Ipswich boss Kieran McKenna hailed Liam Delap after he inspired a special 2-0 victory over Chelsea, but insisted a maiden England call-up will not be on the forward’s mind.
Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca had tipped his former Manchester City Under-23 striker Delap to become an “important player” for the national team days before he produced a barnstorming display to help the Tractors Boys clinch an eagerly-anticipated first top-flight home win in 22 years.
Delap won and converted an early spot-kick before he teed up Omari Hutchinson for Ipswich’s second to make it nine goal involvements in 18 Premier League fixtures.
Ipswich pick up their first home win of the season 🚜#IPSCHE pic.twitter.com/hMYutY5Gyu
— Premier League (@premierleague) December 30, 2024
With seven goals to his name, Delap sits between England internationals Ollie Watkins and Dominic Solanke in the current scoring charts and McKenna acknowledged the 21-year-old is a “different beast” to the player signed in July after mixed loan spells with Stoke, Preston and Hull.
“There were so many outstanding individual performances in there, but Liam was fantastic. There is no doubt about that,” McKenna said.
“I’ve been saying it to people around the club that he’s improving and he’s a different beast now to what he was in July.
“We’re seeing that rate of improvement from a 21-year-old, showing the increased maturity that he is, the desire to improve and that’s a really positive sign at 21.
“I don’t think he is thinking about that (England call-up) to be honest. Liam is a funny lad. He’s good at staying in the moment.
“He is enjoying his football, he is enjoying the group of boys he is in the dressing room with. He comes to training and wants to have fun and now he wants to get better as well.”
Delap’s latest all-action performance helped Ipswich triumph at Portman Road at the 10th time of asking this term.
While Ipswich had secured battling home draws with Manchester United and Aston Villa, the newly promoted outfit also shipped late goals versus Leicester and Bournemouth to let victory slip from their grasp before they finished 2024 with a result to savour.
McKenna added: “We’ve had some really good performances at home and to be honest we’ve had some really good days here.
“Of course to get one over the line when we’ve had a couple of really close ones, to get one over the line at home, to do it against a team like Chelsea, to do it on a night game, on the last game of 2024, it is a pretty special night.”
Maresca was not surprised by Delap’s star showing given the forward struck 24 goals for the Italian to fire Manchester City Under-23s to the Premier League 2 title in 2021.
“I think in the first half we concede a penalty and then we concede one or two more chances in the same way. Long ball for Liam, try to defend the ball and shoot,” Maresca reflected.
“Second half was again copy and paste. We concede a goal because of unfortunately a mistake and then they have some more moments exactly the same. Long ball for Liam, fight against everyone and shoot but this is Liam.”
