After poor defeat against Millwall, Boro's head coach says he expects his side to do all they can to win tonight's game
Aitor Karanka insists tonight’s Championship fixture at Reading will not be a “friendly”.
The hosts are hoping to finish in the top six but Boro’s season is over bar the shouting following Saturday’s home loss to Millwall.
Karanka, however, is demanding total commitment from his players at the Madejski Stadium and wants to end the season with three wins out of three.
“If someone is thinking we are going to Reading to play a friendly game they are wrong,” he said.
“The best way to forget Saturday’s game is to win at Reading.
"To make that happen I am going to work hard every day because we will be playing a team who are trying to get into the play-off positions.
“It is a very important game.
"Reading are playing for the play-off positions and the first thing we must do is respect the competition so we must do everything we can to win the game.
“That’s why I am going to prepare for that game the same way I have prepared for all of the games."
Boro fans at the Riverside for Millwall match
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Karanka is expected to revert back to a 4-2-3-1 formation for tonight’s game and that means full-backs Jozsef Varga and George Friend will return to the starting XI.
It’s not clear, however, who’ll play in the centre-back positions.
Boro defended poorly against Millwall and the head coach could well ring the changes, especially as Ben Gibson and Dani Ayala will be back from suspension.
Gibson was playing consistently well before picking up his second red card of the season against Birmingham City a fortnight ago.
He had forged a useful partnership with Kenneth Omeruo, who was also received his marching orders against the Blues.
Pairing the young stoppers tonight, however, would mean Jonathan Woodgate missing out.
Given that the skipper had been sidelined for more than a month with a groin problem prior to the Burnley match, Karanka may opt to rest Woodgate ahead of the final two games of the season.
After Saturday’s game, the Boro boss wouldn’t be drawn on whether he would be making a significant number of changes other than saying: “One thing is clear, the team I put on the pitch will be the best one possible.”
He was keen to stress, though, that he wouldn’t be looking beyond the Reading game.
“Against Millwall, we learned that we need to be stronger in the future,” he added.
“If we want to do something good in the future – next season – we need to be stronger and we need to think about the next game, not the play-offs.
“That has been my mentality since I came here because it is difficult to think what is going to happen in one or two months’ time.
“It’s better to only think about the next game. When we were only thinking about the next games we played well and we won."
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