The new "Premier" league season will start on August 13th, which means there are only 19 days left until the start of the English championship. As the competitions approach relentlessly, Eurofootball.com will provide you with an overview of all twenty "Premier" league teams. In the second part, we will review the team "Middlesbrough" which played in the "Championship" division last season, securing the second place and a ticket to the highest league. "Middlesbrough" History: The team was founded in 1876 and will play in the "Premier" league for the fifteenth season. Their best finish in this league was 7th place. The last time they played in the "Premier" league was in the 2008-2009 season, when they finished in 19th position. Last season: In the 2015-2016 "Championship" competitions, "Middlesbrough" collected 89 points and, thanks to a better goal difference, surpassed "Brighton & Hove Albion" to secure the second position, guaranteeing a direct promotion to the "Premier" league. Changes after last season: The team started assembling the squad for the "Premier" league immediately after the end of last season. Initially, they parted ways with two defenders who did not perform well last season, and later the team started acquiring newcomers. Initially, the club bought left-back Viktor Fischer from "Ajax" for 5 million euros, and later acquired their most expensive summer signing - Marten de Roon from "Atalanta". The 25-year-old midfielder cost "Middlesbrough" 15 million euros. Meanwhile, they also bought right-back Antonio Barragan from "Valencia" for a fee of 2.7 million euros. The squad was also supplemented with four players for whom the team did not pay any transfer fees. Defender Bernardo Espinosa, goalkeeper Victor Valdes, and midfielder Gaston Ramirez joined the club without any transfer fees, while striker Alvaro Negredo was loaned from the "Valencia" team. Players worth paying attention to: Victor Valdes. Valdes comes to "Middlesbrough" with a huge motivation to prove that he was not considered unnecessary during his one and a half years at "Manchester United". At the end of last season, the Spaniard was loaned to the "Standard Liege" team, where he sought to gain playing practice and revitalize his form. However, in three months in Belgium, he only played eight matches, keeping a clean sheet only once. Playing for "Middlesbrough" could be Valdes's last chance to prove that he can still play top-level football, so watching this goalkeeper perform in his new team will be truly interesting. Marten de Roon. The defensive midfielder who played in the Italian league last season is the biggest and most important newcomer to "Middlesbrough" this year. However, the team did not pay such a large amount for him for nothing - last season, the Dutchman led the "Serie A" in interceptions. He also ranked among the top five players in the league for interceptions, so there should be no doubt about his defensive abilities. His productivity will depend only on how well he adapts to the football of the "Premier" league. Alvaro Negredo. Negredo is another experienced player who is going to "Middlesbrough" to revive his reputation. In the last two seasons, he scored just five goals in the "La Liga" championship, which is far from the striker who scored 25 times in the 2012-2013 season and moved to the "Manchester City" team for 25 million euros. He played only one season for the "City" team, where he scored 9 goals, and although it was not an excellent result, last season the "Middlesbrough" team could not boast of such productivity even from the strikers who played. David Nugent was the top scorer with 8 goals, so Negredo was called to the team hoping that he would be the player who takes on the role of the attacking leader. Team's strengths: Experience. 22-year-old newcomer Viktor Fischer could be the youngest player in the team next season and one of the few 25-year-old "Middlesbrough" footballers. The team did not lack experienced players last season, and with Valdes and Negredo joining them, there are even more experienced footballers in the squad. Last season, experience brought them a ticket to the "Premier" league, and we will see the results of this in the new season soon. Crossed balls into the penalty area and the game in the second tier. Although this team was not among the best in aerial duels, a significant part of their attacking game consists of crossing balls from the sides. They were the team that most frequently used this element, creating 15 goals scored with headers. The new team striker, Alvaro Negredo, who has repeatedly proven in his career that he can successfully score goals in the second tier, so the team's style of play should not change much. Set pieces. Last season, "Middlesbrough" scored 15 goals from set pieces, but this is not the most impressive indicator of their ability to execute standard situations. In the "Championship" division last year, they were the only team that managed to find the team mate more often than every other corner kick. Although in the "Premier" league there were four clubs that did this, none of them could boast such a successful corner kick statistics (55.2% of "Middlesbrough" corner kicks found their teammates). Interesting facts about "Middlesbrough": Throughout their history, "Middlesbrough" has been relegated to the third tier of English football twice. Both times, in their first season, they finished second and returned to a higher league; The biggest achievement of the club was winning the League Cup in the 2003-2004 season; Throughout the club's history, this team has only participated in European tournaments twice. In the 2004-2005 season, they reached the semifinals of the UEFA Cup, and a year later they reached the final of the tournament. However, in the final, they were crushed 0-4 by the then-first trophy winners, the "Sevilla" team. Since that final, "Middlesbrough" has not played a single match in Europe, while "Sevilla" can boast of winning four such competition titles; Team coach Aitor Karanka worked as an assistant to Jose Mourinho at "Real" team. When Mourinho left the post, Karanka also left, and for him, the work at the "Middlesbrough" club is the first where he is the head coach of the team; Karanka is also the first coach not from Great Britain in the history of the team; When he came from Spain, Karanka also brought many compatriots. Currently, there are seven players in the team who have Spanish nationality; The most matches played for this club were by Tim Williamson - 603, and the most goals scored by George Camsell - 345. Both records have been held for more than 75 years.
Tautvydas Sakalauskas
