Have to say the stuff Mick has come out today really irks me the whole Nouble over Taylor thing. I agree with the stance you should earn your place but I think it just shows Micks apparent reluctance to work with grafters over talent and considering the talent I believe he has as a manager that is very frustrating. It just shows he values off the ball stuff far more than on the ball talent.
Greetings all! ...from jet-lagging early boy Gaffer Sorry not for contributing much but just got back from NZ the Land of the Long White Cloud & Tommy Smith!! Guess what, as one does at times when visiting another country, opened a national NZ paper and turn to page 3(!) and there was an article about T Smith Esq and Ipswich Town FC! Fell off my bar seat laughing...you will all recall our banter on here abut his playing loyalties? Well, here he is saying " Please do not consider me for NZ team trip to Japan..my Club is my priority!" So, there you have it, form horses mouth. Talking of which, I shall post a lovely photo of my/our sponsored Suffolk Punch beauty...for you all to drool. But someone please advise me how to do this on here! (And the Punch Trust are keen for us to have another stab before next season, and they are astonished at the lack of creativity imagination at the Club senior level...bit like on the pitch eh! Missed all the Townie stuff, not been to a game for weeks, but you know what, all that wonderful sunshine, amazing mountains and lots of pioneering creeks and outbacks, historic coal mines, gold mines ( bit of panning to increase my miserable pension!?) made me appreciate all the Club loyalty there is for us around the world. And hey, I was almost in same time zone & nearer Westy than you lot! Hows tricks Westy, being a good boy and enjoying Thai life I know. Hope it goes well for you and you aint caught anything yet! Foxes this afternoon..hmm, I actually agree with one or two comments. We could just spring a surprise and re-launch our Play-off campaign which seems to have fizzled out last 2 months. But, hey, we are still top 10 drawer; we would have killed for that 2 years ago! It's perhaps best to sit back, know we will probably get hammered again, and just accept we are in Club & Team Re-Build mode for next year or two. yes, none of us like MM's lack of flair, risk, creativity etc, but for most of this season, we have proved a tough team to beat. Optimist's 1-1, Realist 3-1. Nugent just the one on 15 mins.
Just stand back and let Nugent get his goal. He'll be an awful bastard all game if we don't. Then smash them out of the park 3-1!!!
I know what your saying PTC but if Taylor is not doing enough in training if that's effort/commitment or skill then he doesn't deserve a starting role, having not seen him train I don't know. MM and TC must see something in Nouble that we have not seen much of on a match day so hopefully he will come good, he is only 22 so plenty of time maybe With the greater responsibility will come greater power.
This imo is the same with Nugent getting regular games here, hes scored something like 6 in open play all season, not exactly an Ings or a Vokes amount! Got Chris Wood on the bench who i think would score more often but hassle less. Nuge will work his socks off for 90 minutes and not find the net, but i guess this is how Mick and Pearson are, defend from the front kind of managers. You can't have too many luxury players in a squad either, look at Beckford and Bolton, he'll get you a few goals, but hes not going to work hard enough to graft out chances for anyone else.
Think it shows from his post match response that Taylor just isn't his type of player. Nouble he praised for his performance yet apparently Taylor came on and played well but he just says he did okay, again for me just shows that if a player puts 'a shift in' but has a poor game in possession he praises them but if a player doesn't rigedly stick to their position he doesn't like it!! Really frustrates me and has done with the whole Hewitt, JET, Taylor, Wordsworth thing talented players. Perhaps players like this didn't neccessarily deserve to be in the team but when you look who are in the team ahead of them continuously putting in average performances surely these players deserve a bit of a chance?
Understand what you're saying here ITFCPTC. Interesting week this. Somehow we're still 5 points off, but realisitically we HAVE to beat Birmingham to keep our season alive. From what I heard, Nouble was better than Murphy who was very poor. Apparently Taylor was very lively when he came on, with SEB appearing waayyyyy off the mark again. Fortunately, SEB gets the under 21 game ( at least 75 minutes tonight please ) which should help. Hoping Taylor gets the nod v Birmingham Saturday.
