Middlesbrough dropped out of the Championship play-off places after squandering a three-goal lead to only draw against Sheffield Wednesday.

Boro led 3-0 at half-time and looked back to their ruthless best as Finn Azaz added a brace to Ben Doak’s fifth-minute opener. They looked as comfortable as they possibly could going in at half-time before Danny Rohl’s tactical and personnel changes completely flipped the game.

Boro completely lost control of the game in the early stages of the second half, encapsulating both the team’s biggest problem and also a huge Michael Carrick issue as Boro try to stay in the promotion battle. Including the game-changing moment, biggest negative and overall verdict, this is the analysis of the game at a glance.

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The game-changing moment

You could argue from a Sheffield Wednesday point of view that the game-changing moment was Rohl’s half-time changes that completely flipped the control of the game. He admitted after that he switched from his starting 3-4-3 formation to 4-4-2 in the first half before switching again at half-time to 4-1-4-1 to bolster the midfield and nullify the influence of Boro’s midfield. It worked. Boro completely lost their grip of the game.

Having said all of that, Rohl’s changes and half-time tactical tweaks might have all been in vain had Boro managed to get a fourth goal - something they very nearly did within seconds of the second half kicking off. Emmanuel Latte Lath opted to go alone when a simple pass across the box to Doak would have given the Liverpool loanee a tap-in for 4-0. Game over.

Latte Lath actually had another solid game in general. Having come on in just the eighth minute after Tommy Conway’s injury, he played his part in Boro’s next two goals. There was then that huge last-ditch tackle late on that might have rescued a point for his side when he ran from one box to the other to rectify his miss-hit shot that set off a Sheffield Wednesday counter.

But when Carrick discussed the importance of decision-making in Boro’s collapse, that early second-half Latte Lath moment wasn’t solely what he was referring to but was undoubtedly a huge moment. The Owls countered and within minutes of it almost being 4-0 to Boro, it was 3-1. Belief was back for the visitors and Boro’s collapse had begun.

Boro's best player

Delano Burgzorg deserves a big shout out. He worked hard throughout down the left and was a constant threat and ray of positivity with his powerful dribbling to work Boro out of the defensive third and into the attacking third with real intent. When Boro went down to ten men, that explosive pace meant Boro remained a counter-attacking threat too, which in turn, Rohl admitted after, meant he instructed his side not to over-commit in their search for a winner.

But our man of the match ultimately went to Finn Azaz - who once again demonstrated his quality and importance to Boro with two goals and an assist. It leaves him closing in on double figures for both key statistics, with eight goals and nine assists at the half-way stage of the season. Only Borja Sainz of Norwich City has more goal contributions than the Boro man, with no other Championship player even close to reaching double-figures for both goals and assists.

The positive

Given what happened in the second half, it’s hard to take much positives from the game. But it was pleasing to see Boro back to being as ruthless as they were in the first half. Though Boro went unbeaten in the last two games, they were never quite flowing at their attacking best against Millwall and Plymouth after they lost their previous momentum in tough games away at Burnley and Leeds United.

Prior to those tough early December trips, Boro had been in scintillating attacking form, scoring 18 goals in six games. The first half against Sheffield Wednesday was every bit as impressive as wins over QPR, Oxford and Luton. What happens after half-time diminishes that on the day, but Boro have to try and take the belief from that as an attacking unit.

The negative

The season has somewhat flipped. Early on they were defending relatively well and conceding few chances, albeit still finding ways to gift goals that cost them valuable points as they struggled to finish chances at the other end.

Now though, as Boro have solved their attacking problems emphatically, it’s now at the other end of the pitch where real issues lie. The reality is, they concede far too many goals and are far too easy to score against, as the last two games showed.

Asked ahead of this one if his side had to find the right balance between attack and defence, Carrick said he doesn’t necessarily think the two have to be exclusive. In essence, he was saying, you can be a free-scoring attacking team as well as a solid defence. That’s true, but it’s something his Boro side are absolutely not - and that’s a big problem he and his coaches need to solve.

Boro have now conceded three goals in three of the last four games and, quite frankly, that’s nowhere near good enough for a side chasing promotion. Ironically, only Sheffield Wednesday in the top ten have conceded more than Boro.

Carrick has to get a grip of this if Boro are to make anything of this season. This isn’t a new problem. It was an issue last season too, and to counter it, Carrick briefly switched to a back three to rebalance his side. He’ll be reluctant to do it right now because of how efficient his side are in attack. But he knows only too well that they can’t continue being as open as they are if they want to finish in the top six this season. They have to get that balance right because they’re far too open on the counter.

The verdict

This game encapsulated Boro’s season in many ways. A game of two halves, the first half highlighted Boro’s quality and why they should be considered promotion contenders. Having played every side in this division now, there’s not a side on paper that Boro should fear or couldn’t beat on their day.

But the second half shows why Boro are competing for a top six spot and not top two. In what should have been a season of opportunity in a weaker Championship, Carrick might call it ridiculous to rule out top two at this stage, but Boro are too soft-bellied and too self-destructive to be serious automatic promotion contenders. Now 12 points off the top two, Boro winning enough to make up that difference, when considering that requires Boro’s form to be near perfect, while having either standout side Leeds United or efficient winning-machine Sheffield United drop enough points, feels fanciful at best.

They are still more than in the top-six battle and, with their quality, could still make the play-offs and have a good chance of promotion via that means. But they have to sort so many problems out because the harsh reality is, the negative sides of Boro that came to the fore in this one, makes them a side who don’t look capable of promotion.

As well as their defensive problems that need solving, it’s perhaps that weak underbelly and mentality that is their biggest undoing. Admittedly, this one was to the extreme, but Boro have dropped so many points this season where they’ve effectively found ways not to win a game - dropping too many points in games they should have won. In a knockout competition which the play-offs effectively are, it’s not difficult to imagine how costly that would be.