Middlesbrough's Kim Hellberg Prepares for Norwich Clash at Riverside

Kim Hellberg has spent enough time on the road. Now he wants the Riverside to take over.

After five away trips in six games – including a draining Carabao Cup exit at Crystal Palace in midweek, their third match in seven days – the Middlesbrough head coach sounds almost relieved to be heading back to Teesside on Saturday, where Norwich await and the stakes already feel higher than the calendar suggests.

Back to the Riverside, back to the noise

Hellberg hasn’t forgotten what this fixture can do to a stadium.

Their last league meeting on the banks of the Tees ended with Hayden Hackney’s winner and Boro briefly sharing top spot in the Championship. The closing stages that day were frantic, the noise feral, the kind of afternoon that lingers with a coach long after the final whistle.

“Norwich are a very good side. I remember that game last season, it was a brilliant atmosphere and I remember the last five minutes were absolutely crazy,” he told BBC Radio Tees. That memory is doing some of his team talk for him.

He knows this version of Norwich, shaped by Philippe Clement, is a different proposition, more resilient and more confident after clawing their way out of trouble last season and finding wins again after a shaky start to this one. But Hellberg senses something different in his own camp too.

A club hardened by last season

“After everything that happened last season, everyone has got stronger together,” he said. “Everyone has raised their level – players, supporters, coaches – everyone together to go to a higher level.”

That line matters. For Hellberg, the club’s response to the turmoil of last year is no soft-focus narrative. He sees it in the way his squad trains, in how they look after each other, and in the way the Riverside has started to feel like a force again.

“I think the atmosphere has been very good in every game we have played and I am looking forward to being back against a very good side. We need the supporters being on our side and doing everything they can to help get us over the line against a very good opposition.”

The message is clear: the tactical battle will be intense, but the emotional edge might be decided in the stands.

Respect for Clement’s Norwich

Hellberg is under no illusion about the challenge Clement’s Norwich will bring. His praise for the Belgian is unforced and specific.

“Philippe Clement has done a brilliant job, he's a very good coach, builds a strong and well-coached team,” Hellberg said. “He turned the season around for Norwich last year - they were in danger when he arrived and have built through that. He's a top coach and will give us a lot of different and difficult challenges.”

Norwich’s revival under Clement frames this as a meeting of two upward-looking sides rather than a routine early-season fixture. Hellberg expects quality as much as intensity.

“I think it is going to be a very good football game, two good teams against each other, brilliant kick-off time on a Saturday and we are looking forward to it.”

Saturday afternoon. Riverside full. Two coaches who want their sides to play. It has the feel of an early barometer.

Lankshear’s impact and a new dressing-room edge

If the collective has hardened, individuals have driven that shift, and few more so than Will Lankshear.

The 21-year-old striker missed out on the Championship Player of the Month award on Friday, but his numbers since arriving from Tottenham in the summer speak loudly enough: seven goals in eight games, an immediate focal point in Hellberg’s attack.

“I think he has done brilliantly, he's a good boy and has come into the team perfectly,” Hellberg said. “He works very hard on and off the pitch and that's the culture we are trying to create here.”

That culture piece matters as much as the goals. Hellberg talks about a “massive difference” in the group since he walked through the door – a squad that competes hard, but also protects its own.

“I have seen a massive difference in the group, how they have progressed from the first day here to how we have gone forward and take care of each other in a very good way.

“I have so many good players here who compete in a brilliant way to try and help Middlesbrough win games and Will is one of them and it helps when you score a lot of goals.”

Lankshear’s finishing sharpens Boro’s edge. The dressing-room shift gives them a spine.

Now comes the test: a resurgent Norwich, a respected rival coach, and a fanbase being asked to turn a home game into something more. The Riverside has done it before against this opposition. On Saturday, Hellberg wants to feel that surge again.