Its noticeable to most Ipswich fans that the team arent scoring with the regularity we saw earlier in the season. This is becoming particularly noticeable at home. Perhaps Jim needs more options available.
The season started with Jon Walters, Pablo Counago and Alan Lee scoring freely. By early December, all three players were on course for 20 goals from the season.
Fast forward three months and, with Walters leading on 12 goals, it seems unlikely that any of them will actually reach that 20 goal mark in the last 10 games. Alan Lee is currently just lifting himself out of a particularly poor goalscoring run that saw him lose his place in the first team. Pablo Counago is presently needing to lift himself out of a similar hole as he finds himself drifting in and out of first team contention. Even Walters is now apparently being nursed through each game, with an ongoing injury.
But Jim seems to have run out of alternatives. These three players have had a monopoly over the two striking positions for the entire season. When you consider that Walters will probably win the player of the year award as a result of his performances from right midfield, it really does emphasise the dearth of attacking options.
Neil Warnock has long employed a strategy of saturating his squad with forward options. The theory being that, in the Championship, forwards may have the requisite quality, but lack the consistency of their Premiership counterparts. With plenty of alternatives, it is possible to swap players in and out as they fall in and out of form and maintain a general level of quality throughout the season.
It all seems to emphasise the importance that now needs to be placed on bringing in another forward. Whilst David Nugent now looks unlikely, it could well prove that the play-offs are equally unlikely unless we can bring in another forward. Otherwise our season, like our forwards, may just run out of legs.
No comments:
Post a Comment