Southgate beaming over Boro duo
by Joseph Caron Dawe, 15 May 2008
Middlesbrough manager Gareth Southgate says Afonso Alves’ last-day hat-trick in the 8-1 win over Manchester City shows a glimpse of what can be expected from the Brazilian next season.
The January signing from Heerenveen took a while to settle but when he did he struck his first goals against Manchester United in the 2-2 draw at The Riverside in April, and after his showing against City Southgate has a glint in his eye.
“We said we won't see the best of him until next year and he'll be better for the experience of the last few months,” said the Boro boss on the club’s official website.
“He's slowly adapting to the nature of this league.
“The pre-season is going to be very important. It will be a chance to nail down how we expect him to work next season, as it will be with all the players.
Southgate added: “He's a goalscorer. Aspects of the rest of his game need to be worked on and improved but what we've seen in training is what we saw against City.
“Others will score goals, but he lives for scoring goals. He's got a very cool nature and sometimes people look at that and take it the wrong way and think he doesn't care, but he certainly does.”
Southgate also reserved special praise for Stewart Downing, who has hit 10 goals this term and is progressing as his manager would like.
“Ten goals is a good target for a wide player and he's hit it,” said Southgate.
“He's matured a lot throughout the season. At times he hasn't had enough belief in himself and he's got the evidence of what he can do now.
“We've spoken about [Cristiano] Ronaldo and watched clips of what he does. Because he's been in the team for so long we forget sometimes he's only 23 so there's a lot of room for improvement still.
“But the quality of his second goal on Sunday was top drawer.”