Boro have endured a testing start to the season so a win would have gone down quite well in the North East. If only their star midfielder had been on form.
Garth Crooks has told the BBC that Middlesbrough would have achieved an impressive scalp of beating Arsenal at the Emirates if Gaston Ramirez had shown more “ruthlessness” in front of goal.
Aitor Karanka’s side travelled to North London on the back of a dismal defeat at home to Watford last week, another lifeless Boro performance causing boos to ring around the Riverside at full-time.
However, the newly promoted North East outfit were almost unrecognisable on Saturday with Adama Traore in particular (below) wreaking havoc among the Arsenal backline only to see his team-mates squander a series of presentable chances.
And Crooks believes one man in particular was to blame for Middlesbrough’s failure to turn an impressive point into an improbable three.
“This was a match I described on BBC’s Final Score as a “walk in the park” for Arsenal,” Crooks wrote in his Team of the Week column.
“As it turned out, it was a game Middlesbrough should have won, and would have done if midfielder Gaston Ramirez had shown a little more ruthlessness in front of goal.”
Alvaro Negredo could consider himself fortunate not to share Crook’s ire with his profligate team-mate, the Spaniard once again appearing sluggish and wasteful in front of goal, especially in the second-half when Laurent Koscielny recovered a vast amount of ground to knock him off side as he staggered towards Petr Cech.
Despite splashing the cash over the summer to revamp their forward line, Boro have netted just seven times in nine Premier League games and Karanka will know that an immediate return to the Championship beckons if they don’t increase their tally.
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