Kim Hellberg Calls for Noise and Energy at Riverside

Kim Hellberg can finally breathe home air again.

After five away trips in six games and a draining Carabao Cup exit at Crystal Palace in midweek, the Middlesbrough head coach returns to the Riverside on Saturday demanding noise, energy and edge as Norwich come to town.

He knows what this stadium can do when it crackles.

Back to the Riverside, back to the noise

The last time Norwich visited Teesside, Hayden Hackney’s strike sent Boro joint top of the Championship and turned the closing stages into chaos. Hellberg hasn’t forgotten.

“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 driving him now. The schedule has been brutal, the travel relentless, but the Swede sees Saturday as a chance to reset on home ground against a Norwich side who have quietly steadied themselves after a shaky start.

“Norwich are a very good side,” he said, fully aware that Philippe Clement’s team will not arrive as passive guests. “It will be a very tough game but the atmosphere in all our home games has been very good.”

The message is clear: if Boro are to push past a well-drilled opponent, the Riverside has to feel like it did that night against Norwich. Maybe louder.

A club hardened by last season

Hellberg keeps returning to one theme – what the club went through last season, and what it did to them.

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

That line is not empty dressing-room rhetoric. He talks about culture as much as tactics, about a group that has learned to look after one another and respond to pressure rather than shrink from it.

“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.”

This is not a gentle plea. It’s a call to arms.

Respect for Clement’s Norwich

Hellberg’s admiration for Philippe Clement is unforced and specific. Norwich were drifting towards trouble when Clement walked in; they are now pointed firmly upwards.

“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.”

That’s the contest he sees: two detailed, possession-minded coaches, two teams that want the ball, both with something to prove as the season beds in.

“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.”

No talk of damage limitation. No nod to fatigue. Just an insistence that this, in front of their own people, is the kind of occasion Middlesbrough should relish.

Lankshear’s impact goes beyond the goals

Up front, Hellberg has found a new focal point. Will Lankshear missed out on the Championship Player of the Month award on Friday, but seven goals in eight games since his summer move from Tottenham tell their own story.

For his head coach, the numbers are only half of it.

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

Lankshear has dropped into a dressing room that Hellberg insists has changed markedly since he walked through the door.

“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.”

Competition, goals, a maturing core and a home crowd ready to be stirred again: the ingredients are there. Now it’s over to the Riverside to decide how loud this next chapter sounds.