The Boro coach demanded greater desire for winning games from his team, who salvaged a 1-1 draw with West Ham at the weekend, thanks to a late Mido free kick.

Despite the fact that the Egyptian is currently top scorer at the Riverside, Southgate highlighted the significance of Afonso and Tuncay to the team.

"The style I want to play is that I want players to express themselves, and I have got players who can do that. Sometimes, they don't believe in themselves enough," said the Boro boss.

"But if I take our two front players from Saturday (Afonso and Tuncay) as an example, they are two players who have fantastic belief in themselves and who believe any game is winnable.

"When you have players like that in your side who can score from nothing, that should give the team huge belief as well."