Karanka: Preparation is the key to Middlesbrough form

More so than the millions in extra revenue every year, Aitor Karanka is grateful for the blessing of time that the Premier League has dished up since Middlesbrough’s promotion last term.

The 43-year-old Boro boss insists the lack of midweek fixtures means he and his coaching team can work just as hard whilst in front of laptops and TV screens reviewing footage as his players do on the training ground.

Middlesbrough’s return to the top flight so far has been impressive, and while they only have two Premier League wins to their name, they have notched up five draws – including valuable away points at Arsenal, Manchester City, and West Ham.

And Karanka is putting that kind of success to the preparation he has been able to do having made a step up behind the scenes.

“It means the players can go to the pitch on a Saturday knowing the opposition team player by player,” he said.

“We have improved a lot, but we needed to. We have added players who are used to these types of things so you have to be able to offer them the same here.

“We now have more programmes and we also have more time so we can analyse much more than we could last season.

“We can spend longer looking at the opponents and looking at our own games. Our analysis, and everything else, during the week is now much better.

“We have meetings every week to prepare the training sessions, to speak about opponents, to speak about and assess the last performance.

“If I want my players to play like a team, then I have to be a team.”