Aitor Karanka hints that he left Stewart Downing and Patrick Bamford out of Middlesbrough's squad to face Manchester City because they lacked the fighting spirit.

Middlesbrough manager Aitor Karanka has called on his group of players to show the fighting spirit required to get their season back on track.

The Smoggies' woeful Premier League run was put to one side on Saturday afternoon for the visit of Manchester City in the FA Cup, which ultimately ended in disappointment with a 2-0 reverse for Karanka's men.

After seeing his side exit the domestic cup competition in an all-too-familiar feeble manner, Boro's under-fire boss urged his players to show more character, perhaps hinting at why he left Stewart Downing and Patrick Bamford out of the 18-man squad.

"Look, always I have needed it but now in the difficult moments, I need 18 fighters in my team," he told reporters. "Where the players show me that they are ready to play and they are fighting and they are going to fight for the club is on the training ground every day.

"I am with them every day and on Friday, I will always choose at least 18 fighters. I prefer to take the positive things because we recovered our consistency, our confidence.

"The way that we approached the game today, conceding the goal at the beginning of the game, the reaction was good. We can't forget that we were playing against one of the best teams in the league and the Champions League, and they rested players to play against us, so they were considering us a strong team."

David Silva's goal three minutes into the sixth-round tie was the quickest Boro have conceded this season and the fastest City have scored.