Looking back throughout this season it is difficult to take any positives from the point of view of an Ipswich fan.

Consistently inconsistent has been the phrase used most to describe Ipswich of late and at times it has been hard to watch. To cut a long story short, the management has admitted to making mistakes and results have suffered. It isn’t all doom and gloom though, next season will bring a fresh start and there will be some new faces in the team.

As usual, expectations were very high at the start of the season and a top six finish didn’t seem like an unrealistic ambition. In the opening game of the season Ipswich managed to thrash Bristol City 3-0 with Chopra making a great start by scoring twice. This early result showed what the team could potentially achieve when things went their way and everyone was excited by the thought of a possible return to the Premier League after a 10 year absence. However, something obviously went drastically wrong very early on.

Opposing teams could work out Paul Jewell’s game plan very easily and exploited the tactical holes that existed within the side. Besides the tactical issues, the trouble was that the team only had a couple players who were threatening going forward and even fewer defensively strong players. It was obvious that Carlos Edwards wasn’t playing in his natural position and was often caught too far forward at right back. At left back the young Aaron Cresswell was impressive but still had a lot to learn at the start of the season and experienced players gave him a hard time in some games. Even more problems existed within the central defence as there seemed to be a real lack of leadership and communication, which is essential to maintaining a good back line.

Further up the field, opposing teams worked out that only a couple of Ipswich’s midfielders were capable of passing the ball with the accuracy and variety to break teams down and they found it easy to win the midfield battle. This then caused problems going forward as Chopra really struggled for goals just as much as the team struggled for results. After so many defeats the team looked completely disjointed and were playing with no confidence what so ever. By December any realistic play-off hopes were gone and the team looked more like lower league players struggling to compete, rather than the promotion candidates they were hyped up to be.

Once the team stopped the rot and made a heroic comeback at Barnsley things did start to improve and there have been positives to take from the season. Finishing 15th is always going to be disappointing when originally everyone thought the team would be at least in the top half but the second half of the season has produced some good results and some good performances from certain players. The development of Aaron Cresswell has been the main highlight of the season and the former Tranmere man has clearly learnt a lot since the start of the season. He generally doesn’t get caught out as much going forward and uses his pace very efficiently to stop counter attacks from hurting the team.

Jay Emmanuel-Thomas has also been another player who is looking promising and has started to show his worth in the second half of the season. It will be very interesting to see how these two young players start next season but without a doubt their development has been one of the few positives to take from this season. It has to be said that the more experienced players that were brought in have been very disappointing. Lee Bowyer hasn’t ever been above average and is not a popular choice amongst the fans, Jimmy Bullard hasn’t managed to recapture the performances he showed in his previous time on loan at Ipswich and Ibrahima Sonko has declined after having some solid displays early on. Michael Chopra has been a difficult one to judge as the striker has found a fair few goals but is often criticised for not putting away more, given the amount of chances he has had as a lone striker. It is important to remember that Chopra has had a lot of personal problems this season though, so to finish the season with 14 league goals is something to be proud of. It is difficult to see any of those older players produce anything special next season apart from Chopra who is always fairly reliable when it comes to goal scoring.

Taking the season has a whole, obviously it has been one to forget with very little to get excited about. The important thing for fans to remember is that things can only really improve as money will be invested into the team and hopefully Jewell will spend that money wisely. Hopefully, next season will bring a bit more excitement and if things go well it will make it easier to forget the tough seasons like this one.

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