Brilliant Win. I thought Jones was suberb and of course Greenwood with a stunner. You won't be smiling now Lineker.
From time to time many of us express our opinion of MC.
He started incredibly well and we were all saying how good he was. Then towards the end of the season the team’s results were poor and the team limped to the end of the season. The team started the season where they left off last season and doubts were raised about MC.
Then the team goes on a run of good results including getting to the last 8 of a cup competition and finally today the team produced an outstanding result beating the League leaders.
When we had the blip towards the end of last season the team had a lot of injuries. Currently the team has some key players missing who won’t be fit in the foreseeable future.
So, in my view , taking the above into consideration, we have a talented coach who is still learning the job and therefore I expect to get better.
Philip of Huddersfield 👍🤗
Bad result for the locals here- that’s 1 win in 8 for the new coach. Will it turn out better for Mr. Rooney - lost all 5 games?
Just had a message from a Leicester supporting friend who was at the game. He’s of the opinion that we didn’t deserve the win but I’ve pointed out that it’s goals that count. He’s being magnanimous in defeat.
Today,MC got his tactics spot on.
Well, humble pie for dinner tonight.
As KP said we rode our luck at times, but we kept at it as a team. Our two fulls backs did well and although it would be difficult to pick a MoTM, I thought Jones had a good game this afternoon. He covered VDB ever so well and drew 7 fouls.
As for Greenwood, he had already missed a similar free kick. We also had a little luck with it, as the Referee let play go on only to blow his whistle as a Boro player?? was about cross in the box. That resulted in howls of abuse at the Ref.
Poetic justice.
@malcolm. I don’t think there was much in the way of tactical changes, yes Fry and Howson closely marked their men, the main difference was that we defended as a team and, as in the past, when we do we invariably don’t lose.😎
Echo ratings
Middlesbrough signed off for the international break on a high after Sam Greenwood sealed a brilliant win over Leicester with a stunning winner. Here's how the players rated:
8 Dieng: Brilliant first half save to keep out Vestergaard and made amends for an error with fine stop to deny Iheanacho.
8 Van den Berg: Stuck to his task superbly against Mavididi. Mature performance in a position he’s still getting used to.
9 Fry: Followed Iheanacho from start to finish and the only chances the striker got came from mistakes from Jones and Dieng. Immense defensive display.
9 McNair: Outstanding alongside Fry. Kept cool despite Leicester’s threats coming from all angles.
8 Engel: The fact Leicester’s right winger ? McAteer was the first replaced in the second half says everything about Engel’s display. Rock solid.
9 Howson: Led by example. Tasked with keeping an eye on Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, the skipper didn’t give Leicester’s playmaker a sniff.
8 Hackney: We so often see silky Hackney but the Teessider showed his steel here. Crunched into challenges.
7 Jones: A bit careless in the first half but protected Van den Berg well and was tireless, particularly in the second half.
7 Crooks: Disciplined and hard working display. Went close with a low strike late in the first half.
8 Greenwood: Had to do the ugly stuff out of possession and stepped up with brilliant late winner.
7 Coburn: Tireless forward display against the league’s best defence. Forced Vestergaard into an early yellow card. Had little service in the second half.
Substitutes:
Rogers (for Crooks, 68): Worked hard from the bench.
Latte Lath (for Coburn, 74): N/A
Dijksteel (for Jones) (90+1): N/A
Good job I looked under the cushion of the settee and found those foam hands 🙌 isn’t it ?
I must admit I’ve lost my voice after shouting at the referee and all the poor decisions made during the afternoon.
I thought Crooks was poor and should have come off earlier. H2 had a poor first half and whilst some made Howson MOM, he is still slow and gets caught out at times which is only to be expected at his age.
Greenwood was excellent and whilst he will get the plaudits for his goal, his closing down play and all round performance was excellent and should be signed permanently.
Fry has a good partnership with Paddy and our young full backs are getting better week by week. Djeng made a couple or three good saves but so did the Leicester keeper who kept them in it first half just before the whistle.
Surprisingly not a brilliant or skilled performance but one that was dour and ground out and the type of game that we need to churn out to get out of this league.
Well done Boro a nice way to finish a Saturday and look forward to a glass or two of wine and a fresh pizza.
