Kim Hellberg: Middlesbrough played with hearts not heads in Blackburn stalemate

Kim Hellberg felt his Middlesbrough side played with their hearts rather than their heads during their goalless Championship draw at home to Blackburn.

Boro were the more threatening side for most of the game at the Riverside, but while Morgan Whittaker hit the inside of the post in the first half, they struggled to turn their plentiful possession into goalscoring chances.

The Swedish boss felt, if anything, his attacking players were trying too hard to force a breakthrough, with their desperation to score resulting in their play becoming ragged and unstructured.

Hellberg said: “I think the performance was not good enough. We have had a lot of good performances over the last period of time, but I think this result was quite fair because we didn’t deserve anything more than a draw.

“We’re disappointed with the performance, so we have to live with the result. We take in, move on and have to try to improve.

“We weren’t as good as we want to be. We had some moments, but overall, the game was not good enough from us, and we have to be honest about that, learn and improve.

“You have days that are tougher and the technical level was not as good as we have been used to.

“There were a lot of turnovers from slips that made it an open game for them. We lost some balls. You could see the lads were trying to do everything and it is going to be about handling expectations for us.

“You could see everyone trying to do everything for Middlesbrough and when it wasn’t quite working, we were trying even harder.

“But it was like we were leaving our head outside the game and trying to play with our heart only and that meant we lost a bit of structure and control.

“It comes from wanting to do everything for everyone here – it is something we have to learn from.”

Blackburn successfully restricted Middlesbrough to limited opportunities and went close themselves when Ryan Hedges fired wide in the first half.

It was Rovers’ second clean sheet in a row – following the 2-0 win over Millwall prior to Christmas – and their manager Valerien Ismael was delighted with his side’s defending.

Ismael said: “I think this is our way to work. We know we are well organised and we want to give ourselves a chance to stay in any game with our attitude.

“I think is a good step for the players and the backline. We have been working with a lot of academy boys because the injury list has got bigger and bigger.

“The only way we can survive is if we stick together and everyone can contribute something to the team. We want to win games, but sometimes you have to adapt to the opponent and the situation.

“We are doing well at the minute – we just have to keep going through the process together and whoever is on the pitch just needs to make sure they are ready to go.

“If you want to get something at Middlesbrough, you have to play at the limits and the boys did that well.”