Likely to be 8 points away after the fixtures tonight. That is only a couple of points ahead of where we were at Christmas so whilst there has been progress in style there has not been in substance.
And what about progress since last season? Solid at the back, lots of possession, not getting enough points off those above and around us, stuck in 9th? The quality of the squad and style of play has improved but for the same result. It is quite surprising however given the run of form we've been on that we still are where we are, it seems quite an exceptional year at the top with many teams just keeping their form going, any other year with the points we have we'd be sitting in the playoffs
It is indisputable that there has been progress since McKenna has been appointed. Look at the results alone. This season, Paul Cook's Ipswich were averaging 1.35 points per game (based on the 20 league games, when Cook was in charge). Since McKenna has come in, he has averaged 1.94 points per game (based on the 18 league games he has managed). Cook won 13 Ipswich matches in his 44 games in charge. So far, McKenna has won 10 matches in 18. While I appreciate that Cook inherited a poor team last season, we finished further from the play off positions last season from when he started. So we regressed under him, but he got a bit of a free hit because the players and the culture needed to change. The massive overhaul and investment in the summer was required, so I do have sympathy for Cook because those earlier fixtures, this season, was undoubtedly affected by a new squad gelling. However, don't forget that towards the end of Cook's time - performances were poor, we had almost exited all the cup competitions (lost the FA Cup replay to Barrow under the caretaker), and we were nowhere near being a consistent side. I'm a lot more hopeful for next season with McKenna in charge. Mostly because, on the whole, he makes better in-game decisions, is more adaptable in his formation and tactics, and, crucially, he is able to coach and get better, more consistent performances out of this squad of players.
Regarding the left wing back position. 1 player that interests me is Kyle Edwards but a few things need to happen 1st. Kmc and his coaching staff need to work with him as at the moment, there is no end product (think he had 0 goals & 0 assists when he played but might be wrong). As well as his final decision making, also needs work on his stamina as I never felt he could play 90 minutes. If and I appreciate it is a big if, all these issues are sorted, he could be the answer although as JD helps Burns, either Burgess or Edmundson will need to help him but we must be a more balanced side at the start of next season
Can't agree, there has been progress all round imho, including substance as you put it. We have just been unfortunate that some of those around us have been on cracking form themselves, in a normal season i think we would have been in the playoffs by now, it was the piss poor start that hurt us, was always going to be a struggle, just a pity Cook wasn't fired a few weeks earlier!! I have absolute faith in KM and next season, a few tweaks here and there and we will be pushing for autos.
Playing devil's advocate this is Paul Cook's last 14 league games which got him the sack in comparison to Keiran McKenna's last 14 games: Paul Cook - 1.71 points per game - 26 goals scored - plus 11 goal difference - played 6 teams in and around the top 6 Keiran Mckenna - 1.85 points per game - 14 goals scored - plus 10 goal difference - played 4 teams in and around top 6 I'm pleased that we have McKenna and think for his first job he's done superbly well, he talks a much better game than Cook and his in game decision makes more sense but actually the stats don't look that bad for Cook over those 14 games KM has amassed an average of 0.14 extra points per game, scoring 12 less goals with a worse goal difference of 1 whilst playing more teams lower down the division. I still believe whoever was manager the team would've improved over the season whilst "gelling". For me what has killed us this season was the first 5 games in which as others have said they understand why it took time for the team to gel and the 3 games after Cook got the sack. Cook made alot of questionable decisions particularly the end of last season but given his record if Ashton was fully behind him I still feel we would've been in a similar position to what we are now. Clearly Cook and Ashton clashed over something and it wasn't healthy relationship so we are where we are. We look far more consistent under McKenna and certainly stronger defensively but we've gone backwards when it comes to scoring goals. For me whilst at a completely different level it's like comparing Klopp to Guardiola. Klopps Liverpool stick rigidly to a formation and players fit into that...that was Cook's style. McKenna is more like Giardiola and more flexible but sometimes as Guardiola does over thinks and try to be too clever.