Mind you it’s hard to pick up the slices of pizza 🍕 when you’re wearing foam hands 🙌
OFB
Great performance by the Boro against the best team in the league, I am bouncing down in the Central, looks like a early morning trip home UTB
Here’s Louise Taylor’s report from the Guardian:
Michael Carrick displayed his tactical nous in Middlesbrough's hard-fought 1-0 victory over Leicester City, with a unique tactical approach to the game helping Boro to three big points.
Respectful of the league leaders' visit to the Riverside, Carrick went against the grain of looking to dominate possession in a game by instead being happy to concede possession to their opponents and instead looking to hit on the counter-attack.
Their 1-0 victory, which came courtesy of a stunning Sam Greenwood free-kick, had a lot to thank for their superb defensive work as they recorded their fourth Championship clean sheet of the season. And particularly interesting was the briefs given to Dael Fry and Jonny Howson in the game, with the duo given man-marking briefs on Kelechi Iheanacho and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall respectfully.
READ MORE: Michael Carrick's immense pride in Middlesbrough players after 'Big' Leicester City win
Asked about it after, Carrick explained: “They ask a lot of questions of you, so if you want to really commit you have to put players in certain spaces that we might not normally do. Jonny Howson was a good example of that - he was playing centre-half at some points because Dael was tasked with jumping in with Iheanacho.
"Sometimes both of the centre-halves were in front of Jonny, because Jonny was looking after Dewsbury-Hall. The balance of that, and how the three of them managed that space was so impressive and they did so well."
While Boro did have to work with less possession than they usually would, it was by no means a backs-against-the-wall performance. they had more than enough successes in attack in different periods throughout the game, and limited Leicester to really asking a question of Seny Dieng on two occasions.
Carrick continued: “I thought we went through fazes in the game. There were periods when we were pressing well and high up the pitch. As the game went on I thought we also had periods where we looked dangerous - towards the end of the first half in particular we looked a real threat.
"Second half, fair play to them, they didn’t really let us breathe and kept us pinned back a little bit. But we defended our box so well. The full-backs were immense, and the wide men too, Sam and Izzy, getting back in to help them. It was a real team effort and it feels nice when you’ve got to grind it out and you’ve got to dig deep physically and mentally. We did that, so I was delighted with them.”
Just back from the game having floated all the way back up the A19 to York! All I can say is I am enjoying the moment. The only stat that counts is we scored 1 more than them. Happy days. Maybe I can muster some analysis when I have calmed down. UTB
Michael Carrick revealed his immense pride in his Middlesbrough players as they battled hard and carried out his unique game plan to grind out a hard-fought victory against league leaders Leicester City.
Enjoying far less possession than he usually asks his Boro players to have, Carrick tasked his side with being defensively solid at the Riverside as a show of respect to the Foxes, who had won 13 of their 15 games so far this season. With attacking players effective in the counter, the hope was to then go up the other end and be clinical.
And Carrick's game plan worked excellently as goalkeeper Seny Dieng was limited to making just two standout saves over the 90 minutes thanks to some dogged defending throughout. And that set the stage for Sam Greenwood to fire home a peach of a free-kick on 83 minutes to seal three points for Boro.
READ MORE: Middlesbrough player ratings vs Leicester City as duo's man-marking excellence earns them 9s
A delighted Carrick said after: “It was a big win. They are a really good team and we knew that. Individually, collectively, how they’re coached, they’re a very good team and it’s not an accident why they are where they are in the league. They will be in and around the top at the end of the season.
"We knew that and so we showed a different side to ourselves today with a lot of the out-of-possession work. It was really good pressing and we were really good defensively. They test you. You have to close certain spaces for the whole game. You have to concentrate for the whole game and that has been a major factor today.
"The boys got the game plan off to a tee and actually, the few chances we did give away was from us giving the ball away, which we don’t normally do. That’s one of those things though. It was an immense effort and I’m so proud of the boys.”
It was a fascinating tactical battle over the course of the 90 minutes, with Boro ultimately coming out on top. In just over a year in the Boro hotseat now, Carrick has enjoyed some excellent wins with some wonderful displays of clinical attacking football. This win was different, but has to rank equally as one of his best.
