Kim Hellberg has no intention of pulling Middlesbrough back into a more cautious shape, even as the clean-sheet count stays stubbornly low. The head coach, speaking to BBC Radio Tees ahead of Friday's trip to Bolton Wanderers, insists the attacking football his side play is the very reason they sit third in the Championship after 11 games.

"You have to pick in football what you want to be and we want to be an offensive team," Hellberg said. "That's what we believe in."

The numbers make his case in one breath and complicate it in the next. Boro have scored 22 goals in those 11 league fixtures, a total only one club in the entire country has bettered. Yet they have kept just two clean sheets, and the past six matches alone have produced 25 goals, with 11 of those going against them. Back-to-back two-goal deficits against Millwall and Cardiff City, both clawed back to draws at the Riverside, illustrate the knife-edge the system operates on.

Hellberg does not dispute the arithmetic. What he disputes is the conclusion supporters might draw from it.

"We win more than we lose because of that," he said. "Over a long time we've been a team that has developed a lot. We create a lot of chances, we concede very few and from where we started, that's a massive journey."

That last phrase is worth pausing on. Hellberg has been in charge for 43 Championship matches, of which Boro have won 20. The squad he inherited was set up quite differently, and reorienting a group of players towards an aggressive, possession-based identity mid-season is not straightforward. The head coach pointed to his side's ability to control games as the clearest measure of progress: "That's taken us from where we were almost a year ago, which was almost totally different to how we played football, to being the best team in the league at controlling games."

The shot data from the Cardiff match is the starkest illustration of what "controlling games" looks like under Hellberg. Boro registered 36 attempts in that fixture alone and have had nearly twice as many shots as their opponents across the last six games. Whether the conversion and defensive structure can hold up over a Championship campaign of 46 games is the question the table will answer for itself.

For now, the position is a good one. A win at Bolton on Friday would lift Boro to the top of the table, a prospect that would have seemed optimistic at the start of the season to many observers outside the club. The head coach is not inclined to be cautious about acknowledging it.

"We're very different to a lot of teams in how we approach games, how we take them on and how brave we are," he said. "We are a little bit different."

Hellberg stopped well short of making any prediction about where the season ends, which is sensible given the Championship's habit of humbling the confident. But there is no press-release evasiveness in his position either. He has chosen a style, he is committed to it, and he is willing to stand in front of the results, good and bad, and say so plainly. After the cautious, damage-limitation football that defined parts of Teesside's recent history, that in itself is a statement of intent.

The Bolton match on Friday will be the first meaningful test of whether the system travels. Away fixtures in the second tier have a habit of exposing teams built around high shot volumes, particularly when the home side invites pressure and looks to counter. Boro's supporters will find out quickly enough whether the bravery Hellberg preaches holds up on the road as well as it does at the Riverside.

Frequently asked

Where are Middlesbrough in the Championship table?
Middlesbrough are third in the Championship after 11 games, with a win at Bolton on Friday potentially taking them to the top of the table.
How many goals have Middlesbrough scored this Championship season?
Boro have scored 22 goals in 11 Championship games, one of the highest tallies in the division, though they have kept only two clean sheets.
What is Kim Hellberg's record as Middlesbrough head coach?
Kim Hellberg has won 20 of his 43 Championship games in charge of Middlesbrough since taking over.