Brighton’s German boss Fabian Hürzeler, whose side are Portman Road on Thursday evening (KO 7.30pm), says Blues striker Liam Delap is a special talent, who first crossed his radar when he was in charge at St Pauli in his home country.
Hürzeler, 31, brings the Seagulls to Suffolk without a win in eight Premier League matches, although losing only two, and having dropped to 10th in the table. At the weekend, they won their first game in a month and a half, albeit a 4-0 FA Cup victory at Championship Norwich City.
Quizzed on what he has made of Delap, who came close to scoring when he hit the post in the sides’ 0-0 draw at the Amex earlier in the season, Hürzeler says he’s known about the 21-year-old former Manchester City man for some time.
"It's a funny story,” he said at his press conference. "At my former club I heard his name because we heard that he's a special talent, right when he played for City in the youth and he had impressive performances.
"I think he is the whole package. He's so young and he also works with his body like an experienced striker.
"He's fast. He's very athletic. He has good skills with the ball. He has a good shot. He can finish the attack. He’s a big, big weapon.
"It's a big danger what Ipswich have with him, but Ipswich don’t just rely on Delap. I think their team, they can play out from the back.
"I think that they defend really compact. They can defend deep with a 5-4-1 in the low block, very compact.
"They don't give you a lot of space between the lines. So we have to find another solution – if you don't get in between the lines, you have to go around or behind and it will be a challenge to compete against them.”
He says St Pauli were never close to signing the striker, who has scored eight times for the Blues since signing in the summer.
"I think it was not serious because we were too far away from him, but I saw him already in this time how he played and what talent he has, but I think he was already at that time on the radar from the big clubs and now he made the right step, I think, to go to Ipswich and he has made great development, so it's impressive,” he said.
"His potential you’ve already saw in former times, that he's very resilient in one against one duels, that he's very fast, that he knows how to work his body, that he has a good finish.
"And all these things he's proved now in the Premier League, at the highest level. It's not that easy to always create your chances to always be the dominant team, but they're doing a great job together and they help each other and I think Delap in some moments can be a game changer for them.”
Aside from Delap, Hürzeler says he knows all about what awaits his side at Portman Road: "I heard about it. I heard about the atmosphere there and I always see the opponent, I think they're quite stable at the moment, they're playing very efficient, they're playing a very effective style.
"They defend in a low block, they try to go for transition, but also in possession they have clear patterns.
"So I really like Kieran McKenna's working there and I enjoy seeing his development and I enjoy also what he achieved with Ipswich so far. That's very impressive. I'm really looking forward to competing against Ipswich and against him.”
He added: "We have to use the chances we get because you don't get so many chances against them and we have to be aware that they're also a good team in possession.
"They proved it in the first game against us that they are able to play out from the back, that they want to play out from the back and they defended quite good against us.
"In the end, it’s a Premier League game. In the end, it's a very tough opponent. It's about trying to create a lot of chances, trying to be very present in the opponent's box, trying to be very good in counter-pressing because they are a threat in transition. They're doing it quite good and therefore we need to pay attention in every phase.”
Asked whether his team can take confidence from the win at Norwich, he reflected: "Wins, goals, assists, clean sheets, these things give you self-confidence. These things give you the belief that you are able to win games and not only draw games.
"We can take energy out of this game, we can take self-confidence out of the game, but now it's a new challenge, it's a different competition.
"We have to go there and start working again. We can't think that we go there and can play a little bit of football. It's about outworking them. It's about seeing this as a fight. And then hopefully we have also the individual quality to show that we are able to beat Ipswich.”