Kim Hellberg is eight games in to his Middlesbrough reign and will have a good flavour of the Championship now
Kim Hellberg, the Middlesbrough head coach(Image: Getty Images)
Welcome to the reality of the English Championship, Kim Hellberg!
If Middlesbrough’s new Swedish coach didn’t know everything about the rigours of football life at this level, then he does now.
The last four games have shown Hellberg that anybody can beat anybody in this league and that individual match plans are crucial.
Boro might have won at Ashton Gate had Morgan Whittaker’s fourth minute effort not rebounded off a post, but in the end Boro’s biggest problem appeared to be in dealing with City’s change of tactics.
The under-par display against Blackburn left no doubts that the adrenaline rush from Rob Edwards’ departure has now fully dissipated.
The Boro players lifted themselves to new heights to prove to the former boss than they could manage perfectly well without him.
Now that the dust has settled, it’s back to the nitty gritty, particularly for Hellberg. It does not help the head coach that Boro are dealing with a defensive injury crisis as pass the halfway point in the campaign.
But Hellberg is a front-foot manager and his biggest concern will be in getting his attack operating at full steam again. Boro were flying up front immediately following Edwards’ escape, but attack-wise there had been concerns about Boro’s general lack of creativity shortly before Edwards moved on.
We don’t want to see things slip back again following such a bright spell which brought four consecutive victories between late November and early December.
Hellberg’s attacking approach is the way in which we want to see Boro play the game. In doing so, there are problems to solve in the goalscoring department.
Thankfully, Whittaker has grasped the nettle this season but Boro are sadly missing a player of Finn Azaz’s quality. Maybe Hellberg is already planning a January swoop for a similar player.
There were high hopes that Sontje Hansen might be the perfect replacement for Azaz but the Curacao international has yet to make an impact.
Experiments like bringing in Micah Hamilton have not paid dividends so Hellberg needs to decide which attacking players are going to be the best ones to take the team forward, and work with them religiously on the training ground.
Boro haven’t been in this position in the league for years. It’s crucial that Hellberg builds on what we have already got.
Whittaker can certainly help him, but he himself needs help from his team-mates. He has successfully dealt with one major personal problem in coming to terms with what is expected from him in the Boro team.
But he doesn’t want another major weight of expectation heaped upon his shoulders. His magnificent goalscoring exploits have worked wonders for the team both in terms of goals and overall performances.
Now it’s crucial that other players don’t sit back, take a back seat and wait for Whittaker to hit the onion bag. Morgan can‘t do much more. His run of six scoring games in a row was exceptional.
It would have been eight but for the woodwork in the games against Bristol City and Blackburn. In many respects, he has tried to lead by example in the final third in recent weeks and it certainly paid dividends for the whole team.
Whittaker’s overall game still needs to show more strength, particularly when he is forced back to carry out defensive duties when the team is under pressure.
Yet at this rate he is nailed on to finish up as the team’s top scorer this season, something which we wouldn’t have had reason to expect in the summer.
Even so, Whittaker has every right to expect to see his team-mates – especially the front runners – repeating his achievements.
Under Hellberg’s pressing style of play, Boro see enough of the game to score far more than they have been of late. There had been no problems until Boro went to Bristol City and drew a blank. Now it’s four games without a goal.
This just creates the worry that some of Whittaker’s team-mates are sitting back and not operating at full speed while they wait for him to pull something out of the bag.
Hellberg’s pressing style should be enough for the team as a whole to create at least a handful of good chances in every game. It’s up to the lads to take them.
Tommy Conway’s penalty against QPR must have worked wonders for his confidence after suffering such a long barren spell without a goal.
One thing that Boro do need to see is Conway scoring on a more regular basis in the second half of the campaign.
If that is to happen then the players around him must give him the ball more often in space. This promotion battle is there for the winning if every man in the Boro attack steps up to the challenge.
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