Asked where he ranked it, Carrick said: "I was really pleased with winning it in a different way. Some of the games you might remember as winning playing some really good attacking football - controlling games and looking really dangerous.
"Today was a proper game. I said to the boys coming in at half-time, laughing, ‘It’s a proper game today boys’. And you could really feel that. The boys stepped up to that challenge. It’s a big win, of course it is, and it will hopefully give everyone a huge boost going into the small break.
"But then it’s always about what’s next after that. But certainly, we can enjoy it, definitely in the way we did it in the out-of-possession. I said before the game, we’ve been improving that side of us as we’ve been going, and I thought today really showed that.”
Boro now have a well-earned two-week break for the international period - with the exception of Seny Dieng, Rav van den Berg, Paddy McNair, Hayden Hackney and Sammy Silvera who have all been called up for international duty. They return to action in a fortnight with a trip to Bristol City.
In Melbourne at moment woke up to find out we had won deep joy UTB almost makes up for the fact our suitcases have gone on a different holiday
I’m still buzzing after that fabulous performance from Boro!
in an earlier post a while back I commented on Greenwood, somewhat prematurely, ‘If he’s a dead-ball specialist, then I’m next in line to the throne.’ Some of you, again prematurely, congratulated me on my elevation to the royal family. Today, I’m pleased to announce that Prince William has been in touch with me to say that he’s not bothered about being king and offering me the job.
I have one criticism of our defending today, despite our otherwise heroic efforts. On 5 occasions, a Boro defender [ I recall Engel, Jones, Dieng and Howson at least] passed the ball very carelessly almost directly to a Leicester player, giving the player in blue a clear run on goal or into our penalty area. Any one of these could have resulted in a Leicester goal, and probably should have done. Fortunately, other defenders or Dieng prevented the goal each time. I’m surprised Carrick didn’t have a go at them about it at half-time, as three of these instances occurred after the break! Cut it out Boro, please!
I'm pleased to say, that after a 100 minute flight of fantasy and with a slight hint of turbulence, I've landed safely at Teesside Airport with three points in the bag but, maybe it's because I'm not a realist it means that I'm somewhat at odds as to just how good a team Leicester is portrayed to be, because I don't think that they are on that display. I tend to skip past the 'stats' post match and rely on what I've actually seen on the screen, and again, that's what the camera man and the producer chooses to show you and we all know that we miss so much off view. Leicester played some excellent possession play where we never smelt the lace of the ball, but as far as I was concerned most of that took place everywhere other than in our third of the pitch. According to the 'stats', Leicester had 67% of the play, and, your point is? We were never at any point played off the park as the 'stats' seem to indicate, we matched them and at times bettered them in all departments, let's take nothing but positives out of this game and the end result. We normally don't need anyone to beat us with a stick as Boro supporters are the past masters of self flagellation, it's about time we started using the sticks to beat others instead.
If anyone thinks that lubed up think again, it's 09:45 on a very sunny Perth Sunday morning and my Boro rose tinted glasses are in the other room, but if you're of the opinion that I'm wearing blinkers instead then maybe I've borrowed MC's after his post match comments yesterday, "The boys got the game plan off to a tee and actually, the few chances we did give away were from us giving the ball away, which we don't normally do". We never normally give the ball away, have I been watching a different Boro game to him over this season?
Very pleased to wake up this morning and learn the score having expected a draw at best. Looks like MC can tweak his tactics and the players are capable of carrying out the instructions. I am looking forward to seeing the highlights later today. Whoscored had Dieng as our Man of the Match. Also saw that Josh has been credited with the first goal against Plymouth last week, so now is on three for the season. Greenwood is our top scorer on 4 goals. With his yellow yesterday Isiah Jones is now one booking away from a suspension with three games to go before the cut off.
Well, half time and what the hell do I know about football, after that 45 minutes I'm not sure if I'm in reality or surreality? I really do apologise Selwyn, but in your opener and as I've stated in an earlier post, if cash equals returns then we should be mince by now, but sadly due to a very firm left hand from their keeper or Josh not having legs 3" longer, we should be in front.
Second half we need to get the little busies around Vestergaard and get him to stick out a gangly leg for another yellow and off, get everything in his space.
