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Despite being pre-season favourites for promotion, Ipswich Town have yet to win a game this term and they look a shadow of the team we all expected them to be.
After being relegated from the Premier League despite a valiant effort, many had predicted Ipswich Town would be able to bounce back fairly quickly this season.
With parachute payments in the bank and the added bonus of keeping Kieran McKenna, the Tractor Boys are well-equipped to compete this year.
Even the loss of Liam Delap and then Omari Hutchinson going to Nottingham Forest shouldn’t harm their chances too much, but results are not going their way just yet.
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Ipswich Town should be doing far better this season
So far, Ipswich have been held to 1-1 draws against Birmingham City and Southampton, before suffering a shock 1-0 defeat at the hands of Preston North End on Saturday.
Discussing the early signs from Ipswich on the Second Tier podcast, host Justin Peach delivered a highly critical review of what he’s seen.
He said: “I know we’re three games in but ultimately, compared to a couple of seasons ago this is nowhere near the same kind of carefree Ipswich side we saw in the season they went up. The team is good enough to be managing more than two shots on target in any game against any team in the Championship. The answer cannot always be we need more [signings].
“The squad is deep enough. It’s good enough. It’s just ultimately not clicking. That’s frustrating, especially after knowing they were relegated in April. Squad planning begins then, and you have a long summer ahead but they had a lot more time than other teams, and yet they look like they just started pre-season two weeks ago. It’s very disappointing.”
We’ve so far seen seven new Ipswich Town signings this summer, including big-money moves for Kasey McAteer and Azor Matusiwa, but those arrivals are yet to pay off.
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Ipswich Town can turn things around
When you dig deeper into things, you’ll see Ipswich have now won just one of their last 22 matches, which is very concerning indeed.
McKenna has pinpointed defensive issues and conceding soft goals as the key problem, but the fact of the matter is that the Tractor Boys are not creating enough at the other end, either.
With Ipswich putting together a brand new attacking line it may take time to see that click, but McKenna will need the likes of Chuba Akpom to start delivering quickly.
Clearly, McKenna has a strong idea of how Ipswich can succeed, and he’s also got the full backing of the Ipswich board in the transfer market, too.
All the ingredients are there to thrive, and in time, Ipswich surely will. It’s very early days and no one should panic yet, but there needs to be vast improvements soon if they are to be in the promotion race this season.