PLAYER PROFILE
Chris Dunlavy analyses Boro striker Britt Assombalonga
FEW players polarise Middlesbrough supporters quite like Britt Assombalonga, the club’s £14m record signing.
To his detractors, the forward is a one-trick pony whose all-round game has failed to justify wages of £40,000 a week.
To his proponents, he’s a top-class goal-poacher misused by a succession of managers who have not played to his strengths.
Of no contention whatsoever is the fact that Assombalonga has not hit the same heights for Boro that he scaled in three Championship seasons at Nottingham Forest.
The 26-year-old scored 30 times in 69 matches after joining the Reds from Peterborough in August 2014. That is a ratio of 0.46 goals per game.
Since moving to the Riverside in July 2017, however, he has managed just 34 goals in 105 games, a ratio of 0.32.
For any striker, this would represent a significant dip. For Assombalonga it is particularly troubling because, without goals, his contribution is minimal.
This season, Assombalonga – pre-weekend – had attempted no crosses and provided one assist. Of his 13.8 passes per game, just 0.9 of them led to a goalscoring opportunity.
In terms of hold-up play, he has also been dispossessed 1.9 times per match and lost the ball after a heavy first touch 2.9 times per game. Those figures compare unfavourably with Lewis Grabban (Nottingham Forest), Aleksandar Mitrovic (Fulham) and Karlan Grant (Huddersfield), all elite Championship strikers who play a similar role to Assombalonga.
Struggles
Evidently, the DR Congo international struggles to make the ball ‘stick’ or bring team-mates into play; Middlebrough have spent just 27 per cent of their time in the opposition third this term, less than all but five other Championship teams.
Yet if criticism of Assombalonga’s all-round game is justified, it must also be acknowledged that such failings are nothing new.
Since the start of 2014-15, his first season with Forest, Assombalonga has registered three assists in 167 appearances. Even allowing for the vagaries of systems, formations and managerial instructions, it is an extraordinarily low number for an attacking player. For context, Cardiff centre-back Aden Flint has three assists this season.
Equally, all of the stats quoted above were not significantly better at his former clubs and were, in several cases, worse.
As Garry Birtles, a double European Cup winner with Nottingham Forest, said when Assombalonga departed the City Ground: “Britt was a goalscorer, but he wasn’t a great player. He didn’t do a lot in open play. He didn’t like to come to the ball.
“He was always more comfortable running towards goal and getting in the box. What he was, though, was someone who will get you a goal if you create a chance.”
And he still is, albeit one desperately short of confidence after two years spent playing for a side that created precious little under Tony Pulis.
Missed penalties and fluffed chances - he spurned two open goals in a 4-1 defeat at home to Sheffield Wednesday recently - have naturally drawn attention to deficiencies in Assombalonga’s wider game.
Ability
Yet four goals in 11 games for a struggling team with the third-worst crossing accuracy in the division demonstrates an enduring ability to put the ball in the net.
Consider, too, that Assombalonga netted 14 times in 2018-19 for a Boro team that scored 49 goals, the sixth-lowest in the division. As a percentage of his team’s tally, that is only marginally less than Teemu Pukki, who scored 29 times for Norwich to win the Golden Boot.
Ultimately, there is truth on both sides of the argument. Assombalonga is a one-trick pony. Find his runs, deliver crosses and he will score goals irrespective of formation.
In the right set-up, that can be deadly. Leicester City won a Premier League title by subjugating the team to Jamie Vardy, turning ostensibly limiting factors into a major source of strength.
However, in a team that is not set up to feed him or – like Boro – simply lacks quality, a player like Assombalonga will never be anything but fitfully effective.