Ipswich Town fan Russell Claydon looks at some damning statistics that spell big trouble

Published on 24/01/2013 13:27

Having scored the least amount of goals in the league, it was little surprise to see strikers herded in as soon as the transfer window opened.

But with all the Prozone statistics available now, one should be jumping off the screen at Playford Road.

Just one 10th of Ipswich’s 28 goals have come from the midfield.

Incredibly, only Luke Hyam (1), Guirane N’Daw (1) and Jay Emmanuel-Thomas (1) have weighed in so far.

If they were laying on a hatfull it might be an invalid point, but only Lee Martin (5), Carlos Edwards (3) and Andy Drury (3) have set up more than two goals.

We have the worst goal difference (-21) and have used the most players (32), but securing a goalscoring midfielder who could finally provide some decent service to our new strikers would go a long way to ensure Championship survival.

In Jacob Mellis, Barnsley showed how a player with an eye for a killer pass could gift a striker all the ammunition needed for those three precious points.

Thankfully, they fell to Marlon Harewood, who wouldn’t have looked out of place in our midfield!

This week saw the club announce they have settled Jason Scotland’s contract.

But to do this when he is attracting attention in a transfer window seems to me to be from the same school of football sense as Southampton sacking Nigel Adkins.

Meanwhile, it’s a case of beware the new manager effect again on Saturday as Sean O’Driscoll looks to follow David Flitcroft’s lead.

Anything but a win at Bristol City would pull us back into troubled waters.

But to avoid that a lot needs to change from Saturday, including the creativity, or distinct lack of it, from an under-performing midfield.

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Ipswich Town fan Russell Claydon looks at some damning statistics that spell big trouble

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