IN a squad possessing plenty of creativity and goalscoring ability, Emmanuel Latte Lath is not alone. His own frustrations in front of goal are symptomatic of a bigger problem being felt across the group.
The challenge head coach Michael Carrick and his backroom team face is solving that conundrum. Like Carrick now admits himself, he can’t keep saying everything will come good in front of goal. The proof needs to be in the pudding.
Carrick will be pleased to have Tommy Conway available again, even if he barely got a look-in against his old club Bristol City on Saturday as his former team-mates enjoyed collecting three points on Teesside.
Conway and Marcus Forss do provide a different option in the final third at a time when Latte Lath has cut a frustrated figure.
It’s not that the Ivorian isn’t getting chances either. He could have had a couple against the Robins, and how he could have done with adding those to his tally of one goal this season, scored back in August.
“Emmanuel wants to score goals like everyone,” said Carrick. “He gets in good positions and it doesn’t quite fall for him at the moment. We have to do good things for him to be able to do that.
“I am going round in a cycle delivering same answers really about what we are doing, we are doing a lot of good things and it isn’t going in for all of us. We have to do something about it.”
Finn Azaz had already had an early effort curl away from the far post before Latte Lath had a fantastic chance to open the scoring ten minutes later.
The way he scored his 18 goals last season, everyone in the Riverside would have expected the ball to rustle the net.
After turning defence into attack following the breakdown of a Bristol City corner, Azaz ran at the defence and waited for the right moment to play in the striker.
Perhaps the ball could have gone sooner, but even so Latte Lath did well to create an opening to shoot by controlling and side-stepping his man before his finish rolled inches wide of the far post.
And after Hayden Hackney’s lazy pass to Aidan Morris ended with Anis Mehmeti hammering a finish straight down the middle of Seny Dieng’s net in the 27th minute, Latte Lath had a second opportunity to score.
This one was a little harder. After controlling Rav van den Berg’s lovely pass, Latte Lath fired wide, again missing the target.
The only time Middlesbrough seriously tested Max O’Leary in the City goal was when he denied the lively Ben Doak from a tight angle. This, despite much of Middlesbrough’s play looking impressive.
If there could be a criticism of the first half display it was that Boro often over-played, almost looking for the perfect goal rather than shooting earlier.
“Listen, it’s happened too often,” said Carrick. “You can’t be that dominant, that on top, be that creative and have nothing to show for it, never mind be 2-0 down at half-time.
“It’s something we have to improve on and do something about. Goals change games and change the momentum of games.
“By the time they scored, we could have been two or three up by that stage. Then it gives you a totally different challenge going into the second half. Ultimately, I can’t keep saying the same things again and again. We need to do something about it.”
Bristol City’s second arrived in stoppage-time at the end of the first half.
Defender George Edmundson got caught out in his own half and the impressive Jason Knight charged through. When he was thwarted, Japan’s Yu Hirakawa curled a beautiful finish inside the bottom corner.
Middlesbrough, with City defending superbly, never looked like equalising after the restart, despite Carrick throwing on more attacking options and one Delano Burgzorg’s effort that was comfortably held by O’Leary.
After three matches ruled out with a hamstring injury, Middlesbrough can be satisfied that Conway is fit again to boost Middlesbrough’s firepower. Only Swansea, Preston and Cardiff have scored fewer than Boro’s ten goals this season.
Carrick said: “The squad is looking stronger. We tried to get more forwards on the pitch to mix it up, create something and it didn’t quite happen. But to get Tommy back on the pitch, Marcus Forss too, even though he needs a bit more football, we know we have players throughout the squad who can score goals.
“We will score goals. We have the options. We need something to show for it. There’s no point me saying everything will be alright, we need to prove everything will be alright. We need to start getting rewards from it.”
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