 |  | Southgate - who plans sweeping changes regardless of which division the club finds itself in next season, added: 'If Stewart's here he probably won't be available for the start of the season through injury.' -- PHOTO: AFP |
LONDON - GARETH Southgate has singled out Stewart Downing and Afonso Alves for blame after admitting Middlesbourgh are rank outsiders to maintain their Premier League status.
Southgate's second bottom side are long shots to avoid slipping into the Championship in the final round of matches on Sunday when they need a minor miracle to extend their 11-year stay in the English top flight.
Middlesbrough must earn their their first away win for more than six months at West Ham and hope third-bottom Newcastle United lose at Aston Villa and Hull are beaten by a handsome margin by Premier League Champions Manchester United to pull off an improbable escape act.
The Middlesbrough manager admits a lack of goals has been his side's downfall this season, their modest tally of 27 making them comfortably the top flight's lowest scorers. Club record signing Alves, who misses out at Upton Park with a broken foot, is set to be offloaded after scoring just four Premier League goals this season, while last season's top scorer Downing has failed to hit the target in the league all season.
England winger Downing will be out for at least three months after surgery to insert a pin in his broken foot on Friday, and Southgate said: 'There's always a tendency for blame to be apportioned in the wrong place in situations like this.
'We've fallen a long way short of where we want to be and the biggest reason why we are where we are is because of missed chances. Stewart hasn't been able to buy a goal for love nor money. He had nine last year so that's a significant difference in terms of our season.
'Afonso has had an incredible number of chances so we've certainly lacked goals. You can look everywhere for reasons and ignore the obvious at times.' Downing has been forced to delay an expected 12 million pounds move to Tottenham in a big blow to the club's hopes of softening the financial blow of surrendering their Premier League status.
Southgate - who plans sweeping changes regardless of which division the club finds itself in next season, added: 'If Stewart's here he probably won't be available for the start of the season through injury.' Middlesbrough went eighth in the table afer victory at Aston Villa in November, but have been in freefall since with just two league wins in that time.
Southgate added: 'I've learned a lot about the people I'm working with, you get know their strengths and how they're going to react to pressure so it's been helpful in a way. 'After our experiences this season, it would be folly to not make wholesale changes. We clearly haven't been good enough this year so even if we stay up we've fallen a long way short of where we're trying to be.
There's bags of room for improvement and we'd need a lot of change even if we don't go down.' -- AFP