The Tractor Boys have been dealt with some serious injuries in recent weeks.
Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna has said that he would have liked to have more depth in a few different positions, following a tough run of games and a couple of bad injuries to his players.
The top three in the Championship just can’t seem to get out of their own way. If any of Ipswich, Leicester City or Leeds United had been able to carry the form that they have had for most of the season into this stage, then they might have already ran away with the league title.
Over the last five games, the trio has combined to drop 26 points. This puts the top of the second tier in an equally level situation as it was prior to this terrible run for all of the teams, and it has also introduced the prospect of Southampton causing an upset into the equation.
McKenna won the league’s Manager of the Season award over the weekend, following his team’s draw with Middlesbrough, and he reflected on one of the reasons why Town have stuttered at this stage of the season
Kieran McKenna on Ipswich’s depth issue
The 37-year-old said, after winning the award, that the lack of options that he has in some positions in his team has made the effect of the number of minutes that his squad has had to play in recent weeks worse.
Town have had the likes of George Hirst and Wes Burns suffer major injuries that will keep them out until the final couple of games of the season, at the earliest, as per McKenna, via EADT, and this has led to a lot of minutes for some of his players.
McKenna told the BBC: “Some of the boys have played five games in the last 15 days, played 90 minutes every game – we’d like to have a little more depth in one or two positions.
“That’s an awful lot of football and every game’s gone to the wire. We’re the team that runs the most in the league, the boys put everything into it physically, and I think we’ll come back from the period stronger.
“Now we’ve got a little bit of time to train, prepare, recover and then we can look forward to three games. We know it’s going to be really tough, but it’s something to relish and I know we’ll give it everything.”
Ipswich may be in need of an unlikely hero
Often, throughout these long, grueling seasons, there are players that pop up who have an outstanding run over a three or four-game stretch. Something like that could be exactly what Town need to get themselves over the line.
Despite failing to win any of their last three matches, Ipswich’s fate remains in their control. They have apparent heavy hitters on their roster, such as Conor Chaplin and Kieffer Moore, but things aren’t going well for them right now.
A spark plug performance from Ali-Al Hamadi, or even someone who is out of favour, such as Kayden Jackson, may be the catalyst they need to propel themselves into one of the top two positions.
