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Aitor Karanka has explained why he has appointed a new chief analyst.

The Boro head coach brought in Juanjo Vila ahead of pre-season training, with Ivan Perez Munoz leaving after two years in the role with the club.

Karanka had praise for the departing analyst, saying: “I have good words for Ivan because I brought him here two years ago and he has done a really, really good job.

“My relationship with him is amazing but we are in the Premier League, we have to improve the analysts department and Juanjo has a really good CV,” he added, outlining Juanjo’s strengths.

“He has been working at Valencia and Deportivo - so he has great knowledge.

“The meeting we had with him impressed me a lot and we need his attributes in the Premier League.”

Karanka doesn’t like to leave anything to chance, preparing meticulously for every game and then identifying what went right and wrong in a detailed post-match autopsy.

To all intents and purposes, Vila is another pair of experienced eyes assessing Boro’s performance before, during and after matches and can even help the head coach with tactical advice during games by feeding information to bench and technical area.

Summarising Vila’s role, Karanka said: “It’s analysing the opposition, analysing our game, he adds experience to that department.”

The new man has an impressive CV when it comes to computer-aided technical assessments of opposition teams and tactics, having previously worked at Deportivo La Coruna, Valencia, Spartak Moscow and Real Mallorca. He has also worked as a technical consultant to the Spanish FA.