Kim Hellberg blasts Middlesbrough players after 'lazy' Portsmouth defeat - "Like watching paint dry"
Middlesbrough fell to a devastating late 1-0 defeat at home to Portsmouth on Saturday.
Kim Hellberg has blasted his Middlesbrough players for the ‘boring’ and ‘lazy’ performance they delivered in Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at home to Portsmouth on Saturday.
Just as they did in their five previous matches, Boro utterly outshot the visitors at the Riverside Stadium 20 attempts to three - with 14 of those shots coming in a period of intense second-half pressure. However, try as they might, the Teessiders just couldn’t find a breakthrough, eventually succumbing to a 97th-minute Conor Chaplin goal from a corner.
Boro’s automatic promotion hopes now look to have gone up in smoke. Winless in six, Hellberg’s side have slipped to fourth in the Championship table and three points adrift of second-place Ipswich Town, who have two games in hand. The only glimmer of hope is the fact that Boro face the Tractor Boys next weekend.
Kim Hellberg blasts Boro players after costly Portsmouth defeat
Saturday was Boro’s costliest result of the season so far, and it was arguably their worst performance. That certainly seems to be the view of Hellberg, who didn’t hold back in his scathing assessment of his players.
“I’m disappointed, devastated. The performance was poor. First half was terrible, it was like watching paint dry. I don't know why,” the Swedish coach said at full-time.
"I must have failed with everything I told them before the game because we weren't good enough. Second half, we come out better.
"Our best spell was in that first 15-20 minutes in the second half when we created enough to at least score the goal. But we are not efficient enough to do that.
"To be fair, the defensive part is okay during the whole game. I don't recognise them having any goal-scoring opportunities through the whole game. And then it's a set piece again. Ball comes out, shoots, deflects. I think it's their two shots in that whole game. 96 minutes. Deja vu from the Bristol City game. It’s tough to take.”
Despite poor results, Hellberg has fiercely defended his players’ performances and application in recent weeks. That was not the case, however, on Saturday, with the Boro boss refusing to mince his words.
Hellberg added: “This was different, we have to be honest with that. im
"I don't think this was a good performance at all. I’ve praised the performances even when we’ve not won, but not today.
"Again, we created most of the chances, but this performance was not good enough. It was boring, it was lazy, there was no energy, except in that first 15-20 minutes in the second half.
"In the first half, it's slow, it's boring, there's no energy. It's not the same way taking the ball back, it's passive.
"That is the disappointment. But, I want to be clear, we should not lose this game.
"This was poor by the high bar we’ve set ourselves. We maybe don't deserve to win, but you cannot lose this game, when they have no chances in the whole game.
"For the moment at home, we're struggling in terms of that, and we, for the moment, find a way to not win. I have to be honest, because everyone sees it. There’s no hiding from that, and that we have to sort out."
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