Having started the season with an overly long-awaited first preview win in the Championship opener, I'm hoping to continue this rich vein of form now that troop of monkeys is finally off my back. Simian collective responsibility perhaps but was it down to a conspiracy of lemurs that fooled the shrewdness of apes? Still, it certainly was a long patience-testing wait but you know what they say: softly, softly catchee monkey... Incidentally, a phrase Baden Powell introduced into English from West Africa, which somehow became the motto of Lancashire Constabulary for training police and also inspired the title of 1960s Z-cars spin-off Softly, Softly.
Talking of those who want us to do our best, I would fully understand if former Diasbora Scouts among you think my badge of optimism for another preview win isn't quite sewn on. I know what you're all thinking - a win over Lincoln at the Riverside is one thing but can he do it on a cold rainy Tuesday night in Stoke? The good news is it may not be that cold or indeed rainy - though it's still heavily predicted to be Tuesday and definitely in Stoke!
The origins of that famous cliche arises from a discussion on Sky Sports in 2010 between Andy Gray and Richard Keys, where they argued about the merits of Ballon d'Or contenders Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi - Gray suggested that Messi "would struggle on a cold night at the Britannia Stadium" - I think Keys said he'd smash it (though maybe that could've been a different exchange). Anyway, the phrase then took off and became the ultimate litmus test as to whether top players had what it takes - with often the question being put to players as shown in this YouTube clip (note use this YouTube link if embedded video below not displaying in your browser)...
Moving along swiftly from implicating any rather tenuous self-comparisons to Messi (OK if you insist we're both in international retirement), I should point out that I do have form at Stoke over the years of writing Diasboro previews. Whether it falls into the conclusive bracket is difficult to argue - one win, one draw and one defeat - which statistically is not bad for me (btw did I mention the one win). So let's stoke the embers of those long-forgotten previews - those trips included one Boro manager's final league game in charge, another's first game and one who made his name there...
My first Potteries preview was actually just a couple of months after Diasboro began with Boro in the Premier League under the smouldering Aitor Karanka. Going into the game, the Boro manager was struggling to get results with his team failing to win any of their last 9 games and scoring just 3 goals. He was trying to style it out in his media interviews and pretend everything was going as expected - my preview attempted to capture his mood in contrast with the draining optimism in a team that not only couldn't score but wasn't creating chances either.
The heat is on as fired-up Boro head to the Potteries
Diasboro: Extracts from 3 March 2017
Watching Karanka’s press conference yesterday he appeared in confident mood ahead of the trip to Stoke and there was little sign of a man under pressure – he actually made the point that he sets the example to his players by walking with his head up and showing belief in what they are doing.
His reflection on the Palace game [1-0 defeat] was that it was simply an aberration brought on by the last minute news from the team doctor that Friend was not available and thus ruining the week’s game preparation – no doubt his mentor would have offered more severe treatment to such an oversight from a member of his medical team [see footnote]*.
Though why Karanka thought it was better to completely change the shape of the team rather than use a makeshift full-back remains unanswered. Interesting when quizzed over why Husband didn’t get the shout his reply was basically he was not up to dealing with Townsend and it would have been an ‘excuse’ to select him – though how the player takes that damning assessment is anyone’s guess.
There is often a degree of news management with Karanka when quizzed about Boro’s current position in the table and where we may expect to finish. According to the boss “We are in the position I thought we would be” – so the bar he has set is 17th place and that is the message he wants to get across.
So in some ways he’s saying we are where he thought we would be, but at the same time countering that by claiming an extra ten points would have been a fairer reflection, which could be an attempt to move the jelly-like goalposts away from those holding the hammer as they try to nail them in place. Though this type of duality is often what you tend to get with Karanka (and perhaps he’s not alone in the art of spin among managers) – it’s painting the picture in shades of grey to avoid having his hands tied by his record, though I’ll leave it to others to determine just how many shades of grey are permissible before the relegation watershed.
* A reference to Chelsea team doctor Eva Carneiro getting banned by Jose Mourinho from sitting on the bench on matchdays for running onto the pitch (along with a male medic who wasn't banned) to treat the injured prone Eden Hazard, which meant the player had to leave the pitch in a game that they were already down to 10 men after a red card for Courtois. It was viewed by some commentators as a tactic to deflect blame away from a 2-2 draw against Swansea.
