Experience leads the way for Middlesbrough, while a potential new partnership presents itself

The talking points and conclusions after Middlesbrough’s victory over Southampton

Middlesbrough finally claimed their first league win of the season as they beat Southampton 2-1 at the Riverside after coming from behind. Jonny Howson’s second-half penalty saw Boro take the lead in a Championship game for the very first time this season after Riley McGree had cancelled out Adam Armstrong’s early goal on the stroke of half-time. It meant Boro were finally able to end their winless start to the season on their eighth attempt.

Michael Carrick was delighted with the win and praised his players for their application after the game. But he insisted this must be the start as he looks to orchestrate another dramatic climb up the league table. Here are three conclusions or talking points emerging from the game.

Experience leads the way

There has been much talk lately of Michael Carrick’s tinkering with team selection, and there were two more changes for the Southampton victory. But in restoring Jonny Howson and Isaiah Jones to the starting line-up on Saturday, what was notable was the lack of summer signings in the side.

Only three of the starting players came from the 12 new faces brought in this summer, and two of them, Seny Dieng and Lewis O’Brien, have considerable Championship experience prior to joining Boro. It proved the right call as Boro finally got that first league win of the season.

It’s no secret that, so far, many of Boro’s summer signings have struggled to make the impact they would have hoped. Largely all younger players with their better years ahead, and many arriving from different countries and thus experiencing the unique challenge of English football for the very first time, there have clear issues so far with adapting on Teesside.

Carrick turning back to more experienced heads and getting the desired results reminded of the last time Boro really tried recruitment like this – back in 2019-20 and the so-called ‘golden thread’. While the ideas of that and this current recruitment focus were very similar, so too was the fact that the new players were perhaps expected to do a little bit too much too soon back then as now.

Instead, teams that have similar recruitment models and have made a success of it tend to allow their new arrivals much more time to bed in than Boro have so far. Brighton chief executive Paul Barber discussed exactly that in last month’s edition of Four Four Two magazine.

He said: “We try to have players through the door before we need them. In an ideal world, you don’t want to be targeting a player right after you’ve sold one. It’s better if you’ve already got someone in your building.”

What we shouldn’t conclude from this is that Boro’s summer signings are not good enough. That might yet prove the case with some, but they all deserve the time they need to adapt, learn new tactics and integrate. For now at least, it would appear a more sensible approach for as much as possible will be using them in drips and drabs, rather than overly relying on them, as Carrick noted ahead of the game the need to gel and form connections.

Substitute appearances and cup games like on Tuesday evening at Bradford, seem a friendlier way of supporting the young lads newly arriving, and helping them gradually find their feet, as opposed to immediately throwing a lot in at the deep end all at once. It’s a potential lesson to be learned in what is still the infancy of a very new recruitment model.

The future can be brighter

While the hope will be that many of the new players can eventually get themselves up to speed and make a mark, there were showings on the pitch on Saturday that prove a bright future for the club as well. Three of their starters were 21 or under, while another three were 24.

While O’Brien is only a loan player, the other five youngsters are Boro-owned and all had really good games. Riley McGree and Isaiah Jones were magnificent in attack and caused Southampton’s defence all kinds of problems, as did striker Josh Coburn in a man-of-the-match display.

Hayden Hackney was influential again as he continues to perform with a level of maturity well beyond his years, while, for all the talk above of new players not bedding in, 19-year-old Rav van den Berg continues to show why he is one of the most exciting signings of the summer transfer window.

Boro’s first hope will be that they can get to the Premier League sooner rather than later so that they can stand a better chance of keeping hold of their star assets. But for as long as they remain in the Championship, the fact is that their recruitment model does rely on player trading to keep their finances at a level that can allow them to remain competitive. That’s why, rather than too many loan signings this summer, there was such a high focus on signing their own players.

After recent big-money sales of Djed Spence, Marcus Tavernier and Chuba Akpom to help offset losses of over £80m in the past three years, it’s fair to say that Boro still have plenty more assets at the club that can hopefully continue to grow and command similar fees should that need to be the case.

Is there potential in a Coburn-Latte Lath partnership?

As noted above, Coburn was magnificent against Southampton. Leading the line for Boro, he showed incredible strength and intelligence to create problems all afternoon for the opposition and link up play to bring his team-mates into play superbly. Winning headers, providing a focal point and even winning the decisive penalty, his performance was reminiscent of the kind of work Chuba Akpom would do for the team last season.

While Boro are obviously missing Akpom’s goals of last season, as Carrick stressed all along during that incredible run, it was also Akpom’s overall involvement that made him so important. And thus far, Boro have massively missed that outlet as they’ve struggled for as much control in games.

But with Coburn up top, there were times when he provided that similar back-to-goal work that Akpom provided so often. And while watching it was a joy, it also brought considerations for a potential partnership moving forward, as Matt Crooks and Morgan Rogers have so far yet to convince in the slightly deeper central forward role in Carrick’s side.

While Emmanuel Latte Lath’s start at Boro has had plenty of frustrating moments as the Ivorian struggled for composure in front of goal, his exciting style and potential to hassle and trouble defenders cannot be understated. There’s potential merit in pairing Coburn and Latte Lath together based on what Coburn showed against Southampton. Without expecting similar results, there’s potential there for the pair to form a partnership similar to the one Akpom and Cameron Archer had last season.