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Aitor Karanka's English isn’t perfect yet but he has no problem getting his point across.

So far, from his pre and post-match press conferences, we’ve established the following:

• If a player wants to feature in the starting XI, he must deliver the goods on the training ground day-in, day-out.

• If a player makes a serious mistake in a match he won't be in the team the following week.

• The head coach’s preferred formation is 4-2-3-1 and he wants his team to press the opposition high up the pitch.

• He’s prepared to give every member of the squad a chance to show what they can do in the first team.

• He’s no respecter of reputations.

• He won’t sugar-coat his opinions, if he thinks the team has played badly, he’ll say so.

• He wants his players to give “120%” for an entire game and will accept nothing less.

None of the above is rocket science, but from it we can glean that despite his managerial inexperience, he knows exactly what he wants and how he thinks he can get it.

The team is everything, as far as he is concerned.

He came out with a brilliantly simple line after the match at Blackpool.

When asked by yours truly what were the reasons for the improvement seen in Rhys Williams and George Friend, Karanka said: “They know how difficult it is to stay in this team and how easy it is for them to go out of the team.”

What else is there to say?

Of course, there’s more to it than a threat.

Both players have been told to keep things simple.

When he spoke after the game, Friend said he’d been told by the boss to stop bombing forward and concentrate on defending.

Hardly ground-breaking stuff, but something many of us have been calling for.

With Williams, who was excellent at Bloomfield Road, it appears his confidence is starting to return after a year to forget.

If Karanka can continually get the best out of the players at his disposal, there’s no reason why the club can’t challenge for a top six place in the Championship table.