Even if they had a centre-forward capable of delivering an average Championship return, they’d almost certainly be much better placed than they currently are. They’d probably have beaten Blackburn for a start.
Instead, they soldier on with Tommy Conway, an excellent worker but a flawed finisher, and David Strelec, a proven international but a player who continues to struggle to fit into England’s second tier. Together, they have scored a combined total of 13 goals from 64 league appearances this season. And that, as Kim Hellberg is increasingly keen to point out, is while playing for a team that create more big chances that any other side in the Championship.
If Boro miss out on promotion in the next two months, the lack of goals from their strikers will be the single biggest factor. Should the club have signed another forward in the January transfer window? There are valid reasons why they didn’t, although it is becoming increasingly hard to defend their unwillingness to at least bring in someone. Should Hellberg be giving Kaly Sene or Cruz Ibeh a go if Conway and Strelec are repeatedly misfiring? There’s certainly a debate to be had there, although Hellberg seems to believe that 17-year-old Ibeh is not ready and can hardly be enamoured with Sene’s ability levels following his £1.5m signing from Lausanne last summer.
So, we are where we are. Boro soldier on. Hellberg will not be doing anything drastic in terms of changing his side’s style once the action resumes after the international break. There is no magic wand in terms of suddenly fashioning up a new striker. Boro have shown they are capable of scoring goals from elsewhere, and the return of Hayden Hackney and Morgan Whittaker next month should increase the goal threat from midfield. At some stage in the remaining seven matches though, there is every chance a golden opportunity will drop to either Conway or Strelec. Like every Boro supporter, Hellberg will simply have to hope something clicks.
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“We just need to work with them, and sometimes you just need something to fall for you,” said the Boro boss. “We had four games in a row where we didn’t score a goal, and then we scored so many in a row after that. Sometimes, you just need something to fall your way, and that’s probably a little bit of the thing now.
“At the beginning of the season, we didn’t concede many goals and that was enough to celebrate. But then when you move forward and you see that we are very good, it stops being that to celebrate and you start to want us to score goals.
“That’s how it is, and that’s the journey from being a team that wasn’t maybe planned to be where we are now, or at least where people didn’t really look at being in the top two, to being in there because we have been good. All the hopes go higher. That’s something we need handle, and of course if we don’t score more in the last seven games, we’re not going to win many of those games.”
In fairness to Boro’s misfiring forwards, they are not the only ones responsible for the current goal drought. Having missed two sitters in the previous weekend’s draw with Bristol City, Alan Browne erred again at the weekend, turning into trouble in the first half when he had an excellent chance to get a shot away. Aidan Morris slashed a dreadful effort into the side-netting. Riley McGree led a second-half breakaway, only to then pass to no one and concede a goal-kick.
Are the promotion nerves kicking in? Possibly, and if so, then Boro are not the only side stuttering with the finishing line in sight. The main positive to emerge from Saturday was the 1-1 draw between Ipswich Town and Millwall at Portman Road that keeps Boro in the top two and keeps their automatic-promotion ambitions firmly in their own hands.
Ipswich have drawn three of their last four matches. Millwall lost to Blackburn in their most recent home game. Maybe Boro’s ongoing wobble is simply an inevitable part of the promotion run-in. When the Teessiders were promoted under Aitor Karanka in 2016, they suffered back-to-back defeats to Rotherham and Charlton in mid-March.
The glass should still be half-full. Seven games to go. Win them and you go up, a situation that anyone would have happily taken back in August. Strap in and keep the faith. And just hope that when it really matters, the goals start to flow again.