Skip to content
Michael Carrick must look to emulate Aitor Karanka after Middlesbrough’s play-off heartbreak
Middlesbrough have good reason to feel positive about the future once the dust has settled from the Coventry City nightmare.
After all, we’ve got Michael Carrick in charge and we’ve already witnessed what the rookie boss is capable of achieving. Few experienced managers could have dragged Boro from a relegation battle to take the club comfortably into the play-offs, never mind a man sitting in his first football hot seat.
We don’t know how far Carrick can take the Boro. But surely he will make further progress next season towards the ultimate ambition of winning automatic promotion. With a return to topflight football at the Riverside likely to be the club’s burning target, we must hope that Carrick can emulate the achievements of Aitor Karanka.
READ MORE: Aston Villa yet to ‘decide the strategy’ for Cameron Archer’s future after Middlesbrough loan
Just like Carrick this season, Karanka suffered major play-off disappointment in 2014-15 when Boro reached the play-offs but were beaten in the final by Norwich. Naturally, there is no guarantee that a beaten play-off finalist will emulate or improve on its achievements in the following campaign.
But Karanka knew what he needed to do and, with the support of chairman Steve Gibson, put together an even more successful squad for the following campaign. This is the challenge facing Carrick this summer especially as he may face the task of having to make considerable changes to his attack.
Like Carrick, Karanka had a prolific goalscorer who helped Boro to reach the play-offs. He was Patrick Bamford, who did not emulate Chuba Akpom’s magnificent effort of 29 goals, but his 19 strikes in all competitions was pretty good going from the 21-year-old loanee.
Unfortunately, Boro’s failure to go up led to Chelsea recalling Bamford in order to give him more experience elsewhere. It left Karanka with a massive void to fill especially as none of his other strikers had managed to reach double figures. Midfielder Grant Leadbitter was second top scorer with 13 goals.
However, Karanka was given cash to spend and brought in four attack-minded players that summer which transformed his side. He signed two orthodox strikers in Cristhian Stuani from Espanyol for £3.3m and David Nugent from Leicester City for £4m.
Uruguay-born Stuani was not particularly prolific in Spain, scoring at an average of a goal in every four games for Espanyol. But Karanka knew the Spanish scene like the back of his hand and was well aware that the 28-year-old could be effective in English football.
Stuani was with Reggina before Espanyol and scored a quite a lot of goals during various loan spells, which had led to Espanyol signing him. He went on to finish top scorer with 11 goals in his first season with Boro though there is a general feeling that he could have been more prolific.
Karanka had a frustrating habit of using Stuani on the right flank. He was quite effective in this roll though his finishing ability in front of goal suggested that he would have been more productive for the side if left up front.
Nugent was 30 when he joined Boro but was a regular goalscorer with various clubs throughout his career and was a highly capable and experienced striker. He had netted plenty of goals in spells with Preston and Portsmouth but was especially clinical at Leicester, scoring at an average of more than a goal in every three games.
Nugent joined Leicester from Portsmouth under freedom of contract and was top scorer in his first two seasons. His third year at Leicester was arguably the best of his career as he scored 20 league goals in helping the Foxes to win promotion to the Premier League.
Nugent was not so regularly on the scoresheet in the top flight, scoring five times, though he did not start all the games. In dropping down a level to link up with Boro, Nugent was expected to reproduce his old Championship flair. He was certainly a 100 per cent player with the club and enjoyed his time here, though eight goals from 40 games was a little disappointing.
One of the men providing the ammunition was our own Stewart Downing, another summer signing by Karanka. He cost £5.5m from West Ham. Downing had a great pedigree in the game, having come through the ranks with Boro, where he became a regular in the Premier League.
He was reluctantly sold to Aston Villa for £10m when Boro were relegated in 2009 and later spent two seasons with Liverpool, before joining the Hammers. Downing’s tally of 35 England caps speaks for itself. Arguably he remains the best player that the Boro Academy has produced in modern times.
He was essentially regarded as a left-sided player but was converted to central midfield with great success by the Hammers. In this respect, Downing might have been expected to carry on the central role with Boro, though more often than not Karanka played him on the flanks.
The other attacking player that Karanka signed that summer was the Italian Diego Fabbrini from Watford. Fabbrini was one of seven Udinese that Watford had signed in the summer of 2013 but was regularly moved out on loan. His final Hornets loan move was to Boro, where Fabbrini was brought in as a No.10. Karanka liked his No.10s, preferring to adopt a player in this role behind a lone striker.
Lee Tomlin had performed this role reasonably well in the previous campaign, scoring nine goals in all competitions. But, although Fabbrini made a decent impact in the Boro line-up, he was clearly not quite what Karanka was looking for.
Boro still got the campaign off to a great start and, despite a hiccup in October, were well-placed in the promotion battle by the turn of the year. Karanka had the support of Gibson to make further changes at this stage, notably in paying £9m to Blackburn for their striker Jordan Rhodes.
The Spanish boss also decided to dispense with Fabbrini’s services, sending the Italian back to Watford and bringing in an alternative No,10 in the Urguayan Gaston Ramirez from Southampton. The Rhodes signing didn’t give Karanka‘s attack the fillip he was looking for, though Ramirez was a revelation at No.10 and arguably was the leading spark in taking Boro to the Premier League.
By this time the Boro squad had a totally different look about it from 12 months previously. Tomlin was sold to Bournemouth in the January for £3m and Kike returned Spain to join Eibar, which meant that Karanka was now without three of the top four players in the club’s goalscoring list from the previous campaign.
It helped rather than hindered the march towards the Premier League, with Boro securing automatic promotion despite scoring five fewer goals than in the Bamford season. With Carrick at risk of possibly losing Akpom, who scored 28 goals in Boro’s impressive tally of 84, it’s possible that Boro won’t match this total next season.
Yet Carrick must bring in new attacking players during the summer and it’s important that they are the right ones. Carrick adopts a naturally attacking style of football so must have two or three decent finishers in his line-up.
However, by taking a leaf out of Karanka’s book, it’s possible for Carrick to make such changes and still have an effective forward line. Karanka’s success was based more on his defence than his forward line but even though the Boro defence needs tightening up, Carrick will surely not give up his attacking principles.
So, as one season ends on a sour note there’s no reason why we should not look forward with great expectation as long as Carrick remains at the helm. Carrick and Karanka are two completely different types of manager but their determination to succeed is clinically similar.