No reason to apologise. It all worked out as well as I could possibly have imagined.
The point of my opener was to argue that Leicester had such a good squad that we needed to play in a very specific way to beat them. A lot of people agreed and it is gratifying for all us on Diasboro that Michael Carrick in many ways took a leaf out of our game plan.
- Rather than play our usual forcing game through midfield he relinquished possession which mirrored the Leeds tactic in their game last week and again Leicester even with a lot of the ball couldn't generate a lot of opportunities and, thankfully, they missed what they did generate or Dieng made a serve.
- He let Leicester come at us with their high press and then instructed Dieng to bypass the forward players by hitting longer passes. This turned them round and Coburn had an excellent game.
- He insisted on our wide players - Jones and Greenwood - coming back to help the full-backs against one of Leicester's main strength. Thus, Mavdidi, McAteer and others didn't have the impact that they might have.
Of course, everything wasn't perfect but we could easily have also scored in that spell just before half time.
Looking at some individuals;
As I commented at half time, Howson was wonderful. He could easily have been man of the match. He blotted out Dewsbury-Hall - rated as the best player in the division - and found the time to fill in everywhere in our half.
Jones was great defensively but he still doesn't create as much as he should.
Fry controlled Iheanacho brilliantly and both full-backs were good against some very dangerous wide players.
Hackney seemed a little out of sorts but maybe that was just an indication of the international class of the Leicester midfield. Anyway, he kept on fighting and will have learnt a lot.
All in all, a great day.
UTB
...for any stats fiends here are some numbers compared to Leeds' victory.
Leicester had 66% possession. Against Leeds they had 65%. They had 12 shots against us but only 4 on target. Against Leeds they had 10 shots but only 1 on target. Leeds had 11 shots with 5 on target. We had 9 shots with 6 on target. They scored once from a corner. We scored from a free kick.
Interesting similarities.
@selwynoz Yes, I also thought HH was way below his normal yesterday and was actually very poor in the first half.
Also agree with Clive, the majority of Leicester's chances came from poor passing play from ourselves. It is something we do too much of.
Personally I think Jones deserved more than a 7 in John Craig’s markings. I thought he had as good a game as HH and Greenwood.
I think we played quite differently to the way we normally play. We played ever so well when we did not have the ball. For me it was a very, very enjoyable match to watch. Perhaps the two best teams in this league at the the moment were on show.
Hayden Hackney was crunching into challenges rather than being allowed to set the tempo in possession, and it was Josh Coburn's tireless efforts in occupying the league's best defence. So HH did not play badly, just differently to his normal match. He was flexible.
The manner in which Michael Carrick's players so impressively executed the gameplan that had been drilled into them on the training pitches at Rockliffe in the days building up to the visit of the league leaders.
For Carrick, one word summed up Boro's efforts: “Sacrifice is a great word for today," he said.
"I think everyone had to sacrifice something to work for each other. I’ve said so many times about the spirit in the group and how they back each other as a team. You don’t win games in that manner if you don’t have that. We’ve got to use that more often."
Boro go into the break on the back of just one defeat in their last 12 games in all competitions. That loss - to Stoke - was followed by progress in the Carabao Cup, a performance that deserved victory at Plymouth and this felling of Leicester.
Still 30 games to play for. And we are just two points off the playoffs. Life is good. Up the Boro!
I am still wondering whether to go and see Paddy McNair play on Friday when Northern Ireland will play in Helsinki against Finland. And as we all know, Marcus Forss is not fit with his hamstering problem.
I often go to the 1952 Olympic Stadium to watch the National team with my wife. But this Friday she is not able to attend. My son - a Boro fan - will be going because he works for the Finnish FA and will get a complimentary ticket. So I cannot sit beside him, either.
The weather will be -1 ... -2 degrees in Celcius during the night. Some snow forecasted for tomorrow but that might melt away before Friday. Anyway, I think the grass can be heated for the match to go ahead. This will be the last home match before the spring time over here.
Neither team has anything to play for in these qualifiers, too. So not sure if I will go. Up the Boro!
Your pre-match-preview tactical analysis was spot on as was your suggested plan to counter Leicester - I'm sure a job with Michael Carrick's backroom team awaits 😉
I had doubts over whether Boro could press as a team as we've not seen much of it previously but Carrick managed to work on it this week and stop Leicester easily play out from the back with several players adjusting their normal game to mark individual players and close down the routes.
