Talking Tactics | Ipswich Town v Swansea City

Swansea City travel to Portman Road to face Ipswich Town on Saturday (3pm) for their final league game before the international break.

Ahead of the action, WhoScored.com preview the fixture, taking a look at what to expect from the Ipswich, the key battle and a key stat.

What to expect from Ipswich

After securing promotion to the Championship via the automatic places, Ipswich have made a fantastic start to the season and have already established themselves as a strong promotion contender.

Kieran McKenna’s side have enjoyed 11 wins from their opening 15 matches this season, with just the one defeat coming at the hands of Leeds back in August.

Since that defeat, the Tractor Boys have built up an 11-game unbeaten streak, including eight wins and three draws, and sit in second position behind Leicester, on 36 points.

They have already built an eight-point cushion between themselves and third position, and that is a testament to their strong start.

Ipswich have been an exciting side to watch this season and currently lead the league for goals scored. They’ve found the back of the net on 33 occasions already, at least four more than any other side.

Nathan Broadhead is Ipswich’s current top scorer with six goals in the campaign so far for the Welshman. They do tend to share the goals around though, and have in fact seen goals scored from a total of 14 different scorers already in the Championship.

It may only be McKenna’s second full season in charge at Portman Road, and first in the Championship, but he knows how he wants his team to play and it’s clearly quite effective.

Ipswich have set up in a 4-2-3-1 in all of their 15 games so far in the league. Captain Sam Morsy and Massimo Luongo have been the anchors in midfield, allowing the likes of Broadhead and Conor Chaplin the freedom to rove around in support of George Hirst up front.

Key Battle

Ipswich have not been shy of trying their luck in front of goal, and currently boast the highest average number of shots per game in the league with 17.5.

This doesn’t come as much of a surprise, with Ipswich the top scorers in the league with 29 goals already, but Swansea have been the more clinical of the sides, having scored 20 goals from an average of 10.4 shots per game.

Ipswich’s key creator is Leif Davis who has already provided seven assists, the most of any player in the Championship, from his 14 appearances.

The 23-year-old is in fine form and has five assists in his last six matches. He’s averaging 3.5 key passes per game, and has made a total of 49 this season, which ranks him first for key passes in the second tier.

Skipper Matt Grimes is Swansea’s top creator so far this term with a total of 21 key passes, with two assists coming against Norwich and Plymouth at the start of October.

Grimes will be a key part of the midfield tasked with preventing Davis from adding to his tally against Swansea on Saturday. The 28-year-old is averaging 1.3 tackles per game and is winning an average of 1.1 aerial duels per game, while still remaining the playmaking heartbeat of the Swans team.

The English midfielder currently has a WhoScored.com rating of 6.93 for his efforts in the Championship thus far making him the second highest-rated Swansea player.

Key Stat

Undeniably Ipswich are in scintillating form and have enjoyed an outstanding home record.

However, Swansea can take some comfort from their most recent results when these two sides have faced off, with Ipswich winning just one of the last six games between the two sides, and the Swans winning the most recent game in April 2019.