Blues were pretty dreadful from start to finish, and deserved nothing against a Middlesbrough side who hardly set the world alight themselves. Whether two weeks with his 'mind in turmoil' affected Steve Bruce's ability to pick a side, or work on any form of tactics remains to be seen, but there have to be questions regarding both aspects after this display.
With Robbie Savage still suspended and with the left-back problem remaining, Bruce didn't have too much scope to tinker with the team that lost at White Hart Lane two weeks ago. However, there was new signing Dwight Yorke who came into the equation. Bruce obviously decided that Yorke had to start, but didn't want to leave out Mikael Forssell or Emile Heskey. This obviously caused a problem, so Bruce stopped short of picking Yorke as left back, but picked him on the left-hand side of midfield instead. This meant Damien Johnson became a central midfielder again, even though he's a right winger. Julian Gray, a left winger, was again a left-back. Yorke, a striker who has won everything there is to win with Manchester United, was now the left winger. Too many players playing out of position, maybe?
Anyway, that was the side that Steve Bruce picked, and Blues started fairly brightly, but this didn't continue for too long. Heskey and Forssell both had shots blocked, whilst Johnson struck a shot wide. At the other end, George Boateng had a shot fumbled wide by Maik Taylor.
After 27 minutes, Boro took the lead. Blues had been persisting in taking stupid little free kicks all afternoon, which resulted in the ball being passed to a man who was being marked - why did they keep doing this? Muzzy Izzet and the remarkably off-colour Kenny Cunningham conspired to turn a Blues free-kick into a Boro chance. Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink capitalised and set up Mark Viduka who finished well.
After this, Blues got progressively worse. Whether the decision to play Yorke as a left winger was to try and take advantage of crosses from the right by Jesper Gronkjaer only Bruce knows. Certainly, at Spurs, Gronkjaer put cross after cross into the area, and perhaps Bruce thought that an extra striker coming in at the far post might work. However, the tactics today were long balls up to Heskey, effectively ruling this ploy out.
Surprisingly Blues equalised three minutes before the break. Heskey won a flick on that Forssell returned to his strike partner. Heskey held off the Boro defenders well, advanced on goal, and finished well with a low drive for his second goal of the season. Boro still had time for a Hasselbaink header to be cleared off the line by Izzet, but at half time it was 1-1.
At half-time hopes were raised amongst the travelling fans that Blues had effectively 'got away' with the first half performance, and that being at 1-1 was excellent, given how bad they'd been. Surely they'd come out in the second half and have a real go now?
Well, the first three minutes of the second half were even worse. Blues looked like they were still in the dressing room, and were so sloppy, that Boro retaking the lead was inevitable. Indeed, the inevitable occured, when following a corner, Bolo Zenden drove the ball across the Blues goal, and Viduka nodded home after a flick on.
The rest of the match was a case of Blues huffing and puffing and ultimately failing to achieve anything owing to the lack of any form of pattern to their play at all. They had two decent penalty appeals turned down - one where Gareth Southgate seemed to clear a goalbound Mario Melchiot header with his arm, and one where Izzet was bundled down. However, in spite of throwing another striker in Clinton Morrison on, Blues maintained the system of high balls at Heskey, and whilst he won practically every header, none of his team-mates could take advantage.
Worringly, the normally calm Heskey really lost his head late on in a 'discussion' with referee Graham Poll, during which he was booked, and appeared as though he may talk himself into a dismissal. At the end too, Heskey stormed off the pitch. He was undoubtedly fed up at not only being fouled all afternoon, but also Blues' clueless performance despite his best efforts.
Blues were woeful today, make no mistake. The team selection has to be questioned - Yorke couldn't make an impact, but how can you expect him to out of position on his debut? The tactics too appeared to be, well, non-existant - the side were completely clueless as to how to break Middlesbrough down, so resorted to long ball after long ball. The imminent returns of Savage and Dunn are absolutely crucial if Blues want to haul themselves up a table in which they're currently languishing at the wrong end.
Middlesbrough: Schwarzer, Parnaby, Southgate, Ehiogu (Riggott,60), Queudrue, Nemeth (Job, 82), Boateng, Parlour, Zenden, Viduka (Doriva, 73), Hasselbaink. Subs not used: Nash, Downing.