Michael Carrick delivers stern message to Middlesbrough dressing room ahead of Sunderland visit

Middlesbrough manager Michael Carrick has challenged his players to find a ruthless edge ahead of Saturday’s visit to Sunderland.

Boro endured a frustrating weekend as their push for the Championship play-off spots was disrupted by an underwhelming home draw with struggling Preston North End. The visitors arrived at the Riverside Stadium with just three points from their opening four games of the season and were languishing in and around the second tier relegation zone. The game seemed to be going to form when former Bristol City forward Tommy Conway put Carrick’s side ahead just after the quarter-hour mark with his second goal in as many home games. Despite creating a number of promising opportunities to double their advantage, Boro were pegged back just before half-time when North End striker Mads Frøkjær-Jensen grabbed an equaliser for the visitors.

Boro could and perhaps should have won the game during the second-half as they enjoyed the better of the chances but failed to break down a hardworking and disciplined North End side - and that left Carrick to bemoan his side’s inability to ‘adapt’ to the different challenges they were posed by Paul Heckingbottom’s men.

He said: “I think we should have won the game. We were in a good position to win the game and created enough opportunities to score more. We didn’t give a lot away again so there are a lot of good things in there that will benefit us over time. I said it to the boys, it’s about killing teams off when we’ve got them. We were 1-0 up and were in a good place to push for the next goal and be really positive. It probably drifted for five or ten minutes, we felt. It’s a different game second half when they have something to hold onto. Towards the end when teams go man for man and are there to stop us, we have to adapt and find ways of breaking them down. We tried and I thought there was a lot of good attitude and application, we just couldn’t quite find that extra pass at the end.”

Carrick opted to hand a debut to on-loan Ipswich Town star George Edmundson and defender Neto Borges made his Riverside Stadium bow. A third new face, on-loan Liverpool youngster Ben Doak, came off the bench midway through the second-half as Boro looked to break down their visitors. Carrick reflected on the decisions he had taken on his newly-signed trio and admitted patience was needed as they settle into life on Teesside.

“It’s still early,” explained the Boro boss. “It’s Neto’s first home game, George’s first game, Ben is on the pitch, Tommy hasn’t been here too long. There’s a freshness and settling in period so I’m not getting too frustrated. I think we are all taking the positives and potential of the group really and seeing the excitement of that.”