Next-day analysis as Middlesbrough come back to draw against Cardiff City

It’s a question we’ve probably all pondered at one point or another in the last couple of months. How will Middlesbrough cope without Will Lankshear?

The answer they got in the first half against Cardiff City was not the one they wanted. That they went in at half-time 2-0 down and brought the talismanic striker on at the interval, said everything.

Lankshear was inspirational as Boro cancelled out the first half goals of Jack Moylan and Ollie Tanner. Lankshear himself scored the equaliser, his first none-first-touch finish of the season added to Tommy Conway’s goal to earn Boro a comeback point.

It creates a bit of a problem for Boro though, because the likelihood that Lankshear will be able to start 45 Championship games this season is highly unlikely, even if they manage his minutes through games.

Speaking after, Kim Hellberg insisted resting Lankshear was not a mistake. He pointed out that Boro had plenty of chances in the first half as well as the second.

He also noted the importance of the squad, and how you can only maintain squad depth if you keep the backup players at the level they need to be by playing them.

He made a very fair comparison to last season and Hayden Hackney. The inability to rest the star midfielder resulted in him eventually breaking down with an injury and missing the pivotal point of the campaign. Losing Lankshear at the same stage of this season is an horrific prospect for Boro’s promotion chances.

And so, Hellberg is right. There has to be some management and protection of Lankshear. It’s far better that he misses the odd match here and there, rather than risk him missing a cluster of games through injury.

The problem, however, is that the drop off with Lankshear was massive. Hellberg wasn’t wrong that Boro created plenty in the first half. They went in 2-0 down to the only two chances they conceded, with sloppy defending in moments costly again.

Neto Borges went close with two headed opportunities, while Amario Cozier-Duberry caused problems and was only thwarted by a couple of good saves or some committed defensive blocks.

Nevertheless, it was the presence and aura of Lankshear that Boro missed. Without that focal point at the centre of their attack, the ball did not stick enough at the top end of the pitch.

Kyle Joseph, who replaced Lankshear in the side, was in some regards quite unlucky. His game is not as a similar back-to-goal striker.

With Cardiff playing an aggressive high defensive line, there was plenty of space in behind to exploit, and in many regards, if the intention was to exploit that, the Joseph for Lankshear change made sense. The trouble was, Boro so often got their final ball wrong, and didn’t service Joseph in the way he wanted.

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“Of course you will miss a player like Will,” Hellberg admitted after. “But being 2-0 down is not what we need then. But I think, if I look at the first half in general, there’s a lot of good things in that first half.

“In the conversation of not resting/resting, I think I did get some wrong because I think maybe there were some other players that have also played every second that should have maybe not played, to be fair. That's one thing that I'm more disappointed about.

“You're always going to miss Will. I think it was tough for Kyle because I think he did a lot of good things in the first half, but we weren't clinical enough in those moments when we could pass people in.

“Then, in their opportunities they scored and we didn't defend properly. It's a long run and you make decisions all the time on what I see, and what I have to work with.”

That Hellberg rested Lankshear wasn’t the issue. It was that Boro didn’t handle his absence well enough that provides the concern.

Perhaps it was just a badly-timed bad day at the office. Had Borges’ header gone the other side of the post, or had one of Cozier-Duberry’s chances nestled in the back of the net, perhaps it would be a completely different narrative now.

The decision to rest Lankshear and still get the result would have been an excellent thing for Lankshear, and we'd be calling it a testament to Boro’s squad depth.

The fact is, though, that didn’t happen, and Lankshear’s impact was plain to see. His importance, while already obvious, was emphasised, and that oft-asked question did not get the answer we’d hope for.

Hindsight if, of course, a wonderful thing, but it's fair to say almost every Boro supporter would have been concerned about the exact situation that transpired, when team news broke at 11.15am.

But the fact is, we can’t expect Lankshear to start every game this season. The risk of another Hackney situation would be too high.

“What I've learned through a season is that if I don't rotate the team then everything you're going to ask about in three or four months will be around us having no depth,” Hellberg said.

“It doesn't matter if you're Real Madrid or whoever it is, you create the environment you have, and how you work is only going to create that.

“You can start with good depth, but if I don't rotate, the gap will just be bigger, and then in two months we’ll be saying we only have 11 players. So it's that balance of finding things right, and it’s a tricky part.”

And that brings into question: how do Boro cope with a similar situation far better in the future?

Recognising the alternative striker’s strengths compared to Lankshear’s and changing accordingly would help. They didn't servive Joseph correctly. In Lankshear's other deputy David Strelec, Boro are over a year into still struggling to find how to get the best of him.

The other solution could be in the January transfer window. But that won’t be easy. Boro spent a lot in the summer, and it’s almost inevitable that a side without parachute payments who spent an initial £8m on a striker would see a gulf between him and his backups.

The loan market would perhaps be a means of solving that but, from the perspective of a Premier League club, would you loan your top prospect to Boro for game time knowing he’d be competing with Lankshear for a starting spot? That one will be tricky.

There are goals in the Boro team without Lankshear. While he’s far and away in the top-scoring charts, Tommy Conway’s first goal of the season made him Boro’s 16th unique scorer already this term. That’s more than any other side in the Championship.

But in terms of presence and everything he brings, including attention and concern for opposition defences, he's already such a massive miss when not there.

The onus is now on Boro and Hellberg to find a way because Boro without Lankshear was far from convincing. The next time it inevitably happens, Boro have to cope far better.