Who is giving Struijk pelters? Struijk was horrific in both relegation run ins and was dropped. Was it the pressure? He certainly looked like it was getting to him. He started this season slowly but he slowly gained confidence next to Rodon and stopped being passive Pascal and became much more aggressive. He's been decent for a while now with the exception of when Rodon doesn't play next to him. After his injury and the international break he returned back to passive Pascal for the home game against Swansea. He isn't talented enough to play like Beckenbauer. He is 6ft 3in and a unit with a turning circle of one of Jocks cruise ships. He needs to defend on the front foot and be aggressive and that's what he has done when playing well...and he has played well for the most part. Yesterday he went wandering off too much and he's not mobile enough to get back. If that's what Farke wants him to do then we have an issue with Farke. Why would you tell Pascal to follow his man all over the place and tell Ampadu to try and cover him. Surely you just pass the man on to Ampadu and let him deal with it whilst maintaining your shape. That's what we used to do in the u12s. It's not about simply replacing Pascal. It's obvious that Farke doesn't like Cresswell and we all see that Cooper is injury prone AND age starting to creep up on him. If Rodon is out for any length of time then we could be in trouble. Pascal has wilted in both pressure cookers for the last two seasons and hopefully we are in with a chance of promotion. That brings pressure. Do we really want to gamble on him not wilting again when the information we have on him suggests he does drop off in performance at key times? Why not use the loan market and get an experienced LCB on loan to push for that position OR give us some security in case Pascal goes missing again? Some posters are very touchy on 'criticism' of players when it merely makes good sense both on the pitch and as a business to improve areas where perceived weaknesses are. Like a FLFFLB for instance. We have Byram (who is injury prone) and Firpo (who is injury prone and ****). Just get another one. We have two loan spaces. Get it done just in case we end up short in that position. This is an important season. We have to put sentiment to one side and look to strengthen the weakest areas even if it means upsetting Pascal and Liam. None of you are moaning about the absence of Ayling, Cooper and Bamford. Times change. Better options become available and we should be taking them.
We're a press and harry team rather than one that chooses to drop and block. Although we could possibly question whether we should be more adaptable in key moments of the game, such as 3-1 up with just a few minutes to go until HT for instance. From my vantage point whatever we do we'll still concede chances because that's the make up of the side currently.
Struijk as 1st choice with club captain Cooper as cover is more than adequate for our left side centre back slot until next summer.
I know because of the history between our clubs, that he may get a few nasty comments from our lot on SM but Michael Carrick does seem a really decent bloke. Can't agree with him that they should have had a penalty though.
don’t disagree - we were also under Bielsa and marsch. It’s why the timing of the press and who goes who stays is critical. There was a big gap between Ampadu and kamara/piroe yesterday and boro exploited it. Hey… you get a different vantage point live so maybe it’s always like that and boro just exploited it better than most. You’d know better than me fella.
If we wanted to win games 1-0 all the time we'd have to stop playing four attacking players but yes Boro were very good at times and had plenty of pace to trouble us once they played through the press. Good entertaining game and we were the killjoys trying to run the clock down after they went down to 10 men.
Yeh I’m not criticising us picking an attacking team - it’s worked well, just felt the balance was out off the ball in the first 20 in particular yesterday. Attack being the best form of defence our xgA is the lowest in the league so we’re doing something right defensively. It was partly through injury necessity and partly through choice but boro picked their pacier players yesterday so I guess their game plan was evident … I was disappointed we played keep ball and didn’t really go for the 4th goal to kill the game… but seeing as they nearly scored the one time they did get the ball maybe it was justified.
My comment made to Jammy Jnr at HT was " if we allow Boro too much possession they could win this ". Fortunately Farke saw the same thing and so did as much as possible to guard against it, however we definitely had a few gears to shift through in search of a winner should it have become necessary.
So, after this game, in our last 6 games we have caught up 5 points on Ipswich who are now 7 points ahead. and caught up 6 points on Leicester who are now 8 ahead. so catching up a point a game with 27 games to play (So have Southampton btw)
This is a huge month for Ipswich to navigate, if they’re top two in January then they are serious contenders. January into February a big test for Leicester with the African Cup. All the top teams need to navigate the transfer window in January, not so much strengthening but more so holding on to Key players. WBA have received a £20m loan to get them through to the new year and hopefully for them, a new owner. I can’t help feeling top two will be between us, Southampton and WBA
It's a big month for us also. December away games all against teams in top 9 (Blackburn, Sunderland, Preston & WBA). After these games we will have played all of the current top 9 away from home.
We’ve beat the top two away, we’re the best in the division as far as I’m concerned mate. If everyone (from every team) played to their best ability in this division we’d be unbeatable. We’ll slip up and drop points we shouldn’t but I’ve always been confident very few teams will cope with our front line. Our defence is questionable but midfield to attack I’d not swap a single player for anyone at another team in this division. If we don’t have 6 players in Championship team of the season then it’s a fix
think there's a fair argument that leicester and maybe ipswich are maybe flattered by results so far while we and southampton haven't been (i'd chuck boro and sunderland in that as well) - so i think the gap between the top 4 may close up. Don't see the baggies as auto contenders personally.
Preston's miracle start is over and their luck has run out... sunderland and WBA will be tough games and blackburn are unpredictable. Your stat does highlight that down the stretch our big games will be at home, which should be an advantage.
I hope the baggies drop away my WBA mate can't believe the difference in them now compared to when they played us. He said the rumours around the ground are no sales but at best a loan to strengthen in January and they have little depth
To a degree, it doesn’t really matter where you finish 3-6th if you miss out on the autos. I’m hoping Ipswich don’t have the squad depth to maintain their current form and that a Daniel Farke team usually gets stronger in the second half of a season, particularly as our playoff record is so poor. We have a nice ten points cushion to 7th.
