Michael Carrick has rejected the notion that Middlesbrough's game-management issues have anything to do with the leadership in their squad.

Boro have won only one of their last seven games and have struggled throughout the season to defend leads. They did so again at the weekend as they lost 2-1 at Portsmouth despite leading at the interval. In the top half of the Championship, only Norwich City have squandered more points from winning positions than Boro.

It is a young squad at Boro, as part of a concentrated effort to focus on recruiting players with future growth potential and sell-on value in order to improve the club's footing on and off the pitch. But there has always been a conscious effort from Carrick, Kieran Scott and co. to get the balance right, with signings such as Luke Ayling and Georged Edmundson done with their experience and know-how in mind. What probably hasn't helped, however, is other older heads in the squad such as Tommy Smith, Darragh Lenihan and Jonny Howson have missed most if not all of this season through injury.

READ MORE: Michael Carrick addresses Seny Dieng's Middlesbrough future amid Tom Glover decision

READ MORE: Middlesbrough predicted line-up for West Brom as Michael Carrick looks for Portsmouth reaction

Asked if it's fair to say Boro's squad lacks leaders and that's a contributing factor to their soft-centred nature at times this season, Carrick insisted: “I just think that’s quite an easy thing to say. It’s easy to talk about leaders and passion, but when the team hasn’t won, I just think that’s an easy thing to fall back on.

"I’ve heard it so many times, ‘Oh, you’re not passionate enough’ or ‘Oh, there’s not enough leaders’. It’s quite an easy thing to say. Sometimes, there can be a little bit in that. But I can assure you, when it comes to passion and commitment, you really can’t fault this group of players.

"I saw the boys after the game at the weekend, and I’ve seen how hard they’ve been working in training to get ready for the next game. I can assure you, it’s not that. That is not the issue at all – if it was, I’d say it and address it. But it’s certainly not that.

“People can talk about the age of the squad or the make-up of the group, but it depends on the personality of the players and the character of the people in question. You can bring certain things out a bit more, whether that’s technically or in terms of the personality, but a lot of the time, you are what you are as well.

"You can improve on certain things, but I just think it’s sometimes a bit too easy to point fingers and say this or that. We do ask the boys to have that presence and show that bit of personality as much as they can, in their own way. We want them to express themselves.

"But I just think sometimes, when you’ve played well and won, everyone’s a leader, everyone cares and everyone’s trying their best. But then if you draw or get beat, all of that can be questioned. That’s football, I guess. It’s why we love it, everyone can have their say and have an opinion on things."

One thing that certainly is not up for question is that Boro have to improve their management of games. Carrick played down it being a major issue after the weekend defeat at Portsmouth, noting that it's more the cycle in games they have to be better at - dealing with key moments in games better - with the general control over the majority of a game usually good, but for lapses in concentration and silly errors costing them goals.

Carrick continued: “I’ve watched every single team in the land and they all make mistakes at some time or other. It’s part of the game, unfortunately. We don’t want it happen, but everyone makes mistakes. Making them as little as possible is important and certainly trying to limit the ones that matter more than others.

"We’re not making a big deal of it, but we are aware of it. It’s a case of managing the 90 minutes because we need points and we need to win more games. It’s not a case of just saying it’s a mentality thing, there’s nothing I can do tactically, and blaming everyone else. It’s not like that at all.

"We’re all in it together and there are different ways we [coaches] can help. Different ideas, different approaches… We have to be better and we can be as well. We’ve done it in the recent past. We wanted more points over the last little period, there’s no getting away from that.

"For me now, it’s what’s in front of us and the opportunities that still lie ahead. There are positives to build on as well and reason to be excited for the challenge ahead. It’s tight, the league changes quick, but we should attack the rest of the season with what’s possible because we have a good team, good players, unbelievable supporters. We need to focus on what can happen, rather than what has happened. We’re a good team, we know that, it’s now up to us to go and prove that.”