Son Heung-min was benched by Tottenham on Saturday after a barren spell in front of goal. Then he came off the subs bench with a point to prove and scored a hat-trick! I think Town should do something similar with last season’s top goalscorer Wes Burns.
I have noticed a discernible decline in his performances ever since he was capped by Wales. He needs to be reminded that he is not the ONLY star player in the Ipswich team. It could be argued that so far this season they are all stars, but Burns is more of the shooting variety these days. One moment he looks brilliant, and the next very average, and there have been too many ‘very average’ performances so far this season from last term’s Play of the Year! Against The Owls, he was responsible for giving away a needless free-kick which led to their first goal and his lethargy when in Wednesday’s penalty box resulted in them clearing the ball upfield and scoring their second.
Burns needs to rekindle his form of old, but sadly, this season, he has been a pale shadow of his former self and needs an urgent wake-up call. If McKenna were to bench him, it would send out a message to the rest of the squad too, that you are in the team on merit. He won’t do a Son and come on and score a hat-trick, but he will be more eager to show his true worth. We all know he can do a lot better than this!
The question we need to ask is, why is Wes not the player he was in an Ipswich shirt? He does not appear to be carrying an injury – although he did suffer a recent groin strain. I believe that success has gone to his head, so if he was placed on bench-warming duties in the near future, then it would do him, and us, the world of good.
He will not be on our Bench next saturday Frank as he’s in the Welsh Squad.
Agree though he’s been very inconsistent this season. When he’s at it he’s brilliant but the last two games particularly he’s has definetely been off the pace. Good opportunity for Vincent Young to step up or maybe Kyle Edwards who was our best player in the last EFL Cup match.
Thanks for your comments Terry, and I have corrected the post which suggested that he could be on bench-warming versus Plymouth. I forgot all about the timing of his international call-up, and that I think is where is mind is these days. If he does not perform for Ipswich however, then he has no chance of making it to Qatar!
Not sure that his head has been turned by International call ups Frank, but certainly Club duties should come first. More likely the problem is that after an excellent last season to then follow up with International matches and training etc hardly gave him much time to recharge his batteries. His biggest asset is pace so if he is also carrying a groin strain this would surely hamper his performances. It’s also noticeable now that a number of Teams double mark him so maybe you are right in saying that a couple of weeks warming the Bench will benefit both him and the Team. It’s a long old season and Wes is vital to our success.
I guess we will never know whether those international call-ups have influenced his performances in any way, but it does seem to have coincided with a drop in form. You make some interesting observations Terry, and I think the most poignant is that he often has two men on him these days, and this does make a big difference, no matter how much skill you have.
You have a valid point. Who would replace him and would the teams formation change?