Boro lost that game 2-0 at Mark Hughes' Stoke and following defeat in the FA Cup quarter-final a week later against Man City, Karanka was dismissed. Steve Agnew took over as caretaker but fared no better winning just one of his ten games in charge against fellow relegated side Sunderland. That win was the only victory in the last 20 games after a second-half season collapse.
Stoke were actually relegated the following season and that led to my next preview at the Britannia Stadium. indeed, it was Mr Stoke himself in charge (of us not them) - Yes, Boro were now starting another season under Tony Pulis after he replaced Garry Monk, who was hastily returned on Boxing Day like an unwanted gift of a fondue set to a lactose-intolerant vegan.
Boro under Pulis had got off to an unexpected good start in this campaign and as luck would have it, were top after 13 games - but it was a team built on a tight defence rather than entertaining any nonsense of the beautiful game. Sadly, the football under Pulis was becoming a hard watch and my preview didn't pretend otherwise - once again scoring goals or even having shots on target was problem after four successive Riverside outings without a Boro player scoring - with the only goal celebrated being an own goal.
Tony Pulis in search of the lost art of the goal scorer
Diasboro: Extracts from 29 October 2018
There was an extra spring in the steps of many arriving at the Riverside on Saturday as they anticipated that the nights would shortly be drawing in and they’d soon be able to look forward to leaving the ground in the comfort of gloom instead of evening sunshine.
With no Boro player now troubling the scorer in four Riverside outings, captain George Friend led by example and showed his goal-shy team-mates just how to find the back of the net. Although it seems there was no pleasing some moaners on the terraces as they insisted on making the minor quibble that it was at the wrong end. Friend argued after the game that Derby’s Waghorn would have put it away if he hadn’t have pounced instead – it was presumably too good a chance to turn down.
Nevertheless, an over-polite Derby eventually returned the favour as their 18-year old right-back, Jayden Bogle, clinically slotted the ball into the net to ‘earn’ Boro a vital if undeserved point to leave the Teesside crowd once more extolling the benefits of youth – with no doubt Tony Pulis giving knowing looks in the direction of the opposition bench as he felt vindicated for sticking with men.
Frank Lampard may have shown his inexperience by selecting way too many young players that naively played without fear. Surely it’s far better to have men on the pitch who are hardened enough to understand football is a game best played without the exuberance of wanting to see joy in the eyes of those who pay to watch.
In term of team selection, Tony Pulis appears to have painted himself into a corner and then taken pleasure at watching it dry as his choices put in insipid displays. The Boro manager has also recently glossed over his team’s failure to score at the Riverside by instead meticulously counting crosses as proof of their creativity. Although for the Boro faithful getting curled up in their matchday seats, counting crosses has become an alternative for counting sheep for those struggling to keep their heavier and heavier eyelids open as they drift off to the ovine entertainment on the pitch.
The blame, according to Pulis, lies seemingly with our broad-brush strikers, who even the best police artists would struggle to produce an identikit image that few would ultimately recognise as the culprit charged with putting the ball in the back of the net. Indeed, some strikers at the club look like they were painted by Pablo Picasso himself given the random nature at which the ball bounces of their cubist heads. While ‘Rudy Gestede and his dodecahedron head’ may become a terrace chant for the geometry wing of the Red Faction, many Boro followers will be hoping the golden ration of chances to those being converted by the Vitruvian Man that is Britt Assombalonga will somehow improve and lead to a renaissance in his form. Though it’s doubtful if even the genius of da Vinci would be able to square the circle of discovering a Boro striker who will regularly find the net.
Tony Pulis will most likely get a good reception from the home crowd, which will make a nice change given the boos he’s been getting used to lately. It’s a game he will not want to lose and if both sides keep it tight then it’s got all the makings of another TV classic nil-nil encounter of the strictly not watching variety.
I predicted a nailed-on nil-nil and wasn't disappointed (if that makes sense) as it ended goalless in the Potteries. Boro's automatic challenge faltered but despite the lack of goals they were still well placed in 5th for the play-offs with a dozen games remaining. However, they lost their next six games and dropped out of the play-offs and despite a late rally in winning five of the last six they missed out by a point. The Mr Stoke experiment ended as Boro under Pulis registered just 49 goals in 46 games and the club looked to a new young exciting managerial prospect who wanted to bring attacking flair back to Teesside...
Which brings me on to my final Stoke preview - though it wasn't with that young exciting manager who promised attacking flair - Unfortunately, Jonathan 'Golden Thread' Woodgate's team could neither score nor defend and Boro hovered just above the relegation zone after scoring just 37 goals in 37 games. Plus this was the surreal Covid season with it being paused after 7th March until 20th June. Rather bizarrely Woodgate was kept in charge during the three-and-a-half month break then given one game (which he lost 3-0 to Swansea) and then sacked. You couldn't even say he'd lost the crowd as games were now played in empty stadiums.
