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There was some further evidence from the trip to Bloomfield Road of 'message received' from that matchday squad in response to what Boro's Head Coach has being trying to get across to his charges.

You can't help feel that Karanka will also have been pleased by the reaction of someone not on the pitch last Saturday, Kei Kamara - out of the squad recently, through a serious knee injury.

You can imagine that, 'dedicated', 'working hard with the medical team', 'back in training ahead of schedule', 'been travelling with the team to stay part of the set-up and study what the Coach is trying to do' will be just what's required and typical of the bloke.

Couple that with a full ninety and two goals in an U21 game against Arsenal earlier in the week and it seems likely that the Sierra Leone international will be straight into the squad for tomorrow's Addicks encounter at The Riverside, if not the starting eleven.

Even if he judges that Kamara's recovery can encompass going from the first whistle, Karanka may want to recognise the men in possession of the shirt, just as he did with Omeruo last weekend.

Juke and Mainy have worked hard enough for the team in Kamara's absence, though they've hardly set the world on fire with their goalscoring .

Mind you, the returnee had gone off the boil somewhat in that aspect before he picked up the injury at Birmingham.

The re-appearance of Kamara, who can also play wide in the attacking midfield three, will have helped in the club's considerations about bringing in goal-scoring line leader reinforcements.

Jutkiewicz being moved on to free up headroom for incoming now represents less of a risk and rumours abound that potential suitors at Ewood are about to come into some cash for Jordan Rhodes.

Becchio and Sharp have been a longstanding targets .

Though both would be complimentary as a pair and very decent additions, the Argentinian seems closer to the template that Karanka is looking for and their clubs reasonably placed for a do-able deal on wages.

I don't understand the rumoured interest in Doyle , though.

(Image: Action Images / Andrew Couldridge)

'Off the boil' is the least of it as far as the expensively waged Wolves forward is concerned.

I don't see how he improves Boro's squad, and the League One club don’t seem to want to split wages for loan deals.

Rhys Williams appears to be the other player attracting interest at present with high-flying Burnley, where the defender enjoyed a successful loan a few years ago, looking to be in pole position.

Like Boro, the Turf Moor outfit aren't flush with cash but they might consider the investment worth it in pursuit of squad strength, seeking to sustain a strong second half to the season.

With Chelski youngster Omeruo now on the books , Boro might well be tempted, though Ayala's loan extension is yet to be settled.

Another long-ish term target with the same club alma mater as Omeruo but more Championship pedigree, Nathanial Chalobah has just been signed on loan , too.

The young man impressed in midfield for Watford last season, somewhat less so for the Tricky Trees this .

With his tough tackling, decent engine and defensive capabilities that have Mourinho believing he may end up in the back line, Chalobah will give Karanka options for the ‘holding’ midfield role and the ‘box to box’ slot.

I don’t think he’ll figure tomorrow, though.

As for the outgoing, The Addicks are now under Belgian ownership, so Gibbo and Bausor might welcome a Haroun-shaped Directors' Box chat with Roland Duchatelet, given his interests in his home country.

All of this means that the runes will be being read from Karanka's team and squad selections for tomorrow's game against a struggling Charlton that The Reds can do the double over.

Whatever the transfer window ‘noises off’, the Boro Head Coach’s attention will be focused on ensuring that those who pass his ‘hard to get a place, easy to lose it’ muster are exclusively tuned into winning a game that’s his highest priority – because it’s the next one.

With his newly-extended contract, Dimi Konstantopoulos, will surely be bench back-up to Shay Given who’s nailed on as Boro’s number one with custodian.

George Friend’s interesting TV piece on the Northern League, aired this week, can only have enhanced the sort of ‘graft’ perspectives that he has shown regularly but which are now harnessed to exercising his defensive craft as his first priority.

If the left back is amongst the first inked onto the team sheet, there are more choices to make across the rest of the back four.

How Karanka exercises those against his principles and the transfer window influences will be an area of great interest for tomorrow’s team.

Ahead of them, I believe that Leadbitter and Whitehead will be the engine room two.

For the flexible front four, there are the same sorts of dilemmas for Karanka as the back line poses with only Albert Adomah a near-certainty to start.

Whether Carayol’s Bloomfield Road brace from the bench gets him a start will depend on how he’s reacted in training to Karanka’s ‘consistency’ message, beyond ruefully acknowledging that the Head Coach is ‘never happy’.

If the player selections aren’t yet certain, the way Karanka will want them to play is abundantly clear, simple but profound in the way that Jack Charlton’s approach was when he shaped his Boro up forty years ago this season.

Beyond the sort of limited horizon the Head Coach prefers to focus on, the challenge ahead isn’t to be underestimated.

If Boro are to better my ‘top ten but not top six’ projection, their returns will need to average just short of two points a game – automatic promotion form.

That’s a big ask and it means that shipping any points tomorrow would put a small but significant dent in the progress recently established in the turnround ‘under new management’.

Overcoming the immediate challenge presented by Charlton tomorrow isn’t to be underestimated either.

This is The Championship, after all, and they’ve picked up some useful points on their travels in the back end of 2013. That’s ‘points’ in the sense of a series of draws – you have to go further back for their two wins on the road.

The Addicks are unbeaten in five in all competitions and have less game time in their legs than their Boro counterparts given two postponements in January due to The Valley pitch being waterlogged.

Against that, they had to battle back from two goals down on their mudbath of a pitch to a two all FA Cup draw with Oxford in a game re-arranged – for the second time - to last Tuesday evening.

Their top scorer, Kermorgant, got the equaliser with a stunning volley with less than ten minutes to go.

Boro subdued him in their one nil win in South London earlier in the season and will have learned yet more about his tendencies to ‘simulation’ and whinging alongside his goal threat.

Nonetheless, this is a game that Karanka’s Boro will be expected to win. I think that they’re now getting to the point in their development where they can live with that expectation and deliver.

C’mon Boro!!!

Read more of John Powls' columns