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Stoke vs Middlesbrough – Match Preview

Stoke may be in the relative comfort of 10th place in the Premier League but all does not seem to be well at The Bet365 Stadium, many feel that Mark Hughes has taken the club as far as he can and his stock will not be particularly high after they suffered a third consecutive 4-0 defeat to Tottenham last Sunday.

Today they play host to a Middlesbrough side who are precariously sitting on the right side of the relegation dotted line by the virtue of Goal Difference. It’s only the fact that they are losing games by small margins which has kept them above Crystal Palace right now.

This Middlesbrough can only be summed up in two words – goal shy. Just 19 goals in the first two thirds of the season, if this rate continues they will be on course to score less than 30 goals. That surely will be a statistic that send Aitor Karanka’s side down at the end of the season.

And it’s that knowledge that gives their opposition hope in that they only have to get ahead and more often than not the game is won. Middlesbrough’s propensity to not find the net in almost staggering for a top flight club especially with the supposed talent they have at their disposal.

After a relatively bright start to the season Alvaro Negredo has come nowhere near to living up to his reported £100k weekly wage, while the new additions of Rudy Gestede and perennial loanee Patrick Bamford have done little to help the clubs plight in front of goal.

Something has to change for ‘Boro as week by week they are slowly getting pulled closer and closer to the bottom three. They are now at the point where the safety net they may have had has been eroded, if this continues they will easily be overtaken by the three clubs below them.

It may be basics but a lack of goals is going to be any clubs undoing but the crisis at Middlesbrough is a stark one, they need to find their shooting boots in these last 12 league games or it looks like being a very swift return to The Championship.

For Stoke they will look to put last Sunday’s White Hart Pain behind them, bar a Peter Crouch chance when Tottenham were only 1-o up they never really turned up to North London in a game that was sealed up and put to bed by half time with the hosts being 4-0 up.

It was another embarrassing defeat for Stoke, something that has happened to many times this season. It seems as if when they lose they lose big. Losing by 4 seemed to be the preserve of the early season but it once again reared it’s ugly head last weekend.

The hope for Mark Hughes is that his side can dust themselves off and put a Middlesbrough side to the sword which would in turn cause more headaches for Aitor Karanka. Should Stoke take the lead then you would have the feeling that it would be all but game over this Afternoon.

And that is what will define the game, should Stoke take the ascendancy in the game then you wonder how this traveling Middlesbrough side will manage to get a foothold in the game. For that reason I can’t see anything other than a home win.

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