“West Brom, Norwich or Coventry” – Dom Matteo issues clear Middlesbrough play-off verdict

Although Michael Carrick’s team still has a lot of work to do in the next five games, he has issued a challenge to his team to win their next five games and spoil the plans of some of the other play-off contenders who are in front of them.

In their last seven games, his squad has won five and drawn two. They now have a faint hope of placing in the top six thanks to this purple patch, but they will need to overcome a goal differential that effectively separates them from them by seven points.

Carrick stated to the Northern Echo, “It’s hard to say,” about the subject. This is the season when things go awry with the results. We simply need to keep playing one game at a time and who knows? We cannot lose sight of the ball, especially with the games approaching. We’ll fight on and give it our best shot. The longer we stay here and have this opportunity, the better.” Against struggling opponents, Norwich City and Coventry City both triumphed handily against Ipswich Town and Leeds United, while West Bromwich Albion dropped points for the third straight game as they only managed a 2-2 draw away to Stoke City. Dominic Matteo, a former footballer for Stoke, Leeds, and Blackpool, has predicted which of the four contending teams will take the remaining two play-off berths.

Dominic Matteo about the play-off championship race

Through William Hill, Matteo exclusively revealed to Football League World his belief that Michael Carrick’s team hasn’t done enough to qualify for the playoffs and that their late-season success won’t be sufficient to close the deficit they had created for themselves. “Boro has lost too much time this season,” the former Scottish international remarked.”I don’t think they have enough to compete with clubs like West Brom, Norwich, or Coventry, where two of these three teams will finish in the top two slots, especially with their remaining challenging games.

“They would also need others to slip up, but I don’t see this happening as West Brom and Norwich have been more consistent this season and Coventry will also push on following their win over Leeds.” “Away to Hull [City] & Ipswich, followed by a home game against Leeds are all tough fixtures.”

Middlesbrough supporters could take two distinct views on their recent performance.

Fans of Boro were expecting them to step it up and battle for promotion back to the Premier League following their incredibly positive campaign in the previous season. It was difficult to accept and even more difficult to replace Chuba Akpom and Cameron Archer’s summertime losses.

Up until lately, Middlesbrough had not really found their rhythm. There will be two distinct perspectives on this season and the past few months if there isn’t a play-off run. One will be that their subpar performance earlier in the season means they have lost out on another fantastic chance to return to the Premier League. Another line of reasoning is that these performances, at this point in the season, are positive indicators for the following term.

The atmosphere and quality of football at Riverside Stadium did not please the Swansea manager.

Players that are beginning to establish consistency include Emmanuel Latte Lath, who has five goals in his previous seven games for Boro. While there will be concerns that this season and the next season could end in failure, there will also be hopes that they can continue this into the following campaign.