Match Report: Ipswich Town 3-1 Blues
A disappointing afternoon for Blues who were put to the sword by Championship automatic promotion contenders on a frustrating day.
Two late goals were enough for Ipswich Town to put Birmingham City to the sword.
Blues, without Tony Mowbray for the first time since he stepped down for a number of weeks owing to a medical procedure, fell behind when Conno Chaplin cheekily turned home an effort from distance but Jordan James ensured the sides were level at half-time.
The second half started brightly but Blues fell back into old patterns and were punished by an Ipswich side at ease with what they do, Jeremy Sarmiento and Omari Hutchinson securing the points.
Blues made one change from the side that beat both Blackburn Rovers and Sunderland, captain Dion Sanderson returning after a month out to replace Krystian Bielik, the latest to succumb to injury. Scott Hogan also returned to the squad with Keshi Anderson to man to drop out.
It was a poor start from Blues who failed to match Ipswich’s intensity in and out of possession. James got himself caught on the left leading to a Nathan Broadhead effort before Massimo Luongo, Kieffer Moore, who was also denied by a brilliant last ditch clearance from Marc Roberts, and Connor Chaplin tried their luck in the first ten minutes. The closest Blues got to the Ipswich goal was Tyler Roberts being clipped running away from goal and hoping the referee would blow in his favour.
Amid the chaos, there was a stadium wide applause for Tony Mowbray, an Ipswich Town legend and somebody that has quickly become a favourite amongst Blues supporters. It appears that he’s loved across the footballing landscape, speaking of the volumes of the person he is.
Blues failed to settle down, continuing to give Chaplin and Moore too much room to operate thanks to a non-committal approach out of possession that gave a good side too much room to operate in. Moore saw an effort at the near post deflected over then Chaplin had two free headers from set-pieces before curling against Roberts and seeing the ball go wide.
It meant that when Ipswich took the lead on 31 minutes, it wasn’t a surprise. Ipswich yet again managed to find a forward on the half turn and he spread the play to Hutchinson. The ball was teed up for Sam Morsy to strike from the edge and Chaplin showed brilliant reactions to flick the ball past John Ruddy.
Things didn’t exactly get better after the goal with Hutchinson again involved and crossing for Moore who couldn’t quite turn home under pressure from Roberts. Blues best effort in response came via the other Roberts, having few options and trying to catch Vaclav Hladky out at his near post.
Blues had improved the final period of the half despite the lack of chances but it was still a surprise when they found the equaliser. Sanderson made the most of a poor touch to find Koji Miyoshi out wide. He drove forward into the space vacated by Leif Davis’ forward run and waited for the right moment to cut back for Jordan James to finish.
As if to hammer home the difference between the two sides, Blues almost conceded immediately after. A long ball forward saw Moore and Chaplin link up to find Broadhead who turned well and thankfully fired into the side netting.
Blues started the second half quite well but unlike Ipswich, failed to make the most of their time in the final third. Ethan Laird fired wide with his weak foot and Juninho Bacuna saw a deflected cross force a near post stop but the closest either side came during the period was Axel Tuanzebe’s bouncing header.
Substitutes Bacuna and Siriki Dembele provided an initial burst but the hosts were soon back on top, Hutchinson forcing a stop at the near post and Sarmiento curling wide. Blues managed a break that ended with Hladky unconvincingly saving from Jay Stansfield’s poke while Morsy gave Ruddy more work to do.
Kieran McKenna’s side retook the lead with around ten to go, Hutchinson standing up Laird and finding the run of Tuanzebe who cut back for Sarmiento to score. And in injury time, with Blues huffing, puffing and now out of shape and out of sorts, Hutchinson raced onto a Moore flick to finish the game.
A frustrating afternoon for Blues but no debate around the better side winning the game.
Lineups
Ipswich
Hladky; Tuanzebe Woolfenden Burgess Davis; Morsy Luongo; Burns (Hutchinson 20) Chaplin (Harness 90) Broadhead (Sarmiento 62); Moore. Unused: Walton; Clarke Humphreys Travis Jackson Al-Hamadi.
