Middlesbrough's unique Championship advantage is also potential selection headache

Michael Carrick is blessed with the best double dose of strikers in the Championship. No other team can call on two men of the same combined quality as Emmanuel Latte Lath and Tommy Conway.

Now, the major task is to keep them both fully focused – and happy. That’s because while they are scoring goals they will quite rightly expect to be in the starting XI.

Carrick does alternate the duo, just as he utilises the whole squad by regularly swapping and changing in other positions. However goalscorers are a special breed. They gain self belief and motivation from scoring and they can’t wait for the next game to come along while they are in a rich vein of form and ramming them into the onion bag.

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In some respects it’s a pity that Carrick does not line up his side with two orthodox strikers on the pitch from the start. Yet the system is working for the team at the moment, especially as No 10 Finn Azaz continues to do the business in the keyhole role.

On the other hand, Latte Lath must have expected to be the first man on the team sheet this season and No.1 up front, following his heroics last term. The Ivorian continues to show a great attitude even when he is limited to only the final 15 minutes of a game. But deep down he won’t be happy.

The danger is that Ipswich Town may come knocking on the door again in January after failing with their late bid to sign Latte Lath at the end of August. After having very astutely brought in Conway from Bristol City around the same time, Boro were covered for all eventualities.

Yet, now that the duo have hit peak form, we have grown accustomed to the fact that we have two special men in the squad. No doubt the same feelings apply to Carrick. It would be a bodyblow to go down to just one fearsome forward at this stage. It fact it would be a blow to the squad as a whole and might damage our promotion prospects.

Aitor Karanka was the last Boro boss to operate with one orthodox striker and a No 10, but the system worked for the Spaniard – certainly in terms of being sufficient to take Boro into the Premier League.

Yet it’s quite amazing to think that his lone striker, David Nugent, top scored with a mere eight goals. Conway has already matched this feat before the end of November. Boro did win promotion with another striker in the team because Cristhian Stuani was a regular. However the Uruguayan was usually selected on the right flank and while Stuani did a good job there, it can’t be a role in which he felt comfortable.

There are options for Carrick to operate with Conway up front and Latte Lath wide on the left, though this does not necessarily provide the side with the right balance. Conway has already been tried at No.10 with Latte Lath in front of him but the plan did not work too well because Tommy was clearly operating in the wrong position.

In any case both players want – and need – to be in the middle where their goalscoring instinct is at its highest.

Chris Wilder had strikers such as Uche Ikpeazu and Andraz Sporar in his squad, yet it was midfielder Matt Crooks who was the only man to reach double figures. It’s remarkable to look back and think that Chuba Akpom was loaned out to Greek side PAOK that season even though he had failed to pull up any trees in his first year on Teesside.

Even worse, when Akpom returned to the Boro when his loan deal expired, he was initially informed that he would have to train with Boro Under-21s. He did break back into the first team pretty quickly and it was under Carrick’s tutelage, when he was handed the No.10 role, that he couldn’t stop scoring goals.

In Neil Warnock’s Covid-hit season in charge, Akpom played more league games than any other forward at the club but managed a mere four goals. Warnock also had Britt Assombalonga to call upon but the Congolese international was a shadow of his former self in his final season on Teesside.

Just why Assombalonga went off the boil so easily remains a mystery, though once he had lost his impact in front of goal it never returned. Assombalonga managed one more goal than Akpom during the campaign. Fortunately Warnock also had Duncan Watmore to call upon. It was the former Sunderland man who finished top scorer with nine goals in all competitions.

Watmore was a livewire who had a great appetite for the game and a superb attitude. Yet his nine-goal haul is still the lowest tally by any Boro top scorer since they were relegated to the Championship in 2009. This takes into account the fact that Stuani finished club top scorer with 11 goals in all competitions when Boro won promotion under Karanka.

Jonathan Woodgate had Assombalonga, Ashley Fletcher, Rudy Gestede and eventually Lukas Nmecha to call upon during his year in charge. Assombalonga was already on the wane that season and, although he reached double figures with 11 goals, it was Fletcher who topped the scoring charts with 13.

Gestede was another disappointment while Nmecha, who came in during January on loan from Manchester City, had a nightmare few months with the club. Nmecha failed to score a single goal for the Boro, yet when City sent him off on loan to Anderlecht the following season, he scored 18 times.

This led to German side Wolfsburg completing a permanent transfer agreement with City to take the Germany-born Nmecha back to his home country.

Tony Pulis was the manager who saw the best of Assombalonga, who scored 16 times in 2018-19 and 14 in the previous campaign. His striking partner on the second occasion was again Fletcher, while Patrick Bamford was alongside on the first occasion. Bamford scored 12 times before his transfer to Leeds United.

It’s a long time since Boro had two really productive strikers in the side at the same time, though Akpom and Cameron Archer scored 40 goals between them in Carrick’s first season on Teesside.

That’s not bad, though Akpom clearly dominated with his 29 goals. At the same time Archer scored his 11 goals in half a season while on loan from Aston Villa, and might have at least doubled that tally had he been here for the full campaign.

Last season was a bit of a striker nightmare for Carrick, partly because Latte Lath took so long to get to grips with life in the Championship. In addition Latte Lath, Josh Coburn and Marcus Forss were all sidelined for long spells through injuries which led to midfield men having to lead the attack.

Sam Greenwood and Sammy Silvera, currently both playing elsewhere in the Championship, were the midfielders handed the dubious role of leading the attack.

There are no such problems this time around. Carrick has a dual strikeforce which most other managers in the Championship would crawl over broken glass to get to. The task now for Carrick and his coaches is to ensure that Latte Lath and Conway, with the supporting acts of Azaz and Delano Burgzorg, have the chance to keep pushing on and score lots more goals.

Striker-wise the club is in a better position than it has been for a long time. Carrick needs to keep both players happy and focused, because this is a season when Boro can achieve something special.