On a weekly basis, bosses have strolled into press rooms and talked up Boro’s quality and Michael Carrick.
Too often, though, the rival boss has been pleased with the outcome of the 90 minutes that had gone before. Boro only did the double over four sides this season: Hull, Stoke, Oxford and West Brom.
Perhaps most revealing was something Jack Wilshere said after guiding Norwich to a point at the Riverside at the end of last month.
“Michael plays in a certain way and he’s really clear with that,” he said.
“The players have clarity and we prepared for what we thought.”
In short, even if he didn’t mean it, there’s a suggestion there that Boro are predictable.
He’s right.
The outcome at Coventry on Saturday certainly felt predictable. The only surprise was that Boro headed to the CBS Arena still in with a shout of a top six finish after a run of just one win in five games. Even with the top six door still remarkably open, Boro could only manage one goal and one point from their final three games, despite the fact Sheffield Wednesday and Norwich – both woefully out of form – looked ideal opponents.
It’s been a season of missed opportunities and underachievement for Middlesbrough, who still fell short of the play-offs even though the points total required to finish sixth in the Championship was as low as it had been since 2013.
Had things worked out differently on Saturday, there’s every chance the play-offs could have ended up a messy affair for Boro, for they picked up just five points from a possible 36 this season against the teams who ended up finishing in the top six.
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So what went wrong? Why did a season that started with such hope end with Boro having amassed just 64 points, their second lowest total in a Championship campaign since 2013?
And crucially, what happens next? The first decision for Steve Gibson is surely the biggest – is Carrick still the right man for the job?
Boro’s chairman decided he was when Carrick’s future appeared in the balance after the February defeat to Watford, which came during a damaging slump and run of defeats.
Gibson values Carrick’s loyalty and integrity enormously and, given the ambition this season, the head coach would surely have not been afforded as much patience by other owners.
The hope after the February decision was that clarity would help to get Boro back on track and form did briefly pick up, but Carrick’s side ended up missing out on the top six by four points, which was the gap after that Watford loss, though at that stage 11th placed Boro still had a game in hand.
Has Gibson seen enough to believe Carrick can right the wrongs of this season?
Is the head coach capable of adapting? The evidence of this season would suggest not. The same issues plagued Boro throughout the campaign but weren’t addressed or at least weren’t fixed: the soft goals, the inability to respond after falling behind, the damaging in-game management and delayed changes. How much of a miss was Aaron Danks?
The apathy in the stands in the second half of the season and feeling of a disconnect between the side and the supporters has to be a major concern. After the home draw with Norwich, the majority of fans left rather than stayed behind for the lap of appreciation, even though Boro were still in with a shout of a top six finish at the time.
Injuries undoubtedly had an impact but was it all down to misfortune? After a second successive season of too many injury setbacks, it’s a fair question to ask. With those injuries in mind, Carrick’s decision to not replace Matt Clarke in January felt baffling at the time and turned out to be a misjudgement.
The most damaging injury of the season was to Ben Doak. Boro obviously felt the impact of his absence in the second half of the season and it’s inconceivable to think they wouldn’t have ended up with more points on the board had the impressive Liverpool loanee stayed fit.
But Boro had won just two of Doak’s last eight games, which included the defeat to Portsmouth and draws with Cardiff, Sheffield Wednesday and Plymouth. Boro won just three of Emmanuel Latte Lath’s last 11 games before he left.
Latte Lath’s sale to Atlanta was brilliant business but the signing of Kelechi Iheanacho turned out to be a disaster. Carrick said he “didn’t understand the fuss” surrounding Iheanacho after the former Leicester striker was booed by Boro’s fans during the home defeat to Leeds, but he started just one of the last five games after that.
The return of Ryan Giles – also pushed by Carrick – didn’t go at all to plan and his only start after the February defeat at Sheffield United came at Swansea, when he was hauled off at half-time.
Boro’s summer recruitment was excellent. Ben Doak was one of the best Championship captures, Tommy Conway was only outscored by four players in the division despite missing 10 games, Aidan Morris’ importance was evident by how sorely he missed during his two-month injury absence and Neto Borges recovered from a tough start to establish himself as a key player on the pitch but also crucially in the dressing room.
Boro’s squad in the second half of the season wasn’t as strong as it had been in the first – both because of January and injuries – but was Millwall’s, Blackburn’s and Bristol City’s better?
Too often it felt like Carrick wasn’t playing to his squad’s strengths or getting the most out of the tools at his disposal.
Carrick is still an inexperienced head coach and the challenges of this season should help him moving forward. Whether that’s at Boro is for Gibson to now decide.
