Blues boss Paul Hurst has an injury doubt about a player ahead of Tuesday’s home game against Brentford but remained tight-lipped on his identity at his pre-match press conference at lunchtime.
"We’ve got a doubt on a player that I’ll keep to myself but in the main we look like we’ve got a very similar squad to choose from as we did for the game at Hull,” he said.
When it was suggested it must be a significant member of his squad if he is keeping his identity under wraps, he added: "They’re all important. People might think they’re not, but trust me, they are.”
Hurst said prior to Saturday’s 2-0 defeat at Hull that he would consider freshening his side up during the run of three games in eight days with Bolton Wanderers at Portman Road on Saturday. In addition, the poor display at the KCOM Stadium and overall lack of results also comes into his thinking.
"The performance at the weekend wasn’t our best, that’s for sure,” he admitted. "Picking the team is not the easiest job at this moment in time. As a manager you want it to be relatively easy.
"There’s been a lot of thought over the weekend and in truth this morning as well to make that decision, what we feel will be the best team to take to the field and take on a team that is full of confidence at the minute.
"You can see that in their performances and we’ve got to be at our best, certainly a lot better than we were at the weekend if we’re going to have any chance of getting the result we want.”
The Hull performance worried a lot of fans and Hurst fully understands why: "Yes, and I think I said that myself. The first 35 minutes in particular. The 10 minutes at the start of the second half I thought we were fine in between both boxes.
"Then the longer it went they obviously had a few more chances with us trying to change the system to get back in the game, so to a degree you’re not happy about it but you can clearly understand perhaps the reason why.
"But overall, it was a game that we were going into that we felt that we’d got a good chance of winning and the performance wasn’t good enough to allow us to make that happen.”
Following Saturday’s match both Hurst and skipper Chambers said that the display was in stark contrast to the way training had gone in the previous fortnight. However, Hurst is fully aware it’s only what goes on on matchday once the white line has been crossed that matters.
"That’s what it comes down to, no matter who is sitting in this seat,” he said. "I’ve just been watching a documentary on another sport and some guy comes on and says it’s all to do with a coach.
"And in the next breath he talks about how they’ve got the best squad because the recruitment’s change and suddenly they’ve got the best players available to them and I’m thinking about previous managers before this coach who would love to have had that at their disposal.
"Whatever it is, players execute what they’re asking of them when they go out there and I think the frustration so far this season has been a lot of the goals we’ve conceded have been avoidable, there have been a lot of individual mistakes.
"And on the other side of that, we haven’t made the most of opportunities that have been in front of us.
"We’ve actually got into positions where the end story could be a lot different. But that comes down to perhaps confidence the more it goes on.
"Obviously quality at times, but I’m a big believer that players are the ones. As a manager when you win, you get the pat on the back and the praise, but again a lot of that deserves to go to the players when that’s happening.”