IN the early days of his Middlesbrough tenure, Aitor Karanka used to make daily telephone calls to his managerial mentor, Jose Mourinho, to seek advice about the tactical intricacies of English football. Three years on, and you wonder if the roles have been reversed.

While Mourinho lurches from one crisis to the next at Manchester United, Karanka is quietly establishing a reputation for out-thinking the sharpest managerial minds in the Premier League. As a result, it would be no surprise if Mourinho was making regular calls to Teesside in order to pick up a few pointers from his former number two.

If not quite the ‘Special One’, Karanka can certainly claim to be the ‘Specialist One’ when it comes to taking his team to the biggest stages in the land and emerging with a positive result.

Two seasons ago, when Boro won at Manchester City in the FA Cup and drew a League Cup tie at Liverpool before losing on penalties, it could be argued that their opponents’ minds were elsewhere. Last season, when Boro won a Capital One Cup tie at Manchester United on spot-kicks, the victory was little more than a sideshow when posited against the real business of winning promotion.

This season, however, things are different. Boro have travelled to Arsenal and Manchester City in their last two away games competing as equals, and emerged from both the Emirates and the Etihad with a point.

Karanka’s tactics have been a key factor in both performances, with the Spaniard’s shift to a 4-5-1 formation, with Marten de Roon, Adam Clayton and Adam Forshaw forming a hugely-effective central-midfield trio, establishing a platform for the kind of slick counter-attacking threat that was once Mourinho’s trademark.

This is parking the bus, but with a speedy get-away car sat with its engine revving ready to race to the opposite end of the field.

If anything, Saturday’s performance against the erstwhile league leaders was even more impressive than the display at Arsenal a fortnight earlier as Boro had to modify an approach that was not really working at half-time.

Trailing to Sergio Aguero’s accomplished conversion of a Kevin de Bruyne cross, Boro would have been dead and buried had it not been for fine saves from Victor Valdes that thwarted first Aguero and then David Silva.

The Teessiders failed to record a single effort either on or off target in the first half, and whereas they were always in the game as an attacking presence at the Emirates, they did not have an out-ball in the opening 45 minutes against City, with Alvaro Negredo regularly 30 yards away from his nearest team-mate.

Cue a Karanka half-time reshuffle, with Forshaw and de Roon instructed to push ten yards further forward, Adama Traore encouraged to be more adventurous in possession and both George Friend and Antonio Barragan urged to get onto the front foot to force their opposite numbers back into the City half.

The shift in momentum was stark, and while Forshaw was denied an equaliser when Claudio Bravo kept out his right-footed shot, Boro levelled in the second minute of stoppage time when de Roon powered into the box to head home Friend’s inviting left-wing cross.

“If you are 1-0 behind at half-time then you have to do something,” said de Roon. “The coach said to us at half-time, ‘Don’t be afraid – play with confidence. You are in the Premier League – show them what you are capable of and what your game is’. I think we did that.

“We stepped out a bit more, with me, Forshaw and Clayton. We were further up the field and were able to create a bit more pressure. We took four or five balls from them, and were able to make some good counter-attacks.

“We had a good chance for Adam Forshaw, which resulted in a good save, and we were showing we could play better than we did in the first half. Maybe Forshaw’s was a chance where you would usually score, but in the end it was an amazing cross from George and I was at the right spot in the right moment to head it in.”

It could prove to be a landmark moment for de Roon, the €12m summer signing from Atalanta whose Boro career has already been blighted by two injuries.

Having damaged his hamstring on the opening day of the season, the midfielder picked up a thigh injury that kept him out of the 2-0 win over Bournemouth.

He was not expected to be back in time to face City, but was determined to force his way into the side at the Etihad, with his energetic second-half performance playing a key role in Boro’s revival. Having spent much of his time at Boro in an extremely deep-lying role, de Roon is clearly capable of being more than a defensive shield.

“I’m really pleased because if someone deserved to score a goal, it was Marten,” said Karanka. “He was really disappointed after the second injury, but he was training really hard last week to be able to play.

“He was not the kind of player who thinks, ‘It is Man City – I prefer to wait one week’. He was desperate to play.”

With the win over Bournemouth having been sandwiched by the away draws at Arsenal and Manchester City, Boro have delivered the perfect response to the home defeat to Watford that made it seven games in all competitions without a victory.

They are comfortably ensconced in the clutch of clubs packed in a congested mid-table, with their organisational discipline and defensive strength setting them apart from the majority of their rivals.

Striking the right balance between defence and attack remains an issue, especially at the Riverside, but with almost a third of the season gone, this does not look like a side that will crumble no matter who is providing the opposition.

“Everybody was a little bit down after the Watford game, and I think everyone was maybe thinking, ‘Oh no, we have lost against the teams where we have to win’,” said de Roon. “But then we went to Arsenal, and that was a really big boost because we were able to show we could compete.

“Then we had a good win against Bournemouth at home, then we went to Man City and showed once again that we can compete against anyone. That gives you a boost, especially heading into the international break, with two tough matches coming up after it. It gives the team confidence and proves we can compete and be a match for anyone.”