Middlesbrough boss Chris Wilder has claimed to Teesside Live that the work that the club do in the January transfer window will help them to greatly improve. 

The former Sheffield United boss recently took on the job at the Riverside Stadium that was vacated by Neil Warnock and has since recorded one draw and one defeat in his opening two games in charge against Millwall and Preston North End respectively.

As a result of this, Boro now sit in 15th place, with the North East side having plenty of ground to make up over the coming months if they want to be in and around the play-offs come May of next year.

Now Wilder has claimed that the winter window could be his side's saving grace, as he stated the following:

"The work that we'll do in January from a recruitment point of view, the work we'll do on the training ground, we'll improve, but it's the here and now as well and we should be sat on six points and we're not."

Middlesbrough recruited pretty heavily during the summer under Warnock, so it will be interesting to see what business they get done in the new year.

Meanwhile the North East outfit are back in Sky Bet Championship action this weekend as they travel to the John Smith's Stadium to take on Huddersfield Town on Saturday.

The Verdict

Wilder will certainly have players in mind that he will look to bring in during the January window as it is clear that the team needs some maintenance in order to live up to his standards.

There are a lot of talented individuals within this Boro squad, however they need to learn to function better as a collective if Wilder is to lead them to some form of success.

His Sheffield United teams were based around togetherness and getting the best out of each other as a collective and that is something he will want to repeat at the Riverside Stadium.

It will certainly be one of the most intriguing transfer windows for a while at the North East club.