AITOR KARANKA is adamant he will not be changing Middlesbrough’s playing style despite Sunday’s 1-0 home defeat to Watford having taken his side to the brink of the relegation zone.

Boro are only out of the bottom three on goal difference after Jose Holebas’ second-half strike condemned them to a third successive home defeat.

The Teessiders only recorded one attempt on target all game, and even that was an extremely tame effort, with Adam Forshaw side-footing a weak shot straight at Watford goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes.

Alvaro Negredo was an isolated figure for long periods, but it was the 88th minute before Karanka finally introduced Jordan Rhodes from the substitutes’ bench and adapted his formation to accommodate two strikers.

The Boro head coach is firmly wedded to his trusted 4-2-3-1 formation, and is adamant he will not be changing it despite his team having scored just four goals in their last six league games.

“I have to think about every single game,” said Karanka, who must now turn his attention to Saturday’s daunting trip to Arsenal. “We got promotion with one up front, and I don’t think we need to change now. We have our style, and I built a squad to play that way.

“Every single defeat is difficult, especially at home, and especially when we are a strong team at home. But we have to keep going. We have a strong group, and it is October so there is a long way to go.

“We have to recover physically and mentally. I know for everyone, it is not a nice moment. But we have to be positive because if we do not believe in ourselves, who can believe in us?”

Boro did not deserve to win today’s game, such was the paucity of their attacking threat, but their chances were hardly aided by the stop-start nature of a game that contained a host of stoppages and niggly fouls.

Referee Roger East struggled to exert any authority throughout, although his failure to award Boro a first-half penalty despite a possible foul on Alvaro Negredo and a potential handball from Nordin Amrabat has to be balanced against his refusal to send off Antonio Barragan despite the full-back fouling Isaac Success after he had already been booked.

Barragan was fortunate to avoid a second yellow card, although East’s failure to clamp down on Watford’s cynical gamesmanship did not help Boro’s cause.

“It was really impossible to play,” said Karanka. “They showed they are much more experienced than us. They had more time stopping than playing.

“I don’t know how many times they went to the floor, I don’t know how many minutes. It was really difficult for us to play – we didn’t want to play that way.

“When you are experienced, you are experienced. You can’t change that. You can add experience when you are playing games, and they have played more games than us. For this reason, they are more experienced.

“I don’t want to blame anyone – I will just say we couldn’t play in the second half the way we wanted to play.”

Karanka was forced to replace Barragan with 21 minutes left to prevent the Spaniard picking up a red card, and the Boro boss is concerned his side are being awarded yellow cards when their opponents are getting away with similar offences.

“I’m concerned why we have four bookings and other teams don’t get booked,” he said. “Why they can do whatever they want, and every single player for us is a yellow card. This is my concern, not the yellow cards.

“I have my thoughts, but I don’t want to say anything. I can’t say anything. I was worried he (Barragan) might be sent off, but I didn’t want to change Calum (Chambers) and Gibbo (Ben Gibson).”