Tony Mowbray spoke about his return to the Riverside on Monday night, and also explained that the new signings, while talented, may need a bedding-in period to adjust to English football...
GOOD RECORD AT RIVERSIDE
“The teams I’ve managed in the past against Middlesbrough at the Riverside, we’ve usually tended to pick up good results. I hope and expect us to go down there on Monday and give a really good account of ourselves."
DERBY ATMOSPHERE
“In games like these, every tackle, every ball and every duel – the game looks after itself, and the atmosphere from the supporters comes with that. We’ll contest every ball ferociously – they tend to be tight games, and we’re looking forward to it."
BORO RETURN
“Any kind of reception I don’t really think about. Of course there is an affection there as I spent 12 years of my life at Middlesbrough. But like I say, this is my job, this is where I’m proud to work and we’ll be doing everything we can to get three points on Monday night.”
NEW SIGNINGS
"They will need time to settle, and we need to work on the communication side a bit with one or two in terms of their English. We shouldn't see it as a negative at all if it takes them a little bit of time, and the positive for us is that the team are functioning pretty well out on the grass at the moment, so we can give them that. They'll understand where they're at, there'll be a natural period for them to grow into the group. We have talked about putting some bounce games on to give them that game time, get them going, get them in that red-and-white shirt and feel part of the set-up."
TALENTED
"They have been very exciting watching them on the grass, they are fast and lively, athletic. They can dribble and run and shoot. I don't want to throw them straight in against Millwall at home for example and it's the land of the giants all of a sudden, we have to ease them in I think. If we pick up some substantial injuries and we have to put one of them in [I will], because they are very talented."
PHYSICALITY
"The only issue I have at this moment in time is that they're not 6ft 4, tall, muscly lads and this is the Championship. But they have talent and that is what I want [to work with]. If you've got a team that's functioning and you bring one of these lads on, they skip past a few and play a reverse pass... you can see it in training when they get the ball and they're off. It's exciting, so let's see. It's up to me to find the right time and the right moment, so the team is functioning and there's a confidence, and they can just enhance it really."
SEASON PREDICTIONS
"I'm not going to fall down that hole! Let's see how it goes. I'm sorry to see this but let's just take each game as it comes."
TOUGH LEAGUE
"With Blackburn, we fell into League One and we managed to bounce back and have three years or so. It is a really tough league. There is a lot of travelling, experienced players, coaches. Every game is tough and it is very attritional. It's great to win some football matches and we aspire to keep winning. I know there are some difficult days around the corner but that is football."
ANYONE CAN BEAT ANYONE
"With this season, there is no Fulham in there. You play Fulham last season and you felt their quality all over the pitch in every position. I'm not sure that those teams are in this league this year. If you can get your own model right and your team functioning, I think everybody will be competitive. In all the games I've watched of our team, they've been competitive in every match. I've watched the Norwich game and they are up there as the favourites and for long spells in that game, we were the better football side. Positive, threatening and look like we were going to score. It's exciting and it is a great league. Let's enjoy the challenge of it and the journey and we will if we keep picking up points and finding the right performance level."