True but didn't we say we needed a win today to keep our playoff dreams alive? We'll see how the next few games go but we won't be too far off come the end of the season I know it's how I think all teams should play anyway but I really do think Mick needs to set us up to go for it a bit more now because we've lost McGoldrick who has the ability to score out of nothing, he rarely scores team goals as it were and without that we really don't create alot except from set pieces, so we need to be creating more. Even if we do though the favoured strikers to put them away seem to be Murphy and Nouble, it hardly sets the world alight. Looking at our team on paper on saturday it just filled me with 0 excitement what so ever, it's a team under Mick that's capable of getting a result but what a drab industrious afair it really was. I just get the feeling from Micks comments that it will be the end of Taylor come the end of the season. He seems to continuously praise players like Nouble, Tabb, Hyam and Mings who have extremely limited ability, they can seem to make as many mistakes on the ball as they like without him giving them any criticism but the likes of Wordsworth, Taylor and Hewitt despite looking lively (or more lively than others in the team) he says they're not doing enough, this really frustrates me. I know Mick has had a miniscule budget but we've had miniscule budgets before and got players who more ability and flair and tried to play football with a bit of zest!! It's so frustrating, we have a player who when we signed him was genuinely one of the most sought after players in the championship, I was pretty surprised when we signed him as I'd heard there was PL interest, yet we continue to play 2 very average strikers at this level. I geuss it's just Mick likes players who he knows what he's going to get from them. I do feel a bit sorry for Loach aswell, I'm not his biggest fan and I can see why Mick would prefer Gerkin as no.1 but you wouldn't drop a player if they've just put in a MOTM performance would you?? Micks man management is most of the time spot on but if I was Loach how I'd been treated this season I'd feel a little bit irked!!
Micks comments about Loach “He might think he’s got a chance and I would hope he has. What I would say to him is ‘Make sure that next time you get in you play exactly the same, as well as you did against Blackpool and next time you might stay in’.” Think if i was Loach i would start looking elsewhere, especially as MM said it was an easy decision to drop Loach back to the bench after a great performance and at a time when Gerkin has not been playing all that great!!
Loach should've been performing like that when he thought he was the first team 'keeper. Overall Gerken has been doing better so I've got no sympathy for him.
Can't say that I fully agree with that.. Neither has exactly been pulling up any trees, however I admit Gerks does has pulled off some excellent saves and is probably the better shot stopper of the two. Though he has been more than culpable for a number of goals conceded this season (a number of blunders) but never dropped... though Loach was dropped earlier in the year for far less.. I agree that Mick has to pick one and has clearly decided Gerks is the man to stick by but Gerks isn't exactly holding down his place. He may be a better shot stopper but he's also more likely to have a ricket so I suppose you could easily argue it's swings and roundabouts. But dropping Loach and then coming out with what he said doesn't come across particularly well
I'd say Loach seems to be the better shot stopper but Gerkin is more commanding of his box, which is what i look for in a GK so can understand why Mick see's Gerkin as his number 1 although neither are anything other than average (or below) for this division. I just think it's a little harsh that Loach puts in a MOTM performance and you drop him, even if I'm not a fan of a player you can't really drop them if they've put in a really good performance. As I said Mick usually comes accross very well in terms of man management skills but I wouldn't be very happy with him if I were Loach. Like every manager it's clear Mick has his favourites!!
Why all the fuss? It was clear from the outset that Mick didnt really rate Loach as he brought in Henderson on loan so why the big surprise that he has chosen Gherkin who he brought in as the No1?
That wasn't the point. i don't think people are currently disputing that Gerkin is probably the number1 GK (although he's not miles ahead by anymeans) it's more that a player puts in a MOTM performance and is dropped for the next match. Yet other players who do nothing to impress are picked
MM deffo has his favourites, he rates Nouble and Tabb, when 90% of people think they are gash MM thinks they are playing well, actually he must know they are pants, just being fecking stubborn!! Just out of curiosity, how many of you guys would start with Nouble and Tabb? I cant see there being many, which begs the question, WHY?
'Just out of curiosity, how many of you guys would start with Nouble and Tabb? I cant see there being many, which begs the question, WHY?' Jesus christ Spanish if you keep this up we're going to get along! My views on both- * Tabby did well on loan. Wages probably reasonably low considering age etc. Seemed a good signing at the time due to the loan performances, I cannot recall many arguments at the time? That said, it hasn't worked out so far as we'd hoped. The main plus for me is he's never injured and does do the dirty side of the game. I definitely would NEVER play him LM like Mick at times though. Summary - good squad player to have, has a good 5/6 game spell then a dip. Not good enough to be a consistent starter, but worth having. He'd be on the bench for me. * Nouble. Interesting one. Has all the attributes to be a top draw player. Strong/workrate/tall/height. Confidence must be low due to constant moves/loans etc. I think he'll get better over time too.... However, he has a long long way to go from what I'm reading ( all I can judge it on from Thailand ). I gather from TWTD he's improving, however from ability he's miles behind Taylor and SEB ( please get fit ) - bench for me.
