8 hours ago
15
Kim Hellberg’s determination to succeed as Middlesbrough manager runs deep. So deep that he decided it would be best if his wife and two small children spent Christmas in their native Sweden while he continued to put in 12-hour days on Teesside.
Given that the Hellberg family will soon be reunited in a new home in North Yorkshire and Blackburn’s visit represented the first of four games in nine days it seemed a sensible sacrifice – even if such pragmatism failed to pay the desired Boxing Day dividends.
The former Hammarby head coach had hoped to celebrate the completion of his first month in charge at the Riverside after succeeding Rob Edwards with three points but Blackburn, and their irrepressible midfielder Todd Cantwell, in particular, had different ideas.
While this draw keeps Boro second in the Championship, eight points behind the leaders Coventry, it raised some serious questions about the suitability of Hellberg’s narrow 4-2-2-2 formation.
Before last weekend’s 2-0 defeat at Bristol City, the 37-year-old had presided over four straight wins and Boro appeared to be turning into wingless wonders. Here though Hellberg’s preferred configuration looked overly compact and a system built on plenty of slick, short, sharp one and two-touch passing through midfield malfunctioned a little.
Admittedly the resultant congestion probably helped limit Cantwell’s room for manoeuvre in his often-menacing role behind Blackburn’s front two but he remained influential enough to make longstanding home fans pine for a Stuart Ripley or a Stewart Downing offering an outlet down the wings.
Boro’s own attacks were invariably constructed in central areas and, although players naturally drifted wide at times the lack of crosses and the long diagonal balls often made life relatively straightforward for Valérien’s Ismaël’s back five.
Indeed Blackburn would have taken a late first-half counterattacking lead had Yuki Ohashi not dragged his shot wide at a moment when Hellberg’s defence had come completely undone.
Suitably stung, Boro were very nearly ahead a couple of minutes later after David Strelec and Hayden Hackney conjured a fine break that concluded with Morgan Whittaker watching in disbelief as his right-foot shot rebounded off the inside of a post.
Hellberg liberated Sverre Nypan’s midfield skills from the bench at the start of the second half but even the 19-year-old Manchester City loanee and Norway international was eclipsed by Cantwell’s increasing vision and determination.
The former Norwich and Rangers attacking midfielder has recently recovered from injury and wore an enormous bandage on his already heavily strapped right knee but he refused to allow it to weigh him down.
Cantwell’s cause was helped by the introduction of Moussa Baradji in the heart of Rovers’ midfield. On for the injured Ryoya Morishita, the Frenchman delighted in reducing Hackney’s control of Hellberg’s engine room.
Tellingly a clearly frustrated Hackney subsequently seemed fortunate to be shown a yellow rather than a red card after kicking out at Taylor Gardner-Hickman with the ball long gone.