It was hard work as nearly all the Leicester players looked very comfortable on the ball and never appeared rushed as they picked out a teammate. Though as Boro worked in groups to put pressure on the ball they gradually gained a foothold in the game during the first half after mostly losing possession in the final third.
The second half saw Leicester once again keep the ball as Boro's forward's tired but it was mainly Boro's own errors playing out of defence that gave them their best opportunities to score - fortunately Leicester lacked that clinical touch in front of goal and also Boro produced some good tackles and blocks - notably Jones and Howson who were very sharp in and around their own box. Credit also to van den Berg and Engel who both did well in the full-back roles.
In the end it took a superb free-kick to get all three points and signs that Greenwood is becoming an important player for Boro and it will be interesting to see when McGree is fit how Carrick can play them both together.
Coburn has done very well leading the line but he doesn't get many goal-scoring chances in most games as he's usually instrumental in holding the ball to allow other to run towards the goal. I'm also not yet convinced by Latte Lath as a goal scorer as he has the physical attributes without that striker's brain of knowing where to go and what to do. On that basis, Boro will need a striker in January as an injury to Coburn would leave the team without a focus going forward.
Still, it's been another good period between international breaks with just that blip against Stoke where Boro were not on it and also into the Carabao quarter-finals too! Two points off the play-offs with only a third of the season gone is pretty impressive - especially after just one point from the first seven games.
What was the score Enzo. you got got beat. Accept it !
From EG
A frustrated Enzo Maresca downplayed the effectiveness of Middlesbrough's man-marking, insisting he believed his Leicester City side had more than enough chances to have taken more from the game.
Boro battled hard at the Riverside to record a 1-0 victory over the Foxes, with Sam Greenwood's late free-kick ultimately dividing the two sides. It was an interesting tactical battle that saw Michael Carrick change the Boro game plan to respect Leicester's quality, while ultimately retaining an ambition to win the game as they ultimately did.
And for all of Leicester's dominance of the ball, Boro restricted the Foxes to few major chances in the game, with Seny Dieng pulling off two good saves, while Kelechi Iheanacho also hit the post not long before Boro's decisive opener. Leicester were largely restricted by Boro though, with Carrick even cleverly deploying Dael Fry and Jonny Howson in man-marking roles against Iheanacho and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall respectively.
READ MORE: Michael Carrick explains his Middlesbrough tactical plan in Leicester win with man-marking brief
Asked about it after, Maresca said: "It's a new experience. Today Kiernan played very well and had some chances. I think he did well. I don't think we need to change anything. We always try to look for a new solution but when you create the amount of chances we created, it's not about man for man or not.
"We created many chances and many situations where we should score but when you miss, miss, miss and they score a fantastic goal, that's football. It's a moment where you create but don't take your chance and the opposite, they score a fantastic goal. It is what it is.
"To be honest I thought we were in control of the game, created five or six clear chances and many situations where we missed the last pass. The players are annoyed because we lost and it's normal to be like that."
We had no reason to expect that performance or result despite a number of "foam handed" predictions which were posted shortly before kick-off. Hard to fault the team or the tactics, really. Yes, if we were nit-picking we could point out the (thankfully) small number of passes to the opposition that gave the ball back to Leicester, the fact that Hayden Hackney seemed slightly "off it" in the first half (though he certainly grew into the game as it progressed and, in the final analysis, was a contributor to the result), and the failure of Jones to find the final ball when he seemed in the first half to be in a position to deliver it. But it is always possible to find fault somewhere in 90+ minutes of football since perfection is something unavailable to humans. Boro MIGHT have lost the game and there were times when fortune seemed to be on Boro's side (remember Leicester hitting the woodwork and that fine save by Dieng?).
BUT, but, but.... The game was against a Leicester City team standing at the top of the League and when I watched I was reminded of other teams (Burnley and Wolves) as they made their progress up to the Premier League in recent seasons. Boro was not able to match Burnley and Wolves but did match Leicester.
