Despite Emmanuel Latte Lath suffering a somewhat disjointed maiden Championship season, he is now proving his worth in the Middlesbrough side.
The 25-year-old arrived on Teesside in the summer in a deal worth a reported £3.6million, making the switch from Italian outfit Atalanta. He showed plenty of raw promise and indicated that he had all the credentials to do well for the club; pace, power, a good leap, plenty of tricks. However, the Championship is unique and unforgiving, and Latte Lath took time to adjust to a new country and a very different division in terms of opposition.
Early season struggles at Middlesbrough
Having struggled to get amongst the goals early in the season, and having endured some ill-timed injuries, he has now put his lack of prolificacy behind him with some scintillating displays in front of goal.
He has scored five goals in his last seven games and now sits on 12 goals in all competitions, making him Middlesbrough’s current top scorer for this campaign by some margin.
A sticky patch saw the club plummet to the lower depths of the league table, and the lack of a fit and available striker was becoming a genuine worry. Sam Greenwood, Sami Silvera and even Riley McGree had all had unsuccessful auditions in that all important number nine role as they tried to muddle through with all of their recognised forwards out through injury.
Latte Lath missed 10 games from late December through to mid-February. A key period in Middlesbrough’s season. Unfortunately, they only took 14 points from the 30 available to them, suffering damaging defeats to the likes of Rotherham United, Bristol City and Preston North End.
Middlesbrough’s form has been transformed
Since his return though, he has helped transform the fortunes of Michael Carrick‘s play-off hopefuls. Middlesbrough are now seven unbeaten and with just five fixtures left, they are hoping to continue with their late surge towards the top six.
The transformation in Boro’s form is partially down to an improved showing at the back, with clean-sheets now being recorded regularly. But credit must also be given to Latte Lath who has shown the absolute need for a team to have a ‘proper’ number nine in attack.
Yes, players like Jonny Howson, Hayden Hackney and Rav van den Berg are instrumental, but the short, sharp fact is, scoring goals wins you football matches, and Middlesbrough’s number nine is doing just that. With a bonafide goal scorer, the team is a different proposition.
Emmanuel Latte Lath’s lethal streak continues
The Ivorian is so explosive and unpredictable. He can score all kinds of goals and has done already this season. He has scored long range goals, solo goals and shown a real goal poacher’s instinct in and around the box.
Stats via the Sofascore website show he has 7 goals with his right-foot, 2 goals with his left-foot and has managed 3 headers. He also recorded an impressive 9.5 overall match rating in his last outing against Swansea where he got both goals in a comfortable 2-0 victory.
Initially, Latte Lath came back into the side and played with Finnish striker Marcus Forss alongside him. It helped him share the goal scoring burden and if not necessarily a pairing that had lots of link-up play, they definitely forged a lethal partnership in terms of hitting the net. Unfortunately Forss picked up an injury and will remain out until next season, meaning Latte Lath is now ploughing a lone furrow up front.
They both have an extremely commendable goals per ninety ratio. Latte Lath has 0.55 goals per ninety minutes, whilst Forss has 0.56 goals per ninety minutes. Fans have called for more reinforcements up front in the centre-forward position. It is difficult to argue having seen instances where the club are without Coburn, Forss and Latte Lath for pivotal parts of the season.
But if they can keep Latte Lath and at least one of those aforementioned players fit, with the addition of at least one strong signing in attack in the summer, you’d have to say that Carrick would back his team to do well in the goal scoring stakes.