Middlesbrough's promotion push is built on firm foundations

Two dates a year or so apart; two very different messages for the current Middlesbrough team to absorb as they prepare to take on Bournemouth tomorrow in a game that pits the top two sides in the Championship against each other. One shows just how far the Teessiders have come under Karanka; the other counsels against taking anything for granted even if tomorrow’s game results in another victory.

Yet for all that previous history suggests it is far too early to be talking about promotion, this is a Boro squad with marked and significant differences to the one that briefly topped the table under Mowbray.

Even on that Friday night when victory over Sheffield Wednesday secured top spot in 2012, the success felt fleeting, the progress up the league insecure. Two months earlier, Boro had lost 3-1 at Millwall and 4-1 at Blackpool, defeats that exposed defensive frailties that would become increasingly damaging as the season wore on.

There was also a great reliance on a small group of players who either suffered injuries or lost their form in the second half of the campaign. Scott McDonald scored ten goals before mid-January, and two thereafter. Lukas Jutkiewicz and Marvin Emnes were unavailable for most of February, March and April, and with no one to replace them, Mowbray was forced to scramble around in the loan and free agent market, recruiting the likes of Sammy Ameobi and Kieron Dyer, neither of whom had the impact that was required.

Josh McEachran lost his way entirely after a promising start to his season-long loan and, at the back, the likes of Andre Bikey and Stephen McManus, who was hastily thrust back into the first team after a loan spell at Bristol City, were simply not up to the task. Three months after hitting top spot, Boro were not even in a play-off place.

Might this season go the same way given the club’s historic tendency to struggle once the festive period is over? With the Championship as tight and competitive as ever, it’s not going to take much for a side to tumble from the top two to a mid-table spot in the space of a month or so.

Even so though, it’s hard to see this current Boro side imploding in the manner of its predecessor from two seasons ago. For a start, the foundations Karanka established in the second half of last season feel much too strong and resilient to be readily ripped apart.

Having identified his side’s soft centre in the opening weeks of his reign, Boro’s Spanish head coach spent most of last term developing a team structure and defensive formation that would eradicate the defensive weaknesses that became increasingly apparent under Mowbray.

The presence of two holding midfielders might have felt unnecessarily negative at times, especially when Boro went seven games without a goal this spring, but in hindsight it was crucial to laying the foundation for this season’s solidity.

Karanka has tinkered with his tactics slightly in recent weeks, but the way he sets up his back four does not change and there is always at least one midfielder primarily charged with the task of protecting the players behind him. The defensive personnel might alter from match to match, with Karanka clearly a fan of squad rotation, but the players coming in and out of the side know their roles and what is expected of them. That helps to militate against wild fluctuations in form.

Boro’s defensive resilience was apparent in the second half of last season, but the key change this term is that they have been equally as effective at the other end of the field.

The recruitment of four attacking players this summer - Kike, Jelle Vossen, Patrick Bamford and Yanic Wildschut – has significantly enhanced the Teessiders’ goalscoring threat, and led to the evolution of a fluent, progressive style that has helped serve up seven goals in the last two matches.

Crucially, those goals have been spread around, with Bamford, Wildschut, Lee Tomlin and Grant Leadbitter all finding the net in the last two games. Leadbitter’s remarkable start to the season means he is currently Boro’s top scorer, but perhaps the most telling goalscoring statistic is that seven different players have all scored two or more goals already this term.

Karanka has a host of attacking options at his disposal, and without wanting to tempt fate, it is hard to imagine a couple of injuries proving too disruptive in the second half of the campaign. If one player drops out, there should be two or three champing at the bit to replace them, and with the likes of Rhys Williams and Mustapha Carayol due to return after Christmas having not even kicked a ball this term, Karanka’s toughest decision remains who to leave out.

This being Boro, there are bound to be some wobbles. But unlike two years ago, this feels like a promotion campaign built on sustainable grounds.

**

THE days of the leading football clubs putting silverware before their bank balance is long gone, but even so, there was something hugely dispiriting about Liverpool fielding a shadow team for Tuesday’s Champions League game with Real Madrid.

Yes, Brendan Rodgers’ much-changed side acquitted themselves fairly well in the Bernabeu, and yes, this weekend’s league game with Chelsea is hugely important.

But a club that makes great play out of its history and standing was nevertheless waving the white flag before a ball had been kicked. Clearly, qualifying for next season’s Champions League is more important than actually winning the thing this time around.

**

TEN months out from the start of the Rugby World Cup, and while the make-up of England’s pack is pretty much settled, it is impossible to predict which backs will start next September’s opening World Cup game with Fiji with any confidence.

Bath winger Semesa Rokoduguni will be the latest player to stake his claim when he starts tomorrow’s Twickenham showdown with the All Blacks, and if Lancaster achieves nothing else from the autumn internationals, he needs to be heading into the Six Nations with a clear idea about who he wants to play on the wings and in the centre.