Ipswich Town are struggling to accrue points so far this season, sitting 18th in the Premier League after 12 games played.
However, the Tractor Boys have been putting in some good performances, beating Tottenham 2-1 before the international break, and putting up a fight against the likes of Aston Villa and Brighton.
Kieran McKenna’s side drew 1-1 with Manchester United during Ruben Amorim’s first gam, generating a higher xG in the match, and creating three big chances, compared to the two big chances United managed.
The star of the show happened to be Omari Hutchinson…
Omari Hutchinson’s dazzling performance
Ipswich’s goal came from Hutchinson on the day, who fired home his first Premier League goal into the top left corner, but it wasn’t just his goal that impressed during the performance.
Hutchinson, having spent last season on loan with Ipswich in the Championship, joined on a permanent basis from Chelsea this summer, for a fee of around £20m but perhaps saved his best performance for the visit of the Red Devils.
Against Manchester United, the attacker impressively won seven of his 14 ground duels, made one key pass, completed one long ball, and succeeded with two of his four dribble attempts.
The youngster was a constant threat, playing as the number ten, drifting either side to collect the ball and run at the United backline.
But, despite the former Arsenal academy gem being the goalscorer, there was another performance against ManUnited that stood out, and it was at the other end of the pitch.
Dara O’Shea’s performance in numbers
Dara O’Shea was signed from Burnley over the summer, joining for a fee of around £15m. The 25-year-old has made ten appearances since joining the club, contributing to one clean sheet so far.
The Tractor Boys haven’t been amazing defensively but this was a fine performance from the Irishman. Indeed, the defender was given an 8/10 rating for his performance against Manchester United by the East Anglian Times, after winning 100% of his duels in the game and putting in some crucial blocks and tackles.
O’Shea vs Man Utd performance | |
|---|---|
Stat | O’Shea |
Minutes | 90 |
Touches | 76 |
Accurate Passes | 50/62 |
Long Balls | 3/6 |
Ground Duels Won | 5/5 |
Aerial Duels Won | 5/5 |
Clearances | 5 |
Blocks | 1 |
Interceptions | 2 |
Tackles | 4 |
Stats taken from Sofascore | |
O’Shea won five out of five ground duels, and perhaps even more impressively, won five out five aerial duels, putting in a dominant performance at the back for Ipswich, playing a relatively faultless game after conceding just two minutes into the clash.
The 6 foot 1 defender isn’t the tallest, but has a knack for winning aerial duels, averaging 3.30 per 90, with a 61.5% win rate.
But the Irish defender gets stuck in with ground duels too, making four tackles in the game, and reading play well to ensure he arrived on time to make timely challenges to stop United attacks. O’Shea has averaged 2.50 tackles + interceptions this season, showing his defensive qualities for the Tractor Boys.
Ipswich has managed to assemble a pretty strong defensive unit on paper after coming up from the Championship, with Leif Davis continuing at left-back, Axel Tuanzebe continuing at right-back, and the new centre-back pairing of O’Shea and Jacob Greaves being assembled.
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