Ben Doak needs help from Middlesbrough team-mates as Liverpool loan star gets 'natural' treatment

Michael Carrick says it's natural that teams are starting to target Middlesbrough star Ben Doak, but he's confident his side can continue to share the load and help the Liverpool loanee continue to thrive.

Carrick first made the point that the 19-year-old was being targeted after he took a heavy whack to win a penalty for Boro at Oxford United. It was evident again in Wednesday's defeat to Blackburn Rovers, with Doak finding himself regularly up against two defenders.

It meant the lively wide man was unable to have his usual impact in the game, even if he still managed to come closest to scoring for Boro when he smashed the post late on. That typified a poor Boro display in which too many absentees disjointed their attack and impacted their usual flow. In turn, that meant Boro struggled to find Doak at the opportune moments for him to use his strengths for good use.

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On the newfound attention from opposition defences, Carrick said after: “I think it’s just natural that teams are going to start doing that. When players are doing well and individuals are doing well, that’s just part of it - opposition teams looking to try to do something about that.

"I thought they [Blackburn] tried to double up at times, but then I also thought Oxford tried to do that on Saturday as well. That’s the beauty of having a good mix and a good forward line really – they should be able to try to share the load. In the end, we just couldn’t quite find the answer."

Carrick will be hoping Boro can return to their recent attacking form when they host managerless Hull City at the Riverside on Saturday lunchtime. With illness and injury depleting his squad on Wednesday, Carrick was uncertain after Blackburn what options he'd have, but was confident his side can continue to help Doak display his strengths in a Boro shirt.

“We’ve been dealing with that in the last few weeks," he continued of the wide man's targeting. "It’s not really anything new, and one game certainly isn’t going to change the way we want to play or what we’re doing. On that side of things, nothing changes really.

"We’ve scored goals right throughout the forward line all season. We’ve shown we can score goals in different ways in the last few weeks. It doesn’t change."