It was a tight game that increasingly looked like one where a single goal would determine the spoils. And WHAT a goal. A minute before the ball hit the back of the Leicester net, the crowd was in uproar that play had been stopped by the ref's whistle when a free kick was awarded as Boro was "in on goal". There could be no argument it was a free kick, but it was the slight delay and then the apparent failure to allow the advantage to play out that was the cause of the uproar. I said to my neighbour in the West Stand that everyone would be happy, despite all that, if the ball hit the back of the net when the free kick was taken. I didn't realise just how happy! There was a massive, joyous explosion of noise, much punching of the air and a realisation that sometimes, just sometimes, football matters. And how we counted down the expanding seconds of time-added-on until the referee blew the final whistle.
The performance by Boro was a text-book example of how tactics and commitment can deliver results against the very best opposition. Nearly everything had to go right for that to be the case.
I have no doubt Leicester supporters will have travelled home shaking their heads and wondering how they lost the game. They might easily have won it but for a good save by Dieng, but for the wooodwork and for a number of blocks and late interceptions by Boro's defenders, and I remember one Leicester attack which ended when their player surprised us all by slicing the ball wide when I was fearing a goal. Despite all of which, and acknowledging Leicester's dominance of possession and the quality of the players in blue, Boro didn't STEAL the game. Frequently the team with most possession loses the game. The possession stat, it appears to me, is the most meaningless of all the myriad of stats produced after a game. The only stat that counts is scoring one more goal than you concede. And that is exactly what Boro did.
There were many candidates for Man of the Match. I finally plumped for Dael Fry but it could just as easily have been Paddy McNair, Jonny Howson, Josh Coburn who led the line so well until substituted (such a pity his boot studs weren't a couple of inches longer when the ball came in from his right, and he couldn't quite reach it) or Greenwood who did much good work quite apart from that delicious free kick. I guess he will be grabbing the ball for any free kick near the penalty area from now onwards!
An enjoyable way to spend an afternoon, in a Riverside Stadium just about as full as it could be. It has been some week. It could easily take me the whole of the International Break to come down from this cloud! Thank you Boro and Michael Carrick. Dare we dream for the rest of the season...? It seems almost silly to say that from 10th place in The Championship but this is clearly not a team that looks 10th best in this division.
Here is a list copied from the fishy.co.uk:
| Pos | Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | BTTS | G15 | km15 | Next match | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Leicester | 10 | 8 | 0 | 2 | 18 | 5 | +13 | 24 | 3 | 3 | 356 | Watford (h) | |
| 2 | Ipswich | 10 | 7 | 3 | 0 | 24 | 14 | +10 | 24 | 7 | 5 | 430 | West Brom (a) | |
| 3 | Middlesbrough | 10 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 19 | 10 | +9 | 23 | 5 | 4 | 962 | Bristol City (a) | |
| 4 | Leeds | 10 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 17 | 9 | +8 | 22 | 5 | 3 | 132 | Rotherham (a) | |
| 5 | Southampton | 10 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 16 | 10 | +6 | 20 | 7 | 3 | 113 | Huddersfield (a) | |
| 6 | West Brom | 10 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 16 | 8 | +8 | 18 | 4 | 3 | 215 | Ipswich (h) | |
So our form has been good for the last 10 league matches. On average BORO has gained 2.3 points per game over the last ten league matches. And with Carrick in helm, I expect us to play quite similarly points and results wise in the future, too.
Mind, we have some injuries at the moment, so the 10 game run looks even more better. We have more strenght in depth than during last season. We do not rely so much on the first eleven as we did in the past.
So the future looks fine. As @dormo said, we look better than the League position of 10th that we are in at the moment.
Up the Boro!
From Craig Johns today.
They say there is a first time for everything. In Middlesbrough's case on Saturday, there was a first time for two things as they beat Leicester City 1-0 at the Riverside.
They were the FIRST side to score past Leicester City this season after the 60-minute mark of a match. Sam Greenwood's 83rd-minute free-kick ultimately proved a worthy match-winner to decide a tight and tactical battle.
They were also the FIRST to beat Leicester when on their travels, not just this season but at this level, for ten years. Not since their promotion-winning season of 2013-14 under former Boro captain Nigel Pearson had the Foxes lost away from home in the Championship.
