Alright folks, here’s how today’s deep dive into the Ipswich Town vs. Manchester United stats actually went down. Buckle up, it was messier than I expected.
Getting Started & The First Hurdle
Right, this morning, coffee in hand, I decided to compare some key players. Simple goal, right? Wrong. First thing I did was grab my laptop, fired up a browser, and punched in search terms like “Ipswich Town current squad stats” and “Man United key player stats 2024”. Big mistake. Immediate overwhelm.
Pages upon pages flooded in. Stats sites I knew, stats sites I didn’t, club pages flashing everywhere. I just needed basic, current numbers for a few main guys. Trying to compare Kieran McKenna’s key men from Ipswich against Ten Hag’s lot felt like finding a needle in a haystack blindfolded.
Diving Deeper & The Spreadsheet Mess
Okay, focus time. I figured Excel is my friend. Created a fresh sheet:
- Made one column for Ipswich Players (Conor Chaplin, Leif Davis, Sam Morsy)
- Another column for Man United Players (Bruno Fernandes, Marcus Rashford, Alejandro Garnacho)
- Then row headers: Goals, Assists, Minutes Played, Shots On Target. Seemed sensible.
Started clicking through different sites. Found one listing Conor Chaplin’s league goals. Grabbed that number. Hopped to another tab for Bruno Fernandes. Found his goals, but oh, surprise surprise, one site included cups, another didn’t. Cursed under my breath. Had to double-check every single figure against the official league stats page just to be consistent. Tedious doesn’t cover it.
Copying and pasting became a nightmare. Formatting went wild, random pound signs (#VALUE!) popping up where numbers should be. Spent ages just fixing that stupid spreadsheet instead of analysing anything.
The Manual Grind & Spotting Weirdness
Eventually said screw it to the auto-import dream. Opened two browser windows side-by-side:
- One showing a decent player profile page for Leif Davis (mostly for assists, that guy’s got deliveries!)
- The other focused on Alejandro Garnacho’s stats page.
Started typing the numbers in by hand. Fingers flying. This bit felt slow but way more reliable. While doing this, actually noticed some weird stuff staring right back at me:
- Leif Davis… holy moly, his assist numbers compared to some United defenders? Seriously impressive.
- Sam Morsy’s sheer minutes played – that engine! More than Bruno Fernandes in the league this season? Didn’t expect that.
- Marcus Rashford’s shots on target vs. actual goals… yeah, not the best conversion rate right now. Numbers don’t lie.
Forced me to stop just collecting and start thinking. Whoa, these weren’t just stats; they started telling little stories about form, workload, efficiency.
Finally… Some Kind of Showdown
Got the basic spreadsheet looking somewhat respectable after all that manual slog. Added some simple bar charts – visuals help, even crude ones. Highlighted the real surprises:
The Engine Room: Morsy (Ipswich) vs. Fernandes (United) minutes. Ipswich relying hard on their skipper.
Creative Output: Bruno’s numbers still big, but Leif Davis creeping up there assist-wise from left-back? Madness.
The Goals: Obvious gap in pure firepower overall, but seeing the actual per-90 stats for Chaplin versus, say, Garnacho still interesting.
Finished by scribbling my own notes next to the stats. Things like “Davis – assist machine from deep,” “Morsy – core resilience,” “Bruno – carries creativity burden,” “Rashford – needs clinical edge.” Felt way more concrete now.
Biggest Takeaway? Bloody Hard Work!
Honestly thought this would be an hour. Took most of the morning. Stats sites never play nice. Definitions vary wildly. Automated stuff often breaks. The real insight only kicked in after doing the grunt work manually – typing in those numbers forces you to look at them properly. Found some real contrasts, especially in where the creativity comes from and who’s playing almost every minute. Worth it? Yeah, learned a bunch. Smooth process? Absolutely bloody not. Next time? I might just stick to watching the game!