Hull City are in action at the MKM Stadium on Friday night in front of the Sky Sports TV cameras
Hull City are back in action on Friday evening when they host Middlesbrough, looking to move back into the Championship’s top six ahead of the weekend’s games, knowing victory would take them third for a few hours at least.
Last Saturday’s dramatic 2-1 win at Stoke City ended a run of successive defeats for Sergej Jakirovic’s men, which had seen them drop out of the play-off zone and down into 11th.
Boro, who are now under the management of Swede Kim Hellberg, were 2-1 winners over Derby County at the Riverside Stadium last weekend in his first outing as manager.
The visit of the Teessiders also sees the return of ex-City man Alfie Jones, who notched an impressive 191 appearances for the Tigers before moving to the North East in the summer.
We chatted with Teesside Live’s Boro reporter Craig Johns to get the lowdown on City’s opponents ahead of the showdown…
What of Boro this season?
It’s already been such a dramatic season on Teesside, thanks largely to the recent Rob Edwards debacle. Arriving in the summer with his stick pretty low after the decline at Luton Town, it’s fair to say that he wasn’t many fans’ first choice.
Credit where it’s due, he dramatically changed Boro’s style after two-and-a-half years of Michael Carrick, focusing on a defensive-minded approach that made Boro’s foundations far more solid than they’d been for a long time.
It worked, with Boro enjoying a fantastic start to the season in comparison to recent years. Boro have been notoriously slow starters until this year.
But with Boro’s attack not benefiting from the changes, as goals were hard to come by, results were starting to dry up a little. Saturday’s victory over Derby County was only Boro’s fourth from their last 12 games.
Edwards, of course, decided to make a personal move back to Wolves – to the anger of many supporters after four months of ‘we’re a family’, ‘we have to stick together’ and other such soundbites.
With a far more attack-minded coach in Kim Hellberg appointed, and an immediate win under his belt, it’s quite intriguing now to see how Boro adapt to the new changes and where their campaign goes from here.
The new boss got his first win on Saturday; what have you made of him so far, albeit in very early days?
From a personal point of view, he’s been really impressive. He’s detailed and open and, as you might expect of a Swede, very matter-of-fact.
Interestingly, having said ahead of Derby that he was looking to implement only small changes early on, and instead looking to build on what had worked well so far this season at Boro, there were considerable changes for the win over Derby.
Notably, the huge shift in focus from defence to attack was notable, while deploying such a high defensive line was an interesting move that caused some early problems.
Boro spent a bit in the summer, so has that increased expectations in terms of automatic promotion?
I wouldn’t say coming into the season, there were expectations at all for a top-two challenge, particularly after the disappointment of last season, and only finishing tenth.
As that led to Carrick’s exit, and a new head coach who wasn’t particularly fancied, expectation levels and hope heading into the new season were probably as low as they’ve been in the five years I’ve covered the club.
There were a lot of the summer signings arriving after the start of the season so, with a great start and the added additions late in the window, there was probably extra expectation from that.
But I think, even now, with Boro sitting second, I would imagine most Boro fans would remain happy with a top-six finish. Finishing top two would be considered an excellent achievement rather than an expectation at this point.
How has Alfie Jones looked since joining from City?
He’s been one of Boro’s most reliable players so far this season and, as things stand, would be a strong contender for signing of the season.
He’s provided exactly what he was signed for, ultimately. Solidity and reliability at the back. Boro have struggled so much with defensive injuries – both this season and last – and part of the attraction to Jones was his robustness, which he’s continued on Teesside.
Though he’s had multiple defensive partners, he’s never once looked anything but composed and solid throughout the season, and has been a major factor in Boro currently having one of the best defences in the division.
Ironically, however, just ahead of his return to the MKM Stadium, there were one or two doubts emerging from the Derby win, centring around Boro’s defence and Jones, in particular.
Granted, it wasn’t helpful to him to be in a makeshift defence as the only fit centre-back, but he probably had his least comfortable game in a Boro shirt to date, with Hellberg asking his side to play such a high defensive line.
That high line left acres of space in behind the defence and Jones had a few uncomfortable moments where he left chasing back a pacey striker who’d run in behind off his shoulder. The early Derby goal ultimately came from this means.
To his credit, as well as Hellberg and Boro as a whole unit, they readjusted and limited Derby to just one shot on target all game in the end, but there were some edgy early moments in the game when Boro were caught on the counter, and they’re likely to come up against better attacking units in the weeks ahead.
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