Town may have more creativity in their squad than at any time in Cole Skuse’s time at Portman Road but he and his colleagues still take great pride in their defensive record.
They go to Elland Road tomorrow having kept clean sheets in four of their last six games and Skuse, a holding midfielder, said: "We take a great deal of pride in that record because we work on it a lot in training.
"Bez [Christophe Berra] has been different class, Smudge [Tommy Smith] was brilliant and has been unlucky with his back injury, and Webby [Adam Webster] is a brilliant signing, a great defender.
"Chambo and Jonas have been more than steady for us and Bart, who had all the accolades at the end of last season, has been brilliant for us again this season. We all pride ourselves on keeping clean sheets and the manager does as well.”
New signing Webster, widely regarded as Town’s man of the match in last Saturday’s 0-0 home draw with big-spending Aston Villa, has been one of the big successes of the season so far following his move from Portsmouth in the summer.
Skuse added: "I don’t know how you would describe Webby — like a much uglier (Franz) Beckenbauer I guess! I know I speak very highly of Bish but Webby’s also got all the attributes to play at the top level.
"He’s under great management here because the gaffer was a big, bruising centre-half himself and will teach him the uglier side of the game. He’ll turn him into a fantastic player.
"There’s more creativity in the squad right now because the manager has recruited really well.
"If you look at Tom Lawrence last weekend against Aston Villa, he can create a shot out of nothing. Jonny Williams is back on loan too and he is almost fully fit — we all know what he can do. Grant Ward had an unbelievable start so we’ve got more going forward.
"From a deeper midfield player’s view it’s exciting to know that if you give them the ball they can go on and create something.
"Bish has taken a dent to his ego, I think, after getting a bust face against Villa but he’s a brilliant kid and I’ve got a lot of time for him.
"As I’ve said in the past, in my eyes he is going to play at the very top level.
"It was a tough one for him last year because he had a lot of time off injured and he’s not the sort of kid that you can just throw in to play 50 games.
"He needs a bit of looking after and the gaffer and TC are doing their bit with that. He’ll come back and play a massive part for us this season because he’s a very, very good player.”
Meanwhile, Skuse is looking forward to playing at Leeds tomorrow and added: "We’ve played a lot of night games there since I’ve been at the club so it might seem a bit strange kicking off at three o’clock on Saturday. It’s got that special feeling under the lights.
"The place is steeped in history and you can sense the sheer size of the club.
"We’ll try to catch them off guard, try to get their fans on their backs early on. It can be a tough place for the Leeds players, I’m sure, if their own fans are on their back.
"It can be quite an intimidating ground. If they get off to a flyer the crowd are brilliant in getting behind them.
"But on the flip side, last year we had a great start ourselves and it can be a tough place for them to play.”