Boro head to the east Midlands tomorrow looking to secure the victory they need to have any chance of claiming a play-off place. Carrick’s side will finish in the top six if they beat Coventry and both Millwall and Blackburn Rovers fail to win their matches at Burnley and Sheffield United respectively.
Carrick is renowned for being a head coach that preaches the importance of sticking to well-established principles, keeping a cool head and not ripping up the pre-prepared script unless absolutely necessary.
To a degree, that is the message he will still be delivering to his players ahead of tomorrow’s lunchtime kick-off. But given the way in which the game could fluctuate over the course of 90 minutes, he will also be impressing the need for flexibility.
At times, both Carrick and his players might have think on their feet and react to the way in which the game is developing. For all that he has been accused of being too rigid and wedded to a certain style of play, the Boro boss is confident he is ready to adapt if required.
“A lot of it comes down to the belief and being able to cope with the emotion of the day,” said Carrick, whose side have won just one of their last five games. “That will be a lot of it.
“It can go in different ways, in terms of how the game is going to go. There’s certainly the tactical bit, and things we want to try to do. We know what we’re good at, and we want to try to put those things into place to give us the best chance we can have.
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“But it’s also about how you cope and how you deal with the emotional side of things. It’s about having emotional control, and that’s in the moment. That’s the beauty about it. It’s about the emotion, the atmosphere in the stadium, the tension, the anxiety. That’s top-level sport and that’s where you want to be.”
With everything on the line in terms of both clubs’ play-off ambitions, tomorrow’s game is sure to be an emotionally-intense occasion.
Boro’s players will have to deal with the atmosphere inside the CBS Arena, as well as being tactically versatile enough to deal with whatever is thrown at them.
If they find themselves behind, do they have the capability of throwing caution to the wind in order to turn the game around? Carrick is hoping it doesn’t come to that. But if it does, he is confident his players can cope.
“That’s the ultimate balance when it comes down to these types of games,” said the Boro boss. “If you want to achieve something and go somewhere, then there’s going to be times where you have to go at it and make the most of it.
“You’ve got to adapt and adjust, and find a way to navigate your way through the game. The emotion and feeling is natural, and it should come with it because it means something.
“It’s how you cope with that. The default and falling back to what you know and you trust, and what you know others around are going to do, definitely helps. That’s why we do the work we do all the time, to give ourselves the best chance. But without doubt, there’ll be times in the game where we need to be ready to be flexible.”
