“When I widen the lens..” – Middlesbrough fan pundit provides honest thoughts on Chris Wilder | 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…

It has been a tough start to the new campaign at Middlesbrough, with the Teesside club currently sitting 22nd in the Championship standings having only accumulated 10 points from their opening 10 matches.

After what was a strong finish to the last campaign, expectation levels were high when the season began, and whilst only a small number of games have gone, levels of positivity and optimism have certainly been lowered.

Boro boss Chris Wilder had to contend with a difficult transfer window for Boro, which forced the club to complete their business rather late on.

Sharing her thoughts on the Boro boss and asking whether she is content with having the former Sheffield United manager in charge at the Riverside Stadium, FLW’s Middlesbrough fan pundit Dana Malt said: “That’s a tough question because when I widen the lens, I have been happy with the job Chris Wilder has been doing, however, when I focus it on this season so far, I can’t possibly be happy or even content because Boro are underperforming massively, having picked up 10 points from our opening 10 games.

“Wilder isn’t solely to blame for that and id even go as far as saying that the players take the biggest chunk of the blame for our poor start to the season because they keep making key mistakes in key moments and really basic errors as well that the manager cannot simply legislate for.

“Where Wilder can be blamed though is probably his stubbornness with the system. He changed form the 3-5-2 that served us so well last season to a 3-5-1-1, which was understandable because we only had two striker options in pre-season, so he was trialling Riley McGree as a number 10 but Riley McGree isn’t influential enough to play in that role, and in turn, it disconnected the frontline and left Rodrigo  Muniz incredibly isolated against Cardiff.

1 of 18

Daniel Ayala?

Argentinian Brazilian Portuguese Spanish

“He has since changed the formation to a 3-4-1-2 which made us look a lot more structured in our defences phases against Rotherham, having said that, they didn’t really attack us all.

“But, it’s taken him until the tenth game to switch formation which is disappointing to see because the 3-5-2 did so well for us last campaign and yet what we have seen is a 3-5-1-1 which just isn’t getting us anywhere.”

The verdict

Performances have not been disastrous at Boro but they have not reached what is expected of them thus far this season.

Of course, only a small number of games have been played thus far, and recent Championship success stories have included a shaky start.

Wilder seemed to get things right at Boro last time out and was on an upward trajectory heading into this new campaign, however, as Dana quite rightly alludes to the system had to be adapted because of a lack of forward options.

It is now about striking the winning formula systematically speaking, as they have the individuals to start thriving once more.