Middlesbrough star setting the standards others must meet in challenging schedule

Middlesbrough's defensive strengths – and weaknesses – will be put under the microscope in the weeks and months ahead. In this respect, George Edmundson continues to shine like a beacon as a model of consistency. The players around him need to take up the cudgels and battle to match the game-to-game contribution of the Ipswich Town loanee.

While some defenders are among those who have under-performed over the last couple of games Edmundson has kept his head and got on with the job. Assuming that Matt Clarke continues to line up again alongside Edmundson, Boro need the two centre-backs to gel and provide the foundations of performances which have all the hallmarks of respectability.

Clarke has looked a little rusty since returning from injury. But he will have benefited from the opportunity to get back on the pitch. He was the main man at the end of last season and often held the team together under pressure. More of that form is needed.

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Boro were caught both through the middle and down the flanks on occasions by Coventry, while goals conceded against QPR and Luton were as much to do with errors playing out from the back as anything else. So a general tightening up is desperately needed.

It’s always good to see Luke Ayling and Neto Borges bursting forward but there’s also a need for them to do the business defensively. More clean sheets will be most welcome. They travel to Oxford first up after the break and haven't kept an away clean sheet since August.

The return of Jonny Howson will be appreciated. The skipper always leads by example. Hopefully his work in the opening spell will set the scene for what Boro as a whole need to achieve. Howson and Aidan Morris will guarantee the back four plenty of support. In fact, like Edmundson, Morris is proving himself to be one of the big captures of the summer.

It would have been easy to assume that Morris would need a settling-in period from the step from American soccer to Championship football. But Michael Carrick obviously saw enough in pre-season to believe that Morris could be given his head in the side. The Floridian has not let him down.

While Howson is approaching the latter years of his wonderful career in the game, Morris and Hayden Hackney can yet form a crucial Boro midfield pairing for several years to come if they both stay with the club.

Anyway, it’s the present and not the future which must occupy hearts and minds in the Boro dressing room at the moment. Football is a team game and so it’s not just what individuals do. We need to see the players running out with their heads up and playing for each other.

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While Edmundson and Morris have both justified their arrivals on Teesside during the summer, Tommy Conway is another who continues to impress. He is one of those players who never stops working and again sets a fine example. However, the bottom line for strikers is that they need to score goals. In this respect, Conway is arguably the most important man in the team at the moment, with the most responsibility. On the other hand, the bottom line is that the manager is under the greatest pressure to see that the team continue to build momentum after the break.

During a summer of great expectancy, when the squad was considerably strengthened, none of us expected such an inconsistent start to the campaign. It’s impossible not to believe that the armoury is still there for everybody to gel together and become a force to be reckoned with at this level. They've shown that in the last two and now need to build on it.