“He’s looked several yards off it” – Middlesbrough fan pundit names the club’s flop of the season | OneFootball

This article is part of Football League World’s ‘Terrace Talk‘ series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Middlesbrough are having a largely successful season.

Although they started the season under Neil Warnock, after a poor run of form, Chris Wilder was brought in and since doing so has really lifted the team.

Boro now sit ninth in the league but only three points from the play-offs meaning a top six finish is still possible for them this season.

Not only have they been successful in the league but an impressive FA Cup run saw them overcome Manchester United and Tottenham too.

However, despite their success this season, not everyone has done as well as hoped and we asked FLW’s Middlesbrough fan pundit Dana who she thinks has been Middlesbrough’s flop of the season.

She said: “Flop of the season has to be James Lea Siliki.

“He was playing Champions League football last season and is an international footballer, he went to the Africa cup of nations with Cameroon and he just hasn’t been able to force himself into that Middlesbrough midfield specifically a Middlesbrough midfield that has really longed for competition for Marcus Tavernier on the left of that three.

“It wasn’t until Caolan Boyd-Munce and Riley McGree came in in January that Marcus Tavernier got that competition which speaks volumes of James Lea Siliki because he has been here since the summer and is a left footer.

“Chris Wilder is big on having left footers on the left and right footers on the right for that balance and even under Warnock he just hasn’t really impressed. He’s looked several yards off it, off the speed of the Championship and his passing has been a particular point of criticism so I was definitely say that James Lea Siliki’s been the flop of the season which is unfortunate, I was expecting big things from him but he’s just fallen a little bit, well considerably short of my expectations.”

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The Verdict:

This is a fair vote for flop of the season. As Dana points out, given his international player status and the level of football he was playing last year, you would have expected him to do better in the Championship.

He has only made 11 appearances in the league this season and hasn’t been able to contribute any goals or assists in these performances.

Furthermore, his presence hasn’t created competition around the midfield positions and rather it’s been quite easy for Wilder to pick players to put in ahead of him.

As a result, you can’t see the club wishing to extend his loan at the end of this season.