AFTER four games without a win that have increased the concerns as to the direction Middlesbrough are heading, head coach Jonathan Woodgate has described how he is willing to change his approach to get short-term results.

Woodgate has been desperate for this international fortnight to reassess where things have been going wrong for Boro, who have only won twice under him in the 11 Championship matches he has overseen so far.

The performances have not been up to the standard he had hope for, with questions being asked why Boro are not hitting the heights he had outlined when he first took over.

Woodgate was given very little money to spend in the summer because of the club’s attempts to bring their finances in line with Financial Fair Play, but Woodgate had still hoped to be able to get his team playing differently.

The truth is, though, that Boro have only shown glimpses of the style he has wanted and his early season targets that he wanted to push for – a play-off place or even higher – appear a distance away given their lowly position.

Boro will head into the home date with leaders West Bromwich Albion on October 19 looking to get the result to climb away from the relegation zone, where they only boast a two-point cushion over.

That is why Woodgate has been keen for this break to have more time to have a greater look at things and work on ways of improvement.

He said: “We’ll assess things. We’ll have a busy week, going through everything, how the players are performing, what the players need to improve on. It will be in-depth analysis.”

While looking at the statistics and performances from the opening 11 matches, Woodgate will be keen to take the positives from them and try to ensure they are reproduced more often.

Even though he would love for his team to be playing adventurous and creative football, he has realised that first and foremost Boro need to come up with the results to lift them clear of trouble.

Woodgate said: “In this league you have to work and if you don’t turn up on a Saturday you will get beat, you’ve got to turn up every Saturday and give everything. If you give everything you’ve got a chance of winning, especially in this league.

“The quality isn’t great at times but you got to grind it out, really graft and do all the nasty things in a game and you’ll get victories. Just because I have my philosophy on how I want to play I still want to play like that and at times we can do it, at times we can’t do it.

“We need to pick and choose when we can.”

Woodgate accepts he is under scrutiny because of the inexpeirnence he has in management and the fact that he has decided to step into the role at his hometown club means he is always in the spotlight at home.

Together with his backroom team, and he has had former Middlesbrough defender Tony McMahon working with him on the training ground again this week, they need to come up with a way to turn things around after that awful defeat at Birmingham.

“It is what it is, I’ve got these players, we’re all in it together,” he said. “I won’t give up on these players, no chance.”