. Hence, when Steve Agnew was put in charge many people expected Boro to shake of Aitor’s defensive shackles and become more creative.
Today’s game certainly looked like we could have been seeing that to start with. Boro, for the first time since the start of the season, dropped the third central defensive midfielder they usually deploy and opted to play 4-2-3-1 in the hopes of creating more chances. As mentioned earlier Boro did start well and looked like they had some sort of an attacking threat.
In spite of their positive start and formation change, Boro still created very little. Once Swansea settled into the game Middlesbrough went back to their usual selves and parked everyone behind the ball, struggling to get forward and create anything. This led to Boro managing just one shot on target all game.
Overall, as Boro have changed managers, formation and tactics, they still cannot create chances, even against the side with the worst defence in the league. It is becoming increasingly clear Boro do not have the quality in their squad to stay in the Premier League and relegation is looking more and more likely.
Gestede’s missed chance
Gestede did not start for Boro today despite scoring the first goal for eight hours against United last time out. But an unfortunate injury to Gaston Ramirez saw Gestede subbed on in the 39th minute. At that point, Boro switched to 4-4-2, the formation that brought them the goal against United.
For most of the game, Gestede was relatively quiet. However, in the dying moments of the game, Gestede had the best chance of the game for either side. Negredo floated a great cross into the back post, Gestede climbed above his marking defender. But, the striker headed wide from about six yards out. Considering Gestede is 6ft 4in and supposed to be great at heading the ball, this will be one he will want to forget.
The chance will also be one Boro fans will want to forget as clinching the win against their relegation rivals could have been huge for their survival hopes. If Boro go down this season they will look back on this chance as one they should
have taken.
Swansea’s penalty claim
In the 85th minute, Bernardo conceded a free kick on the edge of the box giving Swansea a great chance. Well known free kick taker Sigurdsson stepped up to take it. The free kick was not great but it did deflect of Boro played Adam Forshaw. The incident was tough to call for the ref but the replays show Swansea could have easily been awarded a penalty.
This, like Gestede’s missed chance for Boro, could be a huge talking point come the end of the season. Had Swansea won the penalty they would have most likely won the game. This would have meant they were three points above the drop as opposed to just one. It would have also almost definitely sealed Middlesbrough’s fate as they would have been eight points behind Swansea. Given Middlesbrough’s tough end of season fixtures, an eight-point deficit would most likely have been too much to contend with. But, because the penalty was not given Boro are only five points behind Swansea with a game in hand.
If Swansea do go down instead of Boro, this penalty claim could be a major reason why.
