AITOR KARANKA has defended his decision not to start with Jordan Rhodes as his Middlesbrough side failed to win for a third game in succession.

Rhodes made his Boro debut as a 77th-minute substitute, but was unable to get onto the scoresheet as David Nugent’s close-range header secured a 1-1 draw with Blackburn Rovers.

The Scotland international completed a £9m move from Ewood Park on Monday, but while he will surely be a key figure in the final two-and-a-half months of the season, Karanka was not tempted to throw him straight into the starting line-up this afternoon.

The Boro head coach said: “I wasn’t tempted to start with him because I have to be fair to the players who have been with us all season. We are in this position because all of them have been doing really well, so for that reason I have to show them that they deserve to play.

“The players who have just arrived have to know that it is not easy for them to go into the team. That is why I preferred to give them the opportunity to play.”

Karanka was forced to make his first substitution at the end of the first half, with Tomas Kalas replacing the injured Daniel Ayala, and opted to make a second change at the start of the second period, with Cristhian Stuani coming on for a disappointing Kike Sola.

Kike Sola arrived at the start of last month and had taken part in a number of training sessions with his new team-mates, which helped explain why he started and both Rhodes and Gaston Ramirez didn’t, and the decision to take off the Spaniard influenced Karanka’s thinking in the remainder of the second half.

He said: “I know everybody was expecting the third substitution earlier, but I would like to know what would have happened if I made that substitution with 30 or 40 minutes to go, and then we’d had another injury or a sending off.

“I have to think about the 90 minutes, and for that reason, I put Jordan on the pitch when I thought it was the right moment to do that.”