So in walked Neil Warnock with his first game a trip to Stoke and the task of avoiding relegation to League One.
Warnock arrives as Woodgate departs
Diasboro: Extracts from 25 June 2020
After last Saturday's slow-motion car crash of a display at the Riverside against Swansea (with special emphasis on slow), many Boro follower were struggling to see how Woodgate could organise or even pick a team capable of getting results.
It seems Steve Gibson was of the same view and the following Monday he probably searched for some solicitors to see if he could insure against relegation to League One. Luckily, he ended up ringing Warnock, Blackwell and Jepson, who turned out not to be solicitors but a group of retired disaster recovery operators that specialised in football fire-fighting.
Boro certainly needed someone in charge who knew what they were doing as to say this has been a season of drift was something of an understatement. Woodgate is now gone and perhaps with it the so-called 'Golden Thread' philosophy, which in the end has turned out to be more of a golden shower.
Hopefully, the players will be given a lift by the arrival of a strong personality like Warnock, who is never short of a quip for the media - he didn't disappoint when he described how he "can't wait to have eight games without anyone booing me".
Indeed, with no crowds in the stadium there's never been a better time to hire a manager who plays a brand of functional but effective football that is unlikely to put bums on seats - though those few occupying the odd seat in the empty terraces may occasionally be tempted to pull their face-mask over their eyes to sooth them.
It's not clear if eight 0-0 draws will be enough to secure Boro's Championship status and no doubt Warnock will have perhaps sought advice on such matters and also on the players from his friend Tony Pulis.
Warnock got off to a winning start with a 2-0 victory that saw his team leapfrog Michael O'Neill's Stoke side in the table up to the dizzying heights of 18th. However, three defeats in the next four games saw Boro sit just 3 points above the drop zone before they thankfully secured their Championship status with a game to spare. I should point out that eight 0-0 draws would've just kept Boro up by a point! The rescue act earned Warnock the job for next season - which was a rather average one that ended in mid-table with 64 points after 18 wins and 18 defeats with 55 goals scored and 53 conceded. He got another go the following season but just about made it to November to celebrate a record 1,602 games as a manager before Gibson lined up Chris Wilder to take on a Boro side languishing in 15th spot.
Looking back at those three trips to Stoke and the circumstances around them, it feels like the club is now in a far more positive place. The dreaded slide to inevitable relegation from the Premier League or the fear of even a drop into League One is no longer the backdrop. Nor is the acceptance of a needs-must dreary pragmatic low-entertainment football that fear of losing brings to the table.
Kim Hellberg has shown that success doesn't have to be a grind and blending youth and experience that play with energy and intent can be a formidable combination. Though, Saturday's victory over Wolves added a steelier side to slick one-touch flowing football that the team have been admired for under the Swede.
So can Boro do it on possibly a cool, damp night in Stoke? Well, Mark Robins side are currently top of the six-game form table with 5 wins and a draw. Though a glance behind those stats shows six games against 5 of the bottom 7 teams in that six-game form table. Indeed, those five teams they've played have collectively averaged only 0.77 points per game during their 6 games - that's certainly relegation form at 35 points over a season. The other team they played was Sheff Utd and they've lost 3 of their last 6 too.
Boro have the potential to go top on Tuesday with Swansea heading for a tricky trip to Millwall - so time to rally the troops (not the monkeys obviously) and collective fingers crossed for some unseasonal October weather in North Staffordshire...
Boro travel to Stoke on Tuesday 13 October - kick-off 8pm
Thanks, Werder. A very good starter. And I learned something new, too. As I do not have access to SKY Sports, I didn't knew where the phrase came from. BTW, Andy Gray was one of my favourite (not Boro) players of the past as I enjoyed reading his block in Shoot! magazine for years in my youth days.
You also gave me some hope for the match on Tuesday if they have not played the form teams in they run to the top four in the league. As I wrote on Sunday, Stoke has gained 16 points from their last possible 18. Quite impressive in the Championship where there are no easy games!
Anyway, I hope we will play as well as on Saturday. But we need to play well away from Riverside, too if we are to keep our position in the top two. Note, it will be our tenth game of the season after Stoke and we can start to look at the League table for the form long term. At the moment it looks excellent.
