Besic keeps up Mo-mentum despite being out of side

TONY Pulis has praised Mo Besic’s attitude after leaving the midfielder out of the Middlesbrough first team for two key fixtures.

The Bosnia and Herzegovina international was a firm fixture in the Boro first team until recently but was left out of the starting line-up for the vital games against Leeds United and Sheffield United.

That state of affairs is partly a reflection of Lewis Wing’s impressive form in the engine room and the improvement shown by George Saville but also a result of Besic’s diminishing influence on games.

John Obi Mikel has also established himself in the Middlesbrough midfield but that’s as a like-for-like replacement for holding player Adam Clayton.

German-born Besic re-signed for Boro on a season-long loan from Everton in the summer after failing to agree a permanent deal.

Pulis was keen to complete that transfer after the 26-year-old’s successful loan over the second half of last season.

Explaining why the midfielder has been on the bench over the past couple of weeks, the Boro boss said: “I just think the midfield players have played exceptionally well.

“It has been very difficult to leave Wingy out, very difficult to leave Sav out, and John has come in and been fantastic.

“Mo is having to wait his time. If it happened that John was out of the team, or someone else was, and then someone else played exceptionally well, then it would be the same.

“But how do you leave Wingy out at the moment? Or Sav, who has been not only up to speed, but who has been scoring goals as well? It’s difficult to leave him out.”

Besic’s first start of the season came on August 31 at Leeds and he also kicked off the defeat at Norwich but that game came after an exhausting international break and Pulis later admitted he should have rested the Bosnian at Carrow Road.

He was back in the starting line-up three games later and enjoyed his best spell of the season so far, scoring two goals in three games.

One game Besic will want to forget, however, is the home clash with today’s opponents Blackburn on December 8. Boro had started brightly but, midway through the first half, Besic was redcarded for hauling back Bradley Dack as the Rovers playmaker threatened to get through on goal.

After serving a one-match ban, he returned to the first team for the win at Reading and was an ever-present in the Championship until the Leeds match last weekend, when he was dropped to