Source: SKY_Sports
Southgate staying positive
Middlesbrough boss Gareth Southgate is staying positive ahead of his side's crucial Premier League home tie against Liverpool on Saturday.
There is not much to cheer about at the Riverside, given Boro are currently sitting second to bottom in the top flight table after a miserable run of 14 games without a win.
The Teessiders have scored just once in their last nine league games, but Southgate insists he has seen enough in recent performances - including the 2-0 midweek victory over West Ham in the FA Cup - to believe his side can turn the corner and stay up.
Boro have now lost just one of their last five games in all competitions and have kept three clean sheets in that time, and Southgate believes his side are now close to recapturing their impressive early season form.
He said: "If I look over the season, that's how we were playing in August and September and the beginning of October.
Positive aspects"That's how we played at West Ham in the FA Cup. It's been coming. At Manchester City we had good chances to get points there and against Wigan at home we started the game well. There have been positive aspects of our performances lately.
"We're hard to play against and that was the starting point of the recovery and now the team are growing in confidence and looking forward to this game. That might not have been the case a few weeks ago.
"It's great to go into a game like this in an optimistic mood because we know that we've got to be at our very best and Liverpool have to have a bit of an off day but that happens in football and the way that we're playing now, the way that we're hard to beat means the players are looking forward to the game and that's the most important thing."
But the Boro boss is fully aware it will be difficult against a Liverpool side who won away at Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions League in midweek.
World-class"They've got some world-class players and they beat Real Madrid in the week so it will be a huge challenge for us but one we go into in a good frame of mind," he said.
"They are an outstanding team and it is an outstanding football club and has been historically, but that brings pressure.
"Every club, every team in every division has pressure of one sort or another."
