Jonathan Woodgate opens up on struggles at Middlesbrough, agenda from fans and his style of play in chat with ex-Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher

Woodgate replaced Tony Pulis as Boro boss in June 2019 but believes some fans had already made up their minds about him before he got the job.

The Teessiders were sucked into a relegation battle which led to Woodgate’s sacking following a 3-0 defeat by Swansea when football returned after the first coronavirus lockdown.

Speaking to former England team-mate Jamie Carragher during The Greatest Game Podcast, Woodgate once again praised Boro chairman Steve Gibson for giving him the opportunity to manage his hometown club, while admitting he didn’t have the right players to implement his preferred style of play.

“It’s not nice. It’s difficult when you’re managing your hometown club," Woodgate told Carragher when asked about his struggles at Boro.

“You have a lot of responsibility to take on, and then when you get the sack after a short period of time it’s not a nice feeling."

Woodgate admitted he still keeps an eye on Boro’s results but had to get away from the area following his departure, while the club were still fighting to avoid relegation from the Championship.

“When you watch them play, or listen to them on the radio or whatever, it’s difficult because I’m a Boro lad," Woodgate added.

“I’m a Middlesbrough fan and I want them to do well.

“I still speak to some of my former colleagues there and I’ll say ‘great result’ or whatever.

“I didn’t want Middlesbrough to go down. That is one thing for sure. I’d watch the games.

“When I got the sack I just needed to get away but we were in lockdown. So I went to Ibiza for four weeks. I needed it to get away.”

Boro allowed several players to leave the Riverside before Woodgate took charge while the club missed out on multiple transfer targets.

Yet Woodgate still has nothing but praise for Gibson and respected the chairman’s decision in the summer.

"It happens. The chairman was really good to me. But you need the full backing,” said Woodgate.

“When I got the job we lost six players like John Obi Mikel, Jordan Hugill, Downing, Randolph, Flint, and Martin Braithwaite went too.

“You need to replace those players but we didn’t do that. The club were in a difficult situation.

“But the chairman has done an unbelievable job for that football club. The money he pumps into that football club now from his own back pocket is unbelievable.”

When Woodgate was appointed as Boro’s first-team manager, he told the media he wanted to play attacking football and for his team to play out from the back.

However, it quickly became apparent the Teessiders didn’t have the players to implement Woodgate’s initial ideas, with the former defender trying to change Boro’s style from the one used by Pulis.

“He’s very structured in his approach and he gets results from doing it,” said Woodgate when asked about Pulis. “He kept Stoke in the Premier League for however many years it was, and look what happened when he left.

“You have your own philosophy and how you want to play the game.

“I wanted to play out from the back. But we played against Salford away in a pre-season friendly and I realised we just couldn’t do it because we didn’t have the players to do it.

“So I came in at half-time and blamed the pitch and the ball, rather than the players. But we didn’t have the players to do it in the way I wanted to do it and so we had to change.

“You’ve got to try and play to the strength of the players and those players weren’t able to play out from the back for me. I had to move on straight away.

“I wanted to do it in a different way to Tony, but that’s not saying his way was wrong.

“But I wanted to change the way we played but it was going to have to be a progressive thing and you need the time to do it.

“For example, if you look at when Klopp came in at Liverpool, it took him four years to win a title.

“I’m not going to change the style of a player in six months. It isn’t going to happen. You need time.”

When asked about criticism from supporters, Woodgate added: “I’m quite single-minded when it comes to things like that. I don’t read anything," he said.

“But you hear it. There was an agenda even before I got the job. People didn’t want me to get the job.

“I’d say it was 50/50 or maybe 60/40 against me getting the job from the supporters.

“I got the job, results weren’t going our way and I was just getting a barrage of abuse.

“You change it around, win four on the spin and win manager of the month and then they’re all with you.

“Then the next minute you lose a couple and it’s bang, bang, bang again.

“I don’t know why that was the case. Lack of experience? I’d been coaching for four and a half years. I’d done recruitment work at Liverpool for eight months. I had plenty of experience behind me of how football clubs work.

“Maybe the supporters wanted someone better, and I’ve no problem with that. You’ll get abused no matter what role, it’s how it is.”

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