Middlesbrough suffered a major blow to their top-two dreams at West Brom last weekend, but that loss such not detract from the marvellous job Carrick has done since taking over from Chris Wilder.
Reading head to the Riverside with a potential six-point deduction hanging over them, and the ongoing investigation by the EFL could prove to be a distraction for everyone associated with the Berkshire club this Saturday.
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Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Middlesbrough win with a probability of 70.05%. A draw had a probability of 18.6% and a win for Reading had a probability of 11.34%.
The most likely scoreline for a Middlesbrough win was 2-0 with a probability of 13.04%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-0 (12.18%) and 2-1 (9.46%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (8.84%), while for a Reading win it was 0-1 (4.13%). The actual scoreline of 5-0 was predicted with a 2.1% likelihood. Our team at Sports Mole and our data analysis both correctly predicted that Middlesbrough would win this match.
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