MICHAEL Carrick has a problem at Middlesbrough. But you won't find him moaning about it.

Such is the depth in his squad after the summer transfer window, Carrick now faces a weekly dilemma when it comes to who to choose and who gets left out.

But that, says Carrick, is the "perfect scenario" when you're a head coach.

It's in attack that Carrick faces the most difficult decisions moving forward. When everyone is fully fit, he'll have Isaiah Jones, Marcus Forss and Ben Doak jostling for position on the right, Finn Azaz, Tommy Conway and Alex Gilbert have all played at No.10 this season and Riley McGree, Delano Burgzorg and Micah Hamilton have all played on the left.

Then there's midfield, where Carrick has five options in Hayden Hackney, Aidan Morris, Jonny Howson, Dan Barlaser and Law McCabe.

And although three central defenders are currently out injured, when Rav van den Berg, Darragh Lenihan and Dael Fry are back fit, they'll join Matt Clarke and new signing George Edmundson in battling for starting spots.

“It’s not a headache," said Carrick, ahead of today's game against Preston, with Boro looking to build on their win over Cardiff before the break.

"If you’ve got good players to choose from, that’s the perfect scenario for any coach.

"The boys are a joy to work with and we’ll need every one of those players if we’re going to have the success we want to have this season. It goes from game to game, but we’ve got to look ahead of that as well when thinking about selection.

"That’s why the squad is the squad. You’ve got to run with the bumps in the road through the season - whether that be results, performances, injuries or whatever. We feel we’ve got a squad that is more than capable of doing that. So, from my point of view, it’s a real positive."

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The challenge for Carrick now is ensuring he manages to juggle his squad and keep everyone happy.

“It’s a massive part of what we do to keep the group together and make sure everyone knows that they are all massively important," he says.

"From game to game, we feel we’ve got the players that means we can make a rotation here or there. Certainly, everyone is important, especially with the amount of substitutes you can make now.

"Having strength in the players coming off the bench is a real asset. It will change from week to week and certainly no players will feel out of it."

Boro's squad at the back end of the 2022/23 season was stacked but Carrick feels the current crop could be the best he's had since he took charge 23 months ago.

"It certainly feels strong and I feel that we’ve got a good balance within the group," he said.

"We’ve got some real freshness, youthfulness, talent and ability that we have to nurture a little bit and we need to be careful about what we expect at certain times.

"And then we’ve got real good senior players that have real good character and personality that set a good example - which is something really important for the younger players.

"So we feel we have a good group numbers wise to get us through the season and quality wise then time will tell."

Preston head for Boro having lost three of their four games so far, with Paul Heckingbottom replacing Ryan Lowe in the dugout after the opening weekend of the season.

Carrick said: "Paul is an established proven manager who knows what it takes to get success in this division.

"We'll have to have our eyes wide open. There might be things that are a little bit new, we'll have to be ready to adapt, I'm sure there's some good work that's gone on from them and we'll have to be ready."

MIDDLESBROUGH PROBABLE XI: Dieng, Dijksteel, Ayling, Clarke, Borges; Morris, Hackney; Jones, Conway, Azaz, Latte Lath