Town defender Jacob Greaves says he hopes to be part of new captain Dara O’Shea’s leadership group this season.
O’Shea was recently appointed as the Blues’ new captain following the departure of Sam Morsy, and is expected to play alongside Greaves as Town’s primary central defensive partnership.
Summer signing Cédric Kipré and Luke Woolfenden are the alternatives at the centre of defence, but all 23 of Greaves’s league starts for the club since O’Shea’s arrival have come in the same unit as the Republic of Ireland international.
"I was in the leadership group last season,” Greaves said. "I feel like Dara is a natural-born leader in terms of his voice and the way that he motivates the team. I think he was a natural successor to Samy.
"Now he’s got the captain’s armband, all the lads have taken to that and all respect him. If I can contribute in terms of being a leader on the pitch, I’ll try and do my best. It’s a young squad as well so when I’m needed to step up I’ll try my best.
"Last season, my injury didn’t come at a great time and then I when I was coming back I was a bit rusty, so I didn’t get to play as many games as I would have liked to with Dara.
"I thought he was excellent in the Premier League last season, probably one of our better players and I know the qualities that he has to offer.
"If I can be on the same wavelength as him, which I’ve felt all pre-season and all of last season, I think we can form a really good partnership and hopefully we can keep clean sheets.
"Whoever I partner at centre-half, whether it’s Woolfy, Ceddy or Dara, everyone has different qualities and everyone’s more than capable of stepping in at any time.
"It’s obviously important to form a relationship, that’s really important to having successful seasons is people having good relationships on the frontline and backline.
"Hopefully we can have a really good partnership and keep as many clean sheets as possible and help the boys.”
On Kipré, who looks likely to be the main threat to the left-sided centre-back position, Greaves added: "He’s a super chilled out guy. I’ve not spoken to him too much yet, Jaden [Philogene] knows him really well from Cardiff so the two of them have got on well.
"He seems a really good guy and a good player as well. He’s strong, has some physique on him to be fair, and I think he complements the defensive unit that we’ve got really well.”
Since his own arrival from Hull City last summer, Greaves has scored one goal for the club courtesy of a consolation header in the 4-1 defeat to Liverpool at Anfield in January.
Scoring from set pieces is something that the Blues defender knows he can improve on, having scored six goals in his final two seasons in East Yorkshire and netting in Town’s pre-season friendly at AJ Auxerre.
"I think I can cause a few problems from set pieces which I’d like to do more,” he said. "The Birmingham game was probably one I was happy with in terms of the last-minute penalty.
"We’ve done a lot of work on set pieces this year. It will be so important, we know how hard it is in this league to keep good records set pieces wise. If we can keep it tight at the back and cause a few problems in the other box, that’s going to be massive.
"Hopefully I can try and help the team as much as I can with scoring some goals. It’s always nice to score and probably one of the best feelings in the world, it’s not like I don’t want to do it. Hopefully I can do that and help the boys.”
The pre-season header came from Ashley Young’s delivery, but Greaves has no preference who gets the assist as long as the cross in question is accurate.
"My favourite is probably who puts the ball on my head,” he joked. "I’d have to say Ash at the minute because he put that nice cross in for the pre-season game.
"The quality that we have on dead balls, there’s no excuse not to get on the end of things. Hopefully he can put more peachy crosses in like that that I can get on the end of.”
Philogene suffered an ankle problem in that pre-season match across the Channel but is expected to return to the side soon with the injury not as significant as initially feared.
Greaves has known the winger for longer than most following their time together at Hull, stressing that Philogene has the potential to light up the division.
The 24-year-old said: "On his day, he’s probably one of the best wingers in the Championship. When he hit flow at Hull, he was so hard to stop and you get teams that will double up on him.
"It’s the same with Clarkey [Jack Clarke] as well, the other night against Bromley probably wasn’t one of his best games, but he’s got two or three players doubling up on him and it creates space where other people can use that space and they can come into the game a little bit more.
"Jaden’s an unbelievable talent and to have him back firing in the Championship will be massive for the team, likewise it will be with all the front players. Hopefully they can cause carnage this season, get goals and assists and help us.”
On what it is like to train in the warm weather that Suffolk has been basking in this week, Greaves added: "I definitely feel the southern sunshine a little bit more, it seems like it’s three or four degrees hotter here all the time. You’re looking at your dashboard in the car and it’s pushing the thirties, I feel like I’m abroad.
"We had the game on Tuesday night and then we trained Thursday a bit light and then today we trained and it was scorching. But I really enjoy training in the sunshine, it’s better than when it’s cold in the winter so you’ve just got to enjoy it.”