Source: Eurosport
Southgate calls for Boro bravery
Middlesbrough boss Gareth Southgate has told his players they must be "brave and be bold" if they are to win their battle to avoid relegation.
Struggling Boro travel to Bolton on Saturday desperately needing to end their run of eight consecutive away defeats.
They may have already been written off by many, but Southgate said: "I understand that people will think we are gone, and in some ways that probably helps us because we feel that we have nothing to lose and everything to gain by having a good go in every one of our remaining games.
"We feel that we can give ourselves a great chance of staying up if we can win our next match at Bolton.
"If we are going to do that we have to be brave and be bold. We have to go there and play the kind of football which can get us out of trouble."
Boro are second-bottom, four points from safety, and have won one of their last 18 league games.
Goals have been hard to come by - they have scored just 21 times in the league all season - and Southgate acknowledged that needs to change.
"We know that we have to score goals if we want to stay in this league," he said. "We have created lots of chances this season but our problem has been putting them away.
"We know that we have goal-scorers in our squad and we will have to make sure that we utilise them fully in the last eight games."
Brazilian record signing Afonso Alves could be set for a recall after Southgate defended the striker's poor return of four goals.
"Afonso has suffered from a lack of confidence during the season when the ball hasn't been going in for him, but we know what he can do and hopefully he can be an important player for us in the run-in," Southgate said.
"In fact we need all our forwards to start producing. We will have to make sure that we adopt an attacking approach in all of our games and that we get the ball into the box and cause problems for the opposition.
"We won't be going gung-ho, because we know that we have to defend well at the same time. But we have quality defenders who can get us clean sheets and they have to do that. Then we must take our chances at the other end of the field.
"As far as we are concerned there is still a lot to play for. Nobody has given up here. We believe that we are still in there with a fighting chance and it's up to us."
