Karanka

Karanka previews Middlesbrough v Wolves

Speaking to Gazette Live, Middlesbrough manager Aitor Karanka has revealed that captain Grant Leadbitter will miss their Friday clash at home to Wolves because of injury. He joins defender Daniel Ayala as being ruled out of contention for the game at the Riverside Stadium.

The Spaniard also admitted that to the rest of the Championship, Middlesbrough are seen as a scalp, so there is are no easy games between now and the end of the season.

Leadbitter has made himself a permanent fixture in the Boro line-up this season, striking a fine partnership alongside Adam Clayton for most of the season. In addition to Leadbitter and Ayala, Jonathan Woodgate remains on the sidelines and isn’t expected to return to action this season.

Adam Forshaw is expected to continue in midfield, with Clayton earning a recall to the starting eleven. Dael Fry should also remain at the heart of the back four alongside Ben Gibson.

Boro are looking to bounce back after the midweek defeat at Blackburn Rovers, but Karanka is under no illusions that they will have to be a their very best to get back to winning ways,

“The game told me we have to work a lot if we want to get promotion. Every team who play against us will play 150%.

“I can understand why, because everybody wants to beat the best team in the league to show how good they are.

“We have to play more than our best. We have a really good squad but we had a bad day on Tuesday.”

The former Real Madrid man also suggested that they must replicate the type of displays they showed in the victories over Fulham and Cardiff City. He has every faith in his team to rediscover their clinical touch,

“The key is to play the way we played against Fulham and Cardiff. We didn’t play well on Tuesday but we had chances to score goals.

“I am confident because we are playing at home. We have our crowd support.

“I am looking forward to the game.I hope this game can be the same way we played against them in the cup earlier this season.”

A win for Boro would take them back to the top of the table, for 24 hours at least.

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