Ipswich Town has now lost back-to-back Premier League games by a single goal, as Oliver Glasner’s Crystal Palace edged the Tractor Boys on a frigid winter’s night at Portman Road.
Palace won 1-0 thanks to a superb Jean-Philippe Mateta strike, which came after the number 14 wriggled free of several Ipswich markers before delicately lifting the ball past Arijanet Muric.
Kieran McKenna was hoping for one of his players to come up big in a similar way, but it was a disappointing result for his team, with a lot of Ipswich jerseys underwhelming.
Ipswich’s underperformers vs Palace
Even Liam Delap was unable to pump life into the Premier League strugglers’ attempts to secure a result, with all three of the former Manchester City striker’s strikes failing to find Dean Henderson’s net.
In actuality, the Suffolk side had a bad overall performance in the forward areas, with Omari Hutchinson looking sluggish in the number ten role, trailing a misfiring Delap, who squandered possession 19 times.
There were some positives to cling to defensively, with Jacob Greaves standing out as a forceful presence in the heart of defence, winning 12 duels, but it wouldn’t matter much given Ipswich’s lack of end product on the other end.
Furthermore, despite Greaves’ impressive stats, Mateta was able to saunter through and break Ipswich hearts with his solitary score, dropping McKenna’s side to 19th place in the league standings.
The furious Tractor Boys leader may need to be more ruthless with his team selections in the future to get more out of his up-and-down soldiers, with Wes Burns on the verge of being fired following a terrible performance against the Eagles.
Burns’ performance in numbers
Aside from Delap repeatedly fluffing his lines and Hutchinson constantly losing possession, Burns failed to get going against Glasner’s guests, which hampered his team’s attempts to create an opening down the right wing.
With only one assist since his promotion to the Premier League, it’s possible that the Welshman isn’t made out for the massive step-up in quality from the EFL, as the uninspired Ipswich number seven failed to strike fear into the Palace defence anytime he ventured forward.
| Burns’ performance in numbers | |
|---|---|
| Stat | Burns |
| Minutes played | 66 |
| Goals scored | 0 |
| Assists | 0 |
| Shots | 1 |
| Touches | 33 |
| Accurate passes | 8/13 (62%) |
| Accurate crosses | 1/8 |
| Possession lost | 15x |
| Total duels won | 2/3 |
| Stats by Sofascore | |
Looking at the table above, Burns’ 33 touches were fewer than Muric’s 51, and the experienced attacker frequently failed to beat the first man when firing crosses into the box, resulting in only one accurate cross out of eight attempts.
Also giving up possession 15 times, it wasn’t surprising to see East Anglian Daily Times journalist Alex Jones give the 30-year-old a 5/10 post-match rating, as his right wing spot could now be taken up by a new face for Ipswich’s next league match against AFC Bournemouth.
Beloved in Suffolk for his heroics last season on the route to promotion, Burns contributed an impressive 10 goals in the Championship, but it’s evident that the Premier League may be too much for the out-of-sorts forward to handle.
As a result, McKenna may introduce a new face into the XI next, as he will want to see how his team reacts when the Cherries visit Portman Road shortly.
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