Blues boss Kieran McKenna says summer signing Azor Matusiwa has made positive steps in his first five games in the Championship with Town now very strong in their midfield department.
Dutchman Matusiwa, 27, joined the club from French Ligue 1 side Rennes for €9 million (£7.8 million) in July.
"Really positive steps,” McKenna said when asked about Matusiwa’s first month in English football in which he has started every Championship match. "I’ve said a few times, he’s a great guy, he’s really settled into the group.
"He’s a real team guy, a real top man, wants the best for everyone around him, wants the best for the team and he’s got really good human qualities.
"He had a good pre-season with us. I think he said himself that he found the first game [at Birmingham] as everyone did, players who’ve been in England as well, found it really intense and challenging to get a foothold.
"But I think it’s pretty clear and you can see the improvement game by game, he’s taken steps forward in his own performances. That helps the team as well, so I think it’s all in a positive direction.
"Again, it’s early days. He’s only five games into his Ipswich career and his career in English football, so I’m sure there are some levels to go. But I think he’s bringing good things on and off the pitch and hopefully it will continue to improve.”
With Jens Cajuste’s return for a second season on loan from Napoli and the signing of Marcelino Nunez from Norwich, adding to Matusiwa, Jack Taylor and Cameron Humphreys, the Blues now have a strong midfield unit.
"It feels that way in a few different departments at the moment and exactly where we want to be and where we need to be,” McKenna reflected.
"I’ve said it many times, you want to be one of the top teams in this division, the challenges are so great, so varied and so frequent that you need to have really good strength, really good depth, different options, different profiles, different qualities.
"And it feels like we have that really hungry, fresh group as well. Lots of players are trying to establish themselves here, or in the case of Azor trying to establish himself in English football, or in the case of Cam Humphreys, he's trying to still build into the early phase of his career.
"So, a really hungry department and the players in there are good people and hopefully it will be a strength.”
Possible that Matusiwa, Cajuste and Nunez could all start together at some point? "Not impossible. Marcelino’s played a little bit as a 10. Jens has played higher up at times as well for Napoli, so it’s not impossible.
"But look, there are 46 league games, that’s plenty of football, so I’ve not got any great concerns about those players in particular having opportunities to contribute.
"I think they’re all going to have opportunities to contribute. They’ll all be needed to start games and they'll all be needed to come on in games, and Jack and Cameron will have their part to play in that unit as well.
"We need that depth. It’s a busy schedule. We’ve got the busier bits still to come. It’s a physical league and we want to be a physical and intense team, so the depth is hopefully going to be something that we can use well.”