STRIKER light! Boro's high risk decision to not add firepower in the Summer is already causing headaches.... but just imagine the nightmare scenario if Yakubu got injured. That chilling thought struck me as the Gazette Sports Posse discussed the possible line-up at Watford.
Naturally all the talk revolved around the Nigerian. Mac and Yak had got to be better than the failed experiment of Euell alongside (or behind, or on the same pitch but rarely the same half) as him at Manchester City. Hasn't it?
But just think, without the Yak it could be Maccarone and Euell. Or Maccarone as a lone striker in front of a defensive five. Or Danny Graham playing with Robert Huth as a makeshift targetman. Hallowe'en may have passed now but be scared, be very scared. I am although I am not so sure about Premiership defences.
Boro's squad is wafer thin in some keys positions and up-front is one of them. With Mark Viduka out exactly how thin is now dangerously apparent and powder puff Boro must hope and pray that Yakubu stays fighting fit.
There were plenty of grumbles of discontent in the Summer when veteran hitman Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink was released with no incoming replacement and there were dire predictions of the folly of expecting the existing fourth and fifth choice strikers to step up to the plate. Viduka was bound to get injured at some point, the critics insisted, and they were right.
Now, I had no problem with letting Jimmy go; he was 36 and wanted £40,000 a week over two years. That is a £4m investment in an overly assertive character player who was never shy of letting the dressing room know when he was unhappy at being on the bench.
But he had to be replaced with a striker with power and pace who could provide Premiership goals and who could step into the starting line-up and provide competition and goals. Despite deadline week background noise - David Nugent was mentioned - no one arrived and the club concentrated on other areas and gambled on going with what they had up front. Hmmmm.
Most Boro fans had already discounted Maccarone as a viable long term starting striker. As a substitute he could always come on - earning a huge cheer in the process - and bust a gut running around chasing lost causes for 20 minutes. And there is no doubt he scored two of most valuable and spectacular goals in Boro history and will be remembered eternally for them.
But, with the best will in the world, he has never really grabbed the Premiership by the throat. He was superb at Spurs in his first season and since then has sporadically shown flashes of promise and done enough coming off the bench to encourage the notion that he should be given his chance yet whenever he starts he is quickly muscled out of the game, offers little to trouble opposition defences and as we saw at City, lacks the killer touch in front of goal.
Had he not been the club record signing and hence an embarrassing political problem for his red-faced former manager he would have been bombed out years ago. As it is, he is going to leave on a free at the end of the season leaving a whole new concept of value for money behind.
Injury-jinxed Malcolm Christie is another that most supporters never expected to feature in the first team again so when we got the old "he's like a new signing " line in the Summer there
was an audible groan. The perma-crocked frontman has been very, very unlucky and you have got to feel for him but sympathy isn't enough reason to think of him as the answer. Even if he came back as good as he ever was he would still fall short of what is needed.
Then there is Danny Graham. We cheered when he put his mouth in where the boots were flying and beavered away in an agricultural manner but he has never delivered on that early promise and has now all but disappeared off the radar.
If any of those three came in and made me look stupid with a net-busting run of performances to savour I would be delighted to put my hand up and take the flak but the evidence suggests that the second string strikers Gareth Southgate inherited from Steve McClaren are unlikely to set the Premiership on fire.
Which leaves Jason Euell. As a striker at Charlton he got into double figures three years running so he has done it in the top flight but he looked far from comfortable at City. His displays in midfield have shown he can break forward and get into dangerous positions in the box, although he could do with some shooting practice but as a frontman he is far from ideal. He lacks real presence, struggles with his back to goal and needs satnav to find the goal.
Plus playing him up front leaves the problem of a lack of creativity in the middle and, frankly, the lack of pace and passing ability in the central pairing of Boateng and Rochemback on Monday was frightening. Against high-tempo, physical Watford I fear that unit would get swamped and be unable to impose any pattern on the game so Euell may be better used there.
So, there is a strong argument then for a five man midfield with Yakubu starting up front on his own (yes, I know, against bloody Watford!) and the problem of lightweight front-line cover can be left on the back-burner for now. But we can't afford him to get injured.
Viduka is out for six weeks. That is a long time to be praying for the Yak's well-being. Come January that is another problem position to be urgently addressed.
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