Marcelo Bielsa disciple Kim Hellberg preaches simple message as Middlesbrough make another statement at Sheffield United

For 2026, read 2023. The hope is that the season ultimately has a better outcome for a Boro line-up who are again winning plenty of admirers for their progressive footballing traits as they did three years ago under Michael Carrick. Can they finish the job this time?

Hackney and fellow midfielder Riley McGree - both superb on Monday - started on that evening almost three years ago.

They shouldn't need much of a pep talk between now and May, that’s for sure.

Kim Hellberg is of course now at helm. Hell-Ball has clear similarities to Carrick-Ball.

His players, as Carrick's were, are happy to take the ball in tight spots and back themselves to play their way out and their first instinct is to always pass forward. It's risky at times, but there's big rewards when it's done right.

In that aforesaid 2022-23 campaign, Carrick's Boro - who missed out on automatic promotion from the Championship and ended up in fourth place - were ultimately outwitted by Coventry City in the play-off semi-finals.

They were never quite the same again. A litany of sloppy concessions, while playing out from the back and wastefulness in front of goal pockmarked their progress for the next two seasons.

Intriguingly, the Sky Blues again form part of the narrative in 2025-26.

Boro's victory at Sheffield United on Monday night saw them leapfrog the Midlanders into pole position.

When Hellberg took over after Coventry's 4-2 win on Teesside on November 25, they were 10 points adrift of them.

Now they are two points in front, heading into the reverse fixture at the CBS Arena next Monday.

The game's importance should speak for itself for a Boro side who must also travel to another direct rival Ipswich Town in late-season.

For his part, Hellberg - as is his wont - is focusing on matters which are just as important to him before then, if not more so.

Namely, his players getting better in training. After Monday’s win, he spoke of a session being off-the-scale last week in terms of quality. Play as you train and all that and the word is that Hellberg’s demands are sky high and his approach is ultra-intense.

A bit of a nod to one of his big inspirations, namely Marcelo Bielsa, perhaps.

Speaking after Boro’s sixth win in a row, Hellberg said: "I think the whole group is an unbelievable group, how they train every day.

"We had an unbelievable session, I think it was Thursday, where we played 11 against 11, that was unbelievable in terms of intensity and how they play and how they challenge themselves, and I think we brought that into the game.

"The important thing is to try to get better. That's the key thing, we talk about that all day, it doesn't matter if we win, lose or draw, that's the thing, that's the aim. We'll try to get better, we talked about that after the (Sheffield United) game.

"They don't give out any promotions or anything now, or places or something like that.

"We have 15 games left - a lot of games left - but of course we're in a good spot and I'm happy for that, but we will need to get better, train better and keep going."

Hellberg laughed when informed that one of his game stars in McGree spoke about Boro’s ‘controlled chaos’ during a beguiling first-half spell when their midfield quartet of himself, Hackney, Aidan Morris and Alan Browne seemed to pop up all over the place.

Some of rotations were eye-catching, while at the back, the evergreen Luke Ayling and a player rapidly making a name for himself in Adilson Malanda showed their progressive traits on the ball and started off several attacks.

Ayling began the sumptuous move which resulted in the opener.

On Ayling, who has played right-back and a centre-half in a three and a two under Hellberg so far, the Swede added: "I watched him a lot in Leeds, of course, and he was flying forward on the right side. But as a centre-back now, in a challenging way of playing centre-back - often in a two, sometimes three, but often a two - and with a lot of big space behind you all the time.

"I think he's absolutely brilliant in reading the game and has good covering depth by being clever.

"He is good in duels and absolutely brilliant on the ball. He's still improving." Boro still need to improve in the eyes of Hellberg, then and for all his smiles and affability, here is a deadly serious and driven young coach. There remains work to do at their Rockliffe training base and it explains why Hellberg is not fixated with the league standings. Very wise.