The countdown to the new season continues.
Today represents game day number six of Derby County’s pre-season campaign as preparations continue to build up ahead of their Sky Bet Championship opener against Sunderland on Friday 4th August.
Since the middle of July, dcfc.co.uk has been counting down to the new season by profiling each and every team the Rams come up against over the coming year.
Next up, we take a look at one of the other sides that were relegated from the Premier League last term.
Middlesbrough
Nickname: Boro
Manager: Garry Monk
Stadium Capacity: 33,746
Finishing Place Last Season: 19th, Relegated from the Premier League (28 Points)
Top Scorer (2016/17): Alvaro Negredo (9 Goals)
Promotion Odds (According to Coral): 5/2
When Do We Play Boro?
Home – Saturday 21st April 2018 (kick-off: 3pm)
Away – Saturday 25th November 2017 (kick-off: 3pm)
What Were The Scores Last Time Out (2015/16)?
Derby County 1-1 Middlesbrough
Middlesbrough 2-0 Derby County
How Did They Fare Last Season?
After seven successive years in the Sky Bet Championship, Middlesbrough’s first taste of Premier League football since 2009 didn’t go according to plan.
It began with promise.
Ahead of the 2016/17, Aitor Karanka, the club’s then highly-rated Spanish head coach, sought to add a mixture of big names with a wealth of experience behind them with up and coming youth.
Boro attracted notable players in the form of Alvaro Negredo, Victor Valdez and Brad Guzan, combining it with the high profile captures of Gastón Ramírez, Viktor Fischer and Marten de Roon – all moves which appeared shrewd ahead of a challenge to remain in the top flight.
On the pitch too they got off to a respectable start.
An opening day draw against Stoke City was backed up with four points from six – after a 2-1 win over Sunderland and a 0-0 draw at West Bromwich Albion – in the two games that proceeded.
Karanka’s Middlesbrough were renowned to be hard to beat and this proved to be the case over the first half of the season.
All their games were close affairs, but they picked key wins against perceived relegation rivals AFC Bournemouth, Hull City and Swansea City.
After the latter, Boro sat 14th and looked on course for survival.
But it was at this point that their season took a turn.
Boro’s hard to beat mentality had taken them as far as they could go, but their lack of goals at the other end of the pitch began to cost them.
Results dried up and Middlesbrough embarked on a 16-game winless run dating all the way to the end of April and, ultimately, it cost Karanka his job as the club desperately tried to rectify their position and salvage their season.
Up stepped assistant manager Steve Agnew on a temporary basis, but he could not save their season as the Riversiders went on to record only one further win as their relegation back to the Championship was confirmed.
Boro finished in the 19th place as the division’s lowest scorers; managing just one win in 2017.
The club, however, have moved quickly to make sure their stay back in the second tier is merely a brief fling.
Garry Monk, having taken Leeds United to the cusp of a play-off finish, is now in charge and the club, in recent weeks, has invested heavily on adding firepower and further strength in depth to the squad – ensuring they look a strong contender to fulfil Steve Gibson’s ambition to bounce back to the Premier League at the first time of asking.
