How Michael Carrick transformed Middlesbrough into Championship playoff contenders?

The English manager changed the fortunes of the Championship side

After his influence on Manchester United over the years as a player and later coach, it should not be surprising that Michael Carrick is having great success at Middlesbrough.

By defeating Reading 5-0 on Saturday afternoon at the Riverside, Carrick's current team made another advancement towards the Premier League. Despite the fact that Sheffield United still has a game in hand, Middlesbrough is now only four points behind the Blades in second place.

When Carrick took over as manager in October of last year, his side was only one point above the Championship relegation zone. The former England international has previously demonstrated his coaching abilities.

Since Carrick assumed charge, no side has amassed more points in the league than Boro, who have 40, while also scoring a league-high 37 goals.

So how he managed to revive Middlesbrough?

It's hardly shocking to find that he gained the respect of the dressing room right away after joining the team. He won five Premier League championships throughout his playing career, as well as the Champions League and Europa League at Old Trafford.

But there is no doubt that the Boro players would have discovered that if he had shown to be all pomp and circumstance. He most definitely wouldn't have been the initial or last professional athlete to struggle in management.

On the contrary, Carrick has adapted to management like a duck to a pond, and his ideas about how he prefers football to be played are plain to see when watching Boro in nearly all of their 15 games so far under his supervision.

His ideas have been well received by the players, and this is clear from both the outcomes and the methods used to obtain those outcomes. Their 10 victories have included a variety of various types of victories, including come-from-behind victories, resounding victories, and victories obtained by biting down on the gumshield to preserve a slim lead.

He has frequently mentioned the urge to switch matches while playing. When he and his coaching staff identify game trends that need to be changed, the smart individuals on the Boro bench are fast to make the necessary adjustments, and the team's players follow suit.

How his tactics made players flourish

Carrick had a good base to build upon, especially in terms of his ideals. When he refers to his first 15 games as Boro's manager as a transformation, he is referring to the outcomes rather than the manner the team performed.

Although he changed the lineup, the team he inherited was more than able of adhering to his beliefs, as we saw during Wilder's tenure as manager's more successful moments.

Yet, Carrick's strategies in switching back to a flat four have been, to put it mildly, intriguing. On a tactics board, his Boro setup would appear to be a 4-2-3-1 formation, but it isn't as straightforward as that.

There is so much mobility in an attack. The beginning roles, or out-of-possession roles as you would say, belong to the forward four. But when things are going well, all four are free to roam. That was clear when Akpom and McGree connected for Saturday's second goal against Blackpool, even though McGree was playing far from his usual left-wing position.

The Australian actor performs one of the more versatile Boro parts. He frequently flounders to find room and causes havoc in the pockets. As a result, there is a lot more space on the left flank, which Ryan Giles eagerly approaches and tries to take advantage of. He thrives on that because he is naturally aggressive, much like Akpom.