Town winger Wes Burns says his role in the side has changed since promotion to the Premier League, but believes he is more than adaptable to whatever structure is chosen to suit the team.
During the early days of Kieran McKenna’s tenure, Town would often set up as a back three with Burns often utilised as a flying right wing-back.
Throughout the back-to-back promotion campaigns, the Blues predominantly switched to a back four, but recent weeks has seen a more defensively-minded back three become traditional to relative success.
While the structure of the side is clearly fluid, Burns admitted his role has become more defensive over the last six months and believes there is more to come from him affecting matches at the top end of the pitch.
"My form has been okay, I’ve not scored or assisted as much as I’d have liked to and I’ve dipped in and out of the team,” he said.
"I think my role this year has been slightly different to what it’s been in seasons gone by. I’m probably a little bit more defensive than I am attacking, but I’m well suited to doing that. I’ve done it before in my career and I’ll just do whatever I need to do, whatever the boss tells me to do I’ll do it to the best of my ability.
"It’s been fine and it’s something I’ve done previously in my career. Even going back to my time at Fleetwood I’ve played right-back, so a defensive role isn’t alien to me. I can adapt to it quite easily and I’m happy to get as many minutes as I can regardless of where I play.
"It’s always a strange one really because people say ‘what formation do you play?’ and it’s hard to say because it fluctuates depending on who we’re playing.
"If we’re playing against a normal back four then it is high and wide on that side, but if you play against a full-back who is really high and aggressive then it naturally pushes us into a back five.
"It’s all tactics board stuff and I try not to think too much about it, I just listen to the instructions given to me.
"It’s quite easy because the setups for each game are fairly black and white. It can fluctuate during games as well, especially as we saw against Fulham on the weekend they started as a back five and switched at half-time so it makes Johnno [Ben Johnson]’s position slightly more aggressive.
"[Three centre-backs] just makes us more solid at the back, the spaces are smaller to cover. It’s an obvious one really, you put more defenders on the field you’re going to be harder to beat.”
Burns has featured in all but four of the Blues’ 20 Premier League matches so far this season and has started exactly half of them since making his debut in the top flight against Liverpool on the opening day in August.
Town recruited heavily in the summer transfer window, including in forward areas with the likes of Chiedozie Ogbene, Jack Clarke, Sammie Szmodics and Liam Delap all joining the club.
As a result, Burns expected to play more of a supporting role and has been surprised at the number of games he has played, highlighting the faith shown in him by boss McKenna.
He said: "In all honesty I’ve probably played more than I expected. We went out in the window and bought some really good players, your natural thoughts as a footballer is are you going to get as many chances as you had last season and the season before?
"Sometimes I look at that dreaded 30, the cliché of hitting 30 is that his legs are going and all that nonsense. 30 is the new 26 in my opinion and I’m feeling great. I’m glad to have contributed as much as I have done.
"It’s not just myself but the team as a whole. You can probably see that as a team we’ve matured massively since that first game against Liverpool.
"It is obviously a lot different. The quality of player that you play against is some of the best wingers in world football. You’ve got to be on your game and concentration levels have got to be top at all times.
"The calibre of player you’re playing against now, if you come off that for a second they’ll punish you.”
More attacking reinforcements are expected to join the club this month with the opening of the January transfer window, something Burns accepts is necessary to compete and welcomes added competition.
"Anything that is going to give us the best chance of staying up as ultimately the goal as a group is to stay in the Premier League this year,” he said. "If that’s how the club sees best fit to go about and do it, they’ve got the full backing from everyone in the dressing room to go and do that.
"The boss knows where we need to add one or two bodies. Our injury list has not been great this season, we’ve lost key bodies at key times. The more players we can add to the squad that are going to bring higher quality the better.”
One player who has already come through the door is Ben Godfrey, who joined on loan from Italian side Atalanta last week.
On the defender’s arrival, Burns added: "He’s settled in well. He trains hard, he’s aggressive and he’s perfect for what we need.”
Nathan Broadhead and Christian Walton have both come into the side in recent weeks having not featured for much of the campaign. The pair have started each of the last two Premier League matches.
Burns was full of praise for fellow Wales international Broadhead and goalkeeper Walton, who have both joined the winger on the journey from League One.
"Broady’s a great kid to be fair, he keeps himself to himself,” Burns said. "He picked up the injury in pre-season which pushed him down the pecking order in that left-10 spot and we signed some good quality players in that slot as well.
"He’s been patient and he’s trained brilliantly in my opinion. He’s a great kid to have around the place and now he’s getting his chance. Arguably he’s been one of our better players over the last few games he’s been in.
"It’s brilliant to see Walts take his chance. Especially from the League One group, I’m so proud of anyone that takes their chances and does well in the team.
"Walts has been one of those who have had to be patient, I know he played the first game against Liverpool because Aro [Muric] was injured, but he’s had to wait a long time for his second chance and he’s grabbed it with both hands.”
Finally, there was an emotional goodbye for full-back Janoi Donacien, who is close to sealing a move to Chesterfield until the end of the season.
Burns and Donacien became one of the Blues’ favourite duos during the defender’s time at the club, particularly during the League One promotion campaign.
"He’ll be a big miss for us as a group,” Burns said. "Not only as a player on the pitch but a lad in the dressing room. He’s one of the best people I’ve ever met in football, to be honest.
"I had the joy of meeting Janoi before I moved to Ipswich, I had a brief spell at Fleetwood with him. Even then we sparked up a relationship and since then it’s blossomed and grown. He’ll be a friend for life for me.”