It would be fair to say that the last few weeks have been rough for Ipswich Town.
Kieran McKenna’s side have played arguably the best football of the three promoted sides in the Premier League this season, but following their 2-1 loss to Southampton last Saturday, their fourth on the bounce, they find themselves down in 19th and three points off safety.
Nevertheless, this afternoon’s FA Cup Fourth Round tie away to Championship side Coventry City offers the Tractor Boys the chance to forget about their lacklustre league form and pick up a much-needed win.
However, McKenna must make one key change to the starting lineup and drop one of the worst performers against the Saints to ensure that happens.
It will likely come as no surprise to many of you that the player we are talking about is goalkeeper Arijanet Muric, who joined the club from Burnley in the summer for a fee of £10m that could reach £15m.
Unfortunately for all parties, if that higher fee is based on how the 26-year-old performs, it doesn’t look like it’ll be hit, as the Kosovan shot-stopper has been poor for some time now.
That was certainly the case last weekend, as his attempt to stop the Saints’ opener was laughable at best and while the second wasn’t quite as bad, he still should have parried the ball into a safer area.
It might sound harsh, but it’s an opinion shared by the East Anglian Daily Times’ Alex Jones, who awarded him just a 4/10 at full-time, and even that rating looks kind when you look at his statistics.
In 98 minutes, he made just two saves, prevented negative 1.55 goals, which means the shots he faced amounted to an expected goals figure of just 0.45, maintained a passing accuracy of just 76% and was accurate in just one of his ten attempted long balls.
In short, it was a shambolic showing from Muric, and while club captain Sam Morsy is probably fair to claim that he’s becoming something of a “scapegoat,” that is in large part down to his dire form, and therefore, he must be dropped.
The Ipswich ace who must replace Muric
The player McKenna should be turning to in place of Muric this afternoon is the club’s latest signing, Alex Palmer.
The 6 foot 3 shot-stopper joined the club on transfer deadline day for around £2m, and while you’d often want to give new arrivals time to settle into the club, he should be more than ready to come right into the starting lineup.
For example, before making the move to Suffolk, the Kidderminster-born keeper had already made 30 appearances for West Bromwich Albion this season, in which he had kept 11 clean sheets.
He was just as impressive last season, keeping 19 clean sheets in 48 games, and there’s no need to worry about his temperament either, as former manager Carlos Corberán described him as someone who plays “with a lot of maturity.”
Moreover, in that same article, The Athletic described him as a ‘calming influence’ on his teammates, which sounds like the sort of number one a team in a relegation scrap needs.
Ultimately, there is always a slight risk in signing a goalkeeper from a lower league, but given how poor Muric has been of late, it’s a risk the club had to take, and in turn, McKenna has to start him this afternoon.