Blues
Ruddy; Laird Sanderson (Jutkiewicz 90) Roberts Drameh; Miyoshi Dozzell (Sunjic 64) Paik (Bacuna 64) James (Gardner 86); Stansfield Roberts (Dembele 64). Unused: Etheridge; Aiwu Buchanan Hogan.
Tactics
Neither side did anything out of the ordinary here with both sides sticking to their guns and hoping their plan worked better than their opponents.
Ipswich dominated the play so we will start with them. They lined up in a 4-2-3-1 but in possession, that quickly became a 3-2-2-3 (ish). Burgess and Woolfenden split apart at centre-back with Morsy and Luongo showing for the ball with a little bit of rotation. Tuanzebe was then in a fairly ordinary right-back position to receive while Davis bombed on down the left. Davis’ forward running allowed space for Broadhead to step inside from the left and Chaplin to move towards a cheating right position with Burns then Hutchinson holding the touchline.
Blues didn’t deal with it well at all first half. Paik and Dozzell wanted to be aggressive against Morsy and Luongo to allow Stansfield and Roberts to close the centre-backs and goalkeeper but were wary of committing too much because Broadhead and Chaplin were behind them. Roberts was watching Moore, Drameh had to be mindful of Davis on the left and Laird vs Hutchinson on the right. It meant Blues’ defence didn’t want to step up too much.
Because Blues didn’t get things right in the middle of the pitch and failed to commit to either a full press or one where they sat off and worked the lines to cut the midfield off, Ipswich were able to find Chaplin and Broadhead on the half turn with regularity. And they would find themselves defending almost as a back five at times, depending on whether Miyoshi covered centrally or out wide. It’s why Blues ended up in the situation they did for the first.
It led to a change in game with Paik or Dozzell stepping up onto Morsy or Luongo, whoever was showing deepest and the other keeping an eye on Chaplin with Miyoshi sticking with Broadhead. It made an impact to a point, but the lack of intensity in Blues’ attempts to close, no doubt brought on by a lack of conviction in what they were doing, saw Ipswich continue to find a way out.
Blues had a game plan in mind with the ball but, again, it lacked intensity and conviction. It required Dozzell to receive possession and move out to the left-hand side where Paik, Laird and James were ready. They would be tasked with looking to move into space or play first time around the corner, whether that was a short pass or a raking ball – James in particular tried the latter. But Ipswich were ready for it, Tuanzebe and Hutchinson sharp with their men and the defence and midfield on the front foot as far as individual battles were concerned. Blues lacked an out with the ball and were relying on Ipswich errors in a bid to move into the final third.
There was a change in the second half in terms of Blues’ attempts to stop Ipswich. Paik stepped onto Morsy with Roberts following Luongo now, meaning the pass into the centre of the pitch was cut off. Miyoshi dropped onto Broadhead (then Sarmiento) with Chaplin watched by Dozzell. Until the changes were made, the plan was working. Stansfield could run himself ragged up top cutting off angles between centre-backs and keeper.
The replacements had the same roles. The difference was them switching on and sticking to task, either failing to follow runners or getting too excited and letting their men beat them.
Players
This wasn’t a great day for Blues and I’m loathe to go in to big on individuals because I think the whole set up was the problem rather than any individuals.
I’ll get onto the goals in my conclusion because I will cut Dembele a little bit of slack, even if he doesn’t cover himself in glory. I don’t think the centre halves had particularly brilliant games. The midfield and forwards lost too many duels or didn’t play with the intensity required.
Paik and Dozzell at least carried out their tasks in possession when given the ball, it felt like.
For Ipswich, I think the central defensive pairing were excellent. Tuanzebe won his battle with James comfortably for an hour and set up the pivotal goal. Moore was a handful. Hutchinson and Chaplin were excellent. A very slick, well-oiled unit.
