AITOR Karanka has backed Jordan Rhodes to rediscover his form in front of goal after revealing the Middlesbrough forward's struggles with self-confidence since his high-profile £9m move to Teesside.

Rhodes is expected to lead the line tonight against Queens Park Rangers at Loftus Road, when Karanka's side can regain second place, and cut Championship leaders Burnley's advantage to two points by claiming back-to-back wins for only the second time since the start of the year.

Rhodes has struggled to recreate his prolific goalscoring feats since his trans-Pennine move from Blackburn, despite coming off the bench to equalise in the draw at MK Dons at the start of February in only his second appearance. The Scotland international has since failed to find the net in eight games, his frustration heightened by having a legitimate effort incorrectly ruled out in the stalemate at Leeds in February.

Karanka has employed an 'arm round the shoulder' motivational technique with the 26-year-old, who scored in the behind closed door friendly win at Sunderland last week. And the Middlesbrough boss his confident high-profile January signing will soon rediscover the lethal touch that brought him 182 goals in 350 games before his move to Teesside to help boost the club's promotion hopes going into the last nine games of the campaign.

"Jordan is a really good kid but he's not the strongest character on the pitch," Karanka revealed. "He needs confidence, and for that reason he hasn't played from time to time because I wanted to avoid the situation we had against Charlton recently when he was a little bit lost on the pitch.

“Now in these last two weeks he is better. Even if you are not the strongest character, if like Jordan you're a player who is doing everything he can then that's good. It often depends on the player himself. Sometimes if they are in a bad moment they can come out stronger by themselves, while others in a similar situation need support. Jordan needs to be supported and you always need to be behind him."

Rhodes has already scored at Loftus Road this season as Rovers earned a 2-2 draw in September. Since an impressive start to the campaign, when at one point he found the net seven times in five matches, the goals have dried up for the former Huddersfield forward, who has made just three scoresheet appearances in the league since the end of October to boast a total of 12 going into the final month.

For all his backing and encouragement, Karanka concedes that only by regularly finding the net will Rhodes truly settle in at the Riverside Stadium. He added: "It's always important for a striker to score, even in a training session, or even when he's doing extra shots after training because strikers live on their goals and they need goals to be happy, they need goals to play well."

As his side go in search of a league double over opponents beaten by a Grant Leadbitter penalty in November, Karanka revealed his worries over Middlesbrough's recent away record, which sees them having won just one of their last seven on the road to take a modest five points from 21 as they have surrendered top spot the Sean Dyche's Clarets.

"It's a concern when you speak about the results," he added. "But if you look at the games we've played away, for example, Rotherham we had I don't know how many chances, against MK Dons we had a lot of chances, and against Leeds we had a disallowed goal so it's just a case of taking those chances."

The Spaniard will resist the temptation to stay in the south to take in Burnley's visit to Brighton at the Amex Stadium tomorrow, in favour of a return north to run the rule over either Huddersfield or Bolton - Boro face both sides before tackling the current top two in their final four games.

Karanka risked tempting fate by insisting that on paper his side face an easier run-in than this time 12 months ago, when they had to settle for a play-off spot. Citing the number of mid-table teams who make up the final fixtures, he added: “On paper it's easier than last year because then we had to play against Bournemouth, Derby away, Watford away, against Norwich away and all of them were fighting for promotion.

“Now we have just Brighton and Burnley fighting for those positions and Birmingham maybe going for the play-offs. The rest of the teams, QPR, Huddersfield, and Reading are playing for nothing so on paper last season was more difficult.”

Daniel Ayala is set to return from a near two-month injury absence in place of Tomas Kalas in central defence after recovering from an ankle problem. "Daniel has been training all this week so he's ready to play tomorrow," Karanka added. "It's great to have him back because he has been one of the best defenders in this division for the past couple of years now."

Karanka is set to make at least one other change with Cristhian Stuani likely to be rested after a 13,500-mile round trip to play just nine minutes for Uruguay during the international break. The South American forward didn't arrive back in this country until late yesterday and his potential absence is set to pave the way for a return to the starting line-up for Stewart Downing, who makes a swift return to the capital after appearing in a testimonial for his former West Ham team-mate Mark Noble at Upton Park on Monday.