Town boss Mick McCarthy believes Blues centre-half Christophe Berra is the best defender in the Championship. The Scotland international and the rest of the Town back four, the joint-tightest in the EFL, will have to be at the top of their game if the Blues are to take anything from Saturday’s trip to take on Championship leaders Newcastle United.
"Berra’s the best defender in the league for me, without a doubt,” McCarthy said. "Is he the most subtle on the ball, with the ball? No, but I hold a lot of store in keeping the ball out of our net and he is just outstanding.
"He’s big and powerful, he wins it in the air, he’s quick, he blocks things, he’s good at defending corners.”
McCarthy believes the 31-year-old centre-back, who he brought to Wolves from hometown club Hearts for £2.5 million in 2009 before signing him again on a free for Town in 2013, is the ideal foil for the more ball-playing Adam Webster as he makes a promising start to life in the Championship following his summer move from Portsmouth.
"Adam’s playing with, I think, the best defender in the league and they’re left and right-sided,” he added.
"I think Adam has been terrific in the last two games and then he adds that bit of something else that is Premier League standard - when he’s got the ball he can use it as well as anybody.”
McCarthy believes a strong defence is a vital element in any successful team with the Blues having conceded only nine goals this season, jointly the lowest in the EFL along with Brighton and League One Bradford. Town have kept five clean sheets in seven and seven in their last 11.
"I think more experienced and better managers than me have announced their intentions to be solid and not give goals away," he said.
"And if you do give goals away you’ve no chance, you’re always playing catch-up. I know we can’t win games 0-0, I fully understand that, I don’t set off not to score and just being good defensively doesn’t mean we’re just sitting back, far from it.
"We attack and we leave two centre-backs and a sitting midfield player to defend, which means we have seven players attacking.
"And that’s all the time when we’ve got the ball, so we don’t try and be defensively-minded, but we are good at defending, or we have been and I’m hoping we’ll be good on Saturday at Newcastle. I think we’ll have to be.
"I just watched the Burton game back this morning and I thought our back four were outstanding and, considering Burton were good and had some chances, Bart never made a save really.
"That’s maybe because they missed the target a couple of times when they had their chances but we had far more chances than they had even despite them having a few.”
After the run of five games without a win or a goal, McCarthy isn’t underestimating the significance of Tuesday’s 2-0 defeat of the Brewers, for the club as a whole rather than him personally, despite some pre-match speculation regarding his future: "It was an important victory for the club.
"Forget about me. I was sat here on Monday discussing my job which I thought was nonsense, but I discussed it.
"Whatever happens over the course of time with me and my job, I’ll go and get another job if I end up leaving here, so that’s not going to affect me too much.
"But it affects the club far greater if we’re not getting results. So yes, it was more important for the club and the players and everybody and the fans because we just started to be a bit dull and a bit negative, then suddenly after the game we’re three points off the play-offs.
"We’re only six points off the bottom three as well, by the way, that’s how nuts it is, but it was a big win for all of us.”
He says the victory was a boost for everyone: "It’s a lot easier to come in with a smile on your face when you’ve won the game. Had we come in and we’d drawn it would have felt really dull and not particularly nice. Had we lost, it would have been doom and gloom.
"We’ve just come in and we’re kind of normal, you’re not worried about the result or the performance or the next game, you’re just looking forward to it.
"That’s how it gives you that bit of confidence and that bit of a lift, rather than suddenly us all dancing on the tables, that’s far from it.
"It just enables you to be normal and not be fretting about the last performance and about the next one.”
Freddie Sears will have felt the benefit of the Burton game more than most having scored his first goal in 38 matches.
"We’re all delighted for Freddie,” McCarthy continued. "I didn’t realise it was 38! He looked about 38 until he scored, he looked about 24 this morning, it was weight off his shoulders. There’s a loyal manager, what about that!”
During tough runs such as the recent spell McCarthy says assistants and other members of staff play an important role.
"TC’s top, top class,” he added. "I’ve achieved in the game what I have because I’ve had really good assistants and coaches.
"Ian Evans, Taff as he’s known, was great for a long time [with Millwall, the Republic of Ireland, Sunderland and Wolves] and TC took over when I was at Wolves and we’re a good partnership, it works well.
"It is a huge benefit to have good staff. Not just TC, Lids [fitness coach Andy Liddell], [keeper-coach] Malcolm Webster and [physio] Matt Byard, they’re just consistent all time, they don’t get too up, they don’t get too down and I think that runs through the club.”