Ipswich Town’s return to the Championship has been anything but smooth.
Following their relegation from the Premier League last season, Ipswich lost a number of key players in the summer transfer window, including Axel Tuanzebe, Cameron Burgess, Sam Morsy, Omari Hutchinson, Nathan Broadhead, and Liam Delap.
However, following a summer spending spree that included the arrival of a number of big-money signings such as Darnell Furlong, Azor Matusiwa, Marcelino Nunez, Kasey McAteer, and Sindre Walle Egeli, as well as the high-profile loan additions of Cedric Kipre, Jens Cajuste, Chuba Akpom, and Ivan Azon, the Tractor Boys were widely expected to win the Championship title this season.
Despite the transfer window chaos, Ipswich made a poor start to the season, failing to win any of their first four games, and while their record has improved since then, they have yet to reach the heights many predicted.
The Tractor Boys are presently fifth in the table, but they are eight points behind second-placed Middlesbrough and 13 points behind leaders Coventry City, so the festive season will be critical if they are to keep their automatic promotion ambitions alive.
The supercomputer forecasts where Ipswich Town will finish in the Championship this season.
With more than half of the Championship season remaining, there is still plenty of room for change in the promotion race, but Opta Analyst has forecast where each team will finish at the end of the season.
According to their supercomputer, Ipswich will finish third in the table this season with 74 points, missing out on automatic promotion by a significant margin, with second-placed Middlesbrough accumulating 82 points and champions Coventry amassing 92 points.
According to Opta, the Tractor Boys have a 1.98% chance of winning the title this season and a 15.74% chance of automatic promotion, while Kieran McKenna’s side has a 54.46% chance of clinching promotion through the play-offs.
If the table is right, Ipswich would face sixth-placed Leicester City in the play-off semi-finals before meeting either Preston North End or Millwall in the final at Wembley Stadium, where they would be favourites.
Given the club’s lofty ambitions this season, the Tractor Boys may be disappointed by their predicted third-place finish, but supporters will undoubtedly be relieved to see that their bitter rivals, Norwich City, will be relegated to League One, with the Canaries projected to finish second-bottom with only 47 points.
Ipswich Town must improve one thing to prove the supercomputer prediction incorrect.
Ipswich may boast the most talented side in the Championship on paper, but a lack of consistency has prevented them from mounting a real drive for automatic promotion so far this season.
The Tractor Boys’ slow start to the season was acceptable considering that they were still active in the transfer market until the conclusion of the year, but fans may have expected more progress than they have achieved in the following months.
Ipswich have had a number of standout performances this season, including a 5-0 demolition of Sheffield United in September, a 3-1 victory over Norwich in the East Anglian derby in October, and a recent 3-0 win over leaders Coventry, but they have frequently failed to back up those statement results.
Following back-to-back home victories over Coventry and Stoke City, the Tractor Boys were beaten 3-1 at Leicester City on Saturday in a performance littered with costly errors, and McKenna would have been furious, especially given the fact that his side appeared to be gaining momentum.
While Opta may not estimate Ipswich’s chances of automatic promotion at this point, the depth of their squad and previous promotion experience could be crucial in the second half of the season if they can find more consistency.
xz
