‘A missed opportunity’ – Three things learnt from Middlesbrough 2-2 Manchester City

Add as preferred source on Google

Negredo comes back to haunt his former club

Arguably one of the main men responsible for keeping Middlesbrough in with a slim chance of Premier League survival this season, Alvaro Negredo was exceptional against his former side.

His opener, although out of the blue slightly, finished off a lovely counter-attack from the home side, with his curling – albeit lucky – effort found the inside of the post and left Cabellero motionless.

He was a constant thorn in the Manchester City side all afternoon, and whilst his threat doesn’t come from an abundance of pace he more than makes up for it with dogged, physical battles.

Both Vincent Kompany and Nicolas Otamendi found it tough to keep him at bay, and his persistence inside the area – even though he was surrounded – created the opening for Boro’s second goal.

A goal and an assist now means that he’s been directly involved in 57.7% of Middlesbrough’s 26 goals this season (nine goals, four assists), and although the big issue with Boro this season has been their inability to find the net often enough, without Negredo things would undoubtedly be a whole lot worse.

It wasn’t just his offensive play that was impressive on Sunday either, with his work ethic being second to none in defence; he made five clearances from corners in a solid all-round day’s work.