Michael Carrick admits faults in Middlesbrough’s loss to Coventry City

At the Riverside, Boro dominated the first half of the match and took the lead through Josh Coburn until Tatsuhiro Sakamoto’s well-placed goal kept them in check.

But in the second half, they were completely outclassed as Sakamoto’s second goal gave the visitors all three points, and Haji Wright gave Coventry the lead.

Due to injury or calls up to the Asia Cup or Africa Cup of Nations, Boro was missing twelve of its key players. Carrick acknowledged that his team’s inability to make many changes over the holiday season ultimately caught up with them.

“I think it makes sense,” the Boro manager remarked. In terms of their vitality, it seemed as though it simply ran out on us today. I have nothing against them. We’ve had to choose from such a narrow pool of players from game to game in recent weeks.

I thought we played a great first half, so I guess it just came up with us at the worst time. We had some amazing football, in my opinion, and we ought to have been up at halftime.

“All things considered, they are a formidable team that is enjoying success. We were prepared for a rigorous and demanding experience. All that ultimately caught up with us was our energy and freshness levels.

After recuperating from a groin injury, Coburn made his first start since mid-October, although he appeared to be out of gas in the last quarter of the game.

But Carrick was unable to alter the situation because the bench was mainly composed of young, inexperienced players.

Josh was most likely ready to go after playing for a considerable amount of time on Friday night (as a substitute vs Huddersfield), according to Carrick. But it was a lot to ask of him to play the entire game.

However, it’s kind of necessary right now. A few boys are currently playing a little patched up, and they have had to for some time.

Right there is where we are. We play games because we want to succeed and win them, so I don’t mind how many we have played. It’s just more that, despite having an excellent roster, we’ve only been able to select from roughly half of it lately, which makes things more difficult for the players.