"If Latte Lath doesn't score" - Michael Carrick urged against Middlesbrough action ahead of Bristol City | OneFootball

Boro are looking to bounce back after an annoying result against Watford before the international break.

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more...

Middlesbrough are yet to fully hit their stride this season, but they have kept themselves in touching distance of those at the top.

Michael Carrick has overseen a similarly frustrating start to this campaign as he did last time out too.

This team with promotion hopes has once again failed to get out of the blocks quickly, leaving them with a bit of ground to make up on those ahead of them.

By no means is the five-point difference that separates them and league leaders Sunderland, and the two points that separate them and the current play-off placeholders, an insurmountable gap, especially given the 37 games that are still left to be played, but it's one that everyone associated with Boro would rather not have.

Another exasperating result against Watford, a 2-1 defeat at Vicarage Road, in a game where Middlesbrough held the lead with just over 15 minutes to go in normal time, sent Carrick's side into the international break on a somber note.

They will be hoping to bounce back against Bristol City on Saturday as they return to the Riverside, but how will Boro look on their return to Championship action?

Middlesbrough predicted line-up vs Bristol City

Football League World'sBoro fan pundit, Jasper Hudson, thinks that Carrick should stick with the XI that ended the game against the Hornets, with Riley McGree taking the starting position of Micah Hamilton.

He could, though, understand it if there were some changes made to the defence for Middlesbrough's match against the Robins.

"I probably wouldn't make any changes to the line-up [that ended the Watford game]," said Hudson.

"I think we've found our best line-up at the minute. The only change could potentially be Luke Ayling coming out of right-back and being replaced by Anferee Dijksteel because I think Ayling has looked a bit slow so far this season, and a bit sloppy.

"I think for the most part we've found our strongest side with Ben Doak off the right, McGree off the left and Finn Azaz in the 10; it just works better than trying to fit [Emmanuel] Latte Lath and [Tommy] Conway in.

"If Latte Lath doesn't score, then there's an argument to take him out and replace him with Conway up front. But he is just coming back from a short period where he was out with an injury, so I'd probably keep Latte lath up front.

"He's a bit of a handful and he's come quite close to scoring recently, but hasn't found the back of the net.

"There's also the argument for Matt Clarke to come in over George Edmundson. Clarke and Rav Van den Berg at centre-back had a really good partnership last season, but it's hard to drop Edmundson when he's been our most solid centre-back so far this season and hasn't really put a foot wrong, so I wouldn't change anything, personally."

Michael Carrick must stick to his guns

With a team like the former Manchester United midfielder has at his disposal, it must be hard to leave such talent out of the starting XI every week. This depth will come in handy a bit later down the road, as long as they are progressing up the table, but that itch to chop and change in order to find the right formula must be a hard one not to scratch.

There haven't been many line-up alterations made by the boss in Boro's recent games. If he feels that the starting group that he has been using is going to work for him, and the results trend further in a positive direction, then he needs to stick with it.

Let the rotation be more of a factor later down the road. Right now, what they need is a consistent run of good form. That'll be harder to guarantee if he starts experimenting.