MICHAEL Carrick insists he's not concerned by Middlesbrough's form, despite a run of just two wins in nine games that has resulted in Boro dropping out of the top six.

The 3-2 defeat to Sunderland on Monday night was a third defeat in four games, with Boro now 14 points behind the Black Cats and 17 behind the top two.

Boro now face a crucial spell of fixtures with a trip to second placed Sheffield United a week on Wednesday, before successive games against rivals Watford and Bristol City.

"You want to win games of football, there's no getting away from that," said Boro boss Carrick.

"That's what we have to do if we're going to get to where we want to be. It (the form) is not a concern, no, but we definitely need to win games, there's no getting away from that."

And Boro definitely need to improve defensively. They were once again the architects of their own downfall against Sunderland, cheaply conceding possession in the build-up to all three goals.

Carrick 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."

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Put to Carrick that he needs to find the right balance between attack and defence, Boro's boss said: "Course we need to. 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."

Carrick made a change at centre-half against Sunderland, dropping Dael Fry to the bench and bringing in George Edmundson.

Asked for his thinking behind that switch, he said: "We have good players to choose from."