Kim Hellberg has been open in his admiration for his Middlesbrough players after they made the kind of start to the Championship season that few would have predicted given the upheaval of the summer.

Boro sit second in the second tier after nine league games, winning eight and losing just one. Saturday's 1-0 victory over Wolves extended a run that has already included matches against five of the current top nine, which gives the table some weight even at this early stage of the campaign.

A squad rebuilt from scratch

The scale of change at the Riverside this summer was considerable. Twelve players arrived, with Will Lankshear leading the line and currently sharing the title of the Championship's joint top scorer. But the exits were just as significant. Hayden Hackney, Dael Fry and Morgan Whittaker all departed, removing a substantial chunk of experience and identity from the group.

"With everything that's gone on, what happened last season, all the rotation in the squad, it's been an unbelievably strong start from the players," Hellberg told BBC Radio Tees. "For that, they deserve a lot of credit."

The word "rotation" carries real meaning here. Last season Boro came within reach of automatic promotion before finishing in the play-offs, where they were eliminated in circumstances that became widely referred to as the Spygate affair. That episode left a residue of frustration heading into the summer, and the club then had to manage the loss of several first-team regulars on top of it. Hellberg's language, measured and direct rather than promotional, suggests he is well aware that bedding 12 new players into a squad is not a trivial exercise.

Eyes on the process, not the position

The head coach was careful not to over-interpret Boro's league position. "The table is not that important but you look at the teams we've played and how they've started," he said. "We've played a lot of teams who've started the season and we've performed in a very good way with a lot of players. That's the main thing."

That kind of deliberate restraint is worth noting. Managers who talk up the table in October have a habit of looking foolish in February. Hellberg appears more interested in squad depth and collective improvement than headline numbers, adding: "My job is to keep working hard to get them better as we'll need them all through the season."

It is a sensible position. With 12 new faces to integrate, form in the opening weeks tells you something about organisation and attitude but very little about resilience through the winter months, when injuries, suspensions and fixture congestion test squads far more severely.

Stoke next as the standard is tested again

The immediate challenge comes on Tuesday evening, when Boro travel to face Stoke City, who have won five and drawn one of their last six games and represent arguably the division's form side at the moment. It is another stern examination of whether this early-season momentum is built on something durable.

Hellberg acknowledged directly that Stoke would "challenge" his side, though he framed that as opportunity rather than threat. For a team that has already faced and largely coped with some of the division's better starters, Tuesday night's away fixture is the kind of test that will tell supporters whether second place reflects genuine quality or a fortunate run of circumstances.

For now, Hellberg's assessment rings true. Rebuilding a squad so thoroughly and still finding yourself near the top of the Championship after nine games is not a routine achievement. Whether the foundations hold across a 46-game season is the question that matters, and one nobody can answer yet.

Frequently asked

Where are Middlesbrough in the Championship table?
Middlesbrough are currently second in the Championship after nine league games, having lost just once in that opening run.
Who is Middlesbrough's top scorer this season?
Will Lankshear is Middlesbrough's leading scorer and is among the Championship's joint top scorers after the first nine games of the season.
Who did Middlesbrough sell in the summer?
Middlesbrough lost Hayden Hackney, Dael Fry and Morgan Whittaker among others during the summer, while bringing in 12 new players to reshape the squad.