Michael Beale referenced seeing the ‘indifferent’ from Sunderland in their 1-1 draw with Middlesbrough at the Riverside and it’s a feeling somewhat submerged into their 2023-24 Championship campaign.
With 10 minutes remaining on Teesside, Sunderland’s head coach was likely searching for the hammers to batten down the hatches once more with another defeat staring him in the face courtesy of Marcus Forss’ stunning goal for Michael Carrick’s side on the hour.
Beale would still likely have had the same verdict on proceedings even had Sunderland not found their equaliser in the 83rd minute through Nazariy Rusyn. They were more than competitive in the first half and perhaps should have found themselves in front – Abdoullah Ba spurning a golden opportunity from only a handful of yards when denied by the outstretched leg of Rav van den Berg on the line.
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Beale had hinted at his side ‘taking the game to Middlesbrough’ and there can certainly be an argument made that they did so in the first half – again just lacking the clinical edge in front of goal.
But it was the second half which brought the indifferent. Much like we saw from Beale’s team in the recent defeat at Portman Road, they were jaded after the break. That night, Ipswich Town completed a comeback and claimed the only win of their last eight league games following a 3-2 defeat at Preston North End at the weekend – that despite two goals from January recruit, and Sunderland transfer target, Kieffer Moore. The intensity for Sunderland had dissipated, whereas Carrick’s side came out with a renewed vigour.
Beale was left in limbo of being proactive or reactive in an attempt to stem the red tide before, ultimately, they fell behind through Forss’ volley. Given Sunderland’s recent goal-scoring issues, aside from last week’s win over Stoke City, coupled with their jarring record at the Riverside, it felt as though that could be that for Beale’s men. But although the introductions of Patrick Roberts and Rusyn were reactionary to falling behind, they helped changed the game for Sunderland.
“For us, as the away team, naturally we'll be more pleased than Middlesbrough going home this evening. I think we saw the good and the indifferent from our team today,” explained Beale.
“I thought it was a refreshing first-half. Both teams went for each other. We wanted to be positive coming here as the away team, we didn't want to come and play on the counter. We wanted to try and take the game to them.
“It's difficult because you have the two different styles come together. I thought in the first-half we had one really big opportunity and we worked the ball into good areas, into their box with Jack [Clarke], or with Trai Hume or with Abdoullah [Ba] and I'm expecting us to come away with something from those opportunities.
“At half-time, it was about more of the same really, staying in the game and trying to push your style onto them. It's fair to say that Middlesbrough started the second half much better than us. We were slow. We've just spoken about it in there and it's not good enough for us to start the second half like that.
“They would have been a massive three points for either team.”
It was synonymous, largely, with what we have seen from both Sunderland and Middlesbrough this season – two teams hoping to build on last season’s play-off campaigns, but two teams, ultimately, who have lost their x-factor.
Carrick lamented Middlesbrough’s latest example of dropped points having taken control of this game in the second half. But, much like Sunderland, there has been something missing this season as both continue to labour around the top-six bracket.
"It’s frustrating, massively so. I don't need to tell the boys that, they know that in the changing room," said Carrick. "The way they are, they're disappointed. It's such a mixed bag between feeling that confidence and knowing what you're capable of and when it slips away.
"We need to start getting what we deserve from games. It feels like we’re losing points that we should be gaining.
"But I don't need to give them the message, they know exactly the situation and we'll keep striving to get better and become that successful team with performances we want to build on.
"It shows in the league table where we are, but I do feel like that there are too many games where we’ve put ourselves in a good position, do a lot of good things, gain control and look dangerous and then don’t give them an awful lot in the second half.
"I feel for the boys because they put a lot into the game and showed a lot of quality, especially second half, to control it fully. To not come away with the win is a disappointing one."
He continued: “It’s all sorts of different moments and factors that are costing us really. It’s hard to pinpoint a particular thing, compartmentalize and say, ‘that is the whole reason’. It’s a little bit of both ends really.
"The ruthless feeling and killer touch at one end, but I can't really fault the boys because a lot of the work is good and I feel like they do deserve their rewards. But I feel like it’s up to us to earn them rewards as well.
"It’s not an exact science when we look back over the reasons why, but there are so many good things in there that we’re doing against good teams, that should give us the confidence we need to make that extra step and finish games off."
For all Carrick concedes it’s not an exact science, similar to Beale since taking over at the Stadium of Light, there are significant factors which have changed over the course of the last 12 months for both teams which have led us down the road we are currently on.
