Ipswich’s search for their first win of the season continues after a lacklustre performance against fellow strugglers Everton. Alex Osborn reports.
Town brought their poor form from the West Ham game to Portman Road in a disheartening display for the home fans.
Golden opportunity early on
It was nearly the perfect start for the Blues, who went so close to executing a phenomenal team goal. Hutchinson threaded through Burns down the right, who pulled off a trademark cut back to Clarke, who shanked a massive chance over the bar.
He had to at least test the keeper, and with such fine margins in the Premier League, chances like that have to be converted. It turned out to be our best chance of the game, and a goal so early would have lifted confidence and could have seen a very different outcome.
Individual errors
It felt like deja vu from West Ham when Phillips once again under-hit a back pass, but fortunately for him, Muric made a huge one-on-one save with his leg to deny Calvert-Lewin. Everton were in control of the game at this point, and we were finally punished following another individual error.
Burns was the culprit this time. He took an age to attempt a clearance, which he missed. This let in Ndiaye, who unleashed a rocket of a strike, leaving Muric with no chance. It was a deserved goal for Everton, who looked much more on it than us, but one that was completely avoidable.
Huge VAR decision
It still feels surreal seeing VAR involved in our matches, and frustratingly, we were at the end of a decision that went against us.
Clarke was about to take a shot, and McNeil made contact with his foot. Whilst a penalty looked like a soft decision, it felt harsh for VAR to get involved, as I am not convinced it was a clear and obvious error.
It was a massive decision at a crucial part of the game that almost certainly would have changed the outcome, even though Town were far from their best. McKenna, not one to usually complain about decisions, called it out as the match's key moment.
Another sloppy and cheap goal given up
From a defensive perspective, this might have been the worst goal we have given up all season.
Despite having four or five Ipswich players surrounding him, Dwight McNeil was allowed to bring the ball down on the edge of the box and then pass the ball through with no challenge even attempted, although we should credit Keane for a brilliant finish from a tight angle.
Watching this was so frustrating and summed up our performance on the day. We lacked the heart and physicality we have been accustomed to seeing under McKenna's spell. Going into the break at two down left us with a mountain to climb.
Flat second half
Despite Everton's recent history of throwing two-goal leads this season, an Ipswich comeback never looked likely in the second half.
Everton sat in their block, and whilst we did have a few attempts on goal, none were of note, and we failed to test Pickford.
It was actually Everton who came the closest to scoring when Calvert-Lewin found himself clean through on goal once again at the death, but Muric stood tall—he was our best performer on the day.
We looked much more lively when Hutchinson was moved to the right wing and when Taylor and Harry Clarke were added to the frame, which added some much-needed attacking oomph, albeit without any clear-cut chances being created.
Makeshift defence
I said in my West Ham report that losing Tuanzebe was massive for us, given his brilliant form, and this game further reinforced how much he is missed.
None of the alternatives we have tried so far (Johnson and O’Shea) have worked, and we’ll see if Harry Clarke’s first substitute appearance of the season is enough to see him start the Brentford game. Unfortunately, it sounds like Tuanzebe will now be out for months rather than weeks.
To compound his absence, we were also without Greaves, another significant loss to the defence. Without them, our backline is significantly weakened, although to his credit, Burgess had a relatively solid game despite a lack of recent action.
It is fair to say the O’Shea at right-back experiment did not work, and Ndiaye had a field day out at the left wing.
We are conceding goals far too easily at the moment, and if we want to have any chance of staying in this division, we have to get the basics right and stop making multiple individual errors every game.
The quality of goals we gave up against West Ham and Everton has been diabolical from a defensive standpoint, and given our difficulties scoring at the other end of the pitch, we cannot afford to give goals away.
Will McKenna make changes?
Since joining the club, McKenna has stuck to the system and principles he has always adopted, but our form in the last couple of games might force his hand into making small tactical tweaks to make us more compact and positive in attack.
The lack of mobility in Morsy and Phillips's pivot is starting to become an issue—it is too easy for teams to overrun us in midfield. Phillips, especially, has been below par in the last couple of games, and Taylor, who has been impressed with each cameo off the bench, must be wondering what he has to do to get a start.
Switching out the right-centre attacking midfielder and going for three in the midfield is something I would not be against seeing.
Hutchinson at centre attacking midfield has to stop. He is one of our biggest attacking threats and is at his best when isolated against a full-back one-on-one out on the right wing. I will always love Burns and appreciate everything he has done for us, but McKenna's persistence in starting him hinders our attack.
The consistency of the team selection is also an issue.
Whilst injuries have been a big problem and are cropping up at an extremely high rate, we have used the most players in the league up to this date and have, not surprisingly, lost some of the cohesion of the last couple of years.
It is unclear whether McKenna knows what his best team is at present.
Are there still grounds for optimism?
The last two games have drained much of the early-season optimism. On paper, winnable games such as this one and Southampton away have passed by without the much-needed first win, and there is the risk that we get cut adrift from the teams above us, potentially leaving us in a group of four strugglers, with Palace, Southampton, and Wolves.
If we hadn’t realised it before, we now know that this is a very unforgiving league, and if we continue in our current form, we will be relegated.
However, McKenna has achieved great things in his short time in charge, so we should, for the moment, keep faith that he will be able to address the recent issues and bring back the form that nearly saw us beat Villa just a few weeks ago.
Moment of the match
My moment of the match was undoubtedly the VAR penalty call that went against us—the outcome could have been different if the penalty had stood.
Next up
We have a very tricky trip away to Brentford. I don’t like to be pessimistic, but after the last couple of performances, I have little hope of us getting any points from the game.
Brentford are a physical and extremely well-drilled team, exactly the type of team we struggle against. They are not an ideal fixture when confidence is low and the pressure is mounting.
Player Ratings
Muric 7 (MOTM), O’Shea 4, Woolfenden 5, Burgess 6, Davis 6, Morsy 5, Phillips 4, Burns 4, Hutchinson 5, Clarke 6, Delap 5
