MICHAEL CARRICK claims he would never judge Josh Coburn purely on his goalscoring return, hence his willingness to continue selecting the striker even when he was not hitting the back of the net.

Coburn ended a six-game goalless run when he scored twice in last weekend’s 3-3 draw with Plymouth, with his brace at Home Park trebling his goalscoring return for the season.

With Emmanuel Latte Lath having been in decent scoring form in the Carabao Cup, Coburn admits it would have been easy for Carrick to have taken him out of the firing line while the goals were not flowing.

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But while the Boro boss admits he was delighted to see Middlesbrough’s leading striker back amongst the goals last weekend, he is much more interested in his all-round game and wider contribution to the team.

“It wasn’t about sticking with him (Coburn),” said Carrick, ahead of this afternoon’s home game with Championship leaders Leicester City. “It was more just about picking the team from week to week.

“We obvioiusly have a plan for each game. Goals win you games, of course they do, but we don’t just judge players on what goals they score. There is a lot more to it than that.

“Throughout the season, there will be times when he’s playing and there will be times when he sits out for whatever reason. We've got to manage that because he is still young, and he is still learning and developing.

“We have good options throughout the group, so it’s a constant balance. But we know what Josh is capable of, we know how much more he can develop too. It’s up to us to try and help that.”

Throughout most of pre-season, it looked like Coburn would be leaving Teesside on another loan move, having spent last season in League One with Bristol Rovers.

The terms of a loan switch to Plymouth were agreed, and Coburn has revealed he was already looking into accommodation options in the South-West before Carrick and the rest of Boro’s recruitment team changed tack.

The failure to recruit another centre-forward after the arrival of Latte Lath was clearly a major factor in the decision to keep Coburn at the Riverside rather than send him to a Championship rival.

However, Carrick was also swayed by the youngster’s performances and demeanour in training after returned from an injury which limited his game time throughout the first two-thirds of the pre-season programme.

“Josh just showed what he could do really,” said Carrick. “He was just himself and we could see that he had the potential to be a real threat and an important part of the team. We thought what he had could give us something that we didn't already have in the group.

“We always want that flexibility and the variety, and I think he's shown exactly what he's capable of. With Manu as well, we have the two nines and two strong options up there which gives us a really good balance.”