"He just looks a lot slower" - Middlesbrough FC: Contrasting views offered on Luke Ayling and Aidan Morris | OneFootball

FLW's Middlesbrough fan pundit spoke on Luke Ayling and Aidan Morris

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more...

Differing performances from Luke Ayling and Aidan Morris appear to have left some Middlesbrough supporters surprised thus far in the 2024/25 Championship campaign.

Middlesbrough have once again struggled to establish any real form of consistency this time around under Michael Carrick, who has his side situated in ninth position after 12 matches.

As ever, results have represented a mixed bag, with Boro taking away five victories along with three draws and a further four defeats from their initial exchanges.

Their record nearly one third into the current campaign includes scalps over two potential promotion rivals in West Bromwich Albion and Sheffield United, although they're yet to go more than three matches without losing and will need to iron out their inconsistency if they are to compete at the right-end of the table all season long.

Within Middlesbrough's introduction to the season, there have been both negative and positive surprises.

Luke Ayling has been disappointing for Middlesbrough in 24/25

We asked our Boro fan pundit, Jesper Hudson, to name the players who have surprised him this season both negatively and positively.

Jesper has been left disappointed by Luke Ayling, who set the bar high during an impressive half-season loan spell from Leeds United last time out but has been unable to reattain those levels in 2024/25.

The experienced full-back made an instant impact on Teesside after arriving on loan in January, tallying up an impressive outlay of eight assists from 19 appearances while earning plaudits for his defensive solidity, too. But Jesper believes that the 33-year-old has been some way off those performances this time around.

"I think a negative perfomer this season has been Luke Ayling," Jesper told Football League World.

"Compared to what we had last season, we had a player who was clearly very experienced in the Championship and was almost fighting for his place after being kept out of the first-team team at Leeds, he came to us and he was so good.

"Most notably, how clever he was when defending, making sure that the team was organised from the back-line. I still think he's a very good leader which is potentially why he's been playing, even though his performances haven't been as good as they were last season.

"But he just looks a lot slower this year in terms of everything about his games, things he was doing that were clever last year aren't being pulled off this year."

Aidan Morris has been impressive for Middlesbrough in 24/25

In contrast, Jesper has been pleasantly surprised by the performances of Aidan Morris, who was signed in a hotly-anticipated switch from Columbus Crew in July but has arguably exceeded expectations.

The 22-year-old midfielder has seamlessly transitioned into Michael Carrick's possession-based system, helping his side to dictate the tempo in the middle of the park with his composure on the ball and range of passing.

"On a positive performance, I think Morris has exceeded the levels," Jesper continued.

"Obviously he's young and came in with a fair bit of promise and hype about him, but his performances have made him look like the most experienced and top-end Championship midfielder.

"I think he's definitely overperformed on what we estimated him to be able to do, and he's done it from game one. He's always looked really comfortable and has settled in really quickly, which just shows his ability."