THINGS just aren’t clicking for Middlesbrough right now and the question on everyone’s lips is ‘when does Michael Carrick think it will?’

As the boos rang around the Riverside Stadium after the final whistle had blown to signal a fourth defeat in five Championship games so far this season, clearly frustrations are growing among the supporters.

After all, even if it was against expectations when Carrick first took over last October, Boro were play-off semi-finalists in May. Progress, you would hope, will be made this season.

But football isn’t always like that. The turnover in players is huge. Carrick has 12 new signings in his squad.

He needs to find a way to get new-look Middlesbrough firing following the departure of attacking talent such as last season’s top scorer Chuba Akpom and both Cameron Archer and Aaron Ramsey.   

Carrick, for one, is certainly not looking to make excuses. He thinks Middlesbrough have the ability within the ranks to quickly turn things around – and he thinks there were enough positives to take from Saturday’s defeat to QPR to remain calm.

The Middlesbrough manager has been a calming presence since his arrival and there were no signs of that changing any time soon.

“It shouldn’t take time for the players to gel,” said Carrick. “It is an easy excuse to make.

“Numbers wise it is a new group, there has been a large turnaround, three more new players coming in over the last few days. Those will make the group better.

“But that is the nature of the beast and I know what the boys are capable of and we’ve seen that in parts of games so far and how we are doing.

“Take this game here and we have had more shots on targets than them. We haven’t come away with the points. You can accept that, but it doesn’t give you results. We need to get to that point where we get the results.”

Carrick is right. Middlesbrough had nine shots on target and QPR had just three - scoring two of them through Andre Dozzell’s 43rd minute thunderbolt off the inside of the post from 22 yards and Jack Colback’s powerful drive through a crowded box 19 minutes from the end.

Striker Emmanuel Latte Lath, signed from Atalanta, had most of those chances but found QPR’s Asmir Begovic equal to everything he could come up with; often with his legs or from tight angles.

Middlesbrough also had 62 per cent of the possession and won more corners. Crucially, though, Gareth Ainsworth’s side looked more dangerous in the final third when Ilias Chair and Paul Smyth got on the ball.

Smyth, in particular, was able to get in behind Danish full-back Lukas Engel, signed from Silkeborg, far too often. On two of those occasions, QPR’s goals soon followed.

Middlesbrough had no answer and, having endured their worst start since 2003, have hit the first international break at the foot of the Championship table.

READ MORE:

Carrick said: “I’m disappointed. We didn’t help ourselves for spells in the game, we had big chances as well, opportunities to score. We will accept it wasn’t good enough in general, that’s clear but at the same point we had the chances to take.

“We can’t keep saying it, we have to do something about it. I’m disappointed for the players, supporters, it’s not great for them to see that. Players have to find a way to get that spark back that we lacked.

“Missing chances are part of it, the fact we are making a lot, clear cut ones as well. Sometimes there is a spell when they don’t fall for you, but it is up to us to do something about it and make sure it doesn’t happen.

“We are having really big chances. That does give us lots of confidence.”

Middlesbrough didn’t look comfortable from the first whistle. Chair had already caused a couple of problems within three minutes.

There were second half debuts for Sam Greenwood and Lewis O’Brien, following their loan moves from Leeds and Nottingham Forest. Both enjoyed some nice moments but the damage was already done.

Carrick, who was unable to field deadline day signing Alex Bangura, said: “There were a few things as well as the chances we missed, like we didn’t start as well as we could have.

“There are reasons to look at that as well we will have to look at. The slow start to the game made it harder, we were chasing after that.

“There were moments when we looked good but it was a mixed bag. We need to make sure we improve on aspects like that going forward.”