How Kim Hellberg’s high-octane football sent Middlesbrough top of the… — and more

The little-known Swedish coach was tracked by Boro’s head of football Kieran Scott after impressing in his homeland, writes Lawrence Ostlere. Now, after a decade away, the club are closing in on a return to the Premier League

Middlesbrough is not necessarily the first place that comes to mind when you think of stylistic innovation, but in the Championship, Boro are blazing a trial. A six-game winning streak has propelled them to the top of the table before Monday night’s crucial visit to promotion rivals Coventry, and they have got there playing football unlike anyone else in the league.

The manager, Kim Hellberg, arrived at the Riverside Stadium in November with Middlesbrough third in the league but shaken by the sudden departure of Rob Edwards to Wolves. On the face of it, Boro fans didn’t have much to get excited about: Swedish coach, 37, never worked outside his homeland; no trophies outside Swedish non-league, no playing career of note. Hellberg’s Wikipedia page was more of a post-it note. “I’m the most Googled name in Teesside,” he joked at his unveiling.

His appointment was led by Middlesbrough’s head of football, Kieran Scott, who had had Hellberg’s name written down in his notebook for a couple of years. Hellberg had first caught the eye helping minnows IFK Varnamo punch above their weight in the Swedish top flight, Allsvenskan, before successive second-placed finishes with Hammarby playing attacking, possession-dominant football.

He underwent a series of interviews, first with Scott and then with chief executive Neil Bausor and chairman Steve Gibson, who were impressed with his detailed plans for how to get the best out of Middlesbrough’s squad. Scott was in agreement with Hellberg’s assessment of a team with defensive solidity but in need of cohesion in attack.

In what wasn’t necessarily a ringing endorsement for Edwards’ work, Scott explained: “It’s a group that just needs a bit of coaching.”

The Middlesbrough players quickly bought into Hellberg’s approach. “Everyone loves him and wants to work with him,” said forward Morgan Whittaker after Hellberg’s first game, a 2-1 comeback win over Derby County in which Whittaker scored the winner.

Boro began to show new traits including unpredictable movement and a smothering high press that helped dominate the ball. Possession numbers jumped from mid-table to the best in the Championship, averaging nearly 60 per cent during Hellberg’s reign.

“We try to dominate as many minutes of each game as possible and to be proactive in having the ball, progressing attacks, and then taking it back directly after losing it,” Hellberg explained, adding: “Possession alone doesn’t win games, but it is connected to how we believe we can be most successful.”

Middlesbrough have won 11 of their 16 games since Hellberg took charge, and what has been so eye-catching is the fast and fluid combination play that has transformed them into such an attractive team to watch. Hellberg references Pep Guardiola among his coaching influences but the Swede does not adopt Guardiola’s famous Juego de Posición principles. His players do not have fixed stations in a carefully calibrated system stretched across the pitch; instead they are encouraged to move freely and be close to one another to make fast connections in tight spaces.

Hellberg says his job is to give players a platform to perform, not for them to adhere to his masterplan. It is why, without naturally gifted touchline wingers, Boro play largely through the middle of the pitch in their notional 4-3-3 shape, using one-twos and flicks around the corner to breach set defences.

They show clear traits of what tactics writer and Uefa A-licensed coach Jamie Hamilton calls a “relationist” approach, even if Hellberg hasn’t put it that way publicly. If the criticism of Guardiola’s world-popular positional play is that it can put a straitjacket on a team’s flair and individualism, then relationist football is meant to be an antidote to that, a place for liberty and expression, full of diagonal passes, clever dummies and quick, almost telepathic interchanges.

Relationist play was most famously deployed in recent years by Brazilian side Fluminense under Fernando Diniz, and has popped up all over the world, from Malmo to the Hungarian national team. Hamilton noticed some of those elements with Hellberg’s Varnamo side several years ago, and tells The Independent: “I remember watching them playing against Malmo thinking, ‘They’re pretty good!’”

Hamilton points to the influence of Hellberg’s long-time assistant, David Selini, as key to helping instill their way of playing.

“Selini uses the term ‘common language’. You want to try and give the players a way of understanding each other, so, who am I playing with? If I’m [Hayden] Hackney, what does [Aidan] Morris like to do? Is he a guy that likes to carry the ball? Is he a guy that likes to lay it off first time? So it’s about inter-player communication and understanding each other’s tendencies and habits.

“That is facilitated in training by using certain common ideas, and that might be pass and move, it might be diagonals, and then within that framework the players can develop understanding of each other. And this is something that’s integral to a more relational approach, rather than using a set positional structure to help those relationships.”

The fast movement and high-octane attacking approach bears similarities with Marcelo Bielsa’s title-winning Leeds side (Bielsa is another of Hellberg’s inspirations), but Boro are unique in the current Championship, carving their own distinct path towards the Premier League. Perhaps Hellberg’s greatest demand of his players is that they never veer from playing their own way.

“I was so proud,” he said after last weekend’s win at Sheffield United. “We scored after 19 minutes and we had 63 per cent of the ball during the game. Away from home, I think that is unbelievable, when you score early against that good of a team, when you keep playing the way you want to play, away from home with a sold-out crowd, I think that’s unbelievably impressive.

“It’s easy away from home, when you score that early goal, to drop and do something else or the opponent forces you to do it, but that was a good picture of the team we want to be. We want to take control of our destiny, we want to play forward as quickly as we can, we want to create chances, and I think we did that unbelievably good.”