But Boro changed that on Saturday in what wasn't quite a first, but instead just their second-ever victory over Leicester City at the Riverside Stadium (anyone remember that Frank Sinclair own goal?). A lot of that win is down to a perfectly executed game plan, unique to what we're used to seeing from Michael Carrick's Boro.
READ MORE: Leicester's Enzo Maresca downplays Middlesbrough's man-marking in frustrated post-match interview
From the off it was very clear that a usually possession-based Boro were going to instead be happy to let Leicester have the ball. There was a bigger focus on their out-of-possession structure while perhaps the biggest surprise came in the form of the man-marking operations given to Dael Fry and Jonny Howson - tasked with sticking with Kelechi Iheanacho and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall respectively.
Sacrifice was how Carrick described it. “Sacrifice is a great word for today," he said. "I think everyone had to sacrifice something to work for each other. I’ve said so many times about the spirit in the group and how they back each other as a team. You don’t win games in that manner if you don’t have that. We’ve got to use that more often."
After the game Carrick spoke about the game in phases because, despite the obvious extra defensive emphasis Boro had, there was still an ambition to make use of the ball when they had it, in much more of a counter-attacking sense.
They had elements of that in both the first 20 minutes and the last ten of the first half. That brought about two half-chances for Josh Coburn as he was inches away from prodding home a Greenwood cross and found a Howson free-kick just inches too high for him to get enough direction on a header.
At the end of the half, there was also two more good chances, with Matt Crooks jinking into the penalty area before poking the ball towards goal while off-balance and forcing a good save from Mads Hermansen. From the resulting corner, Fry's bullet header at the near-post needed an excellent save.
At the other end, Boro were doing well to stay organised and limit Leicester's creativity. It was a monumental effort that saw all 11 play their part, with Seny Dieng only really forced to make one major save before the break. Jannik Vestergaard's header from a corner required a solid reaction stop, while the odd half-opening saw poor finishing let the Foxes down.
The second half saw Leicester dominate a lot more, as Boro struggled to make as much use of the ball when they had it. There was some luck as far as finishing was concerned, with Iheanacho wasting the best opportunity when he was slipped in behind only to hit the post. Dieng had to make another good save too, albeit brought about by his slack ball out from the back.
But Boro were still largely restricting Leicester to minimal as their plan to let them have possession but not allow them to do much with it was ultimately paying off. When Boro failed to take advantage of Leicester's Achilles heel which is the first 15 minutes of the second halves though, you'd have been forgiven for thinking Boro were ultimately holding out at that stage for a draw.
In the final 30 minutes of matches so far this season, Leicester had scored 16 goals and not conceded one. That was until Greenwood made good on his summer promise to bring a threat from set-pieces. Seven minutes of normal time remaining, the Boro plan was complete when the Leeds loanee bent that free-kick into the top corner in a moment of magic worthy of settling such a fascinating tactical battle.
It was a completely different Middlesbrough performance. It was chalk and cheese to the thriller we saw at Plymouth Argyle seven days prior. But it was a victory that showed Carrick and Boro have more strings to their bow when needed.
Heading into the two-week international break, it was a big win for Boro. Keeping them in the mix and no doubt doing wonders for the belief of the players, the run when we return which starts at Bristol City is likely to prove crucial in terms of shaping the outlook of the season ahead, and this was the perfect win to take them into that.
We've just spent the weekend in one England's many reception black holes but what a pleasure to finally find out that Boro did win and it wasn't a vagary of the intermittent reception on my phone. Fantastic. back in Norfolk now, another 'black hole' and the Consultant tomorrow and the result should help lower my blood pressure somewhat, that shows you how much a little football success is good for your health and well-being!
UTB,
John
Thank you for all the very positive analysis of the statistics too. Now for a beer.
Yes a great win all round. Having noted Leicester's previous form, I feared the worst, hoping for a draw, so Boro coped admirably all game and if anything, felt that alot of their posession was in front of us and the chances they did have were mostly due to our risky attempts at playing through their high press. At the end of the game, we were worthy winners and can go forward knowing that when we are on it, we are a match for the best in the league. So many positives to take forward for the rest of the season. I think I am correct in thinking Leicester are still on course for the highest points total in the Championship in terms of average points per game? so in that context, an outstanding win. UTB