Carrick’s Transfer Stand on Striker as Coburn’s Middlesbrough Absence Explained
Michael Carrick acknowledges that as Middlesbrough continues to evaluate the injury concerns of Josh Coburn and Emmanuel Latte Lath, they may need to take a closer look at the striker market in the coming weeks.
After suffering an injury against Chelsea in the middle of the week, Latte Lath was already officially ruled out for Boro’s match against Millwall. Carrick stated over the weekend that he will be absent for a “period of time,” but the team is still figuring out precisely how long he will miss.
When Josh Coburn was ruled out of the trip, they would ultimately be without a recognised center-forward when they went to Millwall. Having only recently returned from injury, Coburn was made to play 85 minutes against Chelsea and by the end of that victory, he appeared to be having serious difficulties.
Boro defeated Millwall 3-1 without any trouble, and Carrick stated afterwards: “He’s had a long-running problem with his groin.” That has happened over time, and we now have to deal with it. On Tuesday, we didn’t have many options, and he had to show up much earlier for the one we selected.
We have to control him because, in the end, he most likely went above that limit. We’ll have to wait and see, but ideally he won’t take too long. We’re not actually that sure at this point. We’ll need to take care of him.”
Despite having a free week ahead of them and not playing until the weekend of Rotherham, Boro may decide to move more aggressively to sign a center-forward during this month’s transfer window due to the injury concerns surrounding their two primary attackers.
But Carrick has a squad that is endowed with flexibility. Despite the lack of a designated striker at Millwall, he opened the game with Morgan Rogers, changed to Sam Greenwood in the second half, and then introduced Marcus Forss, who was back. While under Carrick, the Finn has mostly played from the right, even though he is a natural number nine.
On his other options, Carrick continued: “I thought Morgan played that role really well today. It’s a different style to how the other lads would play it because he’s a different player. We flipped it second half and Sam played through the middle a little bit as well. I think what we’ve got is good flexibility and good variation.
“Marcus can certainly play up front as well, he’s done it enough. He’s played a bit off the right for us, but he can definitely do it. He does finish his chances when he gets them as well, as he showed. He’s a good finisher, Marcus. It’s a big goal for us . You never know how those last few minutes are going to go. But it’s a great finish and we know he’s capable of that. Marcus has worked ever so well for a long period of time now and it’s a big goal for him and us.”
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