Premier League 2016-17 preview, predictions: No. 16, Middlesbrough
With the 2016-17 Premier League season kicking off this weekend, FC Yahoo is rolling out previews for all 20 teams. We’ll be working our way up from the bottom of our predicted table, all the way to the champions.
Last season: Middlesbrough succumbed to Burnley in a tight Championship title race, but second place and automatic promotion suited Boro just fine. The upcoming campaign will be the club’s first in the top flight since 2008-09.
What’s changed: No Middlesbrough player scored more than eight league goals last season, so manager Aitor Karanka’s summer shopping list was undoubtedly headed by a proven goalscorer. And Karanka seems to have gotten his man in former Manchester City striker Alvaro Negredo. Two veteran goalkeepers, Brad Guzan and Victor Valdes, have also joined. So has 22-year-old Danish winger Viktor Fischer. But the big-money signing is Dutch central midfielder Marten de Roon, who arrived from Atalanta for £12.75 million.
FC YAHOO TAKE
Joey Gulino: Meet your new (old?) Premier League crush. The fans are rabid, the kits are clean, and the conditions are ripe for Middlesbrough to reclaim the regular place it had in the Premier League over the first decade of this century. Every season since Karanka’s appointment in November 2013 has seen marked improvement, and this season, that would constitute staying comfortably clear of the relegation zone. With strength at the back (Valdes, Guzan), the middle (de Roon) and especially the front (Negredo), Boro will take the fight to the big boys right out of the gate.
Alex Baker: While Boro has seen success under Karanka, the manager’s relationship with players and match officials has often been a tumultuous one. Thrown into the pressure cooker of a Premier League campaign, there is a very genuine risk of things boiling over. Boro, accustomed to winning at home against teams that dig in and try to hit on the counter, will find things different in the top flight where an impressive home record will be sullied and teams will be unafraid to attack them outright. It has all the makings of a short stay in the Premier League.
Bookmakers say: Point total over/under: 39.5 | Title odds: 1000/1 | Relegation odds: 2/1
FC YAHOO PREDICTIONS
Shahan Ahmed: 12 | Ryan Bailey: 16 | Alex Baker: 17 | Henry Bushnell: 14 | Joey Gulino: 11 | Joe Lago: 15 | Leander Schaerlaeckens: 18 | Average: 14.7 (16th)
More Previews
Arsenal | Bournemouth | Burnley | Chelsea | Crystal Palace | Everton | Hull City | Leicester City | Liverpool | Manchester City | Manchester United | Middlesbrough | Southampton | Stoke City | Sunderland | Swansea City | Tottenham | Watford | West Brom | West Ham
