MALCOLM CHRISTIE has admitted that Steve McClaren's meticulous Middlesbrough regime has come as a culture shock after the chaos of Derby County.

Striker Christie played under former Boro manager Colin Todd, ex-Ayresome Park coach Jim Smith and John Gregory as the Rams ultimately slid into near-oblivion.

McClaren was No 2 to Smith in Christie's early days at Pride Park, but the Boro boss has come a long way since then.

After forging his reputation as Sir Alex Ferguson's assistant at Manchester United, McClaren is eager to make his managerial mark with Boro.

It hasn't all been plain sailing for McClaren down by the Riverside, but 24-year-old Christie, signed from Derby in a £3m January deal, insisted: "He's the right man to pull things round here.

"He's a fantastic coach; you don't see many managers day in, day out on the training ground organising every session.

"He's a good motivator as well and he makes us aware of the opposition before games, which at my previous club we would never do. We went into games very under-prepared, but here preparation is everything - it's brilliant.''

McClaren has this season reorganised his backroom staff so that each department of the team receives special attention.

Christie, with two goals in as many games, said: "I would like to think that working with an attacking coach has helped me. Steve Harrison works with the defenders, the gaffer with the midfield and Steve Round with the strikers.

"It's been drilled into us that we have to shoot a lot more, especially me because at times I pass the ball too much when I'm in and around the area.

"At Southampton last week, I just decided to shoot and I would like to think there a lot more goals like that to come.

"I don't want to say too much about goal targets, because if I don't live up to them I'll be crucified.

"But I would like to think I could achieve 20 in a season if I'm a regular in the team.''

Christie played alongside former Boro striker Fabrizio Ravanelli at Derby, and learned from the Italian's devotion to training.

"I enjoyed playing with a guy as experienced as him,'' said Christie. "He got injured quite a lot at Derby, so we didn't really forge a good enough partnership to keep the club in the Premiership.

"But I learned a lot from him about how to train, because he would always be the hardest trainer there. I used to think: 'He's been there and done it all, why would he still want to be playing at Derby when he's been at top clubs like Juventus and Lazio?' I didn't get the chance to speak to him before I came here because he was injured at the time and back in Italy. It would have been nice to talk to him about the club.''

Christie has an idea of what to expect when Chelsea visit Teesside tomorrow.

Blues centre-back John Terry was a teammate at England Under-21 level, and Christie said: "When I was playing with John then, you could see he had a lot of ability.

"It's going to be hard for him to stay in the side with the likes of Marcel Desailly and William Gallas there, but I rate John very highly and I'm sure, in the next few years, he'll be a regular in the England team.''

Read more about Middlesbrough here.