New look Middlesbrough next up at the Hawthorns

West Bromwich Albion v Middlesbrough; The Hawthorns, Saturday 26th August 2023, 3pm

Before the campaign started, Albion were thought to have a tough start to the season starting with three of last season’s top ten plus one of the relegated teams. As it stands, only one of those four teams is in the top half of the table, with Blackburn Rovers scraping over the halfway mark in 12th, one place above the Baggies. Swansea City, Leeds United and Saturday’s opponents, Middlesbrough, are yet to record a league victory this season with Michael Carrick’s side picking up their only point so far in a 1-1 home draw with Huddersfield Town last weekend.

Furthermore, the Teessiders have managed just one goal in their opening three league games seemingly struggling to replace the goals scored by their top scorer from the last campaign, Chuba Akpom, who was sold to Ajax earlier this month for a reported £10.5m. One of the players brought in to fill that gap is former Baggie, Morgan Rogers, who moved to the Riverside from Manchester City for an undisclosed fee. Since leaving the Hawthorns for a fee of around £4m as a promising 17-year-old in the summer of 2019, Rogers’ only senior football has been on loan with his most successful spell being at Lincoln City in League One in 2020/21 when he managed six goals in 25 appearances. He scored only once in each of his next two loan spells, at Bournemouth and Blackpool in the Championship, before City evidently decided he was unlikely to make the grade at the Etihad and he made the move to Teesside.

Another new signing up front is Ivorian, Emmanuel Latte Lath, who joined from Italian side Atalanta for an undisclosed fee – he scored 15 goals last season on loan at Swiss side, St Gallen. He joins a substantial list of new signings for Carrick’s team including Australian pair Tom Glover and Sam Silvera, Danish defender Lukas Engel, Dutch defender Rav van den Berg and Senegalese goalkeeper, Seny Dieng, who made the move from QPR.

Carlos Corberán is still hoping to add to his squad before the transfer window shuts next Friday while the new signings so far, Maja and Sarmiento, are continuing to build up their fitness. Rumours this week that Kyle Bartley was to be released have so far proved to be incorrect and, with CC apparently considering another loan move for Caleb Taylor, I would be surprised to see another defender go out unless one was lined up to come in. The loan of Taylor Gardner-Hickman to Bristol City, with an option to buy, will have disappointed many, myself included. However, multiple coaches have failed to be convinced by him despite several eye-catching performances, and he seemed to be fifth in line a to central midfield berth behind Molumby, Okay, Chalobah and Mowatt based on recent selections. His departure would suggest that both Mowatt and Chalobah will be retained unless, of course, an appropriate alternative can be signed in the next week.

For Saturday’s game, Corberán will have to work with what he has and there remains a question mark over what formation he will choose. Having gone with his favoured 4-2-3-1 formation at Blackburn on the opening weekend, he has started with a back three on each of the next three games albeit at Elland Road last Friday it seemed to be more of a back four once Townsend came on. From an attacking point of view, the 4-2-3-1 would seem to favour the attacking trio of Phillips, Swift and Wallace to fit naturally into formation behind a central striker, but playing three central defenders provides more options, and more security, when playing out from the back as CC is determined to persist with.

Jed Wallace’s slow start to the season could be attributed to the formation change where he has less room on the right with Furlong pushing up further as a wing back although, as I suggested last week, the impact of the taking the armband for the first time should not be dismissed. In some ways, the selection at Leeds was something of a hybrid with Phillips ostensibly a left wing-back but playing far more advanced, but the goal Albion conceded could perceivably be partly attributable to his not being close enough to Pieters – personally, I’m not sure that is the case as the former Stoke man should have attacked the ball more proactively, itself perhaps a symptom of his natural position being full back. I have heard suggestions that the selection choice was to use Phillips to occupy Ayling a little more than Townsend might have – if so, it didn’t really work!

Phillips has arguably been Albion’s strongest performer this season and, with Wallace as captain, I can’t see either not starting on Saturday. That probably means that either Phillips plays in his traditional left wing spot or, if Corberán opts for three at the back, he will be at left wing back with either Swift or Sarmiento alongside Wallace behind BTA.

Okay struggled at Leeds but I expect him to start with Molumby in midfield leaving the main decision points as to whether to play Pieters or Townsend and, if the latter, is than in a three or a four. I guess we could see Mowatt given a start in the middle of the park but I don’t think CC will be voluntarily changing his midfield pair just yet.

In short, the same starting line up as Friday night would not surprise me, with the Pieters/Townsend choice the most likely change if there is one.

Albion will fancy their chances given Boro’s early season form, but Carrick’s team should be continually improving as their radically changed team get used to playing together. Six of their starting line up last weekend were new signings and their understanding will only increase as matches go on – let’s hope that it is still early enough for the Baggies to take full advantage and claim all three points.

History

Albion’s 2-0 victory over Middlesbrough six months ago was only their second in the last ten meetings with the Teessiders, a run which started after Roberto di Matteo’s team secured an impressive league double over Gordon Strachan’s Boro in April 2010 with another 2-0 home win, this time thanks to goals from Simon Cox and Roman Bednár either side of half time.

The Baggies had also recorded a league double over Middlesbrough the previous season when both sides ended up being relegated from the Premier League. The win at the Riverside in September proved to be Tony Mowbray’s team’s only away league victory of the the campaign and the 3-0 home win in January, with an early Tony McMahon own goal added to with second half strikes from Marc-Antoine Fortuné and Robert Koren, raising hopes that the Baggies might escape the drop.

In 1935, Albion scored eleven goals against Middlesbrough in just two matches in what are the Baggies’ two biggest home wins over the Smoggies. In the Division One fixture on 5th January of that year, Boro were rocked with a first minute Ginger Richardson goal but equalised from the spot a few minutes later through George Camsell. By the half hour, the hosts were 3-1 up through Wally Boyes and Arthur Gale before Camsell scored his second to make it 3-2 just after half time. The goals continued to fly in with Teddy Sandford scoring twice for Albion either side of a Coleman strike for the visitors before Joe Carter’s last minute goal made the final score 6-3.

Almost a year later on Boxing Day, it was all about Ginger Richardson. A George Shaw penalty opened the scoring for the Baggies and the visitors were actually in front at the break with goals from Benny Yorston and Camsell. Richardson exploded after the break scoring four goals in the space of 22 minutes to make the final score 5-2 to the hosts.

Boro’s 4-0 win at the Hawthorns in March 1974 is their biggest win in West Bromwich when it was Jack Charlton in charge at Ayresome Park in his first season as a manager – the Smoggies would win the Division Two title that season with a certain Graeme Souness in the centre of midfield and it was he who scored the fourth goal at the Shrine that day.

Stat Attack

Current Form

All competitions; most recent game on the right

Last matches

Last meeting

25 Feb 2023 – League Championship
West Bromwich Albion 2 (Dike (2))
Middlesbrough 0

Albion’s Record against Middlesbrough