Incoming boss Mick McCarthy says he’ll not be making any major changes to the Blues’ approach in the short-term as he has little time to work with the squad before the back to back away games at Birmingham on Saturday and Crystal Palace on Tuesday.
McCarthy said: "I could do with changing a fair bit but I don’t have time to do it. There are a lot of things similar to how I would do things — marking at corners and freekicks, I’ve asked the questions.
"I’ve got to look at the personnel and see if I can find some formula of how to get a clean sheet, of being hard to beat first and foremost.
"I haven’t got really any time to work with them. If I come in tomorrow and change everything that they’ve been doing, that would just confuse the issue completely. I’ve got to try and inflict my beliefs and my personality on them.”
The 53-year-old says managers can’t be entirely blamed for their sides' failings even though the buck stops with them, as Paul Jewell recently found out: "You can’t be responsible for everything.
"You coach them, you work with them, you manage them, you pat them on the back, you spin the plates, you keep them all going, you do everything you can to get a performance out of them. You look after them and give them every opportunity to play well.
"They walk over the white line and then it’s their responsibility. You can tweak it, have a little shout, do something at half-time, but they’re responsible for their own actions on the pitch.”
The former Ireland coach says two members of his squad have previously played under him: "I worked with Carlos very briefly, when he was on loan from Sunderland to Wolves, and I’ve worked with Daryl Murphy.
"I signed Daryl, he did well for me at Sunderland. He’s due a testimonial for loans, he’s been here for three seasons now!
"It’s nice if you’ve got some [who have worked with you before] because players do tend to ask on another.”
He says he’s been at clubs before where a malaise has set in after poor results, as it did during the latter days of the Paul Jewell era: "If you do start struggling, I’ve had that, it can all start fading away around you and you sometimes don’t see it.
"Maybe me coming in, a fresh voice, chewing at somebody’s ear and maybe smacking a few ear holes is what it needs, I’m more than happy to do that.
"That’s not my management style, but it’s any way to get a result at this moment in time. Fresh face, fresh voice, that’s the start, different methods and hopefully that inspires one or two to play better, quicker, harder, tougher, faster, whatever the case may be.”
The image of McCarthy is of a strict disciplinarian, however, he says that’s not really how he approaches the game: "That’s not my style unless it’s necessary. I don’t suffer fools easily, like. People know where they stand. My door at the training ground is open.
"I’ve always had an open door policy — please come and see me but don’t look for the answer that you think you’re going to get.
"It’s far more than that — it’s nonsense just to suggest that. I hope there isn’t a problem with discipline. I don’t know, I’ll have to find that out. I’ve only been in the door one day.
"I’m hot on the small things that matter, that’s being on time, being respectful, treating people right, respecting the club, going to hotels and behaving yourself. It seems like small things — minutiae, you’ve got to win games, but it means a lot all that.”
He took his new squad for training for the first time today and says things went well and he didn’t feel any negativity in the wake of the recent run: "I can’t say I sensed that.
"The training session was pretty good but a new manager comes in and you get one opportunity to make a first impression. If you don’t take that opportunity, you might not get that second one.
"The training session was good. It was lively, there were a lot of voices, shouting, which might not have been the case in recent weeks. Let’s hope we take that into Saturday.”
McCarthy was joined on the Playford Road turf wearing new boots — "The lads did remark that they’re brand new. I’ve not done anything for eight months. I’ll have to get them dirty" — by his assistant Terry Connor: "He’s a top class coach. He’s a first class individual.
"There was some suggestion that he was disloyal to me when he took the job at Wolves [after McCarthy's sacking]. Not a chance, I was the first one to ring him up and say ‘Take it’. That was really difficult for him.
"He really is a good coach and what I know is that if I have a message to give, he’s endorsing that message and giving it in the dressing room. There are no mixed messages between us. He’s a fantastic guy and I’m delighted to have him with me.”
He says he’ll look back at Town’s previous games and assess why they are losing and why goals are going in at the wrong end: "I’ve looked at some of the games and in one or two they’ve played well, then conceded a goal from nothing right out of the blue.
"That’s for me to look at a bit more in depth; whether that’s from a freekick or a corner, are we getting done on the break? Is there a specific area they’re coming from?
"But I don’t think so, there’s a lot gone in and I think they’ve been coming from all areas of the pitch, which is a real problem.
"I know Hutch and I know Paul and I know they will have been trying their damnedest to get them organised and make sure they’re hard to beat.
"And if I can’t do it with the ones that are here I’ll go and see Marcus. I’ll give him a review after two weeks here and say ‘Listen, we need some bodies’.
"He doesn’t want to be getting relegated and neither do I and he’ll support whatever I want to do, within reason.”