MICHAEL CARRICK insists he will not be adapting the way his Middlesbrough side play despite their somewhat disappointing start to the season.

Saturday’s 1-0 defeat to Sunderland means Boro have now failed to win four of their opening six league matches as well as crashing out of the Carabao Cup at the hands of Stoke City.

The Teessiders have had the most possession in all of their league games, but have struggled to translate that dominance of the ball into clear-cut openings.

That was a major problem at the weekend, with Boro recording just one attempt on target despite enjoying 63 per cent possession at the Stadium of Light.

Boro were unable to overcome Sunderland’s defensive low block, but while Stoke City could well adopt similar tactics when they visit the Riverside on Saturday, Carrick insists he will not be changing his side’s approach.

“There’s a way of playing,” said the Boro boss. “We bring players in to play a certain way and play to their strengths so we're not going to flip that on its head so early in the season.

“We can do things better, the way we were around the box with our movements and ideas. We can definitely improve.

READ MORE:

“But it's not rip up and start again by any stretch, we've lost three games in 19. It's time to take a deep breath and keep doing what we're doing.”

Despite Boro having failed to beat Derby, Portsmouth, Preston and Sunderland already this season, Carrick maintains his side are not too far away from being at their best.

They created chances in the first half of Saturday’s game, with Tommy Conway and Matt Clarke failing to find the target with free headers and Emmanuel Latte Lath prodding a shot just over the crossbar, but failed to threaten Sunderland goalkeeper Anthony Patterson in the whole of the second period.

“We’re still creating chances,” said Carrick. “We didn’t create enough towards the end of that one (against Sunderland), but in general we are.

“That’s the magic of football - each end of the pitch. We’re not giving much away and are defensively pretty sound. We’re just not capitalising on those big moments really.”

As a result, Carrick will be looking to make minor tweaks ahead of Saturday’s game with Stoke rather than wholesale alterations, even though he accepts teams are starting to play differently against Boro than they would against alternative opposition.

“You can see how much it means to teams when they beat us,” he said. “I think that’s a compliment to us and credit to the boys of how strong we are individually and as a team, and how other teams are seeing that as well.

“It feels like a different game to the one we watch them play week in, week out before our games. That’s fine, the onus is on us.

“It was the same (against Sunderland), the celebrations, it felt like it wasn’t just a normal game. We’ve got to get used to that, take it as a compliment and use that. We’ve got good players and we are a good team.”