We don’t tend to have many of these, so this was a nice stress free afternoon. I can’t remember too many occasions where we went into the second half knowing that the game was already won, usually we’re 0-0 or losing. More of this please, Reds.
Of course we won’t be playing teams as poor as Ipswich too often. Watching this it was easy to see how they conceded six last week against City. We could have easily matched that if we’d been inclined to push for it, but we settled for four and that’s fine. More would have been nice, but at this stage of the season, playing twice a week every week, it’s entirely understandable that there is a bit of easing off.
While Ipswich were poor (understandably so they were in League One the season before last) I do think we’ve seen an encouraging pattern in the last two and a half league games. Forest, Brentford and Ipswich have all just put everybody behind the ball and tried to keep us out while hoping for counter attacks. Usually, that’s really hard to break down, but we’ve had a million shots in those two and a half games.
Getting good quality chances against a team defending that deep and with all eleven players basically in and around their own box is not easy and it’s often frustrating. But look what we’ve done since that second half at Forest. We’ve absolutely fucking pummelled all three opponents in terms of creating decent quality chances. I’m really encouraged by that as it is something I remember reading about how it’s a strength of Slot when he first arrived. We’re seeing that now. He knows how to break down that kind of stubborn defence.
That being said, I don’t think Ipswich were particularly good at it. I have no idea what they were trying to do really. Defending really deep with eleven behind the ball, and then when they get a goal kick they’re trying to play out from the back and not getting anywhere, meaning the entire first half was played in their final third. They couldn’t get out, which surely can’t have been a surprise to McKenna as he’s one of the best coaches around. He surely didn’t think they could just play through us from back to front and get themselves up the pitch?
I would have expected them to do what the likes of United, Forest and Brentford did, which is to go long and try to get up the pitch that way. Not to take risks by playing out when we’ve got our entire team camped in their half. The second half was a little different and they did get a bit of possession in our half, but that was down to us dropping our tempo a little.
The first half took place entirely in the Ipswich half and I don’t remember them getting anywhere near our goal. Delap is someone who I’ve been really impressed with this season as he’s a handful. Very fast, direct, strong and a real threat. No word of a lie, he looked like a pub player in this game. Like a Poundland Ollie McBurnie.
Credit for that goes to Van Dijk and (especially) Konate who just manhandled him. I wouldn’t hold that against Delap as he had no support and just wasn’t a match for Konate. What I would hold against him is the pathetic diving and falling over his own feet any time he did actually have an opportunity to get on the ball. Like I say, he looked like a pub player.
We were really good and swarmed them so much that counter attacking was impossible for them. As soon as we lost the ball, we were on them and they just gave it back to us. If they tried to hit Delap then Konate or Virgil just took his lunch money and away we went again.
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