Can Middlesbrough get a play-off spot
With a 3-1 win against Hull City in midweek and teams above them dropping points, Middlesbrough closed the gap to just three points for the final play-off space and with a favourable run in coming up the question is ‘Can Boro still make the play-offs?’
After securing back to back home wins for the first time under new manager Tony Pulis on Tuesday, Middlesbrough travel to rivals and bottom placed Sunderland on Saturday knowing that a win could potentially take them into the play-offs for the first time since November.
However, Boro’s problem this season has been consistency and they haven’t picked up back to back league wins since December when they beat Sheffield Wednesday 2-1 and then followed that up with a 2-0 win against Bolton on Boxing Day.
So if Boro are to make play-offs a good place to start would be with putting a consistent run together, every season there’s that team that goes under the radar in the final few months and sneaks into the play-offs and if Boro can get a run of about five or six wins on the bounce then there’s no reason why it can’t be them.
Last season’s dark horses were Fulham who only lost two of their last 17 games coming into the run in and grabbed the final play-off space on the final day of the season when they beat Sheffield Wednesday 2-1 away at Hillsborough.
Now Fulham didn’t win the play-offs, Infact they were knocked out on the first hurdle when they lost to Reading 2-1 on aggregate however, Tony Pulis should look to what Fulham achieved last season and try to emulate their form.
After the game on Tuesday night in his post-match analysis Tony Pulis told MFC Official that now is the time for consistency if the club is to get in the play-offs, he said:
"We've wanted consistency ever since I walked through the door but we haven't found it. There are reasons why, and fingers crossed we can be consistent now and get three or four results together because that's what we need."
Another thing Boro will need if they want to get into the play-offs is goals from their strikers and hopefully they’ve finally turned a corner after Tuesday night.
Two goals from Rudy Gestede and another from Patrick Bamford helped them both take their goal tallies to four goals each for this season and hopefully it’s the start of more to come for the two strikers, who when are high on confidence can be unplayable on their day.
After the game on Tuesday Pulis also praised Gestede saying:
"I was pleased for Rudy, two well-taken goals and he hit the post as well early on so he could have had a hat-trick.”
The final key cog to Boro making the play-offs will be if the form of Adama Traore and hoping he stays injury free.
At the moment it’s hard to think of a better player in the league than Traore, players like Neves, Jota, Reid etc have been consistent all season and rightfully so will be in the team of the season but in this last month there’s been no better player than Traore and that’s the truth.
Some will say it’s being bias but recently the 22 year old winger has been unplayable.
In his last six games he has registered three goals and two assists but the chances he has created in those games have been unbelievable and he’s unlucky to not have at least five goals and five+ assists in those last six games.
If the players can start putting away the chances Traore creates for them and Traore can stay injury free and keep this form up from now till the end of the season then there’s a very good chance that Boro could still yet make the players.
Credit to The Gazette for the imagery used in this article.