Liam Delap has arguably been the star of Ipswich Town's season so far, scoring three goals in six Premier League games. Alex Jones takes a closer look at the striker's strengths and what we can expect from him in the coming weeks and months.
The story so far
When Liam Delap signed for Ipswich Town, quite a few supporters were left pretty confused.
At the time, it seemed clear that he wouldn’t be the club’s first-choice striker despite costing £15 million. His Championship loan spells at Stoke City, Preston North End and Hull City were far from uninspiring, but he wasn’t prolific in the second tier either.
Everyone assumed that another no. 9 would be signed before deadline day. Of course, that never happened, leaving Delap and George Hirst battling to lead the line. The latter’s knee injury gave the former all of pre-season to stake his claim, and that’s exactly what he’s done.
Pace, power and precision
This is Liam Delap’s bread and butter. He’s a one-man wrecking ball at times, which defenders certainly didn’t realise coming into the Premier League campaign.
One of them was Jarell Quansah, who was put into Liverpool’s starting lineup at Portman Road by new boss Arne Slot. Whether the Dutchman had done his homework on the striker remains to be seen, but the battle was a total mismatch. Physically, he was able to dominate the young centre-back. His movement was too much and it took just one touch for him to work the ball into space.
Quansah, of course, was brought off at half time in that came. The partnership of Ibrahima Konate and Virgil van Dijk were able to deal with him a lot better. Nonetheless, all that was missing from his first-half performance was the killer touch to score.
The Fulham game at Portman Road was a different matter entirely. There, he picked up a pass from Leif Davis and ran. He showed remarkable speed and awareness to find a gap before shrugging off Andreas Pereira like he wasn’t there. Most players would look for a pass at that point, but Delap went for goal from a relatively tight angle.
Despite that, he was still able to get enough power behind his shot to get it right in the top corner. It was simply too much for Bernd Leno, who managed to get a glove on it.
The post stopped him from capping off an even more impressive run at Brighton after the international break. The Seagulls just couldn’t track his movement on the ball, which gave him a tiny opportunity to find space and shoot from a tight angle. Once again, the power he managed to get into his effort was pretty astonishing. If it flew a couple of inches to the right, it might just have given Town three points at the Amex Stadium.
For someone so young, he uses his body remarkably well. He’s not the fastest striker but can still move in a way that makes him really difficult to stop. At 6’1, he’ll often come up against taller centre-backs, but can use his physicality to win crucial battles when he needs to. Simply put, he’s a real nuisance for any opponent.
Ball at his feet
When watching Delap in pre-season, he certainly didn’t look like a player who’d be good with the ball at his feet. In fairness, we didn’t see much from him at all before the start of the campaign, and he often cut a frustrated figure in friendlies where he was starved of service.
What changed? It’s tough to say. Kieran McKenna’s approach to the first half of the Liverpool game was spot on, using a 4-2-4 out of possession that created space for Delap to exploit when they won the ball back. This happened quite often as Slot’s side couldn’t figure out how to break down the lines, forcing them to shoot from range.
It created the one-on-one battle with Quansah that ended up as a total mismatch. One of the standout moments from the match was when Delap picked up a cross-field pass before using one touch to send the young defender flying. Ultimately, he was closed down just before he could shoot from a tight angle.
There are countless other examples of him using quick footwork to beat opponents. In tight spaces, he’s able to spin around and work a gap to pass or shoot. His flick against Aston Villa showed that he's oozing confidence despite the fact it went out of play. His first touch is almost always impeccable, and he often uses that to his advantage to beat a player as well.
He’s also an expert at drawing fouls, having done so 11 times already this season.
Of course, one of his best moments in a Town shirt came in the second half against Villa, where he picked up Omari Hutchinson’s through ball and ran. This time, he opted against shooting from range as he had runners in good positions alongside him. As a result, he worked it into the box and backed himself to beat Diego Carlos, which he did, bamboozling the Brazilian defender with a stepover before firing low into the net.
The way he twisted his body to the left to open up the space was really impressive, particularly at speed. It’s what the best top-level attackers can do to create something from nothing, and it was really exciting to see Delap do it here.
What he does for Town
The Aston Villa game is probably the best example of his off-ball work, which may seem bizarre given the fact that he scored a brace.
When you see a replay that focuses purely on his movement for the opening goal, you notice that he finds little gaps whenever he’s in the final third. He’s always moving to get into the right areas but he’s very rarely marked.
After Sam Morsy’s blocked shot, Villa cleared the ball to Kalvin Phillips, who played it forward. Delap, who initially tracked back after his side lost possession, didn’t move deep into the box with his team-mates. Instead, he sat further back, which opened up acres of space for him to receive the cutback from Jack Clarke and score.
The visitors were astonished to find him in that position and not further forward to challenge their defenders for a header. Youri Tielemans and Amadou Onana couldn’t get near to him.
Later in the game, he played an instrumental part in setting up Wes Burns’ chance to win the match. Clarke’s headed clearance landed at his feet, where he was closed down by Carlos and surrounded by Onana and Ezri Konsa. Still, he was able to turn into space, hold them off and play it back to Kalvin Phillips, who made the pass to Clarke down the left.
His work rate helps a lot. Many strikers spend games battling defenders and camping on the edge of the box looking for chances. Delap, on the other hand, wants to get stuck in. He doesn’t need to be the furthest forward all the time - he often wants to play deep and link up with the defensive players behind him. Opponents haven’t got to grips with that yet, which allows Ipswich to create so many chances from huge gaps that normally wouldn’t be there.
Once those opportunities arise and the space opens up, he’s always thinking about getting forward. His movement is so unpredictable, which doesn’t just benefit him, but also his team-mates.
What’s next
On Match of the Day 2, Glenn Murray said that 10 goals would be a really good return for a striker in a newly-promoted side. Anything above that would be fantastic. Delap has three to his name after just six games.
How sustainable is his form? He’s outperforming his xG of 1.05, but this is from a small sample size of 459 minutes. So far this season, he’s taken just nine shots with six hitting the target, giving him a 78% shot accuracy rate and a 33.3% conversion rate.
It’s not necessarily about sustaining it. If he does, he’ll end this season with around 19 goals, which is probably going to be a little out of his reach. As Murray said, anything above 10 would be a really strong season.
The big issue that he faces is that teams will wise up to his quality. Southampton did exactly that, putting two players on him at all times. As a result, he was limited to very little. In that game, he began to show some of the frustration that we saw in pre-season, which could be a problem in itself. He’s picked up three bookings in all competitions so far this season, two in the Premier League.
How does he handle being man-marked so tightly? That’s something that he and McKenna need to figure out. Aston Villa gave him too much space and paid the price. Will West Ham, Everton and Brentford do the same?
It’s something that the Blues can definitely use to their advantage in the right circumstances. If you’ve got two players on one player at all times, it’ll open up space for others to threaten. It’s just about predicting it and figuring out the best way around it.
If he can overcome that issue, then there’s no clear ceiling as to how good he can be. He has all the core attributes to be a top-end striker, and Ipswich are clearly getting the best out of him.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here