HIS side might have lost their opening game of the new Championship season – but Michael Carrick refused to blame today’s 1-0 home defeat to Millwall on a failure to bring in an experienced forward so far this summer.

Middlesbrough have brought in Morgan Rogers and Alex Gilbert in an attacking position this summer, but while the former led the line against the Lions at the Riverside, both are relatively inexperienced youngsters with limited Championship experience.

Having lost Cameron Archer and Rodrigo Muniz since the end of last season, the Teessiders are still hoping to add at least one proven striker to their squad before the transfer window closes at the end of the month.

A number of targets have been identified, but a breakthrough proved impossible ahead of today’s game, meaning Rogers had to lead the line ahead of Matt Crooks, who was deputising for Chuba Akpom in the ‘number ten’ role.

Boro failed to seriously test Millwall goalkeeper Matija Sarkic as they were beaten 1-0, but Carrick does not feel his side’s performance was a reflection of their current transfer impasse.

“It’s too blasé to blame that (a lack of attacking signings),” said the Boro head coach, “It’s my job to work with the players that are here, make the team better, and make the players individually better.

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“I think we had good players on that pitch, who were capable of playing in a good team and playing well. They were capable of scoring goals and creating goals. Just because we lost the game, it doesn’t always mean what people might label it with.

“The players are definitely good enough. It doesn’t stop us from wanting to improve, but it’s an easy throwaway thing to say that because we didn’t win and we didn’t score, we need (new) players to get to where we want to be. I would like to add players, but I’m really happy with the players we’ve got in the squad.”

Carrick continues to work with the rest of Boro’s recruitment team in an attempt to make further signings, and remains hopeful there will be some new faces through the door before the transfer deadline at the end of the month.

“We’ve obviously got targets, and we’re working towards that,” he said. “It’s never as simple as it seems from the outside. There’s all sorts of different permutations and obstacles.

“I’m not getting down about that, or blaming anything. It is what it is, and we’ll make the best of it. We’re trying to. We did in January, and we came out of January in a good position. We’ll certainly be working and trying to do the same by the end of this month.”