http://www.twtd.co.uk/news.php?storyid=19172&title=jewell:_we_need_to_learn_to_grind_out_draws Is this what it has finally come down to? Keane used to say that we need to grind out wins and win ugly! No Jewell is saying that we need to start grinding out draws! The context is on the Blackpool game but it just shows how negative we have become. Attack is the best form of defence and in the days of Joe Royle this was certainly true. Anyone remember the Ipswich 6 Crewe 4 game a few years back? We can't afford a draw against Coventry thats for sure! I like PJ and his honest affable manner but it doesn't win football matches and with every day that passes I am beginning to believe that he is out of his depth. He admits that he has never managed a club as big as Ipswich with the resources he has at his disposal and I think that this is beginning to show. I am sick to death of "time to gel" we have had FIVE YEARS of gelling and "just be patient". We as Town fans have been subjected to this propaganda for far too long now.
Joking aside, that is worrying! A manager spewing that out - Grinding out draws! I accept it was in the context of a tough away game but it does send out the wrong message to the players, fans and opposition.
Hopefully he meant we have to be realistic and when we are playing the better teams away from home, when its not going to be all our way then we have to strong and solid. West Ham away I will be very happy to grind out a draw. I think, or at least I hope he means we have to cut out the stupid errors that have haunted us since god knows when. Back under Keane we praised the fact that our defence looked strong but we still conceded silly goals when we turned of for 1 minute out of 90 and got punished.
Grinding out draws, may i suggest Mrs Warky changes to a wider fit i know those thongs can be like cheeswire
The big problem with being 'happy' with trying to take 1 point away to the likes of West Ham, Leicester, Middlesbrough, Brighton etc is if with 10, 15, 20 minutes to go and the scores are level the mentality becomes to defend deep to preserve what they have got and that is always going to invite trouble and more often than not will come away with nothing
JWM I know results haven't been great his season and certain decisions have been slightly frustrating that Jewell has made but I think you and Spanish included seem to be giving Jewell little time and patience like quite a few fans mainly because of the lack of progress from the previous managers and your frustration that the club haven't progressed infact it has gone backwards since ME has come in. You need to give Jewell a little more patience, thing have been bad the past couple of years and he's not going to turn it round straight away. I don't think Jewell means he wants to set us out to draw I don't believe its in his nature unlike our previous manager, I think what he is saying is that we haven't drawn many games since he has been manager and if we play badly we usually lose, so he wants us to be hard to beat if we have a bad game, well I hope he means that. I agree with you, attack is the best form of defence.
itfcptc Surely you must be frustrated being a Town fan at the moment? In honesty what have we had to cheer about in the last 5 years? A 1-0 win at home to Arsenal may be? The cold hard facts are that we have lost 4 games out of 6 so far this season and one of those was against a Northampton side near the bottom of league 2! The truth is that there is no such thing as having time. Jewell had all summer to sort out our defence and to put together a coherent plan for this season but alas he has squandered any good will that he had. The basic errors in team selection, recruiting has beens and now coming out and saying that we need more draws just goes to show that he hasn't got a clue. As Town fans should we realy be happy to accept what our great football club has now become?
PTC, as you may recall from the real BBC606 I was with you 100% on Keane's failings and was over the moon when PJ came in. It was a real breathe of fresh air and I liked his approach in his media duties. I havent writen him of (unlike Keane who I never really trusted) but we are suffering from more and more of the Keane like mistakes. The signing of midfielder after midfielder. The how to fit 4 cm in 1 team. The square peg, round holes. The ignorance of the gaps in the squad. The one mistake and your out philosophy and the baby like chucking the toys out of the pram (Not talking to Martin compared to there are some players who will never play for us again from his predecessor) On paper our squad gets more and more talented as each season goes by. Saturdays team had 10 players with epl experience and 9 with international honours. Whether it is at manager level or player level not testing their keeper in a match is totally unacceptable. I dont want us to change managers every 6 months but I would like some kind of long term goal for our club. Sheepshanks always used to have 3 (?) year plans and Norwich had a 7 year one. In 3 years 99% of our team will have retired. We seem so interested in the short term that we actually dont seem to know where we will be in 1 year let alone 5.
Goes back to the question of whether PJ is being realistic (ie not very hopeful of doing very much) or not wishing to build our hopes up (ie it will all end much better than we imagined). Trouble is, if he is bullish and says "we are going to achieve greta things" then he is putting pressure on himself with the risk of underachievement. If he says "this might take some time to sort out" then he could be perceived as being unambitious. Tough call really and, despite what we all say and think, only time will tell whether he is the right man or not.
You are not wrong Rushmere! Even under Joe Royle we knew only how to play attacking football and to just go out and out score our opponents! Remember the 6-4 game against Crewe! Pure bloody marvellous entertainment! Nowadays we just go out too frightened to lose!
warky me old mucker, it only sounds negative cos you've taken it out of context. if you read it with the blackpool game in mind, that is what he is referring to. grinding out draws when under the cosh or whatever. not defending jewell but i think you're being a bit harsh on this occasion! i bet you'd have been delighted to grab an underserved draw from bloomfield road
When you consider that we only managed 1 shot on target all game and that was in the 92nd minute I don't think I am being harsh!
I think you have got it right Superman. Unfortunately when you go through a spell of underacheivement these kind of comments annoy more than they should do.
Under Burley and Royle it didn't matter that we conceded goals because we always KNEW that we would score. We carried a goal threat and we were set up to attack teams from the first whistle. It was an absolute joy to watch and even when we lost we knew that the team had played decent football. In the days of Burley we had Johnson, Scowie, Stewie, Holland and Magilton who we could always rely on to score a goal. Nowadays it seems to me that the first priority is not to concede! Hence the 4-5-1 we play at home.
