We are still 6th in the form table after the weekend and prior to the Gills game we had only lost one of the last eight, so it’s not just a single good week.
At the risk of going round in circles - these for me are the few players at the club with Championship + potential. Some of them are not in the XI regularly and all of them are surrounded by below par team mates and have been coached appallingly. Some of them as you point out are loans.
Just watched the replay as I wasn't getting up at 5am to watch it live. That was as poor as we've played all season, it looked like the players were confused by Gillingham's blue kit as we passed to them more often than we could find a team mate. I have a few points I need to rant about first - Why do linesmen in League One follow the same guidelines of raising the offside flag late like Premier league officials. We're not using VAR and there is nobody who will overturn a decision so what's the bloody point? Why are fouls given for a high foot when the other player has ducked his head down to waist level? It's more natural to lift a foot to waistline to kick a ball than duck your face down, that call always pisses me off. Why can't Norwood just keep his mouth shut? He uses more energy trying to be a bully to players and officials than he does playing football. He annoys me every match. I doubt it helps the ref give us any close calls with the way he is towards officials. Why can't iFollow mesh the Ipswich audio with the video when the full replay of an away match is posted? I get why it's not possible live as the commentators can't travel to away games but **** me it doesn't take much to get the Radio Suffolk audio feed and match it to the video before putting it on the Ipswich site. Glad to get that off my chest, anyway, back to the game. Pretty poor from us in both halves. Terrible pass completion and second to the ball more often than not, that was tough viewing. Way too many long balls that were easily dealt with by the Gills back line. Cook will have learnt more from that game than the match against Accrington. Holy - not overly convincing, poor long kicking and found himself out of his area more often than I'd like to see. Kenlock - I'm not going to knock Myles because he has been decent lately but I don't think he'll make a career as a full back. He's bulked up a bit and I can see him moving to CB sooner rather than later. He's not mobile enough to deal with pacy wingers. Wilson - easily our best CB, James is the most consistent player we have in the team at the moment. We will need to find somebody else to partner him though as in my opinion Nsiala isn't good enough and Woolfy won't make the grade. His too laid back attitude will prevent Luke from ever achieving the heights he could. Maybe Ndaba (or Kenlock) will be the solution going forward next season. Nsiala - not consistent enough but he'll have to do for now. Chambers - another player not mobile enough for a full back. Dozzell - not learning quick enough. Has played the majority of matches this campaign but still gives away free kicks in dangerous areas. Terrible tackler. Bishop - why is he not running with the ball? One good game in ten won't get us where we'd like to be. Harrop - was he playing? Parrott - better than most today. Doesn't help us long term because he's a loan though. Bennetts - more failed end product, might as well be giving Lankester or Dobra the important match minutes instead to be honest. Norwood - please keep your trap shut and concentrate on playing football. I hope Paul Cook can bring change to this squad. I hope he can instill more drive, urgency and concentration onto a team that for the most part looks like it just goes through the motions on a match day.
I think there's alot of players in our squad who have shown potential, more than you name but until they're able to show they can perform consistently on a regular basis that's all it is and we will continue to see their potential and over egg how good our squad is. I think if alot of these players were introduced into more experienced team they would excell the problem is we've introduced so many all at once over the past few seasons. Then we haven't really discussed one of the biggest factors adding to all this the massive amount of injuries we've had including to those players learning their trade full stop or at this level. With a fair wind this squad is definitely good enough, I would say given the quality of the teams in this league for the top 2, however its built on sand. I think that was probably reflected at the start of last season more than any, when we had a good run of form with Jackson and Norwood being heavily relied upon and when they went off the boil or got injured we literally had no replacements and ultimately weren't good enough By the way what has happened to Emry Huws?
Huw’s has had a toe injury. I don’t think the problem is only experience. Good and bad habits are contagious and if you have Andre Dozzell who is supposed to be a master of passing giving the ball away all the time then that sets the level for the team. Contrast that with what would have happened in our best sides - having players inspiring others to better themselves.
To summarise, it was an absolute **** show. I don’t see Woolfy’s attitude as an issue. A cool head is an amazing attribute for a centre back to have. I think the problem was the manager’s ‘I used to play for Celtic and Dortmund, how dare you be critical, you’re a piece of ****’ attitude.
If I had to pick a squad of 50 players from League one.....i wouldn't have one ipswich player in there and that to me says it all, we are bang average!!
Fair point. Norwood who most of us would put first on the team sheet is not even amongst the best forwards in the league. No mention for Town on the top scorers or top assists on the BBC website, which I think is a top 25.
Completely agree, there is a real lack of leadership or as you say players inspiring others to better themselves in the team but I do think that often comes with having experience. In good Town teams in years gone by (we're talking a long time now) as a player I'm sure you'd look at your team mates and see players who you know you can rely on and often many have proven themselves, this team hasn't got that, the only player you would look at would be Chambers but unfortunately we just see him being linked to the constant failure and stagnation of the club. The class of 2000 spoke about having confidence in the team and looking at fellow team mates knowing they wouldn't go down without a fight and had that proven quality.
I've liked the look of Woolfenden and he's shown alot of potential. A player of his age is going to have peaks and troughs in the team particularly in one which hasn't been successful or has alot of experience. He's spent the majority of the season partnered with a player who'd made only 1 senior appearance prior to coming to town this season. Given the right environment and players alongside him I think he could flourish. The only good thing about his drop in form is that it will probably mean he will he here next season.
Think that's a bit unfair on Norwood, he's been out injured for a long time this season (and last). I'm sure if he'd played all season he'd be up there and we'd be at least in the playoffs. His goals scoring record for Ipswich is that he scores a goal around every 180 mins which is pretty much a goal every other game, which is pretty good in a team which has failed to live up to expectations
