Calum Chambers continued his solid defensive development during Middlesbrough’s 1-1 away draw at Manchester City.

Chambers, 21, has settled into life on-loan with Aitor Karanka’s side well and established his presence alongside Ben Gibson in central defence with a number of key interventions against Pep Guardiola’s team on Saturday.

As you can see from his player dashboard below, Chambers made numerous successful clearances and managed to play out from the back whilst remaining comfortable in possession.

Chambers made a number of defensive clearances as City applied attacking pressure to try and net an all-important second goal. (Photo: FourFourTwo)
Chambers made a number of defensive clearances as City applied attacking pressure to try and net an all-important second goal. (Photo: FourFourTwo)

He continues to improve and unsurprisingly it was his more long-distance passes that were unsuccessful during the game itself as the visitors looked to force play forwards in an attempt to snatch an equaliser after the interval.

With that in mind, Chambers would be disappointed about the build-up to City’s first and only goal of the game. After some patient passing in the middle third, he kept looking over his shoulder to try and track the run of Sergio Agüero just behind him. As Kevin de Bruyne’s swinging delivery was whipped into the area, it bounced awkwardly past the defender and within a flash, Agüero made no mistake from close range.

It was a timely reminder that if you switch off for just half-a-second, you can be punished, not least by one of the world’s best strikers.

Aguero was unsurprisingly a handful for Chambers throughout, and could've netted more than one on an afternoon filled with numerous opportunities. (Photo source: Oli Scarff / AFP / Getty Images)
Aguero was unsurprisingly a handful for Chambers throughout, and could’ve netted more than one on an afternoon filled with numerous opportunities. (Photo source: Oli Scarff / AFP / Getty Images)

In that same situation in the future, you’d hope that Chambers would have more positional awareness to try and clear the ball away from goal – but it’s something he’ll be sure to swiftly learn from.