Ipswich were the lowest scoring side in the Championship last season and as a result goal scoring was the main worry for the fans coming into this season.

The core of Mick McCarthy's side has not greatly changed at all since last season too, in particular no new strikers have joined.

When the transfer window closed many fans criticised the former Wolves boss and said that he was deluded about the striking options at his disposal. This criticism was furthered when Daryl Murphy under performed in the opening games this season.

The club were then linked with Billy Sharp on loan and rumoured to be interested in picking up Sylvan Ebanks-Blake when he recovers from injury.

These rumours were always likely to be nothing more than paper talk as McCarthy has constantly told the press that he is happy with all of his options.

He believes that the club aren't short of options up front with McGoldrick and Murphy usually starting then Paul Taylor and Frank Nouble providing more than adequate back up.

Additionally, as the season has started to progress Murphy has improved and put in some good shifts in the last couple of games.

In my opinion a lot of the fans that were criticising Murphy were just looking for a scape goat. These negative views in the opening two or three weeks of the season were frustrating as although Ipswich were not picking up too many points they were playing well.

Anyone with the slightest shred of common sense could tell that things were going to pick up eventually and unsurprisingly they have already started to. After coming from a goal down against both Middlesbrough and Yeovil to pick up two wins the Suffolk side are in a decent position.

Those who still think the club need another striker may be surprised to hear that only three teams have scored more goals than Ipswich this season in the Championship.

The other criticism that has been floating around has been that McCarthy plays too defensively and plays boring football. However, there has been a goal in every one of the Tractor Boys games this season; only one game has finished 1-0 and one game 1-1, with the other five games having three goals or more in them.

These statistics suggest that Ipswich are certainly not playing defensively and are often winning by more than one goal when they do win.

You can't deny that having another class striker like Billy Sharp wouldn't exactly do any harm, but at the same time it would not be needed.

Jack Marriott and Alan Lee are another two strikers that are ready for the first team should McCarthy need new striking options.

Marriott has been scoring for fun for the youth/reserve team both this season and last. Admittedly I haven't seen him play myself but there will no doubt come a time in the season when he will be asking for some first team experience.

If Ipswich are injury free they may choose to loan him out to a lower league side rather than risk him struggling in the Championship, but who knows what the future will hold for the young forward.

It has to be said that right now he is the best young player that has yet to properly break into the first team so this season will be key for him.

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