Ipswich Town: Who should replace Axel Tuanzebe at right-back?

With the versatile defender ruled out for the foreseeable future, Alex Jones takes a look at who could step in for him in the starting lineup...

The Blues are waiting to discover how long Tuanzebe will be sidelined for (Image: Ross Halls)

What Town are missing

Tuanzebe is an excellent one-on-one defender – that’s his clear strength. It’s what Brighton manager Fabian Hürzeler picked out after the 0-0 draw at the Amex Stadium last month, noting that skilful winger Kaoru Mitoma had no real luck up against him across his 90 minutes on the pitch.

Taking out the first two games against Liverpool and Manchester City, his performances have been really impressive. Against Fulham, he made the most tackles (3) in the game. He nullified the Seagulls’ left flank after the September international break and recovered well from an early mistake away at Southampton. The two goals that Aston Villa scored at Portman Road certainly weren’t down to him.

His stats for the season speak for themselves. Eight tackles won, eight aerial duels won, eight interceptions made. He boasts a passing accuracy of 89.9%, which is high for a defender and shows how comfortable he is on the ball. Despite coming up against some of the best wingers in the country this season, his only yellow card came in the 2-2 draw against Aston Villa. His discipline is top-notch.

It goes without saying that his pace is a vital asset when it comes to defending against dynamic and dangerous attackers. This, again, is something that Hürzeler picked out last month. Ipswich simply can’t find a like-for-like replacement for him in their squad, but they do have players with different strengths who can come in until he returns.

Ben Johnson came in to start against boyhood club West Ham (Image: Ross Halls)

Ben Johnson

Ben Johnson certainly comes under the ‘different strengths’ bracket when it comes to Ipswich’s right-back options. The former West Ham man started his playing career as a winger, but he was eventually brought back into a more defensive role – which is now seen as his preferred position.

His versatility means that he can play almost anywhere behind the forward line. In fact, we understand that the 24-year-old has largely preferred playing on the left flank instead of the right. Former Hammers boss David Moyes played him further forward and even in central midfield, but ultimately, he was signed by Ipswich to get minutes at right-back.

That obviously hasn’t happened, with Tuanzebe’s incredible form keeping him out of the picture. Now, with the DR Congo international sidelined, Johnson is undoubtedly the most likely candidate to come in as his replacement.

There are certainly positives. He’s far more attacking than Tuanzebe, who will rarely venture forward to attack. Johnson already has an assist to his name this season, having picked up the ball high up the pitch against Man City before threading a pinpoint pass through to Sammie Szmodics, who scored the opening goal.

Town’s attacking output has come under a bit of fire recently, with Liam Delap undoubtedly the star man in that regard. Some onlookers wonder whether the rest of the team can chip in with enough goals, which was an important part of their success last season. Adding a bit more attacking drive on the right could help.

With Wes Burns and Chiedozie Ogbene preferring to play high up the pitch and wide to the touchline, there’s a gap that Johnson could occupy in a more central area in a similar position to the one that Jack Clarke takes up on the other side. It could help create overloads but might leave the Blues short on transitions. We saw a bit of this in the defeat at the Etihad Stadium.

Johnson isn’t overly strong defensively, and you certainly wouldn’t feel as comfortable watching him come up against a world-class winger as you would with Tuanzebe. That being said, with Burns or Ogbene ahead of him, he’d have more defensive cover as both players can drop deeper into a wing-back position. Out of possession, this would see Johnson take up the hybrid centre-back/right-back role that we’ve seen Tuanzebe.

There are still concerns about his performances in general. Of course, he came in to start against West Ham in Town’s last game, which he found really tough. He didn’t look confident in one-v-one situations and his poor back pass to Arijanet Muric led to the hosts’ third goal.

That being said, he has a lot of experience at this level and is clearly highly rated - poor debuts never define a player. Anyone remember how Leif Davis fared in his first game for Town?

There’s a reason why the Hammers wanted him to stay and offered him a bumper contract extension.

Dara O'Shea has played at right-back for West Brom and the Republic of Ireland (Image: Ross Halls)

Dara O’Shea

Changing the system so drastically could be an issue for Ipswich. They’ve stuck to their principles under Kieran McKenna, and starting Johnson could force them to change certain areas that they might want to keep the same.

