When it came to his players’ ability to adjust to playing in a five-man defense against Leicester City this past weekend, Michael Carrrick was always certain. He would keep evaluating his tactical alternatives match by match for the rest of the season.
For the majority of his tenure as Boro’s head coach, Carrick has deployed his team in a flat back four, but at the King Power Stadium, he decided to switch things up. Matt Clarke, Rav van den Berg, and Paddy McNair played as center halves, while Luke Ayling and Lukas Engel played as wing-backs.
The main goal of the adjustment was to counter Leicester’s wide-defensive positioning, and it was a brilliant move as Boro defeated the Championship leaders 2-1.
When Plymouth Argyle comes to the Riverside this weekend, there’s a good chance Carrick will switch back to a four-man backline. However, the Leicester victory demonstrated Boro’s defensive adaptability and will encourage the head coach to continue experimenting with his team’s defensive configuration throughout the season.
Carrick stated, “I think we’ve used it (five at the back) enough.” His team is now seven points outside of the play-off spots, but they still have games in hand against six of the seven teams that are immediately above them in the standings. We employed it (against Leicester) due to their five-man backline.
“At home against Leicester, we kind of played the same with Jonny (Howson) in Paddy’s position. It was very much the same, with new staff.
While Jonny plays as a midfielder, Paddy is arguably best viewed as a center-back by most, yet the two roles were extremely similar. The boys, in my opinion, took on very varied tasks and handled the challenge incredibly well. I was therefore quite happy with how they considered that.
More modest adjustments were needed higher up the field as a result of the five-man backline alteration. A diamond-shaped midfield was frequently formed by Riley McGree, Lewis O’Brien, Finn Azaz, and Dan Barlaser as narrow, wide midfielders.
Despite playing in a wide offensive role for the bulk of his prior Boro games, Sammy Silvera spearheaded the attack and set up the second goal for the Teessiders late in the first half.
After joining the Central Coast Mariners in the summer, Silvera made just his ninth league start this past weekend. Although it has taken the 23-year-old some time to settle in, he now appears to be more at home in the Championship.
In the ongoing absence of injured players Emmanuel Latte Lath and Josh Coburn, Carrick’s willingness to start him as the central striker ahead of Marcus Forss, who had scored in three straight games against Millwall, Rotherham, and Sunderland, and Sam Greenwood, who had filled the role in the matches against Sunderland, Bristol City, and Preston, highlighted that.
Carrick stated, “You have to make big decisions, and some go right, some don’t go to plan.” It’s simply the way things are. That one was just a gut sensation for me. I believed that our arrangement would work for him. I believe Sammy has a feeling of goal because of the way he’s playing on that final line, his one-on-one play, and his running in behind.
There was some adjusting to attain the proper balance of freshness because the other boys performed the other night (at Preston). I must also give Marcus and Sam credit for how nicely they handled the news and how great they were around the facility. That pretty much covers it when they came on and gave it their all for the squad.
However, I’m happy for Sammy. There was a time he wished he had played more, and then he traveled to Australia and missed out on additional playing. However, he returned, put in a lot of effort, and scored a huge goal.
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