Britt's not the Problem

By Daniel Ragusa

As January looms, rumours of wholesale change at the Riverside are flying round.

Britt Assombalonga has emerged as one of those rumours after being recently linked with a move to Crystal Palace by Teamtalk and the Northern Echo.

However, the rumoured deal would involve a swap deal with Connor Wickham, a player who’s only scored seven goals in the last three seasons.

If you are to assess whether Britt should stay or not, the following factors must be considered.

The Goal Record

Simple as that. Britt’s goalscoring record in the EFL speaks for itself. He’s played 209 games and scored 89 times.

This season hasn’t been great for Boro’s number nine so far, who looks as though he’s lacking in confidence.

Montages of his misses over the past two seasons won’t help his confidence and will only serve to create a toxic atmosphere between the players, the club and its fans.

In the modern game, players look at Twitter, and should Britt see a compilation like the one posted recently, it’s not exactly going to help him. Strikers know when they should score and I’m sure that Britt is his own harshest critic.

Despite the stick he’s been getting, Britt has still emerged as our top goalscorer so far this season, having fired in two more than Hugill after a similar number of games.

Six goals in twenty games is nothing to be sniffed at, especially when you consider a lot of those appearances have come as a late substitution, particularly in recent weeks.

Britt scores important goals too – his goal against Millwall to clinch a play-off spot last season springs to mind.

In a team that has failed to catch the eye offensively this season, it makes no sense to sell our best attacking threat.

The Price Tag

Because of his recent drop in form, Britt is highly unlikely to sell for the full £15m that we signed him for.

This means that we are likely to make a loss on him after just one season. If we kept him and he scored more goals then his value would rocket.

On the other hand, though the extent of this may be fairly limited after just six months to a year more, his value could plummet even further if we kept hold of him and his goalscoring record didn’t improve.

Nevertheless, it’s a risk worth taking in my opinion.

The Age

At the age of 26, Britt still has his best footballing years to come, especially at this level.

Think about Daryl Murphy, he’s still playing near the top of the Championship aged 35. Should Britt replicate that, it means he could be playing at this level for at least another nine seasons.

Due to him being of a fairly young age in what is an experienced and aging squad, he appears to be involved with the youngsters at the club.

Being able to gel with both the older and younger generation is key and helps with team chemistry on and off the field too.

The System

For the majority of his career, Britt has successfully played as a lone striker. However, the lone striker system that Middlesbrough currently employ offers width and therefore a lot of crosses.

Assombalonga is decent in the air, however it’s not his biggest strength, and as a result the current system isn’t particularly well-suited to him.

He needs a system that can play that killer through ball on the ground for him to run onto, rather than hope that the ball falls to him in the box from a ricochet.

We could have Cristiano Ronaldo upfront, but if he’s not getting the service how is he going to score?

Against QPR, Britt was playing on the left wing, a position in which he was destined to fail. His strengths aren’t dribbling, pace and crossing, so why play him there?

The Movement

He may not work as hard for the team as Jordan Hugill, but Assombalonga knows how to move off the ball and create opportunities for his team.

A lot of his movement goes unnoticed. He plays on the shoulder of the last defender and is always wanting the ball played through rather than to feet to then lay off to the midfield.

The second half against Blackburn was the best we’ve seen from an attacking point of view for a while (and it was with ten men).

We had two upfront, in Britt and Hugill, with the latter offering the ball to feet and looking to flick it on to the former.

He only scored the one goal, but we created clear-cut chances and, on another night, we could have scored three of four. If you give Britt three chances in a game, he’s going to score at least one. Can the same be said of any of Boro’s other strikers?

The Manager

Tony Pulis has made his thoughts clear on Britt.

In his interviews he is always on his back saying he should score more, however when he does score like he did against Blackburn to salvage a point, he doesn’t give him the credit he deserves.

Assombalonga often starts as a sub in Pulis’ side, but should Tony not be here by the end of the season and we bring in a different manager with a different style of play, it could suit Britt and we could have the 25 goal a season striker we paid £15m for.

It’s difficult to understand how a manager who finds it difficult to tactically organise an attack can criticise strikers who are starved of any chances to prove their worth.

The Curse

It’s becoming increasingly typical of Boro to sign a natural, proven goalscorer yet somehow manage to make them worse.

Think of Jordan Rhodes. When we signed him, we thought we’d finally got the guy that was going to be a Bernie Slaven-esque attacking talisman. Although he did score very important goals for the club, we destroyed his confidence and ended up shipping him off to Sheffield Wednesday where his career has hit a downwards spiral (until recently with Norwich).

Alvaro Negredo, Premier League winner and an outstanding talent, was starved of goalscoring chances when he got to the Riverside. He’s recently ended up playing in Dubai.

Perhaps it’s just a coincidence but it seems to be becoming a common trend with Boro’s forwards.

The Alternatives

So, it’s February 1st, the transfer window is over. Britt has moved on, who have Boro got upfront?

Hugill is a decent forward who works hard and has great hold-up play, however he lacks Britt’s clinical touch.

Gestede is decent in the air and a good option as a plan B but hasn’t proven he can be the number nine.

Fletcher has struggled to make a huge impact on Teesside and could come good in the future but isn’t ready to be Boro’s focal point yet.

Braithwaite is as good as gone.

We could sign someone else, but who?

Money is tight and Boro won’t spend big, so we’re likely to look for a loan – a short-term solution to a long-term problem, Boro’s lack of goals.

The funny thing is that if Boro were to sell Assombalonga, they’d likely to be looking to replace him with an identical striker who has a similar goalscoring record, so it doesn’t make much sense to sell him.

The Conclusion

Trying to fit square pegs in round holes is not going to work, we should find a system that suits the players we have at our disposal.

Britt is a striker who runs in behind, not a hold up striker, and most certainly not a winger.

Play to his strengths and watch him thrive, prove his worth and be key to our promotion chances this season.

Keeping him on Boro’s books has more benefits than drawbacks for the club.

After all, Britt’s not the problem; it’s the system he plays in.