Carlos Corberán insists the excellent team spirit and togetherness within his squad is something which has naturally grown at a rapid rate without any input from the coaching staff.
The players have formed a really strong bond since coming together as one at the start of pre-season, with a small number of additions introduced a little further down the line.
Plenty of performances so far this term from Corberán’s men have been full of collective effort, desire and determination, fighting together as a unit to earn positive results despite being challenged by a host of unfortunate injuries to important members of the team.
The boss believes the dressing room is full of “special people” and says having solidarity in the squad opens up so many more possibilities on the pitch.
Carlos said: “We have a great togetherness and team spirit in the squad, but it’s something that has moved and progressed naturally within the group, rather than any words or instructions from us as a coaching staff.
“When you have good people in the dressing room, you have more options to create this happiness and create this togetherness.
“We have so, so many really good people in the dressing room.
“We can use this togetherness to compete in a really good way in the games.
“When you have special people and special players, they will be proud to be part of this group and show a big level of commitment.”
Corberán is hopeful he’ll be able to add attacking duo John Swift and Josh Maja to his squad for the visit of high-flying Ipswich Town on Saturday evening (ko 5.30pm).
The duo, who returned to full training over the international break, have been missing since October and September respectively, but Carlos thinks competition for places shouldn’t be the biggest motivator for each player.
“When you have all of your players available and ready to compete, you have more possibilities.
“The main competition in football is the competition within the players themselves.
“Players should always try and produce their best levels, not because someone else who can play in their position is ready to play, but because they want to be the best they can be for themselves, for their team-mates and for their club.
“I don’t think our group of players need to be in competition with each other, I think being in competition with themselves is better. They have their own target to be the best that they can be.
“Fortunately, we have a massive group of players here with exactly that mentality, which is the main mentality you need to have to be a football player in my opinion.”
Ipswich have made an incredible start to life back in the Sky Bet Championship having spent the previous four years in the third tier.
The Tractor Boys sit on an impressive 39 points from their 16 matches, winning 12 of those and losing just once.
Corberán says his side need to find the right way to compete against Kieran McKenna’s men.
“We are going to manage this game with the same level of respect that we manage every single game with.
“We know Ipswich are in the position they are in because they are doing very good things.
“They have only lost one league game all season and they have been competing in a very good way with a lot of stability. They clearly have a great understanding of the way they want to play.
“It’s our next challenge and every game is a challenge. You have challenges against teams in both bad and good positions in this league.
“We need to find the right way to compete against them and then beat them. This year, every team can beat any other team. You need to put so much work and effort in to achieve a positive result.”
