Negredo calls on team-mates to fight for survival

Cape Town - Alvaro Negredo says he and his team-mates could do more to help maintain Middlesbrough's Premier League status this season.

Boro, who were promoted from the Championship after finishing last season in second place, are currently ahead of only Sunderland in the English top-flight with five games to play.

Nine points adrift of safety, the club are still in with a chance of survival, but will need to extract points in games against Sunderland, Manchester City, Chelsea, Southampton and Liverpool.

Algredo feels the number of games drawn when wins were possible has landed them in this difficult situation.

Speaking to Sky Sports, he said: "It is a very unfortunate situation. We started the season quite well. Unfortunately there were a lot of draws, and maybe looking back, that could have been a reason."

Aitor Karanka was dismissed as Boro boss, with Steve Agnew chosen to replace him.

The striker continued: "We maybe should have gone to win those matches. When things are not going so well, of course there's a change of manager, new personnel.

"But if there's someone to be blamed, first of all it should be us players. Looking back, we could have done more and we can do more.

"Managers sometimes have a little or big impact on games but overall the players are responsible. We are the ones playing. Looking back, us players need to put our hands up and take a little bit of blame."

With Sunderland up next, the player concluded: "I didn't come here to sit down and wait. I will fight until the end and my team-mates will do the same. We really need to try to turn this around."