Ipswich Town now finds themselves winless in eight in the Premier League, with displays starting to raise concerns amongst the Portman Road masses.
The Tractor Boys were arguably victims of their own downfall versus Everton last time out, as errors in defence allowed the Toffees to eventually breeze to a 2-0 win, but Kieran McKenna’s side did register 13 shots of their own in Suffolk to further frustrate the home faithful.
Liam Delap was arguably quiet against Sean Dyche’s men, with the former Manchester City wonderkid one that has to usually be playing to the top of his game for Ipswich to salvage something.
Delap's form this season
That has been the case this campaign in many games when Ipswich could have folded under the weight of playing a team placed higher up the division, with Delap firing home two strikes against Unai Emery’s Aston Villa at the start of the month to help his team pick up a hard fought 2-2 draw.
In total, the 21-year-old striker has four goals from eight league games donning Ipswich blue, but wasn’t at the races last time out as his team fell to a disappointing 2-0 loss.
Not one to regularly involve himself in play, with Delap thriving more as a poacher alert to a sniff of a chance, the ex-Man City forward failed to register a single on-target effort on Jordan Pickford’s goal versus Everton, which made his lack of touches feel more obvious consequently.
Delap would only amass 29 touches of the ball and complete eight accurate passes, away from uncharacteristically fluffing his lines with shots on goal, as McKenna then hooked him off late on for returning attacker George Hirst to get a run-out.
Still, goals like this breakaway strike managed against Villa will keep him firmly in his manager’s good books for the time being.
Amazingly, despite Delap’s electric start to life in Suffolk minus his off-day versus Everton, there is an ex-Ipswich attacker actually bettering his numbers currently playing in the EFL.
The player outscoring Delap
That player is one-time Tractor Boys loanee Louie Barry, who many with connections to the Premier League underdogs will have forgotten was even on the Ipswich roster once upon a time.
The Aston Villa youngster would only go to make a forgettable six appearances on loan, with just one league start afforded to him during the 2021-22 season when Ipswich languished all the way down in League One.
Games played
10
Goals scored
6
Assists
0
Goals*
0.6
Shots*
3.1
Shots on target*
1.5
Scoring frequency
124 mins
It’s fair to say his loan stint with Stockport County this season – which is his second spell at the club after guiding the Hatters to promotion up to League One last campaign – is going far better than his unmemorable stay at Portman Road, with a stunning six goals tallied up from ten league clashes.
Constantly wanting to get himself involved in play as a daring attacking option down the wings, who can even lead the line as seen last match versus Charlton Athletic when he found the back of the net as a striker, Barry is now very much living up to his “incredible” label which was handed to him by Arsenal star Declan Rice back in 2021.
That was of course in reference to Barry netting for Villa in the FA Cup versus Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool, but that same unerring composure under pressure to finish off chances has been seen in the third tier, with the 21-year-old reaffirming his status as a major fan’s favourite at Edgeley Park this campaign to date.
He is even outscoring Delap based on his heroics in the lower reaches of the EFL, with Ipswich left to now contemplate whether they could have got more out of the tricky attacker when he was temporarily at the club.
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