Town boss Mick McCarthy says the Blues need to get back to basics and to doing what they’ve done for the past few seasons when they travel to Leeds on Tuesday looking to bounce back from Friday’s 5-1 thrashing at Reading.
Asked after the game whether it will now be a case of getting back to basics following what he called an "embarrassing performance” against the Royals, McCarthy agreed.
"I would think so, being hard to beat, being tough and resilient. We’ve not been, maybe we have been too open,” he admitted.
"Get back to doing what what we do and what we’ve done best over the last few years and that’s getting at teams and being hard to beat.
"That’s not anything like us on [Friday’s] performance so we’ve got a bit of work to do for Tuesday.”
Reflecting on the Blues’ worst defeat since the 6-0 loss at Leicester in November 2012, his first month in charge at Portman Road, McCarthy continued: "It was awful from my perspective, I would never have seen that coming.
"Maybe I take some of the responsibility, I had a very attacking team, maybe we were a bit too open, but I think there’s a fair bit of responsibility which lies with some of the lads as well.”
Changes seem inevitable at Elland Road after back to back defeats to Brighton and the Royals in which the Blues - who have kept only one clean sheet in 17 games in all competitions - have shipped eight goals and have dropped to eighth in the Championship.
However, with a much bigger squad at his disposal this season, McCarthy would probably have switched some of his personnel regardless of Friday’s result with games coming thick and fast.
Speaking on Friday prior to the visit to Reading, the Town boss said there would be players left out who could count themselves unfortunate not to be in the XI or the even amongst the subs at the Madejski Stadium.
"You feel for them that aren’t playing because they could all play,” he said at his pre-match press conference. "It’s easier to pick the team when you’ve got the best XI and there’s not much behind it. Well, now there is, there’s real competition for places. We’ve got plenty of games coming up.”
He added: "There were times in the first season when I came here when I’d be looking over my shoulder thinking about making a sub and I knew it wasn’t going to make too much of an improvement.
"I think what we’ve got now, the strength of the bench will tell you the strength of the team. The selection of the team becomes harder, but that’s a great problem that, a nice problem to have.”
Meanwhile, the Blues’ U21s are in action at Birmingham City this afternoon (KO 1pm).
Speaking last week, McCarthy said Kevin Bru and Teddy Bishop would be involved as they continue their comebacks after hamstring injuries.