Blues boss Mick McCarthy hopes new loanee Toumani Diagouraga will make his side tougher in midfield. The 29-year-old Leeds man joined Town for the season earlier in the week.
"I’m hoping that he’ll make us tougher in the middle of the park,” McCarthy said. "He likes to get forward, he’s a forward thinker in terms of passing it.
"I think he’ll be a big help for Skusey in there and if we lost Skusey I wouldn’t have anybody else to do that job, who holds that midfield.
"We’ve got other good players but they’re runners and get on the ball and you could find them anywhere [on the pitch], I need somebody that’s in the middle of that pitch and making sure that we are solid.”"
Does he believe he is someone who can lead by example? "He’s very brave on the ball, I’m hoping he’s going to get on it and get us passing it.”
The Parisian, who looks set to make his Blues debut at Preston on Saturday, is often described as a defensive midfielder but McCarthy says that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have an attacking side to his game.
"You can have the ball in that defensive position and pass it forward, can’t you?” he added.
"That’s the difference. And go past people and open people up, which I think he does, to be honest. He’s impressed everybody in the last two days he’s trained here, he’s been good.”
McCarthy says he’s not sure why the former Brentford man has been out of favour at Leeds, his only game this season having been a 3-0 defeat at QPR on the opening day.
"I don’t know,” the Blues boss admitted. "He said to me the first game he played centre-back, in Garry Monk’s first game. And then Garry’s come in and got other players in.
"Your man Ronaldo [Vieira] has ripped it up and [Kalvin] Phillips, the two young lads at Leeds, have been terrific. That happens. Two young local lads have come in and have been great.”