THEY'VE charged up the Championship table but Michael Carrick keeps Middlesbrough's emotions in check by refusing to think about promotion, even though he admits that's obviously the aim on Teesside.

Instead, Carrick has tapped into the experience that helped him as a player at Manchester United and rather than concentrate on the possible outcome at the end of the season, he says Boro's focus is week to week and always on the next challenge.

Carrick has transformed Boro from a relegation threatened side to promotion candidates but, as he did when he first took charge, plays down talk of formations and tactics and instead stresses the importance of his principles - mainly that he wants his team to play with "expression, personality and confidence".

READ MORE: Carrick's dressing room message that has made Middlesbrough players 'so confident'

That's certainly been the case in the early stages of his tenure on Teesside, with Boro winning eight of his 11 games in charge so far, including seven of the last eight, and making the short trip north to Sunderland this weekend now fourth in the Championship table.

"Expression is so important, as is enjoying yourself when playing," Carrick told SkyBet.

"As a boy you dream about playing football in front of thousands of fans every week, so I tell my players to enjoy themselves – by doing the right things for the team and working hard. It all comes down to personality and expression, for me.

“I like having the ball – that’s me naturally – and I like my team having possession, but not just for possession’s sake. I’m not too fussed about the stats but being in control of the game and expressing yourself – go and have fun and score goals – that’s the game.

"People want to come and enjoy the game and see players play with a bit of freedom – not stifling players but giving them that foundation where they can go and enjoy the ball and do what they’re good at.”

Only the top two have scored more goals than Boro this season and while Saturday's clean sheet against Millwall was the first shut-out since the World Cup, on the whole they've defended well. Since defeat to Preston in Carrick's first game in charge, only runaway leaders Burnley have managed to score more than a single goal against Boro.

Boro played with three central defenders and wing-backs under previous boss Chris Wilder but Carrick immediately switched to a back four when he took charge.

He says: “I prefer a back four – I looked at the players we have and the way we wanted to play, and it suited us. I’m not fixed on formations so much – football now is very fluid; you see teams pressing in different shapes and different ways. If you’re looking at it from a coach’s point of view, sometimes games can look very different to what you see on the team line-ups.

“It’s more about principles than formation for me, and how we gain – and keep – possession of the ball. I’ve just focused on putting players in positions that best suit them, so we can get the best out of each other. We might tweak the system – we are always trying to evolve and improve."

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Boro are very much in the mix to go up but Carrick makes sure his players remain grounded.

He says: “You can’t get carried away in the Championship. I learned a lot from Sir Alex Ferguson in terms of chasing success and how he did it, and you can’t think about the end game too much. It’s wasting time and energy, we can only control what we can, and that’s hopefully three points on the weekend. Don’t think about the end of the story while the story is going on.

“The target is to be as good as we can be. Every team in this league wants to get promoted, every team not in the Premier League wants to get into the Premier League – that’s obvious for us as a club, me as an individual, and the players.

“You can’t chase it too much; you must put things in place and build to get there. It’s a mindset, a case of focusing on what we can control to get there, and in the end however good we are week to week will give us the answer. If we’re up, fantastic. If we’re not, why not? Can we improve? We’ll take that step as we get there.

“I’m really enjoying my time here. It’s a terrific club with great people. The biggest thing for me was coming into a club with terrific people, staff, support and backroom.

“There’s great energy here, everyone’s in it together which is so important. It looks fantastic and we’re obviously going in a new direction, but we’re not getting carried away, there’s still plenty of work to do.”

Watch Michael Carrick's full interview with SkyBet HERE.