Kim Hellberg has no intention of pulling Middlesbrough back from their high-octane attacking style, insisting that the philosophy wins more games than it costs them, even as the goals continue to fly in at both ends of the pitch at the Riverside.

Boro sit third after eleven games

Middlesbrough head into the Bolton Wanderers fixture on Friday night sitting third in the Championship table after eleven matches, with a real chance of going top if they take all three points. Their tally of 22 goals scored is bettered by only one other club in the division, a figure that reflects how consistently Hellberg's side have taken the game to opponents this season.

The clean sheet record tells a different story, though. Boro have kept just two in the league so far, and a run of six consecutive matches has produced 25 goals in total, with Middlesbrough accounting for 14 of them and the opposition 11. On two occasions, against Millwall and Cardiff City, they were forced to come from two goals down to earn draws at home. Those dropped points are the price the club is currently paying for its open style.

Hellberg unapologetic about his approach

The Swedish head coach addressed the tension directly when speaking to BBC Radio Tees. "You have to pick in football what you want to be and we want to be an offensive team," he said. "That's what we believe in."

He drew a direct line from the club's recent development to the decision to commit fully to an attacking identity. "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," he added. The language is press-release confident, but the underlying numbers do offer some support: in those six recent matches, Middlesbrough have registered nearly twice as many shots as their opponents, including a striking total of 36 attempts against Cardiff alone.

Hellberg is clear that such figures are not an accident. "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 win more than we lose because of that."

The trade-off in the table

The honest question for supporters watching those late equalisers disappear past the Boro keeper is whether the style is yet sustainable across a full Championship season. The division has a habit of punishing teams who concede soft goals in the middle third of the campaign, when fixture congestion and injuries start to bite.

Hellberg's case is that the attacking output is structural, not accidental. With 43 games played under his management in the Championship, Boro have won 20 of them, a return that supports the broad claim that the football is working. The debate is whether those figures hold when opponents increasingly prepare for the approach rather than being caught off guard by it.

For now, the squad and the Teesside fanbase appear to be behind the direction of travel. The question of clean sheets, and whether two in eleven games is a tactical quirk or a structural problem, is one that the autumn fixture list will start to answer. Friday's trip to Bolton is as good a place as any to begin finding out.

Frequently asked

Where are Middlesbrough in the Championship table?
Middlesbrough are third in the Championship after 11 games and could move to the top of the table with a win at Bolton Wanderers on Friday.
How many goals has Middlesbrough scored this Championship season?
Middlesbrough have scored 22 Championship goals so far this season, one of the highest tallies in the division.
Who is the Middlesbrough head coach?
Kim Hellberg is the Middlesbrough head coach. The Swede has been in charge for 43 Championship games, winning 20 of them.