Thursday 15 September 2016 17:45, UK
Middlesbrough manager Aitor Karanka says there is no question of blaming defender George Friend for Saturday's 2-1 loss at home to Crystal Palace.
Friend's error led to Wilfried Zaha's winning goal at the Riverside as Boro suffered their first defeat since returning to the top flight.
But Karanka says no fingers are being pointed at Friend and went on to give his effusive backing to the 28-year-old full-back.
"George is the son every mother wants to have, the husband every wife wants," said Karanka. "George is amazing.
"When I say how proud I am of my players, he is one of them. When I came here, he had come from Doncaster, the club at that time was going to League One, and for me to have players like him on the pitch is a pleasure.
"We win as a team, we lose as a team. To blame one player or two players or three players, I don't think is fair. We are in the table with five points because all of them have been doing really well.
"The player who makes a mistake, they know, and I know when I make a mistake. You don't need to tell him about the mistake.
"We have to think just about the following game, to think we have to fix those mistakes and keep going."
Karanka's men now face a tricky schedule over the coming weeks, with Saturday's visit to Everton to be followed by a home game with Spurs and a trip to West Ham.
Karanka added: "I said after our game at Sunderland and after our game against West Brom that we shouldn't get carried away so, after a defeat, we shouldn't panic either.
"We have to work in the same way. We are going to win games, we are going to lose, for sure, more games than we lost last season, because we are in the Premier League.
"On Saturday, we realised it was a good wake-up call to say that we are in the Premier League. I would have preferred to have had that wake-up call with three more points, but it was impossible."
