There was a time, not so long ago, when it was said that it was a 2 horse race, then a 3 horse race and now a 2 horse race again. Absolutely anything can happen and fortunes can change very quickly, still **** loads of points to play for, so nothing is out of the question yet but boy do we have to sort it out quickly!
Very telling headline I've seen just scrolling through the news (from before the game). Harness: We are always looking at other results. Suggests no focus on players own performance
We’re effectively ten points off second place now. We are not catching those sides. Time for a reality check.
Interestingly, the 1 player who doesn’t get dropped is Burns and as someone (think it was Spanish) said, why not give Jackson a chance. His work rate is very good, not the greatest technically but think he’s earned an opportunity
The fear is that clubs have figured us out and know how to get a draw. You can imagine opposition managers giving the pre-match team talk - alright lads, remember, don’t try and play football against this lot. Give them a bit of kicking, let them have the ball in their half, and hit them on the counter to keep them a bit nervous. Don’t worry about their crosses or shots from range, they don’t really score from them. Remember they bottle leads, so don’t drop your heads if they do score first. Now let’s get a point against this lot and it’ll look like we’ve done well to get it. We’ve mentioned it before, but it’s not going to be hard to get players pumped up against us. We’ve spent a lot of money in this division. We (and I mean the players here) probably come across as quite arrogant. The issue is they haven’t got any reason to be. They’ve not achieved anything in an Ipswich shirt. To be honest, who has over the last two decades and a bit? We don’t support this football club for glory - what ****ing glory? It’s been grim following Ipswich. It’s been really grim. We’ve seen some turgid football. We’ve seen some terrible football. Feels like we’ve lost more than won over the last several years. Jesus Christ on a bike, we’ve not seen play off football since 2015! And we flunked that against those lot up the road. We’ve had bad managers. We’ve had bad owners. For the first time in years this season, I thought we stood a chance. A really good chance. Start of the season, we looked really, really good. So many things worked well. Now, it’s got stale. We’ve been sussed out. Whatever it is, we need a response. We need a settled team. We need to mix things up in our style of play occasionally, because I fear we’re getting predictable. We need to not drop players that have had good games the match before. And we need players on the pitch to actually look like they ****ing want it!!!
You think we might be getting sussed out? We are guaranteed to sub the entire forward line. It’s actually embarrassing at this point.
I’m referring to the style of play - heavy on possession and working it out wide to get a cross in. We don’t appear to have a plan B in terms of the attacking patterns in the final third. Teams know they can sit back and frustrate us because we’re still not a very proficient side. We’ve become too slow and predictable on the ball. Too complacent. There’s a blueprint teams are following to get a draw against us and it’s not difficult for them to understand it.
What I'm trying to say is, not that long ago, Bolton fans were probably saying the same thing and now they are above us!!
I don't know but at the start of the year...Bolton were probably 10 points behind us and within 6 weeks, they go above us, It is possible but then probably not for us, we don't ever go on these runs!!
Sheffield Wednesday and Plymouth are likely to pick up at least points equivalent to winning ten more games, which means we could only drop points in two more games for the rest of the season. In the form Bolton are in, they might give it a go and hope one of those sides hits a slump or loses their bottle. In the form we’re in, not a chance.
That was pretty drab, standard Ipswich performance of late, like watching a friendly game. God knows how we had 21 shots, it felt like we didn't have any. I've heard frustration in McKenna's post match interviews and a snobbery about how opposition teams approach us. I thought Barton set his team out pretty well tonight, they were organised at the back, pressed well and actually created a lot more chances than us. If i was a manager that's exactly how I'd play against us, why would a team with nowhere near the resources play and open game where we would pick them off like we did Morcombe? Sometimes this football is dull, it's literally like watching a friendly. On the occasions Bristol attacked and we won the ball back and they were out of possession we passed the ball backwards, it's like we want to wait for the opposition to get back into position before we attack them. They stretched our defence with how they played, getting in behind to create space, we don't do that we try to score the most complex way possible. We still don't have the 10 positions sorted, it seems all the players in those positions lose the ball more than they keep it except for Edwards. And we're not getting Burns in against the full back enough, he's not great when teams are sat deep. That result well and truly put our automatic promotion hopes to bed
I'd like to see him take up more of a wide position, he's not good enough on the ball to play as a 10
Ladapo had nothing to work with tonight but the odd time we do get a ball into the box he's not busting a gut to get across his marker, players are too static
I don't rate Jackson especially over Burns but there has to be something in playing a player who's just got MoM and keeping them in the team for the next match
Do you think we try to work it out wide, I feel like we need to get it wide more often, too many times we try to go through the overcrowded middle and lose the ball trying to be too intricate. I felt Bristol actually tried to win the game tonight and probably created more than most teams have against us all season their finishing wasn't the best. But agree in terms of a blueprint. I'm surprised the better teams don't even try it.
Nah, that wasn't good enough. Our style of play would do ok in the Championship. Unfortunately, we're not in that league. McKenna needs to find a way to win games again in this league so that he can then have us playing the way he likes after promotion. The referees are terrible and the time wasting/boring defensive strategies from teams at this level is frustrating but it's not going to change unless we figure out how to win in League One. I kind of feel like the players are giving up on the autos. It was all fine and dandy when we were top two and playing well but too many players have gone missing of late as they start to sulk about the possibility of another season in this division.
McKenna is showing naivety in plenty of areas. “Their manager apologised to me.” 1) keep your private conversations private. 2) it fosters the bullshit superiority narrative.
I’m not really buying into this theory. We didn’t score a hat full of goals against Burnley. Our biggest issue has been the same for months and that’s that we pepper the goal with lame efforts. All sorts of angles you’d expect the ‘keeper to make a save. We show no intelligence and no composure in front of goal. McKenna obviously can’t see this because he hasn’t tried to change it. We’ve been unlucky on a couple of occasions, but about the same number of times as the opposition. We’ve allowed Rovers to have some incredible chances. And I suppose that’s exactly why we keep drawing. Possession and shots count for nothing. McKenna needs to understand football is about how many times you put the ball in the net and stop it going in the other one.
I don't understand why Barton apologised, every manager can see its the best way to play against us bar Morcombe and look what happened, why should we expect teams put together on a 10th of the budget with less talented players to play an open game against us.
