'There might be' - Michael Carrick highlights Preston North End factor Middlesbrough must be wary of

Middlesbrough boss Michael Carrick says his players must be ready to adapt against Preston North End this weekend.

The first international break of the season has been and gone, with the Lilywhites looking to kick on under Paul Heckingbottom - who has managed three games so far. Next up is a trip to the Riverside, with Boro having collected seven points from the first four league matches of the campaign. North End go to Teesside with three to their name.

Boro have been consistently competitive under Carrick’s stewardship - and were one of the promotion tipped teams this summer. Preston had a torrid night there last November, but this time around Carrick is fully expecting a difficult challenge. And given Heckingbottom is still relatively fresh through the door, the Middlesbrough manager cannot be too sure what approach Preston will take.

"It will be a tough game,” said Carrick, in his pre-match press conference. “Paul is an established, experienced and proven manager who knows what it takes to get success in this division. They will have had a couple of weeks’ training time, away from games, to get their teeth into and have an impact on the group - which maybe they hadn’t had the opportunity to do.

“We will see what that brings. We will have to have our eyes wide open. There might be things that are a bit new... we'll have to see and be ready to adapt. I am sure some good work has gone on, on their behalf, and we'll have to be ready for that.”

On whether he expects PNE to be especially fired up, given the early stage of Heckingbottom’s tenure, Carrick added: "Of course. He's been there a number of weeks now, but we've watched them - as they will with us - and I think there's a natural uplift when a new manager and his staff come in. With the couple of weeks they've had to prepare, we've got to be ready for what they've been working on.”