Kim Hellberg discussed his Middlesbrough formation and style of play
Kim Hellberg, Middlesbrough head coach(Image: Getty Images)
Kim Hellberg admitted he’s never used the formation he’s used in his first two Middlesbrough matches before.
Hellberg has so far favoured a narrow 4-2-2-2 formation, which has worked so far after two wins from his two games in charge. A team previously struggling for goals, they’ve scored six in two now.
That Hellberg had never previously used to tactic previously is a testament to his flexibility in finding the formation he believes best suits the players he has at his disposal. There’s no guarantees that it will always be that shape, because it’s the principles rather than the formation that is key.
Hellberg said: “I’ve actually never used this structure in my life before. When you arrive at a new club, you see what players you have. I’ve usually used wide players more, one against one players.
“But I think we have more combination players. We have brilliant nines that are nines, that are good at running in deep, good link-up play, so you’ve got to use them as nines.
“Then we get more width from the full-backs. Sometimes you can use the full-backs coming in. For me, it’s about: what players do I have? How can we use the same principles we have in terms of the way we want to play?
“We want to press them high, you’ve seen that. I think that was brilliant against Hull, we were pressing them, the strikers were unbelievable in the pressing in the way they did it.
“We were trying to be brave playing with the ball, but if the game has space behind, we want to take the space behind. If we can play through the lines with one pass, I want to play through with one pass.
“But sometimes you need ten passes. It all depends on the space they give us. As soon as we have a free man, we want to take the ball forward, that is important.
“Then you look at the squad, which players are in the best positions so they can do their best role as much as possible? If you take David [Strelec], for example, a striker playing up front, if you can put him in his best position on the pitch as much as possible, he will gain confidence by doing those things.
“Football is more about that. Keep the structure, use the same principles, but the position they work in should be connected to the space they are best in. That’s how they grow in confidence.
“And that’s why I think Gilly’s [Gilbert] playing well as a six because he gets central on the ball a lot, and he’s very good on the ball. If we would play him six, but we would have the ball only 30%, and he was just trying to be in the box and heading balls away, that wouldn’t suit him as well.
“Then it would be other players doing that position better. So it’s more about: how is the game going to look? What are the players good at? Then they gain confidence from the other things you do better in those parts. So I think that that is what football is about.”
When it comes to the principles, they’ve already been clear to see. The new Boro boss favours an attack-minded and an aggressive approach, which sees Boro pressing hard and trying to win the ball high up the pitch. Hellberg was made aware that supporters have christened it ‘Hell-ball’.
He said with a smile: “’Hellball’? Yeah, I like that one! Very creative, brilliant. All the games in the Championship are different. The opponent opened up different spaces, and I think Hull was a very good team that wanted to play, that wanted to press, which means that it becomes quite a fluid game.
“But you need to find against different opponents, how to create opportunities against them. What spaces do they leave? I was very proud of the performance.
“I think they were brave, they were mobile in terms of playing, but they also, as soon as we get that free player, took the ball forward.
“I was happy to see that the four goals come from different things. It comes from our goal kick, it comes from a transition, we win the ball high, it comes from winning the ball close to the goal, and then the fourth goal is against a low block.
“There were a lot of things that were very nice to see, both live and when we watched the video again. So we try to make it ‘Hellball’ as much as possible.”
Even after such a good start though, Hellberg insists he can never stop seeking improvement. He said: “Even though the game was good, there were a lot of things that I think we need to improve on. A lot. But then I think you always want to improve, and I think that is important.
“Even though I was at my last club for a long time, there were still things that change within football. It can change with the players that come in too. You may get new players. So I think it’s important to always keep improving.
“The football changes, the game changes, they find different ways of defending against different things. You need to always be trying to reach for an even better ‘Hellball’ all the time.
“We will never be there 100%, but we will always try to develop, that’s the thing. And of course, the players were playing an absolutely brilliant game of football, that I think everyone could see. They were so active, and that’s all I can ask of them. We will always try to work even harder to get even better.”
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