Record breaking Boro used the presence of the Sky cameras at The Riverside to illustrate precisely to a wider audience why their failure to notch has reached such epic proportions and why their shut outs sequence approaches the same scale.
It also confirmed what was already pretty obvious, even in this daft division – that Boro’s push for the play-offs is all over, bar the predictable ‘empty rhetoric’ player protestations that will say ‘it ain’t so’.
Ironically, Shay Given, one of the key figures in amassing the clean sheets, signed off his time at Boro in a game where he didn’t have a single save to make - if you don’t count the smart second half tip onto the post from McCormack’s snap shot after the whistle had gone for offside.
The Irishman richly deserved and will have appreciated the standing ovation he got from The Riverside at the close.
Some have raved about the performance of Leeds custodian loaner, Jack Butland, on debut at the other end but, in truth, he had to make three saves all game and two of those were absolutely routine.
The touch over from a Butterfield drive in the dying seconds of the first half was directly above him when he had a clear sight of the effort and Danny Graham’s second half overhead was so feeble it seemed to take an age to plop into Butland’s gloves.
The only block of real merit was a charge out to thwart an Adomah effort, late on, after a Ledesma chip had put the Boro winger clear and he chose to shoot rather than try to round the ‘keeper.
View gallery Boro 0 Leeds United 0
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Those descriptions of the activities of the two custodians tell you all you need to know about the relative merits of both sides’ attacking performances. Two shades of grey.
And, in the end, it all came to nought – again.
At least Jack Charlton, the architect of the best organised and effective Boro side I’ve seen in my fifty odd years of fandom and a Directors’ Box guest yesterday, would have appreciated the way the Karanka back seven operated.
Aside from a few, brief wobbles when ‘thud and blunder’ Matt Smith was introduced by McDermott from the bench late on, the Leeds threat, including from the free-scoring McCormack, was totally neutralised.
‘Threat’ probably doesn’t give the right impression of what lacklustre Leeds offered, though. They were rank poor in their attacking play, lacking both intent and intensity, even given what Boro allowed them.
The Head Coach has shown that his defensive system can sustain through regular, forced changes of personnel and it did again yesterday.
Omeruo replaced the suspended Big Ben Gibson and, after a few nervous moments early on, settled in seamlessly alongside Woody and looked as much in charge as the rest of the back line unit.
Ahead of them, Chalobah was much more comfortable ‘holding’ than he has been in doing the box to box role when Grant Leadbitter has had to move to the number ten slot recently. Leadbitter was his usual reliable self in his preferred engine room role.
But that’s about as far as the good news goes for Boro’s players and their Head Coach.
I struggle to understand Karanka’s selection of Kamara and Main for the wide roles in the attacking three.
Though the latter tried hard enough, as usual, neither of the two made any impact either in providing or finishing and both looked as unsuited as you’d think they would.
Butterfield did marginally better in the number ten role but wasn’t that great in probing or prompting through the middle and got only the one shot on target.
Danny Graham was just about as anonymous as he has been since he arrived back at Boro on loan and before that at The Mackems and Hull. He hasn’t yet come off as lone line leader, let alone really threatened the goal, and didn’t again yesterday.
He has the excuse of lack of service, of course, but I still think he should be offering way more than he has or did yesterday.
Top scorer, Albert Adomah was only on the bench but at least showed some semblance of attacking intent and penetration when he was introduced from the bench, though it was far too late in the day.
Boro’s other wide man, Muzzy Carayol, wasn’t even on the bench. Stories emanating from Rockliffe and the fact that the official club information doesn’t list him as injured leads many to conclude that he’s one of those that Karanka has accused of ‘thinking they’re better players than they are’.
I can understand that it’s ‘my way or the highway’ for Boro’s Head Coach but, as good as he thinks he is or not, Carayol’s way better than either Main or Kamara in a wide midfield role – however regime compliant the other two are.
And there was I thinking that the gulag had shut up shop when Mogga departed…
And then there’s Tomlin.
What sort of shape and form must he have been in if he couldn’t get, say, an hour from the start yesterday - especially since Butterfield has had no more game time than the recruit from Posh in recent weeks.
Karanka’s use of substitutes has been a very positive feature of his match management at Boro but what was he thinking about yesterday when he waited until the three-quarters point to introduce his new signing and then put him out on the left wing, replacing Kamara?
The man bought because he is a ‘specialist number ten’ only moved into that role when Ledesma came on for Butterfield on seventy-seven and, on my count, only had three touches of the ball in his first twenty-five in a red shirt.
Even so, the short period with Adomah and Ledesma on and out wide and with either Butterfield or Tomlin in the hole behind Graham was when Boro looked at their best and began to trouble a Leeds defence that had, largely, looked pretty comfortable containing their opponents until that point.
If that performance was, as Karanka later claimed, his team functioning as they were asked to – in contrast to the Watford game – then he needs to ask them to do something different and radically better as an attacking unit.
The issue now is about ensuring that this season doesn’t just tail off and that’s it’s used, positively, to prepare for the summer rebuild and to establish some momentum to carry through.
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