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George to Make Changes - Ipswich Town News

Town boss George Burley has vowed to make changes when the Blues line-up against Leeds on Wednesday. The Town manager has a couple of injury worries, but his main concern must be the level of performance against Southampton on Saturday, for Burley, the worst at Portman Road this season.

Burley said: "It was our poorest home performance of the season. We never got going. There has been a good reaction from the players who are bitterly disappointed. They know they can play better and I will be making changes.

"I am looking for a team performance at Leeds. We didn't operate well as a unit against Southampton. It is a collective thing.

"We are battling for our lives to stay in the Premiership. I want the players to emulate the type of performance we produced at Everton in our last away match. It is the sort of away display that we know we are capable of."

That tends to suggest that a 5-3-2 formation could be in the offing. At Everton Hermann Hreidarsson lined-up in the middle of a central defensive three with John McGreal and Mark Venus either side of him. McGreal looks certain to return in place of Titus Bramble after the ex-Tranmere man completed his one match suspension.

Matteo Sereni may be in line for a recall after a poor performance from Andy Marshall against Southampton. This could depend on how the Italian keeper's relationship with George Burley has fared since Sereni's recent disgruntled comments.

Jamie Clapham is likely to return to the starting line-up, especially if Town switch to 5-3-2. Martijn Reuser is like to be the man dropping to the bench.

Marcus Stewart has still not got back to form since his jaw injury and could move back to the bench. However, it must be remembered that Stewart had a similar poor post-injury spell just prior to Town's play-off semi-final at Bolton two years ago. Then the Bristol-born striker returned to form with a bang, scoring twice. If he is dropped Alun Armstrong looks favourite to make a start.

Burley's main injury worries are Chris Makin, who took another knock on the foot at the weekend, and Jermaine Wright, who has a groin strain. Both are in with a chance of making it for Elland Road. Sixto Peralta is definitely out with his thigh injury.

Yesterday George Burley made the players sit through the video of Saturday's entire game, highlighting every error. Jamie Clapham says it was a useful exercise: "If things go wrong then we can expect to have these sort of meetings. We have had them before and no doubt will have them again.

"The main thing is to learn from these things and put them right. Southampton were a little bit better than we were on the day and we have to improve in all areas of the pitch.

"Losing to Liverpool wasn't the end of the world but losing to Southampton was very important.

"But there is no point dwelling on that loss, or that could affect us and we now have to be very positive going in into this game which thankfully has come very quickly."

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