Middlesbrough latest as Kim Hellberg opens up on Tommy Conway role - 'Very central'

Middlesbrough have reached the absolute crunch point of their season as they prepare to face promotion rivals Ipswich Town on Sunday.

Boro head to Portman Road in terrible form, with their miserable 1-0 defeat at home to relegation-battling Portsmouth last week leaving them fifth in the table and winless in six matches at the worst possible time. Now, they must dust themselves off against the Tractor Boys, who sit second and three points ahead of Kim Hellberg’s side, with a game in hand - though they also suffered defeat to Portsmouth on Tuesday evening.

So, as that promotion six-pointer approaches, let’s take a look at the latest headlines around the Riverside Stadium.

Kim Hellberg opens up on Tommy Conway role

The lack of a reliable goalscorer has definitely hindered Boro this season, especially when you consider how dominant they’ve been in recent games compared to the results they’ve managed. That’s reflected in the fact that Morgan Whittaker is their only player to register double-figure Championship goals (11), while central striker Tommy Conway is next on just nine.

Of course, Conway’s role for the Teessiders has been a little more complicated than meets the eye. According to Transfermarkt, the Scottish forward has started eight Championship matches in wing or attacking midfield positions this campaign, while he has very often switched to the flanks during the match, depending on what Hellberg needs.

Conway hasn’t scored an open-play goal since the 2-1 win over Sheffield United on 9th February, netting two penalties in the time since. However, Hellberg is still happy with the role the 23-year-old is playing within the squad - which he’s performed well enough to earn a recent recall to the Scotland national team as the World Cup approaches.

“I think he was very central in many of the aspects of the game, and that was the plan," Hellberg said after the defeat to Portsmouth. "And then he ended up wide a little bit later in the game. I see him being able to do a lot of different things. "He's had some very good games when he's played wide, he's done some very good play when he's played central. So he can do both, and is comfortable in doing both.”

Aitor Karanka reflects on Boro spell

Should Hellberg help his players recover from their recent slump and achieve promotion - whether automatically or via the play-offs - he’ll become the first Boro boss to guide the club into the Premier League since Aitor Karanka back in 2016. So much has changed for the club since then, while Karanka himself endured a tough managerial run after leaving the Riverside, with unsuccessful spells at Nottingham Forest, Birmingham City, Granada and Maccabi Tel Aviv.

Despite his struggles adapting Boro to the Premier League, Karanka can still look back on his time on Teesside with a level of fondness.

"Whenever I hear about Middlesbrough, I remember it as both the best and worst experience of my coaching career,” Karanka said recently. “I had owners with whom I still maintain a good relationship, and Peter Kenyon as an advisor, a true master of world football. “On the other hand, I knew that it would be impossible to find anything similar as a manager afterward. It was a spectacular experience.”

Karanka’s role at the Riverside was his first as a head coach, with the former Spain international previously serving as La Roja’s U16 manager and as an assistant to Jose Mourinho at Real Madrid - who he represented 149 times as a player, winning one La Liga and three Champions League titles.

“It shaped me in every way. During that time, I had experiences I’d never had before. There was so much talk in those El Clásicos,” Karanka said of his time at the Bernabeu. “Three years after leaving Jose, I went to England on my own, another experience. I didn’t speak the language as fluently as I do now, and it was a league I didn’t know. I was the first foreign manager of Middlesbrough.”

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