Pulis calls on Boro to control games and be more clinical
AFTER BEING rightfully feted for one set of statistics already this season, another set of numbers is not measuring up quite as impressively for Middlesbrough.
Third-placed Boro’s concession of just four goals in ten league matches may be comfortably the best defensive record in the Football League, but problems persist at the other end of the pitch.
The Teesside club’s tally of three goals in their past five matches is not the return expected of a side with aspirations of automatic promotion with Boro’s current total of 12 Championship goals so far this term being the lowest in the top six.
Only one side in the top half of the table has scored fewer goals than Boro and manager Tony Pulis was especially disappointed with his side’s ball retention in Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Hull City. After an unconvincing show in the final third, Boro will be hoping to do better at another earlyseason struggler in Ipswich this evening to prevent the goalscoring issue flaring up into something more troublesome.
Pulis, likely to call upon the creative talents of Martin Braithwaite and Stewart Downing from the start after both were named on the bench on Saturday – before entering the fray late on – said: “In the final third, I think everybody knows that we have got to be more clinical.
“I have said that since day one when I have been at the club.
“But if we are not going to score as many goals as we should then we have got to retain possession and control games.”
Portman Road is not a particularly happy hunting ground for Boro, who have won just once in their past 12 visits. UNDER-FIRE Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho believes some of his players “care more than others” about their poor start to the season.
United are in desperate need of a shot in the arm against Valencia in today’s Champions League tie given their draw against Wolves was compounded by a shock Carabao Cup exit to Derby and a chastening loss to West Ham.
Saturday’s 3-1 defeat in east London made this the 20-time champions’ worst start to a league campaign since 1989-90, leading to increased talk about the manager’s future.
Questions over his relationship with Paul Pogba continue to linger, as do the links to former Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane, yet Mourinho does not believe his job is under threat ahead of tonight’s Group H match at home to Valencia. “No, I don’t think (his job is on the line),” the United boss said having earlier made light of a report that he was fearing for his job after a call from the Frenchman.
Mourinho redirected the question from a Spanish reporter to the journalist that wrote the story, joking at a packed press conference that he had “put a bug on my telephone”.
United will line-up tonight with their manager having questioned the attitude of some of them.
Mourinho said some of his group looked upset after the West Ham defeat, but others did not “look like they lost a game” – a point he was pushed on and attempted to explain.
He said: “Sometimes what it looks (like) is exactly the opposite, if you understand what I am saying?
“You can be laughing and be the saddest person in the world and you can be with a very sad face and you can be a fantastic actor and inside of you, you are very happy, so sometimes what you see is not what you get.”
Mourinho added: “I think that some care more than others.”