Player ratings from my view in the stands. Henderson - 3 had an absolute trauma out there on Saturday, looked hesitant was severly at fault for goals 1,2 & 3 and I dare say could have done more on the others, also it annoyed me after conceding the 3rd wandered up the pitch and stood by the centre circle for a minute or two... After his early mistakes never looked liked rectifying them and went into his shell the current 'Ipswich way' Orr - 3 was the only person to compete with Henderson for worst player on the pitch, looked out of his depth for 90 minutes and Lloyd Dyer was made to look like Ronaldo or Messi the way he was tearing the defence apart. Was also guilty of playing Leicester onside on a couple of occasions most notably goal number 4 Chambers - 5 another average display and for me he doesn't attack the ball enough. Doesn't bust a gut to win his tackles and isn't composed enough on the ball. You can't fault the effort but it seems like the blind leading the blind at the back and with a different partner at the back could still come good. Higginsbottom - 4.5 slightly worse than Chambo, also didn't attack the ball and was guilty of watching players run past and around him. Cresswell - 6 Only member of the back 4 to put in a average display looked determined never to lose a tackle and wanted to get forward when he could. Martin - 5 same old Lee Martin, does the occasional step over and run but he's too lightweight and often a passenger went we don't have the ball. The lack of end product from him only makes his cause worse as he doesn't offer any real defensive cover and was guilty of another abject performance NRC - 4 for someone of his pedigree and stature Reo-Coker should be the driving force in the middle but he looked lost and out of his depth, he was often well off the pace and his distribution was again poor N'Diaw - 6.5 best Town player on the pitch for me, looked to get the ball down when he could, kept the ball moving and even drove at them with intent, was strong and determined but was pulled out of position on a few occasions but looked like he wanted to be playing unlike NRC Edwards - 5 One of the worst performance I've seen from him in a while, he didn't really want the ball, didn't win many tackles and could be held responsible for not adding much cover for Orr - he did put in some decent crosses and looked dangerous at times but was under used and not determined enough to put his mark on the game Murphy - 4 looked utterly useless and hardly won a