AITOR KARANKA has hit back at Manuel Pellegrini’s suggestion that Middlesbrough adopted an overly-defensive mindset in their recent FA Cup win over Manchester City.

Having watched his side fail to beat Hull City last weekend, Pellegrini cited a number of examples where opposition sides had turned up at the Etihad Stadium looking to ‘park the bus’ and singled out Middlesbrough as one of the worst offenders.

The Teessiders were on the back foot for most of the first half as they claimed a shock 2-0 win to set up this weekend’s FA Cup fifth-round tie with Arsenal, but their second-half ambition could hardly be questioned as goals from Patrick Bamford and Kike produced one of the shocks of this season’s competition.

Karanka accepts he set his side up to be hard to beat at the Etihad, but rejects suggestions that his sole objective was to stifle City.

He said: “I can't go to Manchester City and play face-to-face against them because they are the sixth richest team in the world and we are a Championship team.

“But saying that, I don't think we played defensively there in the same way that we didn't play defensively at Liverpool.

“We scored two goals and had more chances to score. In the second half, they didn't have chances to score so I don't think we played defensively there.

"I don't have time to think about what Pellegrini or other managers might be saying because I have six games in 15-20 days, so I prefer to concentrate on my team and the game at Blackpool.

"My concentration is on the Blackpool game tomorrow, after Blackpool, it's Arsenal and at the end of the season to achieve our aims.

“If the people speak well about our task it is perfect, if the people speak bad about us but we beat them it is not a problem for me.”

Boro’s next game takes them to Blackpool tomorrow evening, and Karanka will be able to call on the services of Daniel Ayala, with the centre-half having completed a two-match suspension.

There will be no place in the squad for Mustapha Carayol, however, with the winger to remain in the development squad rather than step up to the first team as he completes his comeback from a lengthy lay-off following knee surgery.

Karanka said: “Carayol us training with us, but the problem is he needs to play. When the fixtures for the Under-21 team allow him to play, he will play.”