Kim Hellberg pulled no punches when analysing Middlesbrough's defending in the Cardiff City draw

Kim Hellberg pulled no punches in describing Middlesbrough’s defending for Cardiff City’s goals as ‘terrible’, but admitted their defensive record is ‘unheard of’.

Boro found themselves two behind at half-time at the Riverside on Saturday, with Cardiff scoring from virtually their only two attacks of the half.

On both occasions, Boro’s defending left a lot to be desired though, with Hellberg describing the play as ‘terrible’ for the first goal.

It came as Boro played the ball out from defence, only for Riley McGree to lose out while trying to let the ball run past him to turn and run onto.

From there, the Bluebird transitioned and, as Neto Borges backed off, Aidan Morris missed his tackle, allowing Jack Moylan to fire low past Radek Vitek at his near post.

The second goal saw Boro once again hit on the counter in the final minute of the first half. Adilson Malanda allowed Ollie Tanner to cut inside onto his left foot, and left him too much space to fire one into the far corner.

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Though Boro did manage to fight back and earn a point in the second half, the defensive frailties continue for Boro, with Hellberg describing the situation as ‘weird’.

He said: “The first goal I think three of my best players are absolutely terrible. They're players who've played every second so there's that balance in terms of seeing the whole picture.

“That comes down to how you defend that space. I'm not happy and they're not happy. It's a little bit sloppy.

“But we’ve conceded 15 shots on target in five games and conceded eight goals. That is unheard of. We have 15 shots on target almost just today. It's been a lot of goals that have gone in.

“I'm not blaming Radek because I don't think he can do much about the goals today. It's a little bit weird in terms of that, but you have to work with it.

“When you play in this league and it's game, game, game - if you're down a little bit teams don't punish you like Cardiff did today.

“There weren't many times they were up there, but when they were they did, from their point of view, two good finishes, even if we should have defended it better. But that's often how it is in football.

“They were also good at keeping the ball and frustrating in some ways and we weren't good enough when we won the ball in the first half.”

With no midweek game in the upcoming week, Boro now have just shy of a full week to regroup and fine tune things further. Their clash with Bolton Wanderers has been brought forward to the Friday evening, but still offers plenty of time to work on things at Rockliffe ahead of that one.