Promoted Teams Analysis – Ipswich Town

Promoted Teams Analysis – Ipswich Town

Welcome to Promoted Teams Analysis – Ipswich Town

I am delighted to see Ipswich in the top-flight for the first time since 2002. It has been a long two decades for a team with a brilliant nickname, “The Tractor Boys”. My country boy heart is loving these farmers. However, does this now make the Premier League the Farmers’ League?

It may only be classed as a town, but they hold a claim to being one of the oldest towns in England so that’s cool! Anyone know how many Towns have played in the Premier League and who they are? Hint… I’m writing about one of them and another played only last year!

Ipswich were one of the founders of the Premier League, having been in the inaugural 1992/93 season, so it is really great to see them back. They have had back-to back promotions coming from League One to the Big Time in two years under a young, upcoming manager. Kieran McKenna is someone I shouldn’t like – because of his Man United ties – but I will be honest I do like him. He was one of my top three wish list for the Ireland job after Lee Carsley and before John O’Shea. He was an in-demand manager at the start of the summer with clubs like Man United, Brighton and Chelsea vying for his signature, but he proved loyal to Ipswich much to their delight as they have held on to last season’s Championship manager of the season.

They won’t be writing any thank you cards to the FA though as they have been handed quite possibly the worst possible start for their return. First two games against a Liverpool side that will be looking to prove the new post-Klopp era will be a good one, and then a trip to Man City where they will hope Haaland and company all have a stomach bug.

Formation – 4-2-3-1

This is how it looks on paper but in actuality, it is more a 3-2-5 with left-back and assister extraordinaire, Leif Davis pushing up into the attack. The left winger comes inside to support the striker and the no. 10 moves to the right a bit creating a midfield square with DM’s Sam Morsy and Massimo Luongo sitting deep. This 3-2-5 is very attacking with positivity in attack and bodies pushing forward but will McKenna be able to be this aggressive?

Muric (GK)

Johnson Woolfenden Greaves Davis

Luongo Morsy

Delap Chaplin Hutchinson

Hirst

Goalkeepers & Defenders

Ipswich lost their first-choice goalkeeper this summer with Hladky leaving the club and his ball-playing skills will be missed. They replaced him with Burnley’s Arijanet Muric for £15mil. He was mistakenly priced at 4.3 by the FPL towers but that has been rectified now being repriced at the usual 4.5. Being a shining light for Burnley in their promotion season, he is remembered for scoring… an own goal against Brighton. He did lose his place to James Trafford last season, but he earned it back towards the end and went on a bit of a madness making 64 saves and 12 bonus points. He could be a monster for save points this season if you fancy the risk!

The centre-back partnership has already changed for Ipswich as Cameron Burgess (4.0) seems to have lost his place to new signing Jacob Greaves (4.0), who signed from Hull and is a left sided CB who comes highly rated. Woolfenden (4.0) may also lose his place as Ben Johnson (4.0) has arrived from West Ham and is tipped to start at right back. This could mean Axel Tuanzebe (4.0) could move inside to his preferred position of centre-back. Basically, there are a lot of 4.0 options at Portman Road as all the defenders except for one are priced that low so we have a choice of them. The one that proves the best remains to be seen so preseason needs to be watched and perhaps a few games into the season too. We might have a few to choose from or avoid them all.

The best defender by a country mile though is Leif Davis (4.5) who is basically a glorified winger as I mentioned above. He pretty much plays up front and provided a whopping record high 18 assists in the Championship last season. He was first for chances created with 125, he was first for accurate crosses with 88 and obviously he was 1st for assists too. Could he be the next Lord Lundstram?

I wouldn’t be looking at Ipswich for defensive returns to be honest. They conceded 57 goals but still managed 15 clean sheets. Most of those clean sheets came away from home where they were a bit more defensive and cautious.

Midfielders

As mentioned above, Ipswich play with a sort of ‘box midfield’ with 2 DMs, a left winger and no. 10 creating a square in the middle of the field. Sam Morsy (5.0) and Massimo Luongo (4.5) were crucial to the team last season, but they are 32 and 31 years old so time is running out for them. The fast pace of the Premier League could be too much, and McKenna might start looking to bring some youth in to provide some stamina and energy.

During my research, it looks like McKenna’s sides play attacking and high intensity football being likened to Brighton under De Zerbi and it can provide some chaotic matches. This means they could be a dangerous unknown quality to teams at the start of the season before managers figure out the new boys. On the flip side though, it could leave Ipswich very exposed… Liverpool and Man City are two sides you don’t want to expose yourself too! I genuinely can’t decide if Ipswich get hammered 9-0 in both games or end up claiming some shock scalps with a cheeky 2-1 win!

Ipswich averaged 53% of possession last season with their overloaded midfield. Playing out of the back from the goalkeeper, they moved quickly up the pitch playing forward and not being afraid to be aggressive with their play. Now the Championship is a different beast to the Premier League so this could all change.

The one midfielder I like the look off the most is 20-year-old, Omari Hutchinson (5.5), he has been one of the main focuses of most articles, threads and comments surrounding Ipswich. He was used frequently as the season went on and became a starter playing across the pitch behind the lone striker. He made 24 sub appearances and 20 starts. He notched a nice 10 goals and 4 assists from an xG of 5.84, so he outperformed the stats but hopefully he can improve even more. Something that is key to his game is the pressing from the front and was one of the star players in most fans’ eyes. He was so impressive he was made a permanent signing after only being on loan at the club last season. Spending £20mil plus add ons is one way to give the seal of approval.

Their top scorers last season were both midfielders so this could be where the goals come from. Conor Chaplin (5.5) and Nathan Broadhead (5.0) both scored 13 league goals but the former also provided 8 assists to have the most goal involvements. Chaplin should also keep his place while Broadhead could lose out to Hutchinson. Chaplin is also on direct free-kicks and can be a threat from corners as Leif Davis takes the majority of those on both sides! Chaplin is a fan-favourite being the top scorer for the last two seasons. Will he keep this up?

Forwards

Due to their playstyle, Ipswich scored the most goals in the league last season with 92 but also conceded 57 goals, which isn’t the most out of the promoted teams, but it also isn’t great! One thing I discovered about McKenna is he might be a bit of a tinkerer when it comes to the attack. Most of the squad should be fine and play week-in, week-out but up front there might be a bit more rotation.

At home, McKenna tends to let loose, and it’s been described as “you score, and we will score more” that can be seen in their matches last season where they tended to concede first at home and then comeback. They scored 59 of their 92 goals at home. They averaged 2.5 goals per game at home and had 719 shots across the season. They aren’t as free flowing away as they only scored 1.4 goals per game.

The striker was George Hirst (5.5), and he should keep his spot up top, but his 7 goals and 6 assists will need to be improved if he is to prevent losing his place.

Another big signing for the Tractor Boys is the arrival of Liam Delap (5.5) from Man City. He had a decent season at Hull last year with 8 goals and 2 assists but was injured for a long period so it could have been more. He is described as being a mobile dribbler and shooter. He did make some appearances for City, and they must rate him high enough having inserted a buy-back clause for the young man. He will have to compete for the lone striker role but there is a belief he might also be used on the right wing in place of Wes Burns. I can’t see them spending that much and not playing him. Most of the goals came from midfielders so this is likely why they have invested in their firepower.

Will Delap and Hutchinson combine for a deadly partnership? Will Hirst keep his spot up top?

My Top Three Picks –

1. Davis
2. Hutchinson
3. Chaplin

Thanks for reading Promoted Teams Analysis – Ipswich. This article was written by Matt X.

Follow @MattyMcveigh

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