TONY PULIS has provided an insight to some of the changes he has overseen at Middlesbrough in a bid to take the club forward – claiming everyone is more united than when he took over.

Pulis will not celebrate his first anniversary as Boro boss until late December and over the course of the last ten months he has gone about tweaking a few operational things.

Saturday’s 2-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest at the Riverside Stadium suggests there is still work to be done on the pitch to develop a promotion-winning side, but the Middlesbrough manager believes there is more to his job than results on the pitch.

“You need everybody together and doing the right things, and if they’re not happy, you’ve got to sort it out. You’ve got to make sure it’s done in the right way. Let’s be fair, we will fluctuate. We’ll go up and down,” said Pulis.

“We’re not that good to go through a season continuing doing what we’re doing. You’re going to go up and down, so you need everybody to understand that.

“There are going to be sometimes where it’s going to be tough. As long as you’ve got everybody pulling in the right direction, hopefully you’ll pull through that.”

Boro dropped down to fourth after losing to Forest and now sit three points shy of leaders Sheffield United. Blackburn in ninth are only four points behind Pulis’ side as they head into the international break.

These couple of weeks will allow Pulis to tweak a few other things behind the scenes if he feels it is required, or at least discuss it with chairman Steve Gibson, chief executive Neil Bausor or head of recruitment operations Adrian Bevington.

Plenty has already happened for Pulis to make the improvements he felt were required during the summer but he will always be looking at ways to change if he feels it can make the club better.

Pulis said: “If you speak to people at the club, everybody is together now. Everybody, from the young lads all the way through. It’s much closer-knit as a football club. The academy is closer to us, the medical side are closer to us, everybody is closer together.

“The relationship with the board feeds into that too. That relationship is stronger, and we’re doing it together. This is not about the 11 on the pitch, it’s about the club being a club.

“I think we’ve shown that by bringing the kids in, and having them play in the early rounds of the Carabao Cup.

“We’ve done it with the medical people, getting them involved in certain things and allowing them to have an input. It’s important you do that, but then it’s also important you take on board what they tell you, and that they also take on board what I want to do. It’s breaking barriers down.

“Sometimes, the biggest problem in football is actually within football clubs. You’ve got to straighten that out. In management, you sometimes go into football clubs and think, ‘This is never going to be successful if it stays like this’ because there’s too many people pushing and pulling in the wrong direction.”

The work Pulis is doing has earned the respect of Hull City boss Nigel Adkins, who is predicting Boro will go up along with Sheffield United and Leeds United.

Adkins, whose return to Bramall Lane on Saturday was ruined when David McGoldrick’s penalty secured the points for the Blades, led the Tigers into battle against all three in the space of eight days.

“We had three close games,” said Adkins. “Middlesbrough who we drew with, Leeds United on Tuesday, and Sheffield United.

“They are three teams who I think will get promoted this season. Three good sides.

“Why those three? The three teams all play different ways and it shows there’s different ways to play football and win games. Middlesbrough are well equipped in what they go and do.

“Leeds, whether they can keep everyone fit is the other side of it, but some of the football they play is really good.

“And Sheffield United are now well equipped. They have an excellent manager, an excellent group of players and are going to be able to deal with injuries.

“They have got a real passionate support who will get behind them.”