Michael Carrick is confident he can turn around Middlesbrough’s slump after they were beaten 1-0 by Watford at the Riverside.
Boro were booed by their supporters at full-time after Moussa Sissoko’s goal consigned the hosts to a fourth defeat on the spin.
Carrick’s side have now lost six of their last seven games in all competitions and won just three of their last 14 Championship games to slip to 11th in the table.
But the former Manchester United and England midfielder insists he still has full belief that his side can get their season back on track.
Carrick said: “100 per cent (I believe I can turn it around). We have good players, we have a fantastic team, we’re having a bad spell.
“I fully believe we can get out of it. There’s a big difference between having your confidence hit and the ultimate belief.
“At the moment, we’re in it, but we have to accept that. We’ll all pull together and find a way through but it’s a tough place to be. We’ll all stick with each other.”
“A lot of teams have bad spells. We don’t want to go through it but it’s part of the sport unfortunately. We don’t like it but it doesn’t mean we can’t change it.
“I’m just gutted for the players, I feel for them so much. They were trying to do the right things but when it goes against you it goes against you.
“You can see we’re fighting confidence at the minute and that’s natural, things have gone against us. We didn’t quite find the goal towards the end.”
Watford climbed above Boro into the Championship’s top 10 after ending their own winless stretch of five games.
The Hornets had won just one of their last 10 – and were thrashed 4-0 at home by Leeds in midweek – but Tom Cleverley felt his side got what they deserved on Teesside.
“We were challenged in the last 15, 20 minutes but it was no means backs to the wall and we should have been out of sight,” said Watford’s boss and Carrick’s former midfield partner at Old Trafford.
“You always smell when a crowd is a little bit edgy.
“They have a quality squad and they’re demanding a lot of their players. They’re not in their best moment and we thought we could play on that.
“We created that nervousness in the stadium and smelt the blood and went for the kill.
“I still feel like we can improve how we manage the end of the game but for 70 minutes we have to give massive credit to the players, they were outstanding.”
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