Michael Carrick conceded his Middlesbrough side need to start winning more games but claimed form was not a concern.

Boro’s 3-2 defeat to Sunderland meant they failed to climb back into the Championship top six. It was a defeat that highlighted the biggest issues all season for Boro, as their north east rivals moved 14 points clear of them.

For Boro, it’s now just two wins in their last nine games as they threaten to waste their obvious talent and throw away a promotion opportunity. In an indictment on the league more than anything, despite Boro’s poor form, they’re outside the top-six on goal difference only right now, but travel to automatic promotion-chasing Sheffield United next.

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Asked after the Sunderland defeat if form was a concern, the Boro boss said: “You want to win games of football, there's no getting away from that. That's what we have to do if we're going to get to where we want to be. It's a not a concern, no, but we definitely need to win games, there's no getting away from that.”

A theme through this current run, and the season as a whole, has been Boro shooting themselves in the foot. In the defeat against Sunderland, Carrick initially tried to pass it off as bad luck, with the first goal going in off a heavy deflection and the winner being a really cruel own goal from Ryan Giles.

However, all three goals came from Boro surrendering possession too easily in their own half, which is a worrying trend throughout the campaign. The Boro boss had admitted at Preston North End last time out that they had to look at moments leading up to errors as they attempted to shore up, to no avail on this occasion.

Pressed on defensive issues after his luck insinuations, the Boro boss said: “Every goal there's moments in build-up, it's not always the final action that's the reason why you concede a goal. We've had opportunities, they've had opportunities, for it to go against us like it did tonight, it's tough.

“Course we need to [be better]. We need to score more goals than we concede definitely, but to concede two like that and the second one at Preston, they're goals you can't plan for. They're moments. We need to deal with them better. We need to be a little bit tighter as a team.”

One of the main talking points of the evening was Carrick’s decision to start George Edmundson over Dael Fry. The Teessider has been largely excellent since returning from a lengthy lay-off and would have no doubt relished this derby game. Instead, Edmundson made his first start since his loan from Ipswich Town was made permanent.

But it didn’t pay-off, with Edmundson having a rough evening. As well as far too many sloppy passes out of defence, he also didn’t cover himself in glory when he got an offside trap all wrong and allowed Wilson Isidor through. Asked why he picked Edmundson over Fry, Carrick simply said: “We’ve got good players to choose from.”