Boro’s signing of Nypan on a season-long loan from the Etihad was hailed as a major coup in the summer, but the 19-year-old has only been handed three starts under first Rob Edwards and now Hellberg.
He came off the bench in the early stages of yesterday’s 2-0 defeat at Bristol City, replacing the injured Riley McGree, but was unable to seriously affect the game before he was also taken off with 16 minutes remaining.
There have been suggestions that his lack of game time on Teesside could result in his loan being cut short in January, with City potentially looking for alternative options for the second half of the season.
That is currently regarded as an unlikely scenario though, with Hellberg still convinced Nypan can be a success with Boro.
“Absolutely,” said the Boro boss, when asked whether he could see the teenager succeeding on Teesside. “He’s working very hard and he did some very, very good things here.
“It’s just to get that confidence up and I have to work with that. I have to help him with that. But when you look at him, how he plays, he will have a bright future.”
READ MORE:
Middlesbrough injury hope after what Riley McGree told Kim Hellberg at half-time
What went wrong as Kim Hellberg's winning start to life at Boro came to an end
Boro suffered their first defeat under Hellberg at Ashton Gate, but the Boro boss was still broadly satisfied with his side’s performance.
Nypan’s individual display summed up Boro’s collective efforts, with the youngster delivering the occasional moment of promise without ever being able to seriously impact the outcome of the game.
“I brought him on because he’s good in the pocket,” said Hellberg. “It was a football game that we were an offensive team, and he was prepared and worked in that position.
“I think he showed a lot of those things that are so good with him in terms of the mobility, in terms of working, in terms of quality driving the ball. So, he just needs a little bit of confidence and then he will go like this [motions up].”
There aren’t too many occasions when a substitute is substituted, but given how early Nypan came off the bench to replace McGree, Hellberg insists it would be wrong to read anything into his decision to take off the Norwegian for Alan Browne with 16 minutes left.
“That was not a big thing for me,” said Hellberg. “It was 61 minutes on the pitch, I think. So, it was not related to performance. If you pick a player [before] 40 minutes, I look at it as he started the game. That’s how I look at it.”