Aitor Karanka was scathing in his assessment of Boro's display in the 2-0 defeat at Sheffield Wednesday.
He pulled no punches in his post match interviews and was equally critical of himself, admitting he made mistakes.
Ahead of kick-off, the Boro boss made five changes from the side that started Tuesday's edgy 1-0 victory over Bolton and also switched to a 3-5-2 formation.
Things didn't go to plan however with Wednesday taking the lead through a 52nd minute Atdhe Nuhiu penalty before adding a second just two minutes later when Will Keane headed home from close range.
Boro rarely looked like scoring on an afternoon to forget, though the club remain second in the Championship table because other results went their way.
Karanka couldn't find any positives to take from the defeat, Boro's second in three games.
“It was worse than Bolton,” he said. “I said after Bolton that was the worst performance but now this is the worst performance of the season.
“It was awful, I don't have words to explain what happened but we know have a game on Tuesday we have to learn from this game very quickly.
“I have to learn a lot of things from the last two games and we have to keep going.
“It was my mistake,” he added. “I made mistakes and I have to learn from my mistake and I need to fix things for the future.”
Karanka was naturally quizzed on the wisdom of making five changes to a winning team and on his formation switch.
“I thought the squad was the best to play here,” he answered. “Against Blackpool I made six changes and we won the game so I don't think about how many changes.
“Maybe yes about the quality of some of them but that is now in the past and I have to think about the future.”
Boro were denied an early penalty when Albert Adomah appeared to be tripped inside the box by Claude Dielna.
With Wednesday later winning a spot-kick when Kenneth Omeruo handled the ball, Karanka was quick to point out that his side have suffered rough justice in the same fixture last year when a Jacob Butterfield shot crossed the line but wasn't awarded.
“It's curious,” said the head coach. “I don't know what happens here but last season it was the same.
“Last season we scored a goal but the linesman didn't see it.
“They see the bad things that we might do but don't see when bad things happen against us.”
There was an flashpoint in the 65th minute when Grant Leadbitter and Jose Semedo clashed with the Boro player appearing to claim he'd been spat at but both managers later said they didn't see the incident.
Karanka, meanwhile, refused to use the state of the Hillsborough pitch as an excuse for Boro's poor display.
“The pitch is not in a good condition but I said before Blackpool game that if we had lost the game I would not have blamed the pitch and I don't want to make excuses today,” he said.
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