Ipswich Town came agonisingly close to scooping up their first three Premier League points against Leicester City, only for the Foxes to spoil the Tractor Boys’ party right at the end.
Jordan Ayew would end up being the Leicester player who would strike fear into Ipswich’s hearts, as the ex-Crystal Palace man combined well with Jamie Vardy under pressure before finishing confidently past an otherwise rock-solid Arijanet Muric, who had made four saves in the game prior to this sucker punch.
Ipswich will be able to take some positives from this crushing draw, particularly standout defender Leif Davis’ performance, who scored what he thought would be a dramatic winner early in the second half, but Kalvin Phillips had another afternoon to forget for his new employers, adding to the early misery of his loan spell.
Phillips would not even see out the entire game for Kieran McKenna’s team, as the ten men fought valiantly late on following his removal, but ultimately fell short in their quest for an elusive league victory.
Phillips’ performance in numbers
The ex-Leeds United midfielder has struggled to adjust to his new surroundings at Portman Road, but McKenna has remained solid in his selection decisions about his new number eight, who has started seven Premier League games in a row for Ipswich prior to this one.
Of course, Phillips’ trend of starting games week in and week out will be disrupted due to a suspension, as he was sent off on the 77th minute for a high boot on Ricardo Pereira, earning him a second yellow card.
Aside from some questionable refereeing decisions that irritated both Phillips and McKenna, the 28-year-old struggled in the game, losing control 14 times and winning only five of his 13 duels.
Phillips’ suspension will allow his manager to consider alternatives in the holding midfield positions, as well as who he should select down the left wing, as Sammie Szmodics never got going against Steve Cooper’s players on this flank.
Szmodics’ performance in numbers
Szmodics has had an up-and-down season since moving to Suffolk this summer, with an incredible start that included a stunning strike away at Manchester City in August.
He has followed that up with another league goal in Ipswich’s recent frenetic 4-3 loss to Brentford in October, but the ex-Blackburn Rovers player was anonymous for long stretches against Leicester, when his team needed more creativity and flair to really push on to their first league win of the season.
Szmodics saw the game pass him by far too often, as players like Conor Chaplin had far more fun racing at the Leicester defence from a central attacking midfield position, rather than laying it off to the Ipswich number 23 on the left.
As can be seen from the table above, the Republic of Ireland international only had 20 touches of the ball in the 1-1 draw, which was less than Muric’s total for the day of 34, and only six accurate passes, as Szmodics failed to make an impact on the back-and-forth affair.
He did miss one big chance, which was his lone shot of the afternoon, but McKenna must be tempted to change things up on the left side after this quiet performance, with Jack Clarke being an obvious choice who is a better fit down the left than Szmodics.
McKenna can simply hope that whatever changes he makes for Ipswich’s next Premier League game bring a first league win of the season closer, but an away trip to Tottenham Hotspur will be a huge challenge for his low-confidence squad.
