How did Ipswich cope with the start to life in the Championship? Sunderland — Ipswich analysed:
After 4 years in League One, Ipswich were finally back in the 2nd tier & they kicked off against last year’s 6th placed team, Sunderland, at a sell out Stadium of Light.
The reality check -
After so long outside of the Championship, seeing the speed & quality of play against Ipswich was a firm reality check. Ipswich really struggled in the first 20 mins & all over the pitch you could the monumental step up in quality from the top League One sides, let alone those languishing in the bottom half.
Sunderland started well, they had 1v1 threats all over the pitch & were escaping any pressure that we applied, none the least Patrick Roberts & Jack Clarke on either wing who’s dribbling ability over long & shorter spaces was extremely impressive.
As well as this dynamism on the ball, Sunderland also had superb intensity off it & Ipswich really struggled to match Sunderland’s intensity on & off the ball. Sunderland’s press from our build up was quick & coordinated and their counter pressing when losing the ball was equally as good — at one point there were 5 players surrounding Chaplin on the edge of his box just as he received the ball.
As seen below Sunderland were committing bodies when we played out from Hladky, in this situation we played the goal kick to Hladky so Sunderland couldn’t force their press to one side:
We didn’t help ourselves though, when we eventually got the ball we were extremely sloppy with it — needlessly giving the ball even when we weren’t under pressure.
Below are many examples where we ever took too long on the ball or played poor passes:
This touch map from WhoScored really demonstrated our poor start on the ball in the first 15 mins, a huge majority in our own third with little to no impact in Sunderland’s half.
For the first 15 mins we really had no periods of settled play, as mentioned before this was a mix of Sunderland’s press & our sloppy play. As well as this our forward players didn’t really help us out with our build up — Broadhead & Chaplin rarely dropped, instead staying higher for a moment in transition, & when they did get the ball they were very poor with it & lost it a lot.
Around the 20 minute mark we had a good period of possession, this lasted around a minute but not once did the ball get into Sunderland’s half, this really highlighted our ball progression issues in the first quarter of the game (quarter of the original 90 mins anyway…..). Every time we played the ball into Morsy & Luongo’s feet they were instantly pressed & we were constantly having to play wall passes back to the CB’s/FB’s.
We were also struggling to get the ball off Sunderland, when they were building we were quite passive with the height of our press which allowed them to control possession with their CB’s. Sunderland also looked to overload central areas & the half spaces a lot in build up before playing it wide.
Ekwah was playing at the base of Sunderland’s midfield (how good is he by the way…) & Bellingham & Neil were slightly higher as the 8’s. Roberts was often rotating with Neil with one of them being higher & wider. In addition to this, their RB Trai Hume was looking to move inside at times to help with that central overload & free up that space for the magical Roberts to receive the ball free.
Off the ball shape —
This moves me on quite nicely to our off the ball shape & how we looked to set up.
We were generally setup in our standard 442/4231 shape when in a mid block but this time round we rarely went into a high block & had a few different pressing triggers— showing McKenna’s adaptability.
Normally Burns & Chaplin are our main triggers of the press, we will try force the opposition to pass down our right side & then either of the two will step up to press. Chaplin will press their LCB while covering the DM he was originally marking & Burns will press their LCB while covering the LB he was originally marking. But we didn’t see much of that on Sunday, perhaps to protect our right side against the double edged sword of Cirkin & Clarke down Sunderland’s left.
Instead we saw a compact block that didn’t shift out much until the ball went down our left side. The key cog in this pressing trigger was Leif Davis stepping out of the backline aggressively to close down any passes that went to whoever was deep right for Sunderland while Broadhead was covering the inside, one example is shown below:
This actually created what would’ve been a really good opportunity had George Hirst not play himself offside.
This aggression in his pressing is also shown below with a large number of his defensive actions coming in the opposition half.
As well as Davis stepping up, the rest of our left side needed to coincide with this trigger & one of Burgess or Luongo would tag onto the roaming Roberts.
This could also be Davis stepping up centrally though, when Broadhead pressed wide & Luongo applied pressure on the ball, Davis would step up to mark Roberts.
As displayed in the 2nd image this did open up a decent amount down the right wing which Sunderland just did not exploit, they had a real lack of off the ball runners across the pitch to make those runs. This did mean that we could continue with our aggression down the left side with our press.
Now looking at the right side, we see how passive Burns was in the press. He’s holding his position a lot in these photos instead of pressing to try & cut off passing lanes. Donacien even presses Cirkin in one example while Wes waits inside. He is also seen in what looks like more of a central 3 later on in the game.
Another thing that I was really impressed with was our reaction to losing the ball & Sunderland having an opportunity to transition; we were very good at slowing them down & if not, we regrouped into our block really quickly.
On the topic of our off the ball contribution, I think Luongo needs a mention. His ball winning ability is unbelievable, even at this level, & he showcased it well on Sunday:
Ipswich’s offensive threat & effectiveness —
Next up, I thought I’d focus on how threatening we were at creating chances once we got into the Sunderland half & got beyond their 1st line of pressure.
As previously mentioned, we really struggled to get beyond Sunderland’s press & when we had the ball it was generally in deep areas — shown below in the team pass map (shows only completed passes) & the lack of progressive passes:
As the game went on we did start to break that press more & more, Sunderland’s pressing intensity lessened & it allowed us to come back into the game after a tricky start (the lower the number, the more passes they allowed us to have without a defensive action).
Despite a lack of getting past Sunderland’s press we were electric once we did. One stat that really stands out is the number of attacks we converted into shots — last season we averaged 34 attacks positional attacks (starts in own half) & 1.4 counter attacks per game, our conversion rate of these was 28% & 42% respectively. On Sunday we had 17 positional attacks, registering 8 shots & had 3 counter attacks, registering 3 shots which comes out at a conversion rate of 47% & 100% respectively. Albeit this is a small sample size but that’s a huge outlier & shows how impressive we were when we got forwards.
Our first real attack of the game resulted in a Davis shot being cleared off the line & was a result of Broadhead receiving the ball between the lines & getting it wide before flooding the box.
Here’s another breakaway 10 mins later, Hirst fluffed his lines & really should’ve done better with this one…
A nice period of play where we finally get it into our half for more than a minute creates this chance for Chaplin, some lovely combination play between a few players in the lead up to this.
This continued later into the game when Sunderland went down to 10 men, this chance was just minutes before Sunderland got 1 goal back & we really should’ve killed it here.
We also somehow mess up this chance in the dying minutes…once again showing our continuous threat on the break.
Summary
In summary I thought we played quite well although we really struggled with our ball progression, hopefully Harry Clarke’s return gives us some burst at RB in those situations. I thought we were decent value for the win but it really could’ve gone either way, xG wise it looked like Sunderland deserved it but that doesn’t really account for the game state (us sitting on a lead) & that we were completely robbed of a penalty at 2–0 up. Neither of the late Ladapo or Hutchinson chances will have been a high xG either & perhaps would’ve been easy goals had better decisions been made.
Overall a very pleasing win in our return to the Championship, not one I was entirely expecting against a Sunderland team that impressed me. Thought they lacked some threat in behind, especially from the 10 position, & that big striker void in & outside of the box, hopefully Stewart can address this when he returns from his injury.
