Kim Hellberg issues Middlesbrough "struggle" claim as Morgan Whittaker & Hayden Hackney name-dropped | OneFootball

The Boro boss has demanded his side fight the ongoing slump in form, admitting that confidence is low

Middlesbrough are undergoing a surprising slump in form at the completely wrong time in the Championship season, and their automatic promotion hopes are slipping away at an alarming rate.

Since reaching the second-tier's summit after a 2-1 win away at Sheffield United in early February — a victory which marked their sixth straight in league action — Boro have won just two of their following 11 games, and are winless in their last six.

It's been a head-scratching run of results, though, as Middlesbrough haven't by any means been dominated in games where they've dropped points. In this current run of three draws and three defeats, Kim Hellberg's side have had 146 shots, but have scored four goals. In contrast, their opponents have had 40 and scored seven times.

It's easy to feel frustrated at the Riverside, and the Boro boss has admitted that confidence is low, as it seems like they're doing everything but winning.

Kim Hellberg urges Middlesbrough to "fight through" low confidence with star duo's absences factored in

The latest case of Middlesbrough having the better of all the attacking stats but failing to convert came last Saturday, and it was arguably the most gut-wrenching of them all, as they were beaten 1-0 at home against Portsmouth at the death, after the visitors had just three shots all game.

With both Morgan Whittaker and Hayden Hackney, two of Boro's more creative outlets, missing the last four, it's been difficult for the promotion-chasers to capitalise on the chances they are creating going up the other end.

Each disappointing draw or defeat is a hammer blow to their confidence, and head coach Kim Hellberg hopes that his side can exit this funk shortly.

"Confidence, of course. I think you can feel it on everyone. It's not a confident place to be at the moment in terms of when things are going wrong. I can understand that. We just have to get out of it," Hellberg told Teeside Live.

"It hurts us without Morgan [Whittaker] and Hayden [Hackney], our two best point scorers or takers throughout the season, being out. That doesn't help either. But we have to fight through it. And that was the disappointing thing, because you can be honest sometimes when the performance is good enough and say that it was unlucky we didn't win.

"We should not lose the game again. If the way the game looks, you still win this game if you're confident. But we don't. So then you should not, you cannot, lose it. For the moment, it's a struggle. That's just to be honest with it.

"Everyone can see it, so it's not hiding from that. We have to dig ourselves out of that hole and find a way. And that was a disappointment from the last game, and the games before here, that I think have been totally different in terms of energy."

Kim Hellberg's side are three points behind Ipswich Town in second now, and have played a couple of games more. They could even drop to fifth tonight if Southampton continue their impressive winning run against Blackburn Rovers in their game in hand.

With Ipswich to come this weekend, Boro have a massive opportunity to prove that they're still capable of grinding out big results and getting promoted come the end of the season.

A loss there, though, would see them all but mathematically out of the top two race, and perhaps even looking over their shoulders at the chasing play-off pack.

Middlesbrough have had a similar slump under Kim Hellberg — they'll be hoping to come out the other side again, and soon

It's been a rollercoaster of a ride under Kim Hellberg at Middlesbrough since the Swedish boss took over in late November, and this isn't the only down period his side has had in the short space of time that he's been in the dugout.

After winning his first four league games, Boro would pick up one point over four games across Christmas and the New Year, scoring no goals. They would then win six in a row off the back of that, which has led to this 11-game spell of two wins, five draws and four defeats.

While confidence is low amongst the Middlesbrough fold, there can be some confidence instilled, knowing that this Boro side has come out on the other side of a bad run of form already this season, so they know how to deal with adversity already.

Additionally, while games against Ipswich and Wrexham between now and the end of the season may not be the easiest on paper, you can imagine that they'd be a lot more open, which would suit Boro, rather than the constant low-block defences that they have faced over the last month.

So, despite this slump in form and the fact that automatic promotion seems out of their reach now, there should still be some hope that Middlesbrough can replicate some of their earlier form off the back of a winless run, sooner rather than later.