Despite the fact that they have yet to win a Premier League game, Ipswich Town are fighting tooth and nail to stay up.
Kieran McKenna’s men have only lost five games and drawn the other five, which is especially noteworthy given that they have already faced Liverpool, Manchester City, Brighton & Hove Albion, and Aston Villa.
However, with the league’s second-worst defence, the Tractor Boys’ chances of staying up this season will be primarily dependent on their attacking players, including one who has drawn comparisons to one of the league’s most exciting and costly attackers.
Ipswich’s top goalscorers
Before we get to the attacking skill in question, let’s have a look at the club’s leading goal scorers over the last two seasons, since their exploits have contributed significantly to the Suffolk side’s current status in the first division.
Conor Chaplin, a former Barnsley player, led the goalscoring charts in the club’s first promotion season in 22/23, scoring 26 goals in 45 League One games.
That means the Worthing-born sensation scored once per 1.73 league games, which likely explains how the Tractor Boys climbed from midtable to automatic promotion in a single year.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the 27-year-old led the club’s goalscoring records again the following season, with 13 in 44 Championship appearances, but he had to share the top spot with Nathan Broadhead.
In fact, while the Welsh international scored the same number of goals as the Englishman, he did so in just 38 games, giving him an average of 2.92 goals per game compared to Chaplin’s 3.38.
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This season, it appears like Ipswich will have a new top scorer, who could prove to be an invaluable asset.
Ipswich’s top scorer in 24/25
So, when it comes to the Ipswich attacker who may be the team’s top scorer this season, there is really only one option, at least based on what we’ve seen so far: Liam Delap.
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The “incredible” marksman, as Pep Guardiola put it, has already scored five goals in ten league outings for Mckenna’s team and has looked every bit the part of a top-flight centre-forward thus far.
In fact, he’s been compared to one of the league’s most promising young strikers, Manchester United’s Rasmus Hojlund.
The comparison comes from FBref, which examines players in similar positions across Europe’s top five leagues before compiling a ten-man list of the most comparable players, and in this case, it ranks the Danish international as the sixth most similar centre-forward to the Englishman.
You can get a better understanding of where they’re coming from by looking at the underlying numbers they identify as being the most similar between the two players, such as non-penalty expected goals plus assists, progressive passes and progressive passes received, goals per shot, goal-creating actions, attempted take-ons, carries, ball recoveries, and aerial duels won, all per 90.
Aside from statistics, you can observe similarities in how both players use their physical height to help them get into or exploit goalscoring situations before firing a shot.
Finally, it’s not a bad comparison to have, because not only did the Dane score 16 goals in his first season of English football last year, but Fotmob has valued him at €70 million (£58 million).
So, if he’s worth that much now, there is no reason to think Delap couldn’t be worth as much, if not more, in the years to come, especially if he continues to score at the rate he is now.
