AITOR Karanka has warned his Middlesbrough squad they will achieve nothing if they continue to put themselves ahead of the team.

The Boro head coach was infuriated by certain players’ performances in the disappointing home draw with bottom club Blackpool on Tuesday evening.

He accused some individuals of playing for themselves instead of the team, and ahead of this afternoon’s game against Fulham at the Riverside Stadium, the Spaniard has reiterated the mantra that each player must buy into his team ethic if Boro want to achieve something this season.

“My message is always the same,” Karanka said. “It’s not about one player, one coach, one person being above the team.

“The most important thing is the team. If we win, we win together. And if we lose, we lose together. I want 11 players on the pitch thinking about the team and playing for each other.

“For me, this is an important quality in a player. It’s no use having 11 players with quality that play for themselves. We have showed it last season. We didn’t have the squad we have now, but we won six games in the last eight.

“When we play like a team with more quality, it will cause problems if we play for ourselves.”

Boro missed the chance to move back into the top six in midweek, but remain only three points off the top.

Sections of the Riverside crowd vented their frustrations at the final whistle on Tuesday, and Karanka is looking for a response from his players today.

He said: “I understand why they (fans) reacted like they did at the end. They were so excited one week ago after Brentford and now they are frustrated after Tuesday. I have the same feelings. We have to think about the future.

“They have to forget the past and I have to forget the past. We are learning from it so we don’t make the same mistakes again.

“We will see after the game whether they have responded the way I want. The answer is always in what they do on the pitch. I hope I can say after the game that they got the message.”

Today’s game precedes a two-week international break before the Championship resumes when Boro make the trip to Brighton on October 18.

While Premier League managers tend to bemoan the two week breaks for international fixtures, the same can’t be said for those in the Championship.

Karanka sees the period as a chance for his players to recover after a punishing run of seven games in 22 games, while it also gives the head coach the opportunity to iron out the issues that have arisen in the last two games.

“For me, these breaks are very important,” Karanka said. “You have time to recover and time to work with the squad. If you don’t have these breaks it is very difficult to spend time on the training ground and it is very difficult for the players to recover from games every two or three games.

“It’s very important to go into the break in a positive mood. We have to make sure the players recover. Most of them are very, very tired.

“Most of them have played a lot of games. The best thing now is for us to recover our fitness. We have a lot of players that have played a lot of games.

“They need a rest, then after we will have time to work on the things we need to improve.”