Having shown so much coming off the bench in league games, Kwadwo Baah’s first Championship start didn’t go as planned.

Possibly not helped by playing as a No.9 rather than just behind the main striker or out wide, the forward failed to take an early one-on-one chance and generally struggled to make much headway at Preston.

Tom Cleverley pointed out that Baah has come a long way in a year, given he was out on loan at Burton Albion 12 months ago.

“What I would say is now everyone expects a lot from Baah,” said the head coach.

“He’s a player that only scored a couple of goals in 20-odd appearances in League One last season.

“I feel like as a staff we are nurturing him and we’re developing him, and possibly now we’ve developed him so much – and he’s worked hard, I’m not taking the credit – that people are expecting a hell of a lot from a player that last year was playing in League One.

“So feet on the ground for all of us.

“I’m confident in myself that we can get the best out of him, and his potential, but a lot has happened very quickly for KB and we have to remember that.”

Baah had operated as a No.9 in a couple of summer friendlies, but not in competitive matches.

“He played there in pre-season, and a lot of his best actions against Manchester City and when he came on against Sunderland were coming from high central positions,” said Cleverley.

“We targeted his pace against their back line which lacked a bit of pace, and felt we could really dominate.

“Unfortunately it didn’t work out that way, and it wasn’t his best performance.”

The run of three games in a week will test the squad, but Cleverley is confident his older players such as skipper Moussa Sissoko and Angelo Ogbonna will be fine tomorrow.

“Moussa is physically in great shape, and he looks after his body so well,” he said.

“He will be ready to go, and Angelo only played 55 minutes on Wednesday night so I expect him to be fine as well.”

The game at Vicarage Road sees Cleverley come up against his former Manchester United and England teammate, and good friend, Michael Carrick, who is one of the Championship’s longer-serving managers.

“Middlesbrough have very good players and have had a lot of continuity,” said Cleverley.

“It’s Michael’s third season in the job, they have been playing the same way for a long time and they have a lot of quality and technical players.

“They’re a team I expect to be challenging at the end of the season.

“I went to watch them in the week at West Brom, and I was impressed by what I saw.

“You see a lot of teams in this league having success playing the same way under the same manager for a long period of time.”