'Players are good enough' - Middlesbrough boss Michael Carrick coy on transfers after Millwall loss
Michael Carrick
Michael Carrick refused to blame Middlesbrough's defeat to Millwall on the lack of transfer activity.
Middlesbrough endured a 1-0 defeat in their Championship opener as Millwall pinched a late goal to seal victory at the Riverside.
Romain Esse's 79th-minute strike secured victory for the Lions on the opening weekend of the new season.
The result was a setback for Middlesbrough, who continue to pursue a new left-back and centre-forward ahead of the transfer deadline.
Michael Carrick accepts his side looked short in the final third, although he did not want to attribute the final result to a lack of transfer activity in the last couple of weeks.
Carrick said: "It's disappointing. We came here to try to win the game, but in the first game of the season, sometimes you don't really know what to expect.
"I think we had good players on that pitch, who were capable of playing in a good team and playing well. They were capable of scoring goals and creating goals.
"Just because we lost the game, it doesn't always mean what people might label it with. The players are definitely good enough. It doesn't stop us from wanting to improve, but it's an easy throwaway thing to say that because we didn't win and we didn't score, we need (new) players to get to where we want to be.
"I would like to add players, but I'm really happy with the players we've got in the squad."