I agree think Edwards could definitely play that role although would prefer a specialist wing back. Will be interesting to see who McKenna recruits in the summer and whether he changes to 4 at the back, given the success and relative balance of the back 5 I'd hope not. Also if we are going to get more balance and attacks down that side a left sided CB who's a bit more dynamic going forwards into space would be good. Initially I felt Woolfenden could play there with Edmunson in the sweeper role, however Woolfendens form has been so good it would be difficult to change it.
McKenna had a good run but that doesn’t mean he can sustain it over 46 games or into next season. Our defence is very strong but that’s come at the expense of scoring goals. The lack of balance is quite shocking and there has been a total failure to address either that, finishing chances and set pieces. It reminds me a lot of Arsene Wenger’s trophyless ‘score the perfect goal’ team. We’re one dimensional and Cambridge successfully stopped us playing through them to pass the ball into the goal. Like you say the players were new to each other at the start of the season and we strengthened in January. There’s a story that a couple of Man United youngsters came to train with the first team. That seems to have coincided with Dyer resigning and his leaving could have caused a few heads to drop and that awful performance Saturday.
Good point about the most recent 14 games comparison, although to play a reverse devil's advocate, Cook's final 14-game run came mid-way through the season, where we were still fancied to break into the top six. Whereas McKenna's run of games have been heavily influenced by the fact we've been playing catch up and needed automatic promotion form to break into the top six - particularly with the form of several clubs above us. I could see why we sacked Cook, despite being a bigger supporter of him than some on this forum, but the two points we picked up from nine between Cook's firing and McKenna's appointment has been another factor in us drifting further away from the promotion conversation. I think we all said at the time, but I would have preferred Ashton to have had the McKenna appointment ready to come in much faster after Cook's firing. My broad observation is that under McKenna, we've adopted a more defensive, cautious style of football that emphasises more effective use of possession and quicker passing. Under McKenna, we're more comfortable winning games by one or two goals to nil. Under him, we've broken a club defensive record for consecutive minutes without conceding. Despite being in the third division, that's still a strong achievement for a rookie manager in his first few months in management. Contrast this to Cook, and we were much more gung-ho - even when we'd killed off the game, such as the 6-0 over Doncaster, the 4-0 against Portsmouth, and the 4-1 win over Wycombe. However, we lost to Burton, Cheltenham, and Accrington Stanley to late winning goals when we had overcommitted in attack (not to mention the dropped points when it came to draws - including a few two goal leads thrown away). Wycombe and Portsmouth aside, we failed to beat any of the other current top 15 under Cook. My hope is that McKenna, Ashton, and the transfer boffins know what moves they want to make in the summer transfer window. Sharpening our attack is absolutely paramount. Lately, we've struggled to create consistent goalscoring chances across 90 minutes and, when we do, we have an uncanny ability to miss the target (it happened under Cook too). I think it's clear that Bonne has reverted to the usual form in his playing career after that earlier purple patch. Jackson and Norwood look as if they want a change of scenery. Piggott hasn't had a consistent run of minutes, but whenever he does take to the pitch, he looks blunt.
It’s easy to make the stats tell whatever story you want - the key one would be the 90 points we’d have over a season averaging just under 2 ppg, but there’s nothing certain about our promotion next year at this point.
Stats stats stats, it's all very boring and meaningless. Just go on what you see on a match day. Football under KM is much better, end of!!