As a result, Dara O’Shea has to be considered at right-back, even though he’s a natural centre-back.

The same can be said of Tuanzebe, of course, who’s spent most of his career playing as a right-sided centre-back. In fact, his stellar performance for Manchester United against Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League came from that very position, albeit in a back five.

This is a role that O’Shea is comfortable with, although Vincent Kompany never played him there at Burnley and McKenna is yet to try him there at Ipswich. Slaven Bilić introduced him to it in January 2020 during his time at West Brom, and while that match ended in a 2-1 defeat at Cardiff City, he showed that he had the characteristics to play in that position.

In fact, he started a number of games there during the Baggies’ last Premier League campaign, showing that he can do it at the top level too.

The game has changed since then, and there’s always a risk that it could be an issue in terms of adapting to the right-back role. However, a lot of his minutes for the Republic of Ireland have come from that position, including the 2-1 win against Finland last Thursday. In that game, he made three interceptions, six recoveries and four tackles, which are similar numbers to the ones that Tuanzebe have put up this season.

He played at right-back against Greece on Monday evening too - a considerably tougher game. Although Ireland lost that match 2-0, he looked just as strong defensively and really got stuck in. The one criticism was that, due to the fact he’s a natural centre-back, he never overlapped on the right , which is what they really needed for extra width. That won’t be required in Ipswich’s system.

There’s also a pre-existing link-up with Ogbene on the right flank. The two players first played together on loan at Exeter City in League Two back in 2018/19, and that relationship has continued to flourish at international level and now at Ipswich. That could be used to the Blues’ advantage while Tuanzebe is out.

Of course, being a natural centre-back would make it easier for Town to transition into a back five out of possession, which they like to do. It’d probably see Luke Woolfenden come back into the starting lineup, having last featured at the end of August. He didn’t do much wrong before being dropped and many fans would be happy to see him back in the team.

There are a couple of issues, however. For starters, O’Shea’s partnership with Jacob Greaves has begun to take shape and flourish. Breaking that up so early in the season could be seen as a hindrance once Tuanzebe returns to action. On top of that, many Irish fans believe that boss Heimir Hallgrímsson doesn’t get the best out of him at right-back, and that he’d be better off in his natural position.

Johnson seems more likely at this point given that it’s a more comfortable position for him, but McKenna might look at O’Shea and think that he can use his strengths to Ipswich’s advantage on the right. His pace, albeit not quite at the same level as Tuanzebe’s, could be crucial in that part of the pitch.

Midfielder Jens Cajuste has played in both full-back positions (Image: Ross Halls)

Other options

Ogbene hasn’t played as an out-and-out right-back in a while, but he can do it. He’d certainly add some attacking impetus on that flank, but in a back four, there would probably be too many defensive question marks.

It’d be interesting to see him play with Burns on that right side. Ultimately, it’ll probably never happen as they want to occupy the same areas on the pitch. Johnson and O’Shea would certainly be preferred to him in that role.

The same could probably be said of Jens Cajuste, who’s currently sidelined with a minor knee injury but is expected to return to full fitness soon. A natural midfielder, the 25-year-old has often been played in deeper areas. Sweden often deploy him at left-back, but brought him on at right-back when they played Azerbaijan in Nations League C back in September.

He, like Johnson, could come into that midfield gap when Ipswich are in possession. He’d also add some extra height into the team, standing at 6ft 2ins. However, like Ogbene, there are probably a few too many doubts about his ability against top wingers in one-v-one situations.

The likelihood of either player starting at right-back this season is low, but if needed, they could do it.

Finally, of course, Harry Clarke started at right back for much of last season before having Achilles surgery over the summer.

He hasn’t played a competitive match since the 3-3 draw away at Hull City at the end of April, managing just eight minutes off the bench at the end of the match.

His last start came in the stalemate at home to Watford a couple of weeks earlier, where he played the full 90 minutes.

He was back on the bench at West Ham as an unused sub, but it seems unlikely he'd be ready to step up and start in Tuanzebe's absence.