Match Day Thread Ipswich vs Toon

I have been slaughter in the bar before and after games when I've called Rafa. ..I don't rate him at all. ......it's been hard ****ing work this season. ...if he goes I won't be arsed.

 

Poor performance. To be honest this just makes those substitutions the other day even less palatable. We are limping towards the line. We don't have great quality but let's not pretend we don't have more than those around us. This average attempt at promotion is down to the manager. Let's just hope we limp over the line but I remain unconvinced by Rafa. If we are just pinning on our hopes on better players arriving what does it say about the manager? He has the best squad available to him in the league having spent a fortune outgoing wise, yet we are just scraping by.

Bit concerning but I think we will be ok. I would not fancy at all in the play offs. Hopefully Rafa can sort the club from top to bottom and then hopefully we will get a more modern manager to take us on.

 

You might be right. Maybe the wool has been pulled over our eyes.

Brighton deserve to go up and so do Huddersfield imho as they have spent no money and actually seem to have a game plan.

Rafa has ****ed around with the players all season and constantly played the same **** formation. We should have walked this league with the money we spunked.

It's been a **** end to the season and if we do go up then **** me we need a complete and utter clear out of more than 75% of the clart we have.

 

This is the thing for me. 4-2-3-1 is not right for this division. Yet it's our ONLY formation, bar the odd weird emergency like today which only proved the players have no clue what plan b is (may actually be more accurate to say there is no plan b). I could suffer the rotation if it meant a) we played differently to the strengths of those we brought in, and b) that we actually looked fresh.

In my opinion, rotation does not work. Squad's are there to cover injuries and form, then allow for different formations. Every manager knows how we're going to play and I think that's why, since Xmas, we've been this bad - the only reason we've got points is we have Ritchie/Shelvey/Gayle and the likes Burton Albion just don't. We'd have drawn & lost considerably more from the tactics Rafa deploys without some of our players rescuing wins.

We'll be crucified in the PL even if we go up, which I'm not sure we will. I'm not even convinced the players are so bad, I just think our manager says "this is how we're playing, could not give a **** if that suits you or not". Diame's not a 10, neither's Gouff, Mitro/Murphy need attackers near them or if we're playing wingers they need decent service; we provide neither. The players have looked confused - Ritchie/Atsu are wingers, but there's a reluctance to get good crosses in - and with good reason - because there's only ever one player in the box. Shelvey's deep, Hayden's deep, Diame's clueless.

 

yes he has had a fortune compared to other managers ...

 

We've got 13 minutes to save our season.

 

Teams don't fear us. They know we bottle it and we concede goals really easy. I hate seeing some of our players wearing the shirt. I couldn't give a damn if we never see Diame colback atsu again. Darlow is really starting to look average fodder. Lascelles is the most over rated player I have ever seen. Shelvey wants to be a ****ing actor with his Hollywood passes. Goufran looks like an average championship player. Dummet is a one trick pony.

Mitrovic does not seem to be favoured and I actually think he's a cart horse.

Murphy is a big standard average championship player who is over the hill.

Mbemba seems to just be not flavour of the month despite being clearly our most technical player.

Don't get me started on Perez. He's over rated beyond belief.

Only Ritchie and Gayle have really been good players this season.

Rafa has well and truly ****ed this promotion push since Christmas and I feels like it's almost like him trying to make a point.

If any toon fans come against my post and say calm down your over reacting then your clearly a complete and utter ponce and deserve to watch **** like this today week in and week out. You have accepted Ashley's brain drain regime and accepted average **** at best.

The season is turning into a disaster and I hope I'm wrong but we are going to be in the playoffs if we keep playing like today.

 

I'm not sure many would disagree. I just wonder if it's all lined up against us - we have the easiest run in by far (which included Ipswich!!!), with the irony being we probably won't win any of them!!

The failure for me is that the Preston boss will known (and have known for weeks/months!) how we're going to play. He won't need to tell his players to be prepared in case we change it - we won't. It will be same hackneyed formation, 4-2-3-1, which you can draw on a board. Then you say "Ritchie will be wide right - if he starts wide left, don't worry about it 'til he switches at around the 30 minute mark. Shelvey will look for Hollywood passes from his own half - just close him down, and watch the runners. I'll pick my biggest CB's to deal with Dummett lumping it to Mitro or Murphy. Their CB's will be laboured and nervous - Lascelles will start regardless, so just run off him and he'll eventually make a mistake. Ignore their player "in the hole", because whoever it is can't actually play there (Diame/Perez/Gouff). And don't worry about it - they're petrified and you will definitely get at least one chance - which you'll score, because whoever they put in goal is useless."

 

The wheels are off lads.
It's Huddersfield's to throw away IMHO.
Rafa is not beyond criticism and he has his fair share of the blame here.

 

Watched the beamback at SJP and the atmosphere was toxic.

 

Can Rafa please explain his reasoning for making 5 changes to the team today. We play really well against Leeds ( apart from the last minute ) yet he goes and ravages the team and we end up playing like headless chickens for 96 minutes. Lascelles is certainly no captain and his awareness and marking are shocking and he needs dropping for the last 3 games. The team at present look a shadow of a promotion winning team and unless 3 points come next Monday then I say forget about promotion because even if we go to Wembley in the play offs we'll bottle it.

 

Derby just scored.yeeees!!!!

 

1-1 motherfuckers!!!

7 points clear

 

Derby just scored 1-1 with 2 mins to play, come on derby

 

Bloody BBC site not updating anything

 

Thank heaven for that - now just hope they hold on.

 

I've just got back from the match, and that is exactly how it was. I have nothing good to say.

We were not a team out there. Apart from the goal there was no link up play at all. The tackling was weak, no one seemed to want to go forward, and about 15 minutes from the end Ipswich were running up the pitch with the ball and we were running with them ... hello, it's not a race, you are meant to stop them running Honestly it was painful.

There is not one player I can say 'ahh yes, but at least Player X was trying to make things happen' because not one of them was. They should be grateful it's Rafa giving them an earful after the match and not me as I am furious at wasting my afternoon watching that pile of cr*p . It wasn't even like we were strolling around arrogantly thinking promotion was in the bag, we were strolling around like we couldn't actually be bothered.

There are ony 2 good things from this afternoon: 1) the noise the Toon Army made from the starting whistle was fantastic, especially as at that point the rest of Portman Road made even the Emirates sound like a cacophony of noise, and 2) my Dad fist pumping the air with his one good arm when Newcastle scored - he had a stroke two years ago and we didn't think ever moving independently again was going to be possible let alone him enjoying life as he does.

At least my Dad doesn't let me down.

 

Derby doing us a big favour. I know it's not a good sign for us to be relying on luck like that, but heaven knows we're due a bit.

 

Well, well, well. Huddersfield aren't the world beaters that many of our fans think they are. A bad performance today from Newcastle but the the hysteria from some of our fans is ridiculous. Win against Preston and we are all but promoted.

 

Well done to Brighton and Chris Hughton. A well deserved promotion confirmed today.