Not entirely sure what you mean by playing catch up, I think we've been playing catch up all season. What ever way you look at it when Cook left we were 7 points off the playoffs we are now 8!! That says to me the teams above us have been on an incredible run of form and we haven't taken enough points off those top teams when we've played them. In those final 14 games, we lost 4 of them to Rotherham, Sunderland, Plymouth and Accrington, all of which bar Accrington were not particularly shameful results at this level with a new team who were developing. Wes Burns was also injured and we have relied on him heavily this season, there arent many games I can think of which we've won when Burns hasn't been at it. It's a good job Burns hasnt been injured in McKenna's time and that he has got that extra 0.14 points a game on Cook otherwise he would've been close to getting the sack. McKenna also had initially quite a favourable set of fixtures with the majority of teams we played below us. I was disappointed with how Cook handled things but I was also disappointed by how the club handled Cook. The reason Ashton gave for sacking Cook was we wanted to achieve something this season (after saying this is a long term project), without wishing to completely right us off we're further away from the playoffs now than we were when we sacked him and like you say Nuggets I think we dropped points because of it, the Charlton fixture directly after his sacking was probably the worst performance I've seen this season the players Cook brought in had downed tools. Like Cook said if he'd have known the direction of the club he would've left in the summer. Why let a manager you know isn't your man and doesn't fit in with the CEO abliterate the playing squad bring in 19 new players mostly after pre season so clearly that would have a knock-on effect to at the least the start of the season? But then once you've done it, don't sack him after 2 straight losses to top teams in the division after a decent run of form. He should've at least been given the season. I believe Ashton undermined Cook and that was reflected in the media conferences, at games and eventually on the pitch, I'm sure Cook didn't feel empowered to do his job properly. So after having no one lined up after sacking probably one of the most in demand managers at this level (and above) we get 2 points from 3 games and then Ashton takes a chance on a highly rated young coach but with no managerial experience. I just wish Ashton would have been honest, I can really see why he's such a marmite character as some of the things he does look brilliant and others I'm think you absolute tw*t. As Hampy said there are no guarantees for next season theres still alot of question marks over McKennas head despite so far on the whole performing very well. Defensively McKenna has improved us no end and that's not come from having a defensive mindset most of our defenders look like they're playing in second gear, it comes from retaining possession and having a really good balance at the back and getting the best out of players. But going forwards IMO must be seen as a failure, we haven't consistently created enough chances throughout the whole course of the season and given the creative talent we have we should be doing better. Again I know everyone says we need some new strikers but I can't think of another team at this level with the calibre of striker we have, so we should be doing better from that point of view. That was an issue I believe also under Cook but was masked by the form of Bonne who at the time everything he touched seem to go in. In summary I believe Ashton could've handled the manager situation differently and for all the good he's done he has to shoulder the blame for the lack of success this season, especially based on him sacking Cook to achieve something this season (which was BS in my opinion)
Football under KM is far better than that under PC, it wasn't working out under Cook, he had to go and i think it was handled correctly. What I've seen of us under KM i think we will definitely be top 6 next season and i would say every chance of finishing top two. Just a few tweaks needed here and there!
Tell that to the club who have invested in it heavily this season. One stat does matter though we are now 8 points off the players that's 1 further away than when Cook was sacked. I prefer the style of play under McKenna and its certainly more consistent but whether it's more entertaining from a neutrals perspective I'm not sure purely based on the fact we now concede less and score less, so we've seen alot less goals
I do agree with you to be fair but it's hard to say whether thats because we have a better manager or because the team have developed further and we have a management team all on one page at the moment. Probably a mixture of all of those reasons. What I've seen and heard of McKenna so far I really like (although there is always room for improvement) but it is a big risk although one which aligns itself to the great traditions of this club but what wasn't aligned to our traditions was how quickly we sacked Cook when our league form wasn't actually that bad and how a CEO undermined him. But then again Cook didn't treat the players from last season very well either. I just hope McKenna is given a proper chance and not undermined if things aren't going our way.
Remember though, we had played more games than a lot of teams at the time of Cook's departure. We're now almost even with most so I wouldn't make too much of that 1 point difference now.
Remember it can go backwards just as easily as it goes forwards. Mick McCarthy had us in the Premier League for half a season. We need to take the opportunities while we have them and we haven’t done that this season. It’s no good getting close and then bottling it. Saturday was nowhere near the stuff of champions.
We all have our off days, just a shame it happened when it did. As for MM, didn't want the arrogant prick from day one as you all know!!
Also, something else you need to take into account, this is pretty much PC's team, give KM the summer to bring in who he wants, he has now worked long enough with the squad to know who he can and can't trust and what position needs improvement. I honestly think we will fly next season, very very confident!!
