MICHAEL CARRICK will be ‘mixing and matching’ his Middlesbrough squad as pre-season preparations crank up with three friendly outings in the next eight days.

Boro won their first domestic friendly of the summer at the weekend as second-half goals from Emmanuel Latte Lath, Sonny Finch and Delano Burgzorg secured a 3-0 victory over Bolton Wanderers at Bishop Auckland.

The Teessiders are back in action this evening, taking on National League side Gateshead at the International Stadium, and will also face Doncaster Rovers on Saturday afternoon before heading to Harrogate Town next Wednesday night.

Carrick used 22 different players at Heritage Park last weekend, and will continue to spread out the match minutes over the course of the next week. A number of the players who came onto the field on the hour mark against Bolton are expected to start against Gateshead, with Sol Brynn and Darragh Lenihan also set to return to the squad at some stage in the next week.

“If you’ve got the two games (in a week), you can mix it up in terms of who gets the minutes,” said Carrick. “It won’t be a case of players starting on the Wednesday and then starting again on the Saturday.

“It’s a bit of everything, and when we’ve got such a good squad, it’s really more about managing everyone’s minutes than anything. Getting everyone enough game time is the main priority.”

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To that end, Carrick is happy to be working to such a busy schedule ahead of the opening Championship game against Swansea City on August 10.

“You start off by deciding what days you want to do work on, really,” he said. “There’s a bit goes into that, and you get to a point where it’s good to have a two-day week.”

Tonight’s opponents, Gateshead, enjoyed a successful season last term, finishing sixth in the National League table, only to be denied a place in the play-offs when their ground failed to meet the required stipulations.

Rob Elliot’s side claimed a 2-1 win over Sunderland just over a week ago and continued their preparations with a thumping 7-0 victory over Blyth Spartans last Friday night.

“We want to get something out of the games we play,” said Carrick. “And we go about that in quite a detailed way to try to get the right opponents. We try to get a bit of mix, so everyone can get matches and get enough minutes into their legs. Hopefully, by doing that, everyone will feel they’re ready come the start of the season.”