MIDDLESBROUGH have played 16 league games so far this season, winning nine, drawing three and losing four. At the same stage of last season, after their opening 16 matches, their record was as follows: won nine, drawn three, lost four. The more things change, the more they appear to be remaining the same.

In some respects, mirroring last season can hardly be described as a disaster. Boro went to the top of the table in their 21st game of last term, albeit only for a matter of hours, so their start was good enough to put them at the very heart of the promotion picture.

They eventually made the play-offs of course, and the final gap to the top two would almost certainly have been smaller had Aitor Karanka not gambled at Fulham in the penultimate game of the campaign. For all that they failed to secure promotion, Middlesbrough did a lot of good things last season.

Yet from the moment the current campaign started, there has been a communal acknowledgment that merely repeating last season’s efforts will not be acceptable.

Karanka has not attempted to hide from the increased expectations, describing the current squad as “much stronger” than the one he had at his disposal last season and publicly affirming that “automatic promotion” is the sole ambition this term.

Steve Gibson did not invest more than £15m this summer to have another day out at Wembley, and the fact that all the leading bookmakers made Boro promotion favourites at the start of the season underlines the perceived strength of the group of players that has been assembled at the Riverside.

Sights have been raised, targets recalibrated, but while there have been sporadic signs of an improvement in performances over the course of the last three months, results remain identical to last term. That has to change quickly if Boro are not to find themselves playing catch up in the second half of the season once again.

The Northern Echo:

The key question ahead of this evening’s home game with QPR is whether the team is currently playing to the peak of its potential. And if it isn’t, why not?

When Boro were winning five games in a row in August and September, they looked like the best team in the league, even if Brighton remained marginally ahead of them on points.

Since then, however, they have won just three of their last seven games, and while they claimed comfortable victories over Wolves and Charlton, the paucity of their opponents has to be factored into an assessment of their efforts.

The Capital One Cup win over Manchester United showed what Boro are capable of, but as of yet, the Teessiders are yet to string together the kind of sustained run of form that is likely to be required if automatic promotion is to be achieved.

With table-toppers Hull City looking extremely strong, Brighton showing no signs of flagging and both Burnley and Derby hitting their stride after shaky starts, Boro are probably going to have to go ten or 12 games unbeaten at some stage if they are to claim a top-two spot.

They’ll have to improve to do that, and perhaps Karanka will have to steer away from two of the key policies that have been part of the bedrock of his reign to date.

His rotation policy continues to leave many supporters scratching their heads, and while there will always have to be a degree of chopping and changing given the intensity of the Championship schedule, perhaps it is time to stick with more of his key performers.

The decision to leave Grant Leadbitter out of the starting line-up at Hull, ostensibly to prevent the skipper from picking up the booking that would have earned him a suspension, was a baffling one. Karanka got away with resting Daniel Ayala during the 1-0 win over Rotherham, but it was an unnecessary risk. For the next few weeks at least, the key men have to play.

The fans’ other main bugbear with regard to Karanka’s decision-making tends to be his inflexibility when it comes to playing two defensive midfielders.

Given that he has shown no desire to field a more attacking line-up to date, it is safe to assume that the policy of picking two from Leadbitter, Adam Clayton and Bruno Zuculini to fill the central area is likely to remain in place.

At the very least though, perhaps Karanka should be quicker to sacrifice one of those players when he is chasing the game. And what does Adam Forshaw, a more progressive option in front of the back four, have to do to get a game?

Further forward, Boro’s attacking line-up is the envy of most of the division, but it remains something of a moveable feast with Diego Fabbrini and Stewart Downing continuing to alternate in the ‘number ten’ role. Once Cristhian Stuani returns from injury, it remains unclear where he is going to play.

With Boro nestled in the top four, it could be argued that raising such issues is nit-picking. Perhaps it is. But having missed out on the Premier League by four points last season, the Teessiders know that the margins are fine. If they are to improve on last term’s tally, they can’t afford too many more slip ups.

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WHAT would professional rugby look like had Jonah Lomu not graced its biggest stage? It almost certainly wouldn’t have the same focus on power and physicality in all areas of the field, and it definitely wouldn’t have the same global appeal had arguably the greatest All Black of them all not exploded onto the world’s back pages in 1995.

Only a handful of people can truly claim to have altered their sport, but Lomu, who died at the age of 40 on Wednesday morning, falls into that camp.

The Northern Echo:

His feats would have been remarkable no matter what, but they are even more incredible when you consider the chronic kidney problems that affected him throughout his life. Even when he was squatting away opponents in his pomp, there were times when Lomu was so fatigued he could not muster the strength required to walk from his sofa to his fridge. Yet he hid his illness from his team-mates and coaches because he didn’t want it to be used an excuse if he underperformed.

His death leaves a huge hole at the heart of New Zealand rugby, and robs the world of an icon who proved that physical adversity need not be a barrier to success.