Teddy Bishop is hoping he’s done enough to nail down one of the three central midfield slots at Ipswich Town.
The 24-year-old has impressed in pre-season, particularly when given the opportunity to play alongside fellow academy products Flynn Downes and Andre Dozzell in the Ipswich Town engine room.
As has been the case for much of the last five years, there’s significant competition in the centre of the Ipswich midfield, with Cole Skuse, Jon Nolan, Emyr Huws and Alan Judge all battling for places, but Bishop is hoping his direct running and attacking intent are enough to earn Paul Lambert’s trust.
“This competition is healthy, it really is,” the homegrown midfielder said.
“Everyone’s trying to out-do each other in training and the more quality players you have in the squad the better.
“But we all want to start. We have one sitter and two more attacking so I’ll definitely be looking to nail one of those two down this season.
“It suits me because I can get around the pitch and drive forward so I just want to get in there and stay in.”
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Bishop believes the emerging Town system, which has seen the Blues look to pass the ball, attack from all areas of the pitch and get up in support of the central striker, suits his game.
“We’ve worked a lot in training on our shape and how we want to play this season so that’s something we want to take into it,” he said.
“We’ve tried to do during pre-season but we’ve played some top teams (Tottenham and West Ham) so it can sometimes be hard to do that.
“But there were plenty of positives.”
He continued: “I’m feeling really good, just like I was during last pre-season before I got a freak (knee) injury in Germany.
“But I was coming on towards the end of last season and then I’ve put in a lot of hard work during the lockdown to put myself in a position to be ready for this season and I’m feeling great.
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“The timing of last season ending early killed me in many ways because I was just getting up to speed but that’s the way it is, there are bigger things in the world and we’re lucky to be back playing again now.
“We’re looking forward to the season.”
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