Mulch

There are eleven names I’m pretty confident I will be able to reel off when I’m 90: Walton, Clarke, Woolfenden, Burgess, Davis, Morsy, Luongo, Broadhead, Chaplin, Burns and Hirst. There are three more who came in prior to promotion – Hladky, Tuanzebe and Hutchinson – but that basic eleven are the back-to-back boys.

You knew most were unlikely to be obvious, uncontested starters this season. Harry Clarke had already lost his place by the Championship run in. Massimo Luongo in the left centre midfield role had been a clear candidate for replacement for over a year. Most of the rest would be providing competition for places and hoping to impress when they got the opportunity. As unjust as it is, we all knew that we weren’t likely to try and stay up with what got us here and it would not have been fair on them to even try.

For me, when they have appeared most have enhanced their reputations. They all, rightfully, had a tonne of goodwill and having spent the bulk of their career not even in the second tier, looking at home in a Premier League fixture was usually enough for a good review. The two centre backs – Luke Woolfenden and Cameron Burgess – have both played more than 1000 minutes and can consider themselves a little unfortunate not to have appeared more.  Christian Walton did little wrong in his six Premier League starts. All three had games where they made us look more composed and more organised, tending to avoid our most embarrassing defeats.

We replaced the forwards, but all four nevertheless had moments where they looked a proper threat to a Premier League defence. At times Nathan Broadhead, Conor Chaplin, Wes Burns and George Hirst all seemed potentially better options than the new recruits for whom they were now nominally understudies (well, maybe not George). Yet, in a way it was easier for those seven players to come away from their season feeling pretty decent about their contributions. They weren’t carrying the burden of being first team regulars. We knew some would fall by the wayside and hoped some would exceed expectations.

Only two names from the eleven were firmly written on our 2024-25 team sheets right from the start – Sam Morsy and Leif Davis. The former has had his critics at times this season. Midfield has been an area where we have struggled physically to compete and a 33-year-old who had never played in the top flight was an obvious player to query. Yet, I still think there’s room for sympathy here with Sam somewhat a victim of our recruitment going awry. Morsy has started 26 of our 33 games, Kalvin Phillips 14. You wonder if those numbers reversed, whether Morsy’s rarer appearances might have been more dynamic. Most of Morsy’s starts have come with Jens Cajuste and you also wonder if a more defensively active partner (like vintage Phillips) might have aided his cause.

Leif, though. It was not supposed to be like this. Davis was our shining star throughout the back-to-back promotions. He was the one player we did not even attempt to replace or even really challenge. No-one in the 2024-25 Ipswich Town squad was more obviously “a backup” than Conor Townsend. Leif was the one player in the eleven we were sure was a nailed-on starter. He was going to be the all-action wing back who would take the division by storm and have us calling for international recognition.

In part that level of expectation has been a problem. Davis’ attacking numbers were exceptional last season. The guy whose assist record he bust now has 54 England caps, a La Liga winners medal and two European Championship runners up medals. Sure, he was exposed defensively a few times – Leeds away – but that was surely a product of how much we asked of him offensively? Davis was often our most advanced attacking player and even out-of-possession he was asked to press high and push back opposition wingers. It was natural that you would occasionally find him caught up the pitch.

Davis’ Premier League season did not start so terribly. Sure, it was his ill-advised tackle against Manchester City that started the rout there, but going the other way he should have had a penalty to get us back into the game. He registered his first assist at home to Fulham, a simple but clever pass to allow Liam Delap to begin his driving run at the Cottagers’ defence. He wasn’t notably a defensive weak link in the half dozen games that followed, registering a further assist against Brentford with a raking deep cross. In the next game Davis scored a wonderful volley to give us the lead against Leicester and the Foxes undeserved late equaliser probably cost him a lot of very favourable write-ups.

Prior to December it was not obvious at all that Davis was going to be a significant problem for us defensively. None of the goals Ipswich conceded against Spurs, Man U, Forest, Palace or Bournemouth were conspicuously his fault. Only Marcus Rashford’s early goal at Portman Road even initiated down his side and it was actually Cajuste’s missed tackle that allowed Amad Diallo to scurry down the right.

The Newcastle home game started the narrative. Davis, presumably following instructions, pressed high from kick off, Newcastle turned over possession and Cameron Burgess was left un-assisted to deal with Jacob Murphy, who crossed for Alexander Isak’s first goal. We conceded three more that day and Davis was not really at fault for any of the rest, but he subsequently became the focus for pundits looking to understand the flaws in Ipswich’s game plan.

As it became clearer that Ipswich weren’t going to be good enough to avoid relegation, the search began for an explanatory narrative. Criticisms of promoted teams usually have a set formula – their failings are attributed to an excess of ambition, a commitment to playing principles beyond their station. Ipswich’s flying left back became a thing to highlight and Davis began to make more regular appearances as our major flaw. Leif conceded the equalising penalty at Fulham a few weeks later, shortly after getting caught ahead of the ball supporting Jack Clarke in attack. The Spurs home game saw more criticism, with Brennan Johnson running off him twice for the first two goals.

Arsenal at the weekend was the nadir. Collectively, our left-hand side never looked for one second like it would be able to cope with Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard. For the first Odegaard drove past Cajuste, committed Davis, then slipped in Saka, whose first time cross found Leandro Trossard ready to score through Dara O’Shea legs. For the second it was Trossard and Saka overloading our left, Davis leaping into Trossard just after the Belgian had killed the ball instantly with one touch then flipped the ball expertly over Leif’s head to Saka. Saka breezed past Jacob Greaves and fed Odegaard to backheel the ball to Gabriel Martinelli to tap home.

It was already a chastening afternoon for everybody involved but the coup de grace was yet to come. I don’t think there’s any footballer who hasn’t been tempted to get a bit more physical when you have spent the last half hour getting the runaround. Davis looked to get tight and snap into Saka from behind, landed his tackle late and high, earning himself a red card. It didn’t look much at full speed from the stands and the seemingly uninjured Saka threw himself into the air rather dramatically, which is why he got booed and Davis got politely applauded off the pitch. Maybe if some people watched a bit more football in person they might understand how these things happen.

Davis has had a rough old time of it since December. The defensive stuff is one thing but he even looks hamstrung going forward. There have been no assists and no goals since that Leicester volley and though the overall numbers for chance creation look fine, the big openings from open play aren’t really appearing. Being villain du jour for an ill-judged tread on someone’s heel (which was hardly Mbappe levels of outrageous) against one of the big media faves (and possibly the biggest pearl-clutchers in world football) was the absolute last thing he needed.  

No one at the club needs a reset more than he does. In part, he’s been a victim of his own success. As Jonathan Wilson noted this week, “This is the Trent Alexander-Arnold dilemma but at a weaker club; Davis would probably be a very useful attacking left-back for a stronger side but after promotion he became the wrong left-back for a team battling relegation.” Promoted twice in a very attacking team, everyone around the club assumed he would continue to be one of our best players and most valuable assets and when that didn’t happen, he was still left alone starting all but 3 of our league matches.

No rest, not really any rotation and not much support really. Our left-hand side has revolved chaotically. Six different players – Hutchinson, Szmodics, Clarke, Broadhead, Philogene and Enciso – have started in the attacking role in front of him. Most of the time he has had Jacob Greaves, another player still finding his feet at the level, backing him up. The centre midfielder responsible for reinforcing our left side – Jens Cajuste – has proven limited defensively, ranking in the bottom quarter of Premier League midfielders for tackles made, bottom third for duels won. Cajuste, like Davis, may just have been the wrong profile of player for a club battling the drop.

Players always get better in our minds when they’re absent and cameos, especially off the bench, always tend to bring easier praise. Conversely, 30 games in a Premier League relegation season is a lot of exposure, especially when you are the star player. Whatever hopes we had for him, we probably shouldn’t forget that he came from the same place as the rest of our promotion heroes and surely needs some of the same patience and good will.