After a dozen matches played so far, Middlesbrough sit fourth in the Championship.

The league is currently paused for a two-week international break which is already halfway through, allowing Tony Pulis to take stock of the summer and the first quarter of the new campaign.

Boro fell at the semi-final hurdle of the play-off last year and will be looking to improve this term and make it back to the Premier League.

Mistakes have been made during the summer since their post-season failure, and they will need to be rectified of the club have any chance of being promoted this season.

Having the luxury of the international break, Pulis will be able to mull over Boro’s current plight and look at what needs to improve going forward if they are to maintain their decent run of form at present. 

With that said, here are three mistakes Pulis cannot afford to repeat at Middlesbrough.

The Adama Traore saga went on for the majority of the summer, and with the winger leaving late on, there were no plans in place to pick up a replacement.

Tony Pulis tired and failed late on to bring in a direct replacement for the wide man who headed to the Premier League with Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Any vital player that leaves in the future will need to have a replacement lined up before leaving themselves short.

It is a mistake that Pulis must learn from heading into the January transfer window.

Middlesbrough are hard to beat and are very organised, but that will only get them so far.

Goals deserted them last year towards the end of the campaign and even this year - they have scored the least amount of goals than any side in the top six.

A more attacking style of play will need to be adopted when games are tight.

As good as they look defensively, they lack spark in their attack at times as their tactics do not allow for that too often.

In the play-offs last year they failed to score over two legs - that is a damming indictment of their regressive, defensive style of play.

Tony Pulis will need to learn from this and make sure it is not repeated this term, especially when the couch games arrive.

In the past, Middlesbrough have been frivolous with their finances.

Under Garry Monk, Marvin Johnson and Ashley Fletcher were brought in for around £10million and given their CVs and careers to that date; it was an extravagant amount of money spent on players who were not guaranteed to start.

Tony Pulis will need to continue to be more prudent in the transfer market going forward to get value for money and not break the bank to try and archive the Premier League dream once more.

It is imperative the Boro boss learns from the mistakes of his predecessors.