Three things we learned from Everton’s comfortable 3-1 defeat of Middlesbrough

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Middlesbrough’s centre backs are still settling into the Premier League

It is now back-to-back defeats for Middlesbrough and they have conceded five goals across the two matches. Aitor Karanka looks to have a strong defence and they were solid at the back before the international break, but they have struggled against sides with powerful strikers.

Christian Benteke and Romelu Lukaku are two of the best in the league at bullying back fours. Both have done just that to Middlesbrough and it has been a baptism of fire for the Middlesbrough centre-back pairing.

Daniel Ayala was poor against Everton and couldn’t deal with the power of the Everton front-line. He had a tackle success rate of just 25%, while his positioning was questionable whenever the home side attacked.

The centre backs, Ayala and Ben Gibson, are both highly rated and have the potential to develop into very good Premier League players. However these last two matches have shown that they are struggling to deal with the increased quality and need time to adjust.