AITOR Karanka admits he has some difficult decisions to make over who will play against Liverpool in the Capital One Cup after seeing his Middlesbrough side beat Brentford 4-0.

Boro stormed to victory at the Riverside Stadium with an all-round impressive display against the Championship new boys with goals from Grant Leadbitter, Albert Adomah, Patrick Bamford and Kike.

Karanka made five changes from the team that beat Cardiff City midweek and he now has the difficult task of selecting the 11 players who will start against last season’s Premier League runners-up at Anfield.

Bamford, Emilio Nsue and Ryan Fredericks all impressed coming into the starting XI, but Karanka insists he will pick a team he feels could be capable of springing a surprise tomorrow night.

“I have to think very hard, because it isn’t a normal game,” Karanka said. “All the players want to play at Anfield obviously, but I have to be careful to choose the best 11 to try and win the game.

“I have a very good squad and there are a lot of players who could play at this moment.

“We will go to Liverpool and try to play the way we have done this week. They are a Champions League team and we are a Championship team.

“We will go there to fight as well as we can but we know if will be a difficult game.

“It’s a very good game for our crowd to remember the past and to enjoy and we are going to do as much as we can to win.”

Saturday’s win – their third in eight days - has propelled Boro up to fifth in the table with Charlton to come at The Valley next weekend.

After a stuttering start, the Teessiders appear to be finding their feet and Karanka has called for his players not to rest of their laurels.

He said: “We have recovered. My concern was our consistency after the Reading and Sheffield Wednesday games.

“We had very good players, but we lost our consistency. Now we have got that back and when you mix that with a good team you can do very well.

“When you win games everyone is happy. The most important thing is to keep going this way. We have now won the last three and we have to keep going.”

Saturday’s win was slightly soured by the red card Dean Whitehead was shown in the 83rd minute and the midfielder will now miss the next three games.

“It’s one of the positions we don’t have a lot of players,” Karanka said. “We just have Clayton and Grant at the moment. We will have to think about the options and keep working with the squad.”