{"id":289187,"date":"2025-11-29T05:33:35","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T05:33:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/289187\/"},"modified":"2025-11-29T05:33:35","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T05:33:35","slug":"middlesbrough-predicted-team-vs-derby-county-as-kim-hellberg-makes-his-first-picks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/289187\/","title":{"rendered":"Middlesbrough predicted team vs Derby County as Kim Hellberg makes his first picks"},"content":{"rendered":"

How we think Middlesbrough might line up against Derby County\"MiddlesbroughMiddlesbrough head coach Kim Hellberg takes his first training session(Image: Middlesbrough FC)<\/p>\n

Kim Hellberg will name his first Middlesbrough starting lineup on Saturday afternoon, and there will be much interest in who gets the nod and who misses out.<\/p>\n

With only two training sessions with his new players ahead of the Derby County game, Hellberg <\/a>is likely to lean heavily on Adi Viveash for advice. He\u2019s also done his own preparation on the squad before his arrival too.<\/p>\n

How much will he change? That will be an intriguing answered question on Saturday, with everyone looking for clues to how a Hellberg Boro <\/a>team will look like, and who his early favourites are. Here\u2019s how we predict he\u2019ll line Boro up.<\/p>\n

GK – Sol Brynn – Not at his best in midweek against Coventry City, though, in his defence, the Sky Blues were typically ruthless in their finishing. Brynn is still comfortably first-choice keeper.<\/p>\n

RB – Callum Brittain – Another positive performance from Brittain against Coventry, albeit from the wing-back position. We\u2019re predicting Hellberg goes 4-3-3 in this one, but his ultra-attacking style should allow for Brittain to get forward anyway.<\/p>\n

CB – Luke Ayling – A back four for Boro makes sense because of their defensive injury crisis and the unlikelihood that any of their current absent stars are back for Derby. Ayling, to his credit has handled both centre-back roles.<\/p>\n

CB – Alfie Jones – Not his most comfortable evening against Coventry City. But his Championship know-how is making him an invaluable player to Boro this season.<\/p>\n

LB – Matt Targett – It appears that Targett thankfully overcame his calf problem at Oxford. Though he wasn\u2019t able to start the game, he completed 45 minutes of action. Will be a boost if he runs off his previous problem to play in this one, amid Boro\u2019s defensive injury crisis.<\/p>\n

DM – Alan Browne – It says so much about Alan Browne\u2019s impact on Teesside that both Rob Edwards and Adi Viveash tweaked formation in order to get Browne into the side. He\u2019s more than justifies those calls in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

CM – Hayden Hackney – Hackney has looked classy for Boro in their last two games and Hellberg will no doubt be keen to see continue his form in a similar vein.<\/p>\n

CM – Riley McGree – A harsh decision on Aidan Morris, but one borne out of the USA international\u2019s injury in midweek that forced him off at half-time.Instead, McGree can drop deeper alongside Hackney – the role he was in when he first signed for the club.<\/p>\n

RW – Morgan Whittaker – While Whittaker, it;s fair to say, still isn\u2019t hitting his very best levels overall in a Boro shirt, at a time when Boro\u2019s attack is struggling for much end product, Whittaker is certainly achieving that. Hellberg will no doubt hope to lean on that.<\/p>\n

LW – Sontje Hansen – Hellberg likes fast, aggressive attacking, which could make Hansen a hit. The summer signing took his opportunity from the bench on Tuesday evening, with the new boss watching on. He was really impactful in one of his best Boro performances to date, and therefore a start makes sense.<\/p>\n

ST – Tommy Conway – One of Hellberg\u2019s first Boro selection dilemmas surrounds Conway and whether or not to keep the out-of-form striker in the side this weekend. Hellberg leapt to Conway\u2019s defence in his first press conference, while a lack of a credible alternative right now makes a Conway start feel like the right call.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How we think Middlesbrough might line up against Derby CountyMiddlesbrough head coach Kim Hellberg takes his first training…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289188,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[218,115898,22145,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-289187","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-kim-hellberg","10":"tag-middlesbrough-fc","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}