Boro boss Gordon Strachan eschews any risks

Feb 13 2010 by Luke Edwards, The Journal

GORDON Strachan believes it is better to live within your means and fight for survival in the Premier League than overstretch yourself and risk disaster by gambling on unsustainable success.

Middlesbrough have moved to within just two points of the Championship play off places to rekindle hopes of a top flight return next season, but the club have been careful to balance the books in the process.

The Teessiders have found it difficult to come to terms with their fall from Premier League grace last season and have won just four of their 17 games under Strachan, but the Scot has still managed to keep them in touch with the play-off pack.

A win over bottom club Peterborough United at the Riverside this afternoon could lift Boro into the top six for the first time in 2010 and Strachan feels it is only right the club have been sensible with their finances since relegation.

He said: “West Brom have got it right. They have accepted that 'why chase a ridiculous dream?'

“Why pay millions and millions on transfer fees and wages, just to lift yourselves up to the lofty heights of ninth or eighth.

“West Brom have it right, they can deal with relegation and going up.

“They have been sensible. It's not so much the transfer fees, it's the ridiculous wages.

“If you said to Portsmouth fans, would you swap your day out in the sunshine at the FA Cup final for 20 years of security? I know what the answer would be. Some of my best friends are Portsmouth fans. I know what they would pick.

“You are led from the top of your club, who runs your club. On the financial side, we are well up on the dealings we have done in the last six weeks, for the club. I'm not here to decide how clubs should be run, I'm just saying that the people at the top decide how to run it.”

The 2-0 midweek win over Barnsley was a timely boost to Boro after the January transfer dealings which have given the team a completely different look to the one which stumbled into the New Year.

And Strachan is relatively happy with how things are going in a congested part of the Championship table, which sees just six points separating Leicester City in sixth place and Coventry in 14th.

He said: “The last five games have helped us nearer to the top. We play Blackpool and Forest after Peterborough, so those games would help. As a football manager you have to be prepared for any result.

“We have to get ourselves right, that's all we can do. Everything wrong has not been cured in one performance, but there are signs we are getting harder to beat.

“Now we have to set standards of winning matches regularly, that's what we have to get closer and closer to. It's an ongoing thing. It might takes years to get perfect.”

The Scot also argued it was the arrival of new players, rather than any of his tactical insight, which has helped galvanise Boro’s season.

He explained: “I keep going back to Ireland's game v France, and (Giovanni) Trapattoni's comments.

“France that night had some cosmic formation, but I know who should have gone through.

“If you watch coaches, it's the tactics they talk about, the players played to the tactics. When they get beat, it's all about 'the players let us down today'.

“I'm not saying it should be 4-4-2. What I am saying is that it is down to players, how they pass, how they run, how they jump.”

And no players are more important, according to Strachan, than the strikers who he believes are responsible for the first line of defence as well as putting the ball in the back of the net, with Chris Killen earning a special mention following his first goal for the club.

Strachan added: “Chris has been playing with confidence outside of the box. He was bringing people into play, but hopefully inside the box that goal will help him now.

“Chris has not played regularly for two and a half years now, it was great for us to bring him along. But what we had to do is bring in a player who could hold the play up and bring in midfielders.

“He has done that and he has got into goalscoring positions.

“That's the hardest part for a striker really, but you can only get into those positions again and deal with missing chances of scoring by playing more often.”