Hayden Hackney is increasingly forming a reputation of having an aggressive edge to his game to go alongside his ball progression skills.

Hackney tends to pick up fouls in batches. His numbers this season read 2-0-0-1-0-1-3-1-2-1-0-0-2-0-3-4.

Daniel Barlaser isn’t known for sticking his foot in and is therefore a much bigger price than Tanaka and Hackney for a foul. But, Barlaser does have some interesting foul numbers. He’s given away 1 foul in each of his last 6 matches.

Barlaser is deputising for Aidan Morris currently, with this new role requiring him to be more combative, hence the increase in his foul stats of late. 1.67 looks a very attractive price.

The game promises to be closely fought with the two teams so closely matched and that could lead to fouls in the middle of the park as both sides wrestle for control.

Referee, Ben Toner averages 5.41 yellow cards per game in matches officiated this season. In 13 out of 17 games that he’s refereed, he’s given 4 or more yellow cards.

In Championship matches where he has started this season Latte Lath’s shot numbers read 3-3-3-1-1-3-2-3-4-1-6-4. He averages a shot every 30.29 minutes for Middlesbrough this season.

Latte Lath is in rotation with Tommy Conway and knows to expect to be substituted between the 60-70th minute. He’ll be out to make his mark whilst on the pitch.

Azaz has been shot happy all season. He’s averaging an attempt at goal every 30.25 minutes and has a 39% on target ratio. Azaz’s Championship shot numbers this season read 4-4-4-4-0-2-4-3-5-2-0-4-0-2-2-3-7-1.

Azaz is highly capable from anywhere around the edge of the box and he can be expected to make Illan Meslier work on Tuesday night.

Hackney has committed multiple fouls in a match on 6 occasions this season. He has a tendency to commit fouls in bunches and runs risk of getting booked for totting up offences.

Hackney has already been booked 4 times this season. A 5th booking here would see him miss Saturday’s match at home to Millwall but be back in time for the busy festive fixture schedule.

In league matches that referee Ben Toner has took charge of this season his yellow cards given numbers read 4-3-8-7-5-8-5-7-5-8-6-3-4-6-9, going over 4.5 yellow cards on 11 out of 15 occasions.

Toner’s card average this season is 5.41 per game, up from 4.7 cards per game in the 2023/24 season.