Are Middlesbrough suffering from a lack of identity? Leeds United and Championship rivals have a clear style, but what is Boro's?

Are they a side which likes to pass the ball through midfield and are easy on the eye? Not really.

Are they a physically imposing team which can bully opponents? They’re not really that either.

Maybe they are a high-pressing, counter attacking outfit which can burst forward quickly? We’ve seen flashes of that but not on a consistent basis.

All this leaves an underlying question. Are Boro suffering from a lack of identity?

Last summer, during his first press conference at Rockliffe, Jonathan Woodgate spoke about an attacking philosophy that he wanted to impose. He talked about pressing high up the pitch, winning the ball back fast and keeping it.

It all sounded great at the time, yet it quickly seemed clear that Boro don’t really have the players to bring it to fruition.

The need for results didn’t help Woodgate either, and the Teessiders’ perilous position has led to the short-term appointment of 71-year-old Championship specialist Neil Warnock.

Warnock’s remit is simply to keep the Teessiders up, yet even the experienced Yorkshireman is struggling to work this squad out.

He has repeatedly highlighted Boro’s lack of natural leaders and defenders, the types of players he had at former club Cardiff City.

"I watched the Cardiff game last night and even though they lost 2-0, I knew what 10 of them lads were going to do,” said Warnock after Boro’s 3-1 defeat by Bristol City.

"It’s nice when you’re like that as a manager but it’s not there at the minute, I don’t know what quite a few of them are going to do.

"I do know one thing, they are trying. They are trying their hardest and nobody is going to tell me that they don’t care or anything like that when you look at the dressing room after.”

In the last week, Warnock has tried changing his side’s system from a back four to a back three, a formation which worked well during Wednesday’s 2-0 win at Millwall.

It’s not the first time Boro have altered their set-up this campaign, and clearly there are certain line-ups which work better against different opponents.

League leaders Leeds, for example, have switched from a back four to a back three this season, so too have Bristol City, who outplayed Boro with some neat, slick football at the Riverside.

Yet those two sides have played with a similar style all campaign, in fact it goes beyond the start of this season.

Boro, on the other hand, have been at a crossroad since the departure of Tony Pulis in May last year. Many may have thought the football was dull, yet at least you knew what the side’s strengths were. .

In the last two matches we’ve seen Boro take a more direct approach, once again utilising Ryan Shotton’s long throw-ins.

Of course, successful teams need to have a range of qualities, yet the lack of a clear identity can also be a hindrance.