Tony Pulis has admitted that his Middlesbrough side are lacking former winger's Adama Traore pace this season.

Boro lost ground on the automatic promotion places after being held to a 1-1 draw against Blackburn Rovers, as the North East club slipped to sixth in the Sky Bet Championship table.

After his side's disappointing draw, Pulis admitted to The Northern Echo that his side miss the "threat" and "electric pace" that Traore gave Boro in abundance last term, before his summer departure:

"We have lost that a little (pace) with Adama going - if you look at when I came here last year, we played him all the time.

“Adama gave us that threat and it worried teams - I don’t think we have that electric pace, someone we can give it to.”

The 22-year old signed for Wolverhampton Wanderers in the summer, as the Premier League club activated the £18million release clause of the Spanish wide-man.

Traore made 61 appearances for Boro and was an instrumental player in their promotion push last term, and his pace is definitely something that they miss having netted just two goals in their last three games.

The Verdict

It's quite surprising to see Pulis make such an admission to be honest.

You don't often see managers rue their mistakes of not replacing former players, whereas reading between the lines here, it seems as if he regrets either selling Traore or not replacing him in the summer.

The January transfer window is huge for Boro, with Pulis potentially offering an indication of what he will target in the New Year.

Thoughts? Let us know! 

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