Middlesbrough’s winning streak has lifted them above Coventry, who had been leading the Championship all season, and Frank Lampard’s team will provide the ultimate test of Boro’s progress when they meet on Monday night. Win and Boro will have breathing room at the top, as they chase a return to the top flight for the first time in a decade.

Hellberg has a tattoo on his chest of the Allsvenskan trophy with a blank date beneath it, which he vowed to one day fill in. But things change quickly in football, especially in the modern data era, when players and coaches are uncovered who might have gone unnoticed in previous generations. Everybody on Teesside knows the name Kim Hellberg now, and soon the Premier League might know him too.

Which players caught the eye in an action-packed weekend?

A thrilling weekend of Six Nations action shook up the championship chase as Ireland and Scotland bounced back with victories.

Things were far from straightforward for Andy Farrell’s side in Dublin but they emerged with a vital victory, despite another strong showing from an Italy side most definitely on the up.

In Edinburgh, meanwhile, Scotland again raised their game for the Calcutta Cup, playing an error-prone England off the park to snap the visitors’ 12-match winning run.

It leaves France looking ever stronger in their position as tournament favourites, particularly after producing a predictably sizeable scoreline against Wales in Cardiff on Sunday.

Which players impressed in round two? Here are The Independent’s picks for our Six Nations team of the week:

Loosehead prop: Danilo Fischetti/Mirco Spagnolo, Italy

It was a strange scrummaging weekend, with the top of the props tending to come from the losing side. Much like Ireland, we can’t split Fischetti and Spagnolo for what they provided as a one-two punch on the loosehead for Italy - it’s tough to recall Tadhg Furlong ever being folded in the manner he was, while Fischetti was his usual busy self in the loose.

Hooker: Julien Marchand, France

A maul score capped a complete performance from Marchand, so comfortable slotting in as a ball-handler in France’s free-wheeling attack. The hooker was taken off early with his, and France’s, job very much done.

Tighthead prop: Simone Ferrari, Italy

Perhaps no player has been better across the first two rounds of the tournament than Ferrari. The Italy tighthead again led a statement scrummaging performance as Ireland were bent and buckled this way and that, while also landing two colossal hits on Garry Ringrose and Dan Sheehan in the first half.

Lock: Gregor Brown, Scotland

A coming force in the back five of the Scottish pack, the selection of Brown ahead of Grant Gilchrist for the Calcutta Cup perhaps suggested a changing of the guard in the engine room. Brown was tireless and titanic at Murrayfield, all while dealing with a stinger.

Lock: Charles Ollivon, France

17 tackles, eight carries and plenty more fun touches from Ollivon, who adds such dynamism to the back five of the French pack and went the full 80 minutes. To have Emmanuel Meafou and Thibaud Flament as a bench locking duo, as France do, is a tiny bit frightening.

Blindside flanker: Oscar Jegou, France

Forgive a little bit of positional quirkiness here, but we are taking after the French and using a more flexible approach on the flanker to squeeze in the continuously impressive Jegou. Just 22, he now looks a fixture

Openside flanker: Rory Darge, Scotland

Scotland’s top tackler, Darge also bedevilled England on the floor with the hosts much better at the breakdown throughout. Manuel Zuliani runs him close after another very good outing for Italy.

No 8: Ben Earl, England

Positives were relatively few and far between for England after their Murrayfield horror show, though the scrum and Earl emerged in credit. The No 8 had to shoulder a mighty carrying burden for his side, as always, yet made metres almost every time.

Scrum half: Antoine Dupont, France

There were excellent showings from Ben White and Jamison Gibson-Park for Scotland and Ireland respectively, yet Dupont remains a level above. It was his moment of daring, devilry and dexterity down the blindside that got France going in Cardiff, and there were plenty more delightful touches, too.

Fly half: Finn Russell, Scotland

How wonderful it was to see Russell back to his illustrative, instinctive best. It felt like the fly half had been short of a bit of form and flow for Bath in recent months, but England were torn to shreds by his broad range of skills as carrier, kicker and passer.

Left wing: James Lowe, Ireland

Louis Bielle-Biarrey was once again superb but let’s give the nod on the left wing to James Lowe after something of a statement showing. Left out in Paris, Lowe showed his enduring class with a strong all-round performance, even if his top-end speed is starting to go.

Inside centre: Stuart McCloskey, Ireland

It felt like McCloskey was keeping Ireland in their game with Italy almost single-handedly at times. The centre matched a few trademark tonks on the carry with subtler skills, a delicate backdoor offload setting up a first-half score before an unorthodox quarterback toss to Robert Balocoune teed up a telling try.

Outside centre: Huw Jones, Scotland

It is now eight tries in the Calcutta Cup for Jones, England’s scourge for so long and sterling again. He pips Tommaso Menoncello to the post – even in the absence of regular running mate Juan Ignacio Brex, the Italian centre showed just what a force he has become.Eddie James showed promise, too.

Right wing: Kyle Steyn, Scotland

Scotland’s supreme air traffic controller was close to faultless under the high ball, providing the platforms from which his side could play. It helped, of course, that England were short of a winger for 30 of the first 50 minutes, yet one could argue that was down to Steyn’s superiority over Henry Arundell, too.

Full-back: Thomas Ramos, France

Jamie Osborne can consider himself unfortunate but the manner in which France’s playmaking spine orchestrated their all-singing, all-dancing performance was lovely to watch. The growing understanding between Ramos, Dupont and Matthieu Jalibert will worry their rivals - there were 14 offloads between the trio, too, in a sign of the threats they pose.