Middlesbrough hosted an inform Manchester United today in the hopes of picking up their first win since December of last year. However, things did not go to plan for Boro as they lost 3-1 in a poor display.
Things did not go to plan from the get go for Middlesbrough. Manchester United created several good chances in the first half. They eventually broke through in the 30th minute when Fellaini headed home from Young’s cross. Things then went from bad to worse for Boro as Lingard scored an excellent shot from outside the box in the 62nd minute. Temporary Boro coach Steve Agnew did try to salvage the game by bringing on Gestede and Traore after Lingard’s goal. However, despite Gestede pulling one back in the 77th minute, Middlesbrough failed to break United down a second time.
Middlesbrough’s miserable afternoon was then capped off in the 93rd minute when a Valdes slip led to Valencia wrapping up the points for Manchester United on the day. United’s victory sees them move up to 5th while Boro remains 19th. But, what were the 3 main talking points from the game?
Victor Valdes
The first is Victor Valdes. Valdes will certainly be a talking point off today’s game for both good and bad reasons. He is one of Boro’s best players this season and it certainly showed in the first half today. The Spaniard came to Middlesbrough’s rescue several times today. The first instance came early in the game when Rashford outpaced Boro defender Bernardo Espinosa with ease. The young United forward was then clean through on goal, however, a solid save from Valdes prevented Middlesbrough going 1-0 down in the 7th minute. Valdes continued to impress for Boro and in the 23rd minute, he made an excellent double save.
Despite his fantastic performance today Valdes will only be remembered today for his embarrassing error in the 93rd minute. The Spaniard was attempting to clear a poor back pass when he slipped allowing Valencia to tap in United’s third. While many people are slating Valdes for this, I think it is important to remember how many times he has saved Boro this season, including several times in today’s game.
Boro’s formation dilemma
Aitor Karanka left the club earlier this week. The main criticism of Karanka was that he played too defensively. This was best showcased in the way he set up his team, most notably the fact that he played three central defensive midfielders. Despite this, temporary coach Steve Agnew opted for the same system in today’s game with United. Not surprisingly the effects were the same as always. Boro created little going forward, had three shots on target all game and spent most of the game passing it backwards or around their own half.
On the other hand, Agnew did do something Karanka very rarely did in his time at Boro. After going 2-0 down, Agnew brought on two attacking players in Gestede and Traore in place of Leadbitter and Ramirez. This saw Boro switch to a 4-4-2 system with only two CDM’S instead of three. The effects were somewhat positive as Gestede managed to score Boro’s first league goal for eight hours. Although Boro did not find the second goal, the fact switching to 4-4-2 got them a goal for the first time in eight hours surely means Agnew could be looking to switch to a similar system in the future as Boro desperately need to start scoring goals.
While Agnew may feel Boro need the three CDM’s due to the team’s overall lack of quality, realistically if Boro wishes to stay up, they are going to have to change formation as the three CDM’s inhibits Boro from creating any real chances at all.
Will Rashford be the man to replace Ibra?
Zlatan Ibrahimovic is currently United’s main striker and has scored 15 in the league so far this season. However, he is also 35 and may only have one or two seasons left in him, meaning questions must be asked as to whether or not Marcos Rashford will be the man to fill his boots. As Ibrahimovic was still suspended for today’s game, Rashford was given his chance to shine. Rashford certainly did not have a bad game but he did fail to score.
The striker’s first chance came in the 7th minute. He was through one on one after burning Bernardo for pace, as he did all game. However, he failed to put the effort away. While it was a good save from Valdes, a better finish with more power behind the shot would certainly have meant a goal for Rashford.
This has been a familiar story for Rashford since he came up to United’s main team. He has great pace and can get himself into goal-scoring positions but his finishing has never been fantastic. While he is still young, if he does want to take Ibra’s place as United’s main striker he will certainly need to improve on his finishing.
