Still early days, perhaps, but skipper Luke Chambers is satisfied that the current Town squad compares favourably with any other in his time at Portman Road — including the one that reached the play-offs in the 2014/15 season.
He is also confident that the goals — 14 in their eight league games so far this season — will continue to flow in the months ahead as Mick McCarthy’s men pursue another top six finish to wipe out the memory of last season’s disappointment of ending in 16th place.
Chambers said: "Imagine going into work every day and everyone is telling you you’re crap. It’s not ideal, is it? But that was last season and while I don’t want to curse it I think we’ve had a good start, despite being decimated by injury, and I think this squad is up there with the best of them in my time here.
"We can be very positive moving forward, in the next few weeks especially.
"We haven’t been a free-scoring team in the last few years. Murph [Daryl Murphy] had that season when he scored a lot of goals but I think we’ve got goals throughout the team now.
"We’ve still to see the best of Tom Adeyemi, who can score goals from midfield, but Skusey’s even got one this year, which is more than he’s scored for a while.
"Wardy can still offer goals, Searsy can do more and Waggy has hit the ground running. We’ve got goals in the team and we’ve got competition for places right through the team from back to front.
"We had a defence made up of four full-backs earlier this season and while you can get away with that for three or four games, when we’ve got everyone to pick from we’re going to have a very, very good team.
"There are also strong candidates for midfield to come back — Flynn Downes has had an injury and Emyr Huws, we haven’t seen all season, so it will be a massive boost when he’s fit, and Luke Hyam’s still to get himself fit.
"We’ve also got two big, quality centre-halves in Tommy Smith and Adam Webster that we’re looking forward to getting fit as quickly as possible.
"Webbo’s playing today so hopefully he can soon be available for selection, which gives the gaffer more problems but makes us stronger as a squad.
"I don’t think anyone in the squad can see themselves as an automatic pick. I think you have to perform week in, week out.
"There’s no one out there who will have a day off in training and if that did happen it wouldn’t just be the manager and his staff, the lads would pick up on it pretty quickly too.
"It’s not accepted here, never has been in my time at the club and this is my sixth season.
"We’ve now got the competition for places that we’ve been crying out for in the last couple of years. We’re scoring goals as well and it’s not surprising, given the quality of the players we acquired over the summer.”
Despite a 3-2 defeat by league leaders Leeds at the weekend, Chambers felt the team’s display at Elland Road suggested they can approach the remainder of the campaign in confident mood. "The target has got to be six points from this week’s home games against Sunderland and Bristol City. We weren’t far behind Leeds — if at all.
"We’ve lost the game through a couple of sloppy goals and we’ve got people who can score goals now. We’ve got attacking players who can play with freedom.
"David McGoldrick has been brilliant from minute one of the season. His future’s up in the air a little bit because he’s only got another year left on his contract but on his day he’s one of the best players in the Championship.
"He’s showing it day in, day out, in training and he’s taking it into games now. Didzy got another goal at the weekend and so did Joe Garner, who has been first class since he’s come in as well.
"We’ve got Waggy and Searsy backing them up, while Bersant [Celina] has yet to stamp his authority on what he can do. It’s a great time to hopefully keep the ball out of our net and be a bit more free in our play going forward.”
Asked if the club should be making moves to tie McGoldrick to a longer-term deal, Chambers laughed: "That’s not my decision and you know my view on contracts. He’s such a good player and he’s a very good mate of mine. I’m just delighted to see him fit and playing so well again.”