Luke Chambers was surprised to discover the distance he covered during Saturday’s 3-1 victory over Middlesbrough playing at right-back rather than the central defensive role he has more usually occupied. The former Forest man, who is currently wearing the captain’s armband, netted his first goal of the season just before the hour mark.
Manager Mick McCarthy said: "I think he was a little bit surprised at the distance he’d covered because he’d done something like 12½ km in that game, which is pretty good going. Luke Hyam did something like 14½ km, which some helluva going.
"I’d imagine Chambo is used to doing about 10 at centre-half and if you’re properly organised at centre-half you can cut that to nine because you get everybody else running for you!
"I thought he was terrific, after 20 minutes when we got him further forward and up the pitch. The keeper made a great save off him, he was up there putting crosses in and he scored a great goal.”
The Blues boss says he was always confident that the 27-year-old could do a job at right-back: "I’ve no doubt about him. Chambo played there at Northampton and he also played right-sided centre-back in a three. I know he’s played at full-back before.
"He’s a bit like Richard Stearman, going forward probably isn’t his biggest strength but he can do it, but he makes us more solid at the back, we’re tougher and harder to beat.”
McCarthy has been delighted with Christophe Berra’s performances since he took over from Chambers alongside Tommy Smith at the centre of the defence: "Christophe’s a good player. There was never any doubt in my mind when I was getting him.
"We were always in touch throughout the summer. There were a number of things which might have happened with him, but I was thrilled when they didn’t happen and I could sign him. I think everybody’s seen, he’s a really good defender.”
Speaking after Saturday’s game, Boro boss Tony Mowbray said that Town had got more crosses into the opposition box prior to the international break than any other side in the Championship.
McCarthy says that while that figure is good, it doesn’t tell the whole story: "The downside of that is that we were getting maybe 44 balls in the box but only 11 of them were successful. That was the average through August.
"So, the reality was that we were having only a 25 per cent success rate when it goes in the box. We had 46 balls in the box on Saturday and we had 16 successes, so we had a 33 per cent success rate.
"And that was evident because we’ve stuck three balls in the net and we’ve also got more players in the box. Chambo was on the end of the left-back’s cross.
"I don’t always believe in all the stats, some of them are rubbish. I use them with the players sometimes, but they can be rubbish: ‘I get more crosses in the box’. ‘OK, have we scored off any?’. ‘I make more passes than anybody else.’. ‘Have you passed anything forward?’. There’s all that.
"But that stat on Saturday does stand out as one that we’ve improved on. I asked them beforehand and showed them some bits from other games when I thought we could have done better, I made TC pick bits out of games, and to up that percentage to 33 per cent is a big improvement.”