The 2023/24 campaign gets underway this weekend and the excitement, as ever, is ramping up with the EFL season set to begin on Friday evening as Southampton, of the Premier League last season, go to newly-promoted Sheffield Wednesday in the Championship.

There are 72 clubs with their own hopes and aspirations of creating some history over the next nine or so months and, as a result, we, at Playmaker Stats, are running through every club with a preview and a prediction... which you cannot hold us to!

MIDDLESBROUGH

Manager: Michael Carrick

Last season: 4th in the Championship (play-off semi-finalists)

Transfers – see here.

Michael Carrick turned out to be a savvy appointment by Middlesbrough when he took over from a team that was struggling under Chris Wilder and took them into the play-offs. Boro eventually fell to defeat to Coventry City at the Riverside Stadium in the semi-final second leg but can take encouragement from the 2022/23 campaign into this year.

During his first summer transfer window, the Boro manager has signed a handful of promising young talents while also keeping the core of his team in place. Chuba Akpom, who was the Championship’s top scorer last season with 28 goals, has not been lured away by a top-flight team although he will miss the start of the season due to injury.

It was the aforementioned Akpom who helped Middlesbrough to finish as the second-highest scorers in the Championship last season with 81, while the midfield talents of the likes of Daniel Barlaser and Hayden Hockney meant that Boro also had the third-highest average possession (57.7% behind only Burnley and Swansea City).

Considering then that Boro remain mostly unchanged from last year’s promising squad and that they will enjoy a full season under their manager we expect them to be looking up next season – in fact, we think they'll bypass the play-offs completely this season.

Playmaker prediction: Promotion