CHRIS Wilder relayed his message of fitting round pegs in round holes after Middlesbrough completed the loan signing of Alex Mowatt as a replacement for Marcus Tavernier.

The 27-year-old midfielder joins on loan from West Brom for the season having fallen out of favour with the Baggies under Steve Bruce.

A left footed central midfielder who can also play out wide, Mowatt fits the bill as a replacement for Tavernier who left the club to join Premier League Bournemouth on the eve of the Championship campaign.

However, Mowatt carries plenty of pedigree at Championship level which is something that lured Boro to brokering a deal.

“Disappointing losing Tav. I think we all understood that but life goes on and we’ve moved onto a very good player” said Wilder.

On Mowatt, Wilder continued: “300 league appearances in the Championship, plays the position really well, experienced boy, tasted success, good character, great left foot, good technical player and has all the characteristics we were looking for.

“It was a small list to replace Tav as you can imagine. We felt we needed experience in there and we thank Steve and West Brom for allowing us the opportunity.

“He’s having to wheel and deal but we got a great reference from Steve (Bruce) on Alex, he couldn’t guarantee him games and he comes into our group and we’re looking forward to working with him.”

Wilder was quick to labour the point that Mowatt and Tavernier are not carbon copies in terms of footballers but his latest signing fits the bill in terms of what he wants from a left-sided midfielder in his team.

The Boro boss added: “Distances covered and in terms of creativity in that position, played in a side at Barnsley where he was the main actor there and they had an outstanding season under him there and Ismail in terms of getting into the play-off semi final against the odds.

“I think everybody knows if you want to play for that guy, you’ve got to run around, work hard and have a good work ethic and he has. But I think there is more to Alex’s game to running around and putting a tackle in.

“It gives us experience, knows his way around the Championship and gives us a quality in that position.”

With Boro having been desperate to add strength in depth to the squad in recent weeks, Wilder also be boosted by the fact that Mowatt is available for tomorrow’s meeting with Sheffield United.

Wilder has had to manage the likes of Marcus Forss and Chuba Akpom into the side in recent works due to a lack of work over pre-season which is not something he has had to worry about with his latest acquisition.

Wilder said: “Listening to Frank Lampard and he was talking about the difficulties in terms of managing the minutes and not breaking players early on in the season especially when you have players coming in a different times in pre-season and at the start of the season. The good thing about Al is that he has done a full pre-season.

“He’s done 90 minutes against Sheffield United on Wednesday, he’s been involved in all of pre-season games but didn’t get involved in the first two league games. He was sub against us and got on but I’m not sure if he got on against Watford. He’s ready to go and rock and roll.”