Hellberg explains Middlesbrough absence in cup win
· Yahoo Sports
Middlesbrough boss Kim Hellberg has explained the absence of Aidan Morris, after his side started the season with a victory.
Boro defeated fellow Championship side Wrexham 1-0 in the first round of the Carabao Cup. The only goal of the game came from summer signing Will Lankshear on his competitive debut.
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However, there was cause for concern at the Riverside, as Morris missed the game through injury.
“Aidan being out is not a long-term thing,” explained Hellberg. “He will train next week, but there was no chance to play this game.
“It was not worth the risk to play this game. He’s coming back, and of course we know how important he is for us.”
With a number of key men still sidelined, Hellberg was forced to move various players from their more natural positions. He played full-backs Luke Ayling and Neto Borges in a centre-back pairing, and made multiple more adjustments.
The Swedish coach continued: “But it was good in many ways when you get this game where Neto (Borges) also played as a centre-back.
“Max (Arfsten) playing his first game after only arriving on Tuesday. Seb (Berhalter) had to be the in-between centre-midfielder, moving up a little bit.
“Adi (Malanda) had to play a bit of a different role. He does that very well and is a different profile to our other options there, with Aidan missing.
“So it was a lot of new players having to play different roles also in the game. That’s what I was very happy with, how good we could look in terms of the structure.”
The Boro boss added: “We had a lot of new players, a lot of players maybe having to move around a little bit because we have a lot of players coming back from injury, and a lot of new players coming in.
“So I’m very pleased that we look the way we want to look in terms of our profile, how we want to look in terms of the game. I think, from my point of view, we controlled it.”