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If only Middlesbrough had been able to find another Ben Doak during the summer... It's apparent that Boro have a lack of pace in the side which is proving costly whenever they push forward.

Yes, it's great to have Callum Brittain and Matt Targett pushing forward and getting in occasional crosses, but what the Boro desperately lacks is a pacey winger. For a while this season it appeared that Delano Burgzorg might have stepped a few rungs up the ladder and become a more effective player on the left flank. He does have a bit of pace, and a lot of strength on the ball, but he needs to be consistent if he is to hold down a place in the side.

Morgan Whittaker, often used on the right, has a bit of guile on the ball at times, but where's the pace going to come from? We haven't yet seen the best yet of Sontje Hansen, we hope, and maybe the time has come to play him as an orthodox winger.

In his time with NEC Nijmegen, he scored 13 goals and provided 13 assists in over 60 games. Not a fantastic record, but something to cling to. May he should be given the chance to show what he is capable of achieving as an orthodox winger - and put on from the start.

Otherwise, there is not a lot in this squad to throw opposition defences into panic and confusion. Boro had enough of the ball around the Watford and Leicester goals that they could have scored three goals in each easily if they had been creative. But they weren't.

It's a major worry and something that hasn't been addressed. We know that Ben Doaks don't grow on trees. But the failure to bring in a genuine pacey winger may yet prove to be very costly this summer. We have seen the negative effect this can have because Boro were superb at times in the first half of last season with Doak cutting up opposition defences. However they began to struggle badly in the second half of the campaign when Doak was injured.

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Ironically, the way in which the team became boring to watch after Doak's injury was one of the factors which led to the departure of Michael Carrick. In truth, Boro haven't had an exciting winger playing over an extended period of time since the days of Adama Traore.

The Spaniard was a superb signing by Aitor Karanka, and cost only around £1m from Aston Villa. He didn't get too many chances in the Premier League because he was still young and inexperienced. However, following relegation, Traore was given his head and came into his own. He regularly caused chaos with his electric runs and had us fans on the edge of our seats.

He was such a frightening prospect for the opposition that he was often man marked by two men. Traore didn't always pick up a man in a red shirt with his passes, but he could weave his way into the box with ease.

When he came up against physical contact and battled to keep his feet, it was frustrating the way in which he struggled to keep his feet because one always felt that he would have won a host of penalties had he gone down.

In the event, Boro eventually cashed in on him and sold him to Wolves for a whopping £18m. But he was never adequately replaced. Just imagine how many goals Tommy Conway might have scored at this stage of the season had Boro possessed a pacey winger cutting up defences and setting up the chances.