Can Jordan Rhodes fire Boro to promotion?
Goals scored could be the deciding factor in determining who wins promotion to the Premier League this season and Boro have been in short supply of them compared to their rivals.
That’s probably why Jordan Rhodes has been linked with a loan move to the club.
The top four in the Championship are all currently on 66 points, with Norwich a point further back in fifth. But Boro are bottom of that quartet, primarily due to the number of goals scored.
Boro have easily the best defence in the division and are the only one of the clubs vying for promotion to concede fewer than one goal a game on average after, as bluesq.com say in the football news and betting, being turned around by Aitor Karanka.
But, when it comes to scoring goals, Boro have mustered just 54 in comparison to the 74 scored by leaders Bournemouth. Derby, in second, have scored 68 and third-placed Watford 72, while Norwich have netted 70.
Midfielder Grant Leadbitter is also Boro’s top scorer in the league with 12, followed by on-loan striker Patrick Bamford with 11. With just 10 games to go, scoring goals, to both win games and boost the goal difference, is going to be key.
Rhodes could be the man to help Boro do just that given his record in nearly three years at Blackburn. He averages a goal every two appearances, although he has yet to score in six games against Boro for Blackburn.
He is also reportedly wanted by Derby and Norwich, but Boro are said to be in pole position to sign the Scotland international. There would also be a likely permanent deal for Rhodes, if his goals do help Boro back into the Premier League.
The former Huddersfield striker may not have been quite as prolific this season as in the past two campaigns, but he has still outscored Boro’s other strikers.
A clinical finisher, he will lap up the number of chances Boro are capable of creating for him.
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Blackburn are insisting Rhodes is going nowhere, but if Boro can do a deal, then it could be the crucial difference in gaining automatic promotion or having to settle for the play-offs.
