Ipswich Town's pre-season continued with a 2-1 win against Maidenhead United last night. Stuart Watson reflects on the action.
GETTING UP TO SPEED
This wasn't the slick, joined-up, dominant Ipswich Town we have come to know and love over the last few months.
There were several unforced errors during the goalless first half. It was all a bit laboured and scruffy.
After the restart, a different Town XI improved in attack but gave up an unusually large high of efforts on their goal too.
"That’s for a lot of reasons," said manager Kieran McKenna.
"We've pushed the players really hard in training this week and they probably came into the game very tired, to be honest.
"The pitch is very different to what we play on and we’re also challenging them with some different things to give a go on the pitch and see how it feels.
"The main thing is we got through the game with no injuries."
TACTICAL EXPERIMENTS
One thing that has been notable in Town's opening two pre-season games is the different role that Leif Davis has played.
Instead of bombing up and down the entirety of the left side, allowing whoever is in front of him to tuck inside, he's been given the freedom to drift into central areas.
Getting full-backs to join the midfield is very much in vogue at the moment, with Manchester City and Liverpool both doing it, and McKenna's decided to give it a trial.
Another thing the Blues look to be doing slightly differently is getting one of their two deeper midfielders taking up a much higher starting position.
McKenna constantly urged Cameron Humphreys to 'join the No.10 when we're building' during the first period. Jack Taylor then took on that hybrid midfield role after the break.
"We’ve been working on a few variations, not loads,” said the Blues boss, whose fluid and flexible systems are always difficult to label.
"We have different variations within our system anyway but we’ve been working on just trying things out in these games.
"We know a lot of the stuff that we did last year really well, so we’re just giving the players some different options and different variations that could help us at different times of the season. Games like this are a good chance to have a look at those things.
"We don’t expect or necessarily need for it to look perfect today or next week.”
SHAKING OFF THE RUST
Dominic Ball, again playing at centre-back, and Lee Evans looked particularly rusty during the first half.
That's understandable. Both players missed large chunks of last season due to knee injuries and are still finding their rhythm again. It will come.
Evans let out a yelp of frustration when one reverse pass went straight into touch. Once his eye is back in, that ability to hit big switches and clip first time balls over the top from deep could be a crucial weapon. Those moments stretch teams and get defenders facing their own goal.
Ball's ability to play in defence or midfield, allied with his three seasons of Championship experience at QPR and leadership qualities, make him a very useful asset too.
This was also the first pre-season outings for Cameron Burgess, Taylor, Wes Burns and Nathan Broadhead after they sat out the previous weekend's 6-0 win at Felixstowe.
All of the above will be better for 45 minutes in the legs.
FOUR ABSENTEES AND A NEW FACE
Even with Corrie Ndaba, Idris El Mizouni and Gassan Ahadme having been loaned out, McKenna still currently has 24 senior outfield players at his disposal.
The four to miss out last night were Sam Morsy, Elkan Baggott, Panutche Camara and Joe Pigott.
“Samy Morsy’s trained really well this week, I just wanted to look at other players in this game," explained McKenna, when asked about the skipper's absence.
Meanwhile, he revealed that Baggott and Camara are both set to be loaned out and that Pigott is in discussions with the club about his future (meaning he could well follow Rekeem Harper in having his contract terminated by mutual consent).
An unfamilar player watched this game from the balcony of the Needham Market clubhouse. That was Manchester City youngster Cieran Slicker, who is set to join the club on a permanent basis and become the club's third-choice keeper.
FREDDIE'S FIRING
Freddie Ladapo has now got three goals in two pre-season games. This latest one was an expert near post volleyed finish on the run.
It doesn't matter who they come against, strikers always take confidence from finding the net. Big Fred will be keen to show people - as he did in a struggling Rotherham side - that he is capable of scoring regularly at Championship level.
A shout out to Marcus Harness too. Having had a hand in three of Town's goals at Felixstowe, he again looked sharp and took his low finish down the right side of the box well.
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