Signing Arsenal's Flo Balogun and Brighton's Aaron Connolly on loan in January looked excellent business for Middlesbrough at the time but neither have hit the ground running at the Riverside. 

With the business end of the 2021/22 campaign approaching and Boro in the running for the play-offs, however, we could well see them play a major role in the coming weeks.

We've taken a dive into the statistics (via Wyscout) to assess how the two Premier League loanees have fared in the Championship since joining Chris Wilder's squad.

Both players have featured 12 times in the league for Boro since arriving in the winter window but Connolly (935 minutes in 10 starts and two sub appearances) has been more involved than Balogun (705 minutes in six starts and six sub appearances).

However, there is a strong argument to be made that the Arsenal loanee has been the more effective forward.

While the pair have two goals each to their name – Balogun has outscored his expected goals (xG) figure of 1.6 while Connolly has underperformed against his xG of 4.65.

The latter has had more shots (31 v Balogun's 16) but has been less accurate and hit the target just 41.9% of the time (v 56.3%).

Balogun also appears to have linked up better with his teammates – providing more assists (2 v 0), as well as making (143 v 110) and receiving (113 v 92) more passes.

He's been more direct and willing to attack defenders as well, as his 5.62 dribbles per 90 (v 2.89) highlight and 14.68 attacking duels per 90 (v 10.2) show.

Defensively, however, the Brighton man's stats are marginally better than his fellow January arrival.

Connolly has a better defensive duel success rate (63.6% v 55.2%), more interceptions (1.16 per 90 v 1.02) and more loose balls duels per 90 (5.01 v 4.47).

Ultimately, neither signing has had quite the impact that they or Boro will have been hoping for so far.

They've been useful options for Wilder to call upon and Balogun has been more effective in the final third but just four goals between them is not the sort of return that a drop down to the Championship looked likely to provide.

That said, if the pair can turn it on over the next few weeks they could have a massive say in the play-off race.