DANISH forward Viktor Fischer has offered an insight into life on the Middlesbrough training ground by stating head coach Aitor Karanka has a fantastic relationship with his players.

Karanka will celebrate the third anniversary of taking over at the Riverside Stadium on Sunday and during that time he has turned them from a poorly performing Championship side and into a Premier League team once again.

The former Real Madrid No 2 has been backed significantly by chairman Steve Gibson – who received an OBE for services to the community on Friday – and he is now attempting to turn Boro into a top-flight force again.

Karanka’s reign has not been free of problems with his players; he is known to have bust-ups with a number of them although many of which have since moved on.

Only last season his relationship with the players became strained when the pressures of the promotion battle took their toll and he stormed out of a team meeting at Rockliffe Park ahead of a trip to Charlton.

But Fischer, one of a number of summer recruits ahead of a first season in the Premier League since 2009, feels Karanka has a great relationship and understanding with the men he is sending out to play every week.

"He is a very, very good tactician," said Karanka. “He is adept at looking at what is best for when we turn to face any given opponent. He is a strong manager and a strong personality. He is close to the players and I also feel that I have a really, really good relationship with him.”

Fischer has only started two games so far since his £3.8m move from Ajax and the rest of his outings have had to come from the bench in the Premier League.

He was a second half substitute at Manchester City last weekend when he was on the Etihad Stadium pitch as Marten de Roon headed in the late equaliser to secure a point to keep Middlesbrough clear of the bottom three.

But he is fully appreciative of the system and methods Karanka has in place, claiming there is no player more important than anyone else in the Middlesbrough dressing room under him.

“There is almost no-one with us who has free roles," said Fischer. “We must be able to count on each other in the defensive part of the game. It was very different in Ajax because we were used to having the ball all the time, whereas here we have it in periods. So the defensive part forms a large part of our game, but in a good way."

But Fischer, who has played seven times so far and is on international duty with Denmark, is gaining in confidence in England after taking time to adapt to the pace and power of the game.

He told Danish newspaper Bold: “I'm starting to get used to the pace, and I'm doing the best I can every day on the training ground. When I come off the bench, I come in with a lot of energy. I have great confidence that it will be good in the long term.”

Fischer, 22, made the move from the Eredivisie during the summer and Middlesbrough continue to monitor that market ahead of January’s transfer window.

Middlesbrough have been keeping an eye on a number of potential targets and it has emerged PSV Eindhoven’s teenage forward Sam Lammers is one of those on the radar.

Lammers, 19, has scored ten goals in 23 appearances for the PSV Under-19s and that has earned him call-ups for the Netherlands Under-20s where he has also scored ten times in 14 outings.