Well hopefully, after two weeks of rest Blues have worked extra hard in training to prepare themselves for a tough game – away from home at The Riverside.
Boro have strengthened their squad tremendously, with the likes of Mark Viduka, Boudewijn Zenden (signing permanently) and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink. All of these players will be hard for the Blues’ defence to keep out, but there is no doubt in my mind that King Kenny’s defence can’t do this.
It has to be said, Blues haven’t had a very good start to the season…well in all fairness it has been pretty poor – I think we would all admit. With the likes of Jesper Gronkjaer, Emile Heskey, Julian Gray and Mikael Forssell we should be scoring a lot more goals than we are. We’re still looking very strong defensively (as always) but offensively we’re looking pretty weak.
It has been reported that Mikael Forssell is injured, but I think this is just ‘paper talk’ as the ‘FORS’ isn’t his usual self this season (compared to last) – and with the rather good signing in ‘Yorkie’ the future of Forssell could be questioned. It is a certainly that Mikael isn’t his usual spectacular self. The club hasn’t released a statement to say Forssell is not right, so unless they do we will just have to hope and pray that Fors will get back to his usual self sooner rather than later – like this week please Mikael!
This weekend Blues have a massive game – ideally for everyone connected with Blues; it would be nice and useful to see Blues get all three points to re-boost our rather disappointed start to our 2004/05 campaign..
We all know Bruce and the lads go into ALL games wanting and playing for a win, and I’m 99.9% sure this won’t change Saturday, so I’m certain the usual ‘4-4-2’ will be played.
If Blues are to succeed this season we need to be more like Arsenal, and take all opportunities – and take advantage of mistakes caused by the opposition, for example, be quick to react and consequently score ruthlessly on the break etc.
All guns will be blazing this weekend, when two pretty equal teams take each other on, but to the disadvantage to Blues – away from home!
Middlesbrough are also solid along the back line, but are also very good on the offensive, they have players that aren’t scared to shoot outside the box (something Blues players rarely do it seems – well apart from Robbo) and if you have players like that you are halfway there. Jimmy Floyd likes a wild shot now and again, and he succeeds in scoring a lot of the time, as he proved against Crystal Palace.
I feel there is a few goals in this overall, and I think these two teams cancel each other out. Boro will be confident with a good start to the season, and Blues will desperately want a win…because of these teams being so close in terms of quality a draw seems the most likely outcome…
Therefore this week I feel a 2-2 draw will be the outcome.