Well, one of those memorable Ipswich TFC nights eh! I feel for those of you who made the long trip...gut wrenching...lost yer nails...ending up in emergency. After making the 300 mile trip to PR on Saturday..is it Fortress PR now again..and witnessing a very confident, convincing performance against our local team here in Sussex..and thinking many positives to drive home with...but doubts still about Gherkin...doubts my arse!...lets get Loachy back and quick. Goldilocks superb, Murphy tireless as ever...but not the striker we have needed..a quick entertaining cameo burst from Edwards...but not the man/player he was..worried about ineffectiveness of Hyem apart from his disruptive qualities..I said to myself " Great game to have seen..worth the £70...def top 10..but not the finished article and certainly not promotional candidates...BUT enjoyable once again to see how us playing well all over the park...and ffs trying hard!" So, I ask you all what have we learnt from last night? Many positives obviously from an astonishing 1st half..when did we last score 4 goals in a 1st half? Great for Murphs to score goals We are not the sizzling team that some thought We have room for improvement MM's tactics are questionable in such dramatic change of fortune We clearly have no strategy for killing a game off ( I dont ever remember such a collapse and almost losing, in 53 years of supporting them!) Gherkin made several game-changing errors However,a useful point gained Thing is, we have another difficult game Saturday. Can MM pick the players up? Huge amount of energy & stress spent last night.
Im not sure if i am more shocked that we scored 4 away from home or that we conceded 4 at all. Both amazed me Still we got a point which is more than what would have happened under our recent previous managements, still in the top half, still near the important spots. That will do me.
For as good as we were 1st half we were shockingly bad 2nd. The game was dead and buried at H/T, but then we are ITFC nothing is certain with us, a tactical tweek at the break by the Rams, us still sipping our H/T cup of tea and within 2mins of the restart 2-4 game on. MM left it to late to counteract the Rams switch to a Diamond formation getting the young lad Hughes further forward by giving him a free role, by the end of the night we count ourselves lucky to come away with a point, we did not defend well all night, even in the 1st half we looked shakey at the back. We will see what MM and the boys are made of on Saturday, this will be a tough night on all fronts to bounce back from. Two +s from the night Murphy got a couple of goals & another decent performance fron Cressy, the only defender to have a half decent night.
Having sat through 90 minutes of a truly bizarre Championship game I thought I'd pass on some of my thoughts.. Derby were hopeless for 1st 45.. we looked good but were made to look better by Derby's poor performance, we ran the midfield and McGoldrick got on the ball a lot and we passed it about well. 3 goals from set pieces added the gloss onto a good away performance. 2nd half however was a different kettle of fish, our performance was akin to the ITFC of 12 months ago and a lot of players went missing and there was no fluency in anything we did.. I thougt I'd struggle to see a worse performance than Derby's 1st 45 but then good old ITFC reminded me of just how awful we were and still could be. My ratings: Gherken - [4] biggest disappointment imo, a few heated words between him & his defence and put us/himself in unneccessary trouble a couple of times Chambo - [6] Solid, committed and a trier but had a difficult 2nd half and (as everyone else) couldn't find a blue shirt in the 2nd half Berra - [6] Won most of his headers and wrestled his way through the game, was caught out a couple of times though Smith - [6] Same as Berra Cresswell - [7] one of the best performers again. Difficult 2nd half but won his personal battles and was involved in most of what we did well Anderson - [5] anonymous for most of the time he was on, grafted but offered very little Skuse - [5] decent 1st half, kept things simple but 2nd half was bypassed far too often and disappeared from the game Hyam [6.5] impressed with his energy & purpose 1st 45, 2nd half he huffed & puffed and battled well but was never able to get a foot hold on the game again Tunnicliffe [6.5] good performance, took on his man, worked the ball well & would have stayed on longer had he not been booked imo McGoldrick [6] V. good 1st half but was completely anonymous for the 2nd and should have come off sooner as his touch was poor and lost out in every physical battle Murph [6.5] battled well, 2nd half had very little to work with and was far too isolated but was always an outball (even if it never got to him) Edwards [6.5] made a positive impact and looked decent taking the game to Derby Nouble [6.5] Ran around, fouled a few defender but was more effective than McG was in 2nd half and we looked more balanced with him uptop Tabb [6] added balance but was unable to have any real impact MM [5] subs came too late and the changes in system didn't work for us until we went for a balanced 442 which was too late and has to take some responsibility for the collapse and I'm sure he'll be letting the players know just what we all thought of their 2nd half performance
i think last showed that we can score goals so we aren't as bad as we think, but also us supporters have to appriciate sometimes a 1-0 win a bit more than a 4-3 win. what changes would i make, probably time for loachy again as gerken has made as many errors as scott has, and to be honest not much else. sometimes there is games like these, thats football. far more positives than negatives in my view.
