Danny Murphy has admitted that he is backing Ipswich Town to finish in the Championship’s top two as they are under no pressure to get promoted, unlike Leeds United and Leicester City.
Ipswich have an opportunity to get back into the top two if they avoid a defeat against Watford tonight.
A run of one win in four has complicated matters for Leeds along with Leicester, who are still sitting at the top of the table, but suffered a defeat against Millwall on Tuesday night.
Murphy admitted that it is brilliant to see Ipswich in this position after just getting promoted from League One last season and feels they have the attacking players to get them over the line.
The former midfielder is now fancying the Tractor Boys to earn automatic promotion as they have no pressure due to not planning to go up.
He stressed that no one expected Ipswich to get promoted while Leeds and Leicester have been desperate this season to bounce straight back to the Premier League.
Murphy said on talkSPORT: “To come up from League One and to find themselves in a position where if they win their remaining games they are up; and they are more than capable because they’ve got good attacking players, they’ve got great variation on the bench, he does that really well, Kieran McKenna.
“You’ve got to fancy Ipswich now.
“They are the ones without the pressure.
“I know they will have their own internal pressure, but actually it’s a bit of a free hit for them because they wouldn’t have expected to go up.
“Leeds desperately want to get back up, Leicester desperately want to get back up and you can see that anxiety in their play.”
Ipswich could become the first team since Norwich City to earn back-to-back promotions to the Premier League in 2011.
Three of Ipswich’s remaining five games are at Portman Road, while Leeds have two of four games at home and Leicester have three of five games at the King Power.
