Aitor Karanka: 'Imagine where we will be when our strikers do start scoring'

Aitor Karanka has tipped Boro’s strikers to return to their clinical best after ending the club’s four-hour hoodoo in front of goal.

Boro huffed and puffed for an hour against Huddersfield on Saturday before Lee Tomlin’s opener, which was the team’s first league goal since Boxing Day.

Tomlin added a second in stoppage time to secure the points, but it was an afternoon that could have been very different with Dimi Konstantopoulos forced into a string of world-class saves.

Tonight sees mid-table Cardiff City arrive at the Riverside, and Karanka believes Tomlin’s timely breakthrough on Saturday will help lift the mood among his misfiring front men.

“When you’re playing well and deserving to win games, having chances and not scoring, sometimes your confidence goes down,” Karanka said.

“But I hope after the game on Saturday we are now going to be much better.

“If we had scored all the chances we made, we would have scored six or seven goals.

“I’m not concerned. I prefer to think if we are in the position we are and our strikers aren’t scoring goals, imagine where we can be when our strikers do start scoring.

“The main thing is that the team wins games. It is better for everybody when the strikers score goals, especially for them as they live for their goals.

“But if we’re in this position now and they’re not scoring, imagine when they do. I am sure they are going to score because all of them have quality.”

Tomlin’s double gave Karanka plenty of food for thought ahead of tonight’s match, with Jelle Vossen also itching for a recall and Patrick Bamford tipped to return to a more central role.

Kike Garcia started against the Terriers and rattled the post early on, but the £2.7m man is now without a goal in seven matches and has netted twice in his last 20 appearances.

Both Bamford and Vossen have scored two in their last seven matches.

Meanwhile Karanka insists none of his players are looking beyond tonight’s match, despite a glamorous trip to Premier League champions Manchester City coming up on Saturday.

But Karanka says nobody at the club are thinking about the FA Cup fourth round tie - and said preparations for City will begin tomorrow morning.

“If you go to the training ground or in the changing room, all of them are thinking about the next game,” Karanka said.

“It’s stupid for them to think about the Man City game. The players and everyone else know how important the City game is, but I haven’t heard one player speak about Saturday.”