It was little over 12 months ago the two sides met on Wearside; a 2-0 win for Tony Mowbray’s Sunderland with goals from Ross Stewart and Amad Diallo. There, in itself, is part of Sunderland’s problem. Between the Scotsman and the Ivorian on loan from Manchester United last season, they contributed 30 goals in 51 combined appearances in Sunderland’s league and play-off campaign – a staggering return, individually each only behind Jack Clarke's nine goals and 11 assists for 20 contributions.
Clarke, who remains, is already at 17 goal contributions this season after his role in Rusyn’s equalising goal for Sunderland here at the Riverside. Beyond that, Ba and Dan Neil are next with seven contributions each – 16 shy of Stewart and Amad’s contribution despite surpassing their total of games already.
Naturally, there is mitigation in terms of the on-field position of both Neil and Ba in contrast to Stewart and Amad, but therein lies the point of Sunderland’s struggle.
And it’s the same for Middlesbrough and Carrick who are without Chuba Akpom and Cameron Archer who were both involved in that game at the Stadium of Light last January. Akpom led the way with 30 goal contributions (28 goals and two assists) ahead of Archer who contributed towards 17 goals (11 goals and six assists). Fast-forward to where we are currently for Middlesbrough and their highest goal contributions come from Matt Crooks (9) and Sam Greenwood (8), some 30 contributions behind the tally racked up by Akpom and Archer last season.
Stewart’s sale to Southampton mirrors Middlesbrough’s sale of Akpom to Ajax while both Amad and Archer returned to their parent clubs from successful loan spells. Neither of each respective teams’ duo have been replaced to an adequate extent in terms of outright figures. The science is there.
Beale, since his introduction, has turned down the dial a little on Sunderland’s sometimes chaotic, high-energy football that we saw last season under Mowbray in an attempt to find more control in games as well as some better organisation and defensive grounding. But it’s their chance conversion which remains the key factor here – Sunderland the joint-lowest scorers in the top half of the Championship with 41 goals alongside West Bromwich Albion who have played a game fewer but have also conceded five less than Sunderland.
Sunderland’s attacking metrics are actually trending in a positive direction in relation their 2022-23 per game averages. But the flair and ruthlessness of the likes of Stewart and Amad are so difficult to replace – likewise Akpom and Archer on Teesside.
Beale kept faith in Chelsea loanee Mason Burstow at the Riverside after the 20-year-old had scored his first goal for the club last time out against Stoke. But Burstow was involved in just 16 passes all afternoon with both Ba and Clarke operating in a much more advanced position than the striker when you look at Sunderland’s average pass map. Similarly for Middlesbrough, there is quite an imbalance to their structure – despite Greenwood being the furthest forward, with Boro’s left-hand-side collapsed in comparison to their right where goalscorer Forss operated from.
When it comes to progressive passes, it was both Ba and Forss who received the most from their team-mates – both in the right wing area – as opposed to either Burstow and Greenwood through the centre. Rusyn’s introduction certainly improved Sunderland's final third approaches purely by his positioning and off the ball runs, with the Ukrainian eventually grabbing the equaliser for Sunderland from Clarke’s brilliance.
The goal ignited Sunderland, and Clarke in particular, as Beale’s side might have gone on to win the game. Clarke often got to the byline to put a ball across the face of goal but there were no Sunderland shirts really gambling on that opportunity presenting itself inside Middlesbrough’s penalty area.
Carrick’s side endured similar frustrations when the likes of Greenwood and Hayden Hackney struggled to get the ball from under their feet in the first half while Finn Azaz blazed over with the goal gaping.
When Wearside meets Teesside, it tends to be a close and tentative affair. Of the last 15 meetings in all competitions dating back to 2007, prior to Sunday’s 1-1 draw, only four of those have seen a margin of victory by more than one goal – one of those being Sunderland’s 2-0 win at the Stadium of Light last season, another being their 4-0 defeat there this season – both fixtures seeing significant red card decisions altering the games momentum. This game followed a similar path.
There were moments of bright and encouraging attacking play from both teams as they looked to build through the thirds. Clarke was back to his best for Sunderland while Forss was impressive for Middlesbrough. There were the odd niggly challenges that games of this magnitude lust for. But in the end, as both sets of supporters made their way from the Riverside, both were left feeling a little empty.
“We’ll take the draw, but we’re not happy with it,” were the words of Clarke in his post-match interview. And you get that feeling from both sides.
This was an opportunity for Sunderland to move back into the play-off spots, whereas it was an opportunity for Middlesbrough to move level on points with their rivals. Yet it all just ended a little bit flat, confirming where both teams currently are at this season in that they are defensively quite sound, with a smattering of talent throughout their squads, but both may face a struggle to maintain their push and ultimately break into the play-off places come the end of the season with each jigsaw missing that final piece.
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