Smart Ipswich Town addition may be bittersweet news for Luongo and Morsy: View | OneFootball

Ipswich Town have had a great start to their first season back in the Championship.

Following promotion from League One last season after finishing in second place, manager Kieran McKenna has managed to put Ipswich in a position that no one thought they would be in just yet.

The Tractor Boys are currently sat in second place in the second tier, currently occupying one of the two automatic promotion spots.

They are ten points behind league leaders Leicester City, but have a slender lead over third, only being three points clear of Southampton.

The Saints are also on an 18-game unbeaten run in the league, so they will feel confident that they are able to take Ipswich’s place in the automatic promotion places in the coming weeks.

Going into the January transfer window, McKenna’s side have failed to win any of their last five league games, which has left them in a slightly precarious position with Southampton almost catching up to them.

This has forced Ipswich to dip into the transfer market and get some deals done to boost their squad for what is an important second half of the season as they look for an unlikely return to the Premier League after 22 years.

Their first signing came in Jeremy Sarmiento, with the tricky attacking midfielder arriving on loan from Brighton in the Premier League, having spent the first half of this campaign on loan at fellow Championship outfit West Bromwich Albion.

Town then made their second signing, bringing in midfielder Lewis Travis on loan from Blackburn Rovers.

Travis is a 26-year-old midfielder who has been at Blackburn since the age of 18.

Since his first team debut in July 2016, he has gone on to make over 200 league appearances for the club since then, scoring six goals.

He was their club captain up until his temporary departure to East Anglia.

Primarily a centre midfielder, Travis is a more defensive midfielder, as shown by his six goals in over 200 games. He can also play at right-back too, making him a versatile player.

His move did come as quite a surprise to many, due to him being the club captain. He has also been a regular for Rovers this season, making 20 appearances for them in the Championship, with 12 of those being starts.

Bittersweet for Morsy and Luongo

What this does come as potentially though is bittersweet news for Sam Morsy and Massimo Luongo.

One area that the Ipswich squad was light in depth was at defensive midfield.

Club captain Morsy and Luongo have been ever-present in the midfield for Ipswich this year and last, being key to the way McKenna likes to play.

But besides the two of them, there are not any other good options in the Town squad in terms of out-an-out defensive midfielders.

Jack Taylor has been decent for Ipswich when he has played in the holding role, but the Irishman likes to get forward.

In Travis, McKenna now has another experienced defensive midfielder at this level who can provide extra depth in that area of the pitch.

But what this might mean for Luongo and Morsy is that they may find their game time limited, as Travis will not have come to Ipswich to sit on the bench.

Luongo and Morsy may also be a little frustrated if either of them find their game time limited over the next month especially, with both denying themselves the chance to represent their respective countries at upcoming continental tournaments (Morsy with Egypt at AFCON, and Luongo with Australia at the Asia Cup, though he announced his international retirement last month despite it being very likely he would have been called up to go).

With Travis being a very good option now for McKenna to rotate, it will be interesting to see how he decides to deal with the amount of game time given to all three, as he looks to get Ipswich in the top flight for the first time since 2002.