Middlesbrough head coach Michael Carrick wants his players to “flip” the fine margins in their favour to kick-start the season.

Boro are 12th in the Championship with equal wins, draws and losses from their six league games.

Carrick is pleased with much of what his team is doing, but the results have not been forthcoming.

“It’s always fine margins, but that’s football and we have to flip those in our favour,” he told BBC Radio Tees.

In Boro’s six matches, they have enjoyed an average of 57.23% possession and had 104 shots to their opponents’ 39, an average of more than 17 per match.

But despite those statistics being in their favour, they have only won two and scored six goals.

In the match away to Derby County last month, they had 70.6% of the ball and 20 shots to the Rams’ three, but ended up losing 1-0.

And it was a similar scenario away to Sunderland last Saturday, albeit not quite as dominant, but again they came away with nothing.

Ironically, in the two matches where they have had least possession, they have taken maximum points.

Boro entertain Stoke City on Saturday (15:00 BST), with Carrick hoping that the scoreline is back in their favour.

“We certainly want better results, but largely performances and a lot of the things we’ve been doing within the game, we’ve been the dominant team,” he said.

“There’s a lot of good things happening, but we need that extra little bit to make the difference.”