Needless sending off from KVY. Not one of Norwoods better games last night but even so boy does he work hard for the team and make a difference. He seemed to have about 6 men around him all the time yesterday and a lack of white shirts near him, so not alot for him to work with but he chased and harried and was often started the press and he took up good positions creating space for others and his general sh*thousery makes a big difference to the team. I think Bonne has more technical ability but sometimes when things aren't going our way be goes quiet, Norwood doesn't.
Playing devil's advocate I have to say results have been good but apart from the Gillingham game which was superb the other games weren't too different to the form we showed before the final couple of league games of his tenure although I do think this formation suits us more and Paul Cook was not budging on the 451. I kind of feel we would've improved anyway and our drop in form definitely coincided with Burns getting injured and there's no way we would've won yesterday if Burns didn't play.
I accept you’re playing Devil's advocate, but going forward McKenna’s got to be a better prospect than any of the last three (at least) incumbents.
So far wide of the mark it's hit the Wolsey theatre. The football is chalk and cheese. We've gone from a 30% win ratio to 80% overnight. That is not a coincidence.
"I’ve seen more than enough to give Cook the benefit of any doubt for a while. Even though we threw the last game away with a terrible lack of foresight and even if we hit a rough patch orBonne goes back to his parent club and the form tails off we are finally playing the kind of football we haven’t seen at Portman Road since Evans took over." Who said this a few weeks before Paul Cook got the sack?
If you haven’t noticed, McKenna only has one new face in. Cook was a big leap forward on McCarthy or Lambert but there was an awful lot not clicking. We couldn’t buy a goal at a time when Norwood was frozen out of the first team. McKenna has shown with his mentality and if we’re honest we kind of knew it ourselves - the time is now - to slowly build for the future is not enough. What’s improved is our possession, tempo, set pieces, crossing, confidence in front of goal. All the things I said we needed to improve at that time now have been improved on.
I had written us off for this season, but now I fancy us. I had no idea we could capture a first class manager from our position.
I generally agree with you, I was just playing devil's advocate because I don't think it is quite as cut and dry...plus I'd like to think my preseason prediction was correct of having an indifferent start and kicking on after Xmas to make a late surge into the playoffs. Despite how poor we were at the end of Cook's tenure (and for the majority) it was clear as day we had quality and in phases of games we were playing very very good football, I felt that due to the changes it would take some time for the team to develop. The real downturn in form after we'd had a good spell came when Burns was injured and generally against better teams. Apart from Gillingham which was the best performance I've seen in years (but not too dissimilar to the Doncaster game) we've got results but performances have been hit and miss, against Wimbledon there were definitely some areas of which had been improved from the start of the season but if we were against a better team we no doubt would've lost that game, the number of opportunities Wimbledon passed up to get into the final third when our team was out of shape was unbelievable. It was only due to the exceptional Burns and a bit of quality upfront from Norwood and Bonne that we scored. Discounting the first 5 games of the season I don't think those traits are too dissimilar from the ones we were showing under Cook and it wouldn't have been beyond the realms of possibility that the team would've made marginal improvements as the season progressed anyway as they got used to each others games. This is not deflecting away from the superb job McKenna has done so far and how well he comes across (even if it is a little Andy Murray) but I do not think it was beyond the realms of possibility we wouldve hit a decent run of form with Burns back in the team under Cook. After saying all this it did also feel a little like Cook was a dead man walking as he wasn't Ashtons man and you wonder whether that contributed to some of the odd decisions he made
I agree but those previous managers had a hand tied behind their backs, so perhaps we can now judge them with the benefit of hindsight and how poorly the club was run. Despite disliking McCarthys approach to the game he probably over achieved here in terms of league position. It's difficult to really give a proper reflection on Hurst and Cook because they weren't in the job long enough and both took over at a time of change (partly self inflicted). I think there were also reasons behind Jewells failures other than just his own and I'm even starting question whether Keane was as bad as I thought he was. And finally it's also crystallising my view that Lambert did well to keep us in the promotion hunt for as long as he did. We had a weak squad blighted by injuries....I mean how many managers do you think would be able to get the current Colchester United team to the top of league 1 As far as we know McKenna has a good hand with decent structure behind him and for the first time in years a squad with quality pretty much all over the park.
It’s not all about the players. I think McKenna would have come in and got the best out of Dozzell, Bishop, Nsiala, Chambers, Edwards, Huws and the rest just in a similar way. There’s also the factor of the owners galvanising the club and improving ticket sales and the vibe and mentality of the fans. Definitely this is a stronger squad so I think there would have been more activity in the transfer market had he inherited Lambert’s squad. The end result would have been pretty much the same though I think.
Hey guys, lots of Ifs & Buts, lets enjoy whats happening right now. We have a great team spirit, an excellent young managar much respected and liked by everyone and a recent record to die for. I also agree that he would have got more out of the Downes, Dozell, Huws brigade but we are where we are.
I’m going to three of the next four matches so hopefully my curse of not seeing an Ipswich goal in the flesh this season will be ended!
That's great Hampy, how lucky you are. I can only be an armchair spectator for the foreseable. You will see not one, not two, but three goals!
The issue we face unless we can increase our chance creation rate (which is still only just above that if the relegation teams) is that if you can stop Wesley burns you can stop Ipswich town…
It looks like we’re much much better tactically and I think we’d have snatched some draws from the jaws of victory under cook over these last 5 games. It’s not all perfect despite the victories but tactically things went to plan vs Wimbledon; we used Jackson to work the left channel because kvy can’t do what burns does on the right and looked to switch play from there to pull them out of shape. This approach did lead to both of burns’ goals. Jackson wasn’t playing left because he’s clueless; KM told him to do this and he did it well and offered much better passing and crossing than the headless chicken ever has. seemingly KM is similarly underwhelmed by Edward’s given he’s not making the bench and we’ve opted for a new loan at wolfy bqxk rather use him to even plug the gap temporarily.
Nothing to do with the opposition. He was so very poor against Bolton. A few weeks ago it was James Norwood. Burns is just having a purple patch and the more of a run you’re on, the more confidence you have, the more of a buzz you have and the more likely you are to hit the back of the net.
Yes agree this was certainly a game we probably would've lost earlier in the season and it looks like whilst we are always being progressive in our play there is variation to the tactics unlike what it was like under Cook where we only had a plan A. Conversely to that I feel we would have probably been more resilient at this point in the season anyway as players started to get used to each other and played a few games together plus whilst tactically the our right hand side of the team looks very strong the left was awful and actually I probably would've played Edwards out there over Jackson and Celina. Plus the midfield went missing, the number of times Wimbledon got the ball in dangerous areas in the final third without one of our midfielders anywhere near them was ridiculous, fortunately Wimbledon didn't appear good enough to capitalise. And Norwood was so isolated. I guess what I'm saying is much like I did when we started getting results under Cook there's still some quite glaring weaknesses including tactical ones and whilst it looks and sounds like McKenna really knows what he's doing I feel I need to see us play a few more games before I reserve judgement on that.
That Burns performance has really stung you hasn't it? Everytime I've seen Burns play this season he's been on fire. In 20 league appearances he's either scored or assisted 11 goals.
He’s 18th in the League One scorers list so let’s not get carried away too much. My point was about the fact he’s one of a team. I would put a few players ahead of him as our most important. Without hesitation Morsy and Walton. Norwood has a good tally for a handful of starts, Chaplin has an even better ratio, Bonne earlier in the season wiped the floor with everyone, Aluko and Celina are always a threat. I don’t think it’s true at all that you stop Burns and you stop our threat. If anything, if Burns gets more attention from defenders it will just open up space for everyone else.