Difficult one this, there are certainly positives and definitely not one to throw the baby out with the bath water but there are also negatives and alot of them have been themes throughout the season so far. Positives: 1. Good to get a point away from home, particularly in an unpredicatable game (due to change of manager) 2. Good (and amazed) that we scored 4 goals away from home 3. Cresswell looks awesome both attacking and defensively (how much longer can we keep hold??) 4. Murphy scored 2 Negatives: 1. I can't believe a Mick Mcarthy team lost a 3 goal lead 2. We still don't look very coherant in midfield, our RWs are annonymous for the most part, our LWs are CMs (probably 2 of our best), Hyams not good as the attacking CM, Skuse needs to step up his game and not just be content with just sitting back and starting moves off 3. We're still not getting our strikers in the box enough nor creating enough for them, only seem to score from long shots or set pieces or Cresswell crosses 4. When our plan A fails or opponents change their tactics (and it works) Mick is either slow to change it or just doesn't change it or brings on pretty much like for like 5. The GK's have lost us a few points this season, Gerken has been poor the past few matches but then do we really want to bring Loach in who has also been poor??Need a new GK!!! 6. We seem to be good at taking advantage of teams who play poorly but as soon as they up their game we're found wanting
Although this result is hard to take, a point last night away should be viewed as a point gained. We all would have taken that to start with! We sit 10th in the league and within strikng distance of the top 6 but we must recognise that this league is a marathon and not a sprint. We can take many positives out of last night, the fact that we scored 4 and discovered that ruthless streak in front of goal. It is also human nature to get complacent when you are miles ahead and taking into account tactical chnages made by the opposition, complacentcy was our enemy last night. The players were in a very unusual position last night being 3 goals to the good by Half-Time and I am sure that they must have had a collective nose bleed due to the altitude! Time for the players now to stand up and be counted and to go to Sheffield Weds and do the business! A scrappy 1-0 will do me just fine!
Our main problem area was down our right last night, they completely exposed the fact that Anderson is still not fully fit (IMO) and that Chambers is not a RB, we got done down that side time after time 2nd half.
Not sure about that, Chambers was not getting much protection from Anderson so that compounded the problem there. I would stick with the same 11 on Saturday TBH, it may have been just "one of those nights" I would not rush in to make changes, as I have stated before MM & TC should have reacted as soon as they saw the Rams change of formation, at least as soon as they scored 2nd half...
I've watched the extended highlights now. If you ask me we can play with fluidity now, we look dangerous and we always look like we can score. The third derby goal wasn't that bad one to concede but the others were all preventable. It was all down to psychology - at 4-1 and even 4-2 we're not fighting for every ball because we expect to win and then once it's 4-3 we are understandably nervous and panicky. This is a team that hasn't been through experiences and highs and lows together. Next time we're 2 or three goals up they will all have learned from this experience as a team. They might even be more nervous because of what happened this time, but I think actually 4-4 will probably do us more good in the long run than getting away with it at 4-3 or 5-4. I can't think of better motivation than proving to yourself that you can be very good but not quite stepping up to the mark. I don't know what the hell ball Nouble is trying to play into the box toward the end though, I think there are one or two who aren't up to it. But I would say what happened last night is not something you can legislate for in training or team talks.
We're not perfect yet, we still need a few more players. We could really do with an experienced full back in the side for Cresswell and Hewitt to learn from and to bring Hewitt's game on. It's also a bit dodgy down the right because we don't have that right-sided attacking player yet so there is always loads of space ahead of the full back.
This result isn't the end of the world! We are a team in transition AND we are heading in the right direction. In case we had forgotten a year ago we were getting beaten by Derby and we were bottom of the league!
That's it on a plate Warky. In well under a year we have made up half the gap to the best sides in this division but we still have another year to fill in the remaining gaps before we can compete with them.
" This result isn't the end of the world! We are a team in transition AND we are heading in the right direction. In case we had forgotten a year ago we were getting beaten by Derby and we were bottom of the league! " johnnywarksmoustache - 100% AGREE with you ( do we ever )!!!! 10 games in, 10th in the table, I would have taken a draw before the game so it'll have to go down as half positive ( though undoubtably 2 points dropped ) We COULD arguably be unbeaten - Should have beaten Brum - Could have destroyed Leeds, the 1-1 goal killed us - QPR may have got a point - Reading awful second half. Delighted with our start. Lets get at least a point at Wednesday Saturday and build.
We learnt that we are getting better but still have a way to go. As JWM says, we are a work in progress (didn't think he'd be the one saying that after whinging about the money we'd spent a couple of weeks back) and we are definitely headed in the right direction. We learnt that we need a better 'keeper. We learnt that Mick is a bit slow on changing things on the fly during a game. All in all we've had a decent start after ten games and are in the top half. If we can stay there all season you would have to say that progress has been made. On a side note, some of those TWTD posters made me laugh, going into meltdown after last nights results. Totally unneccessary and ott reactions from some
I am pleased with what has been achieved so far considering the complete lack of money that has been spent on players! Yes we are still in a transitional phase but the big difference from last year is that we now have a team full of players that are contracted to us! Tunnicliffe being the exception of course but the team is now playing as a team and I expect that this group of players will want to bounce back against Wednesday.
Lots of excellent responses and valid remarks & suggestions everyone.....its def not throat slitting time...god, it was far worse depression and gloom under Keane. I expect MM will make a few changes for Saturday. It did have its comic and entertainment value! I especially appreciated the thoughts from those who watched it.
Still think MM is tactically poor, if its working then all well and good but if its not we are screwed, he should have spotted Derby's formation change and done something about it. We need a new goalkeeper but i bet MM doesn't see it that way, think he can be a stubborn pig!! Also i am a strong believer in round pegs in round holes, we have gone back to not playing a natural RB, something you lot slated previous managers for not doing!! No doubting improvements but for me the jury is still out at the moment, sorry Warky but i just cant show him the love like you do.
FFS Spanish just what the f uc k are you banging on about! McCarthy has forgotten more about football than we will ever know! I would much prefer to put my faith In someone who has dragged us up this league by the bootstraps! McCarthy has had no backing from Evans so he can't go out and buy the quality players we need! We have to make do with what we've got!