A draw will do for me, but of course Kim Hellberg will aim for a win. Up the Boro!
Brilliant Headliner Werder, delving deep into your pre match reviews of yesterday years. A remarkable feat, as I will have forgotten about Wolves by next Saturday.
Those were torrid times and your reviews re-awakened the nightmares we all had to endure for many years until Carrick arrived and gave up some hope. Hopefully Hellberg can lift that hope to a even higher level.
- Condition: Cloudy or partly cloudy
- Precipitation Chance: Low (0% to 10%)
- Temperature: Drops from about 13°C in the early evening down to 8°C–11°C by late night
- Wind: West/Southwest winds at roughly 5 to 10 mph [1]
Nice article from the BBC this morning. Let’s hope it come true for the lad and Boro.
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/cq1kdmej1xnvo
Superb Werder - as good a birthday present as anyone could ask for. The bonus of being able to read your previous brilliant contributions as well has delayed the opening of my actual gifts and Mrs B is currently looking over my shoulder wondering what’s keeping me. I’d better go before she bans me from watching the game tomorrow night.
@Werder - Thanks for the Match Preview. I enjoyed reading the excerpts - blasts from past campaigns which had receded into the fog of history. I was very pleased to hear about Stoke having largely played bottom-of-the-table teams, which perhaps puts the Stoke points tally into perspective.
However Stoke has accrued those points and they all add up. It would be good for Boro to follow up the result against Wolves with a good result at Stoke, and a good result for a team realistically chasing an automatic promotion spot is a WIN.
Thanks, @Pedro for the BBC link to the article on Will Lankshear. Let's hope the lad can continue the very good start he has made. He puts right one of the things the team missed so badly last season.
And good luck and best wishes to @OFB, however skinny he may become.
Just to note that the embedded video in the preview should appear now as discovered some security code added was blocking non-administrators (i.e. everyone but me) from viewing it - it was only meant to stop people inserting potentially insecure videos with malicious code into posts but just blocked videos from being visible.
Down to one overzealous AI providing the wrong code - that was thankfully spotted by another AI during some troubleshooting. My experience is that AI is not quite ready to be left unsupervised - you really need to check exactly what it's giving you and then double check it is working as intended. More of a time eater than a time saver from recent experience but you can still solve tricky problems with it if you are prepared to put in the hours!
Stoke 2026 Summer Window
Expenditure: €41.01m
Income: €8.75m
Net Spend: -€32.36m
- Ethan Galbraith: Midfielder signed in a high-profile move from Swansea. Circa 11/12 million
- George Hirst: Forward acquired from Ipswich Town.
- Justin Devenny: Midfielder brought in from Crystal Palace.
- Jack McGlynn: American midfielder signed on deadline day from MLS side Houston Dynamo.
- Luca Bombino: Young American left-back added on deadline day from San Diego FC.
- El Hadji Djibril Soumaré
: Midfielder joining from Braga.
- Milan Smit: Striker signed permanently following an initial impact.
- Josh Griffiths: Goalkeeper added from West Brom.
- Ben Johnson: Defender arriving on loan from Ipswich Town.
- Luke Graham: Defender signed from Dundee.
Werder
Many thanks for your multiple Stoke previews I remembered every one of those games and we’ve had some dour matches to think about but I’m ever an optimist.
it should be a good day, firstly a trip to the hospital for me to get checked over then a light lunch with my darling wife at Guisborough Hall as it’s our 57th wedding anniversary,!
Follwed up by watching the Boro win at Stoke on TV.
I always,believe,that we make our own luck and we are lucky that you took up the reins from Anthony Vickers all those years ago and made it ur own.
Let’s face,it not many people or brides would get married on the 13 th (it was a Monday not Fridaym13 th) but our house had just been built and the builder wanted his money and in those days you didn’t go and live together so that was the date no one wanted to get married on so it was free.
Thank You all for your kind wishes
OFB
Thanks for the intro Werder. I would be happy to take a draw tomorrow to keep up the unbeaten run. I will not be able to watch or follow as at kick off I will be flying somewhere over Central Asia on a flight to Japan. So hope to pick up the score on landing.
Excellent starter Werder, thank you, which includes a reminder that Stoke at any time is never easy; it’s slightly harder with a wily Mark Robins in charge who will clearly have a plan on how to stop Boro.
It’s another game where we should be ideally looking for all three points but will accept a draw to build on Saturday’s very good performance. 😎
Thanks and yes quite interesting looking back over what is now nearly ten years of Diasboro - still not nearly as impressive as a 57 year anniversary so congratulations to you both and have a great day - certainly was lucky 13 for you and your wife!