Conclusions
Let’s calm down. I was frustrated on Saturday, like many. I felt we let ourselves down by not playing to the same intensity and quality that I’ve seen us play with recently. We were second best for much of the game and while Ipswich were on their game and deserve credit, it’s hard not to feel like we could have done more to match them.
But, ultimately, it’s a loss away from home against a side challenging for automatic promotion. It’s not the end of the world and not the match to judge our campaign on. The same goes for us playing Southampton next week. A result would be lovely but it won’t define our season.
I’ve eluded to a lot of my frustrations in the tactics section. We knew what Ipswich would do – they play a very similar way every week – but never committed to an approach and it cost us. It almost cost us against Sunderland until they stepped off their game and we made braver changes. We can’t afford to give quality teams so much space in the centre of the park to open us up and have to tighten up one way or another, whether that’s the defence stepping on, moving towards more of a 4-3-3 out of possession or whatever the game requires.
The goals. I’ve seen a lot of slating of individuals. Here’s my take.
The first goal comes from us failing to get set higher up the pitch. We allow Ipswich, again, to beat our press, turn and get the ball out wide. We’ve let them do exactly what they want to do. Now forcing them wide isn’t a problem but it’s the way we allowed them to do it and because they throw so many bodies forward from deep, it’s difficult for our defence to get set. It was all far too easy.
The second has been the big talking point and Dembele has been lynched. The obvious thought is that Dembele should track Tuanzebe and there is no denying that he switches off. Tuanzebe receives the ball, Sanderson has to cover the front post leaving Sarmiento free and Chaplin cleverly gets across Miyoshi, who is trying to track the winger.
But others have to react as well. When you’re that close to the area, the game becomes almost positional as opposed to tracking runners. You almost want Laird to be able to follow the run with somebody (Bacuna) closing down the ball, knowing he has his two central midfielders and Miyoshi alongside him. Can Bacuna communicate to Laird? Can Sunjic pass on Bacuna knowing he’s ready to close wherever the ball goes next? Can JJ get across Chaplin’s run to stop him blocking Miyoshi’s path? Nobody really takes charge of the situation.
And the third one. It’s pretty normal that when you have a throw-in and a giant target to hit, you have one marking from behind and another that steps in front. There’s nothing wrong with the position. The issues are that Roberts simply doesn’t challenge in the air making it far too easy for Moore – soft defending. And whoever is at right-back at this point of the game (Gary Gardner?) should be on the cover. To be honest, I don’t think anybody knew where they were playing after Jutkiewicz replaced Sanderson so I’m not wholly bothered by it. It just looks terrible.
I definitely had questions about the substitutions. To finish a game with Marc Roberts, Ivan Sunjic, Gary Gardner and Lukas Jutkiewicz on the pitch was, shall we say, interesting. Why did Gardner come on at right-back when we had Ethan Laird at left-back and Lee Buchanan on the bench? Did Sunjic really need to replace Dozzell in the middle of midfield? It’s little surprise we stopped looking after the ball following the changes. I’m also surprised that with five central midfield options already in the squad, we lost Keshi Anderson, who has given us a little something every time he has entered the field. Especially when we didn’t use Scott Hogan, who replaced him.
One more note: a continued bugbear of mine is players showing a lack of willingness to get in the box. The amount of times Stansfield finds himself alone in the area is very frustrating – take a gamble at the back post. There was a teasing cross from Miyoshi late on that floated just above the central defender but Dembele and Bacuna were stood on the edge of the box. Stansfield was fuming. Just gamble.
I’m probably not doing well at making my initial point of calming down here. There just seemed to be a tirade of “we’re going down” or believing we’re f*cked without Tony Mowbray in the dugout and people just need to relax. We’re okay. We’ll be fine. We’re improving. Let’s not judge Venus on one game in the dugout away at a side pushing for the automatics. Let’s not judge him after Southampton either. There’s a reason that even combining Eustace and Mowbray’s points tallies across the games we have played, we still don’t sit in the play-offs and these are sides on for 90+ points.
Thanks Ryan, an excellent account as ever.