Boro seeking new ways to score at Riverside

The Teessiders have won six of their ten away games this season, impressing with a brand of vibrant, counter-attacking football that is ideally suited to the open spaces often encountered on the road.

At home, however, things have been different, with Boro claiming just three victories and scoring 12 goals in ten matches, a tally that means only six Championship sides have scored fewer on their home ground.

In general, opposition sides adopt a more negative mindset at the Riverside, and Boro have struggled to break down sides who pull as many men as possible behind the ball.

"When we're at home, people don't leave as much space to utilise," said Mowbray, ahead of today's game with a Brighton side who start three places below Boro in the Championship table.

"Are we good enough with the ball to break teams down when we have a decent amount of possession?

"I think the statistics show we haven't scored as many goals as we should have, or as many goals as the teams above us.

"That's something we're working on a lot.

"When we have the ball, and teams are sitting deep and making it hard for us to break them down, we have to be better at finding a way to score."

While Boro's passing and movement are considerable assets away from home, Mowbray's men perhaps lack the kind of ruthless cutting edge that would enable them to dissect well-drilled opponents on their own ground.

In particular, the absence of a muscular centre-forward is something Mowbray has been bemoaning since the start of the campaign, and a renewed move for Coventry's Lukas Jutkiewicz is likely to be back on the agenda once the transfer window reopens next month.

In the meantime, Boro will have to look elsewhere for an attacking threat.

It places a large responsibility of the shoulders of Scott McDonald, who boasts just four Championship goals all season, and Marvin Emnes, who has scored just twice in the last 14 games.

"We don't really have a Plan B in terms of having a six foot three centre-forward to throw the ball up to," admitted Mowbray. "Southampton can play nice passing football, but they also get rewards from hitting diagonals to Rickie Lambert.

"That can help break down very well-organised defences, as we found out. We're having to look at every angle to see how we can score more goals."

As well as lacking a physical centre-forward, Boro are also without a natural winger capable of getting behind opposition full-backs.

Joe Bennett and Justin Hoyte performed as wing-backs in last weekend's win at Bristol City, but while Barry Robson is poised to return from injury this afternoon, he can hardly be described as an out-and-out wide man.

"I think our squad still needs developing in certain areas," said Mowbray.

"I think the squad lacks certain things.

"For instance, we don't really have a wide player with natural pace who runs past people and puts the ball in the box."

Nevertheless, with Southampton and West Ham both losing last weekend, Boro kick off today's game just five points off the automatic promotion spots.

By the time they have played Hull on Boxing Day, the Teessiders' season will be at the halfway stage.

But despite not having been outside the top four places since the third game of the season, Mowbray feels it is too early to talk of his team as promotion contenders.

"I look back to my experiences at West Brom and they tell me that the season's still got a lot of twists and turns to come," he said.

"Once you get through February and get down to the last ten games in March and April, then if you're in with a shout, you've got a chance of getting some consistency to get over the line.

"At the moment, it's so tight. A team like Crystal Palace, who were in the play-offs a couple of weeks ago, now find themselves in the bottom half of the table.

"Brighton are a classic example. They were top of the table for a while, then dropped into the bottom half, and are now bang in form again. It can all turn around so quickly."