I just finally sat down with a beer after another busy day, so firstly many thanks to everyone for their comments - appreciated as ever. Indeed, I only just realised on Friday that I was up next as that long international break had really thrown me in terms of thinking of the football season again.
Still, with it being Stoke on a Tuesday night it wasn't difficult to find an angle and then started wondering about what I had written previously about trips to the Potteries and discovered there was quite a story to tell.
It won't be easy but I still fancy it will be an even harder game for Stoke - would be nice to go top on Tuesday and go on a run with games against Cardiff, Bolton and Charlton to follow.
btw Thanks Martin and hope you're enjoying your other Birthday presents 😉
Interesting to see that list of Stoke signings and indicates quite a player turnaround like many clubs including Boro - though can't say I've heard of most of them but quite like the sound of Luca Bombino! Still a surprise to see them pay such a big fee for Swansea's Ethan Galbraith - I'll be keeping an eye out tomorrow to see if he's worth the money.
@werdermouth Could be the battle of the Americans, with McGlynn played as a sub, but starting the last couple. Bambino has been used as a sub.
The danger man looks to be Galbraith with 3 goals and two assists from midfield it looks like.
They play with three at the back and either five or four or three in midfield, so 3-5-2-1 or 3-4-3 or 3-4-2-1.
I think that Hellberg may match up to counteract the numbers in the middle. What does concern me is that at times Morris gets overwhelmed, with Berhalter stuck up the pitch, especially on transitions.
Five at the back for us would help to cover that weakness that was also seen in the second half against Wolves. We cannot afford to lose the middle of the pitch especially as Galbraith looks to be worth the outlay and possibly a level above our players.
Werder
A brilliant 'these we have loved' anthology, which offered a different take on the historical themes which have been both enjoyable and important this week. I appreciated your research on the origins of the Stoke trope. I always associate its prominence with the successive miserable nights suffered by Wenger's otherwise all-conquering Arsenal side to cope with getting kicked off the park by Pulis's thugs, yet another broken leg being followed by Pulis's excuse that the culprit "isn't that sort of lad".
I also thoroughly enjoyed your Youtube insert. in fact I went through all of them and found them hilarious.
So a most entertaining read, and this time the brilliance of your prose wasn't really undermined by a sense of foreboding that this would be a game we were bound to lose. You have broken your losing streak, and I'm confident we can win this one.
Many thanks for a really first-class leader
Ben Gibson was not even in the squad at Bolton on Saturday. He might made to be in the squad as Maksym Talovierov misses Tuesday night's game as he serves a one-match suspension for a red card at Bolton.
Ben will be 34 yr old in January. But most probably not a centre back he was while at Boro.
Up the Boro!
INJURY UPDATE
ROKAS Pukstas is expected to miss at least the next four Middlesbrough games after suffering a hamstring injury during the recent international break.
Hellberg doesn't expect the midfielder to feature again in October and it's unclear at this stage whether he'll be in contention to return before the next international break, which falls after the trip to Watford on November 7.
It's been a frustrating start to life on Teesside for Pukstas, who'd only played six minutes of Championship action prior to the international stoppage. After arriving late in the transfer window, the three-week break looked like a good opportunity for the 22-year-old to benefit from a spell on the training pitches at Rockliffe.
But the players were all given some time off in the first week of the break and Pukstas picked up an injury while back at home in the United States.
It was when he was back in the States so he will be away for a time and will not participate in the games this month."
After the trip to the bet365 Stadium, Boro host Cardiff, are away at Bolton and are then at home to Charlton before the month is out. They then have trips to Wrexham and Watford before the two-week break and return to action on November 21.
Boro will also be without Alfie Jones and David Strelec at Stoke on Tuesday night.
Strelec picked up a "small" injury while away with Slovakia but will "soon" be back in contention.
Jones has been missing since being forced off at half-time in the win over Norwich in mid-September.
"Alfie is not ready," said Hellberg.
"David has come back from a national team with a bit of small thing. It's not a big thing and he will be back soon."
Boro climbed to second in the Championship standings thanks to their 1-0 victory over Wolves on Saturday but Tuesday's opponents Stoke are only two places back after a run of five wins in their last six games, and they beat Bolton with 10 men at the weekend.
Hellberg said: "We haven't lost in seven, they haven't lost in six and they won a lot of their their games.
"They looked very strong lately: good squad, very good squad, a lot of good players. It will be a tough game.
"It will be a very, very tough game, and they of course did a brilliant win when they played with 10-man against Bolton and still won, so two teams coming in with a lot of confidence and an away game in a tough environment. It's going to be a tough game."
Just to let you know that the Diaboro site has got a slight technical glitch - or rather the hosting platform has encountered a strange problem it has never encountered before.
Apparently, the Diasboro database is missing - they can't find it anywhere on their servers but yet it is still there because the site is working normally - a literal ghost in the machine where it exists but nobody knows where.
Anyway, just spent the last hour speaking with technical support - they will continue to look into it but it may involve at some point the need to duplicate the site and move it to a new contract. Though I've been assured that nothing will happen to the site in the meantime - there's a possibility I may need to create a site backup and give it to them if they can't find the database on their servers - but I'm guessing somebody will find it eventually.
I shall let you know if there is a risk of any downtime in the coming days but at the moment it is happening in the background.
Sorry to hear about that Werder - I do hope the issue gets resolved!
Pretty tired today so I think I will be taking it easy tonight, though I won’t rule out contributions later. It’s opening week at the Belfast Festival so it’s going to be a long one.
Regarding the game, I’ll happily take something like last season’s result - 2-1 Boro. Though this time we have no Alan Browne in our ranks. Bizarrely I kind of preferred the very recent 1-0 win over Wolves to the 4-0 win over Saints and the 4-1 win over Hull from last season - it was a sure sign that a Kim Hellberg team can find genuine strength in solidity as well as in attack.
Brilliant opener, Werder - they always are.
I like how we had the history from SelwynOz to mark the 150th anniversary, followed a dose of nostalgia in this one. There must be a Diasboro birthday at some point...
As for tonight, it will be another tough one but one where the same level of solidity as we showed against Wolves (I managed to watch it in a bar in Portugal, which was a bit of a novelty) may well see us get a positive result. Mind you, I couldn't believe how many times Wolves mishit shots when the chances came about.
I liked the Malanda-Phillips partnership - I think that's the right one - and hope to see it again. In fact, I hope it's the same XI again which looks our best bet for the toughest games. In the more winnable games coming up, it may be that Arfsten and/or Sarmiento get a start but for tonight I hope we can go "same again".
A draw wouldn't be a bad result on paper but hoping for a win. I'll go for the same team and the same score: Stoke 0-1 Boro.
Finally, belated birthday wishes to Martin and get well soon to OFB.
I trust everyone else is well.
Thank you Werder for that opener - you managed to make a trip down nasty memory lane very entertaining.
Thank you also for all your work on the website.
I am currently in Budapest so am dipping in and out of the blog. Happy Birthday Martin and it was good to hear from OFB. Best wishes.
I think that the squad is better prepared for close games this season, with more to call on from the bench. It may be another close game but I am hoping for a clean sheet.
UTB
A salutary warning about the financial state of football in the EPL and EFL specifically. Which highlights very much the importance of our benevolent Owner, Mr Gibson.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c6vgx70pzq1jo
Can I add… the happiest of birthdays to you Martin. 🙂 And a great preview Werder. It echoes what I like to do - compare and contrast the present with the past, often as a means of reflecting on how far we’ve come, and how far we haven’t. The number of striking Boro parallels is astonishing.
I liked the Malanda-Phillips partnership - I think that's the right one - and hope to see it again. In fact, I hope it's the same XI again which looks our best bet for the toughest games. In the more winnable games coming up, it may be that Arfsten and/or Sarmiento get a start but for tonight I hope we can go "same again".
Looks as though Dom Shaw agrees:
https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/sport/26629625.middlesbroughs-ashley-phillips-reaches-top/
(article about Ashley Phillips' talent & his potential for further development, largely as perceived by KH - relevant comments about half-way down)
Likewise CJ in his predicted team for this evening:
Ayling & Sarmiento in this evening's starting XI for McGree & Conway:
A Boro win & a Swansea loss at Millwall would mean Boro ending the evening at the top of the Champo tree...
With Ayling starting does that mean a back three or somebody pushing up into midfield? Also makes sense to rotate Sarmiento in for Conway and rest McGree too given they're both recovered from injuries. Hopefully, Boro start quickly as I'm sure Stoke have not been used to a lot of high pressing and moving the ball quickly.
Many thanks Len and of course you're right to point out it was no doubt Tony Pulis who built that reputation of making cold Tuesday evenings at Stoke not very welcoming!