Middlesbrough boss Aitor Karanka has overseen a extraordinary recovery on Teesside over the last couple of seasons, leading them to a promotion hungry team.
Boro had the best defence in the Sky Bet Championship last season, and this helped them lay the foundations of a palpable promotion challenge, although they ended up finishing agonisingly short of the automatic promotion places.
Nevertheless, they went into the play-offs full of confidence but, despite a comprehensive victory in the semi final against Brentford, they were completely outclassed in the final against a resurgent Norwich City.
But Middlesbrough have come back strong this season and sit just one point off the top going into their big top-of-the-table clash with Hull City at the weekend.
Karanka has been able to keep their imperious defence together with centre backs Ben Gibson and Daniel Ayala two of the best defenders outside of the Premier League. Left Back George Friend is also regarded as one of the top left-backs in the division, while right-backs Tomas Kalas and Emilio Nsue have shown rapid improvement from last season.
Grant Leadbitter and Adam Clayton are also industrious in the middle of the park and are vital to Middlesbrough's success. Karanka also has a wealth of attacking options at his disposal, including new additions from over the summer such as Diego Fabbrini, Stewart Downing, David Nugent, Carlos De Pena and Christian Stuani.
Middlesbrough will undoubtedly be up there at the end of the season, but which players in their squad are actually over-rated? FootballLeagueWorld writer Michael Hasan takes a look at the Boro squad and finds who he thinks are the most over-rated players at the Teesside club.
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PRESS THE IMAGE BELOW TO SEE THE 5 MOST OVERRATED PLAYERS!
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Albert Adomah
The Ghanaian winger was Middlesbrough's best and most consistent player during the reign of Tony Mowbray.
He was often the shining beacon of hope for Middlesbrough in the bleak times for the club, like in there 3-2 defeat against Barnsley which saw Mowbray sacked despite Adomah scoring two quick fire goals near the end.
With Karanka has come a promotion push and a squad swimming with quality and Adomah is no longer the stand out player. Whilst he is a regular starter, his performances were criticised last season for being inconsistent and sometimes it seemed that he wasn't fully invested in it or overly bothered.
After handing in a transfer request in the summer, he was unsurprisingly criticised by fans, but after failing to force through a move, he has slowly worked his way back into the side with a few impressive performances, notably against Wolverhampton Wanderers and Brentford.
His recent poor shows against Rotherham United and Fulham do bring about questions about his work rate and inconsistency though for a winger capable of being one of the very best in this league on his day.
Adam Reach
The winger was a regular starter for Middlesbrough at the start of last season and showed some great form by scoring goals against Fulham and Liverpool.
But his form seriously dropped after Christmas, and he was widely criticised by fans for not being good enough.
He lacked the ability to go past defenders or get quality crosses into the box, which saw him eventually dropped for Lee Tomlin.
He did start decently this season with a well taken goal in a 3-1 triumph over Sheffield Wednesday, but was sent on loan to Preston North End after some strong competition consigned him to the bench.
He should get first team football at Deepdale, and if he recaptures form at Preston, he may have a future at the Riverside yet.
Fernando Amorebieta
The defender joined on loan from Fulham last year to give Middlesbrough some defensive cover, and endured a fairly average tenure but was reliable when called upon.
But he endeared himself to Middlesbrough fans when he scored a superb winner at Griffin Park in the first leg of the Championship Play-offs last season. He was signed on a permanent deal for this season and will mainly play second fiddle to Gibson and Ayala, but was called upon early in the season due to Gibson's poor form. But he has now dropped back down to the bench due to Gibson regaining form.
Whilst he has been usually reliable he does make a number of mistakes, like his poor showing against Reading and his mistake against Rotherham, when he misplaced a pass to Jordan Bowery who nearly snatched a late point at the Riverside.
It could be said he would of never been signed without that late goal against Brentford.
Stewart Downing
Don't get me wrong, Downing is a player of undoubted Premier League class.
He was Middlesbrough's marquee signing, and has just recently found form with goals against Wolves and Rotherham, as well as an excellent display against Manchester United in the Capital One Cup.
His performances will be massive to decide whether Middlesbrough will go up or not, so it must be said that his early performances for Middlesbrough were disappointing.
He struggled to adapt to the Championship from the Premier League, and only scored once in his first ten league games. He was dropped for the Wolves game but came on at half time and inspired the team to victory, suggesting that he might be about to turn his form around.
At the moment though, he is not quite living up to his billing.
Kike
The Middlesbrough striker made a fast start to his Boro career last season with goals in his first game against Birmingham City and the very next game against Bolton Wanderers.
However, he struggled to maintain this kind of form throughout the season and was eventually dropped for the resurgent Patrick Bamford, but still scored memorable goals against Brentford in the play-offs, and Manchester City in the FA Cup.
After Bamford's departure, Kike took centre stage, and in pre-season he was in red hot form. Yet he has struggled to carry this into this season with just the two goals, both against Bolton.
He has dropped to the bench with both Nugent and Stuani preferred and he will have to find some form if one of these strikers get injured.
Middlesbrough fans... do you agree with these players? Or do you not have any overrated players? If you do, who are they? Let us know your thoughts and opinions in the comments below!