Ipswich Town's EFL Cup Victory Over Leicester City: A Closer Look
Ipswich Town’s 3-1 win over Leicester City in the EFL Cup looked emphatic on the scoreboard. In the stands and living rooms, it felt anything but straightforward.
This was a night where old habits, new ideas and one decisive substitution collided.
Slow start, old faces
Ten of Kieran McKenna’s starting XI were carried over from last season. For some supporters, that familiarity bred frustration.
“We were far too slow and lacking in drive and energy,” Jeremy said, summing up a first half that never really caught fire in Ipswich colours. The tempo sagged, the passing lacked bite, and Leicester picked their way through too easily.
Beardo saw the same problem, but through the lens of structure. The press, usually a hallmark of McKenna’s side, simply didn’t bite.
“We were sluggish and off the pace in the first half. The press was not working as players were not tight enough and we needed to commit an extra player to it,” he argued. Leicester took full advantage of the looseness.
“They had an overload and they simply played through us. The Foxes really deserved to be in the lead at half-time.”
The scoreline backed that up. So did the mood.
The Davis switch flips the game
Everything changed with one name: Leif Davis.
His introduction injected the sort of urgency Ipswich had been begging for. Suddenly the home side looked sharper, braver, more willing to test Leicester’s high line instead of being trapped by it.
“The introduction of Leif Davis was the changing point,” Beardo said. “Suddenly there was more urgency, a driving force and players started to look to run in behind a very high back line that had consistently played us offside all night.”
Runs that were tentative in the first half became aggressive. The ball moved quicker. Leicester’s control loosened. Ipswich, finally, looked like a cup side ready to impose themselves.
McKenna’s tweak with Sindre Walle Egeli also drew praise. Jeremy picked out the positional switch as a key factor in the turnaround.
“The subs and moving Sindre Walle Egeli into the middle made a big difference,” he noted. With Egeli central, Ipswich found more thrust through the heart of the pitch, and Leicester’s earlier comfort evaporated.
From there, the goals and the result followed. The pressure finally told.
Akpom conundrum up front
Not every storyline was positive. Up front, Chuba Akpom split opinion.
Edward’s verdict was blunt.
“We need another striker,” he insisted. “Chuba Akpom did good build-up play, but his shooting is terrible. He had two or three amazing scoring opportunities and scored none!”
It’s a familiar dilemma for any manager: a forward who knits attacks together but doesn’t finish them. On a night when Ipswich hit three, the missed chances were easy to forget. For some, they were impossible to ignore.
The build-up is good. The movement is clever. The end product, at least in this tie, was missing. If Ipswich want to go deep in the competition, that question at centre-forward will not go away.
A 3-1 comeback against Leicester buys time. It doesn’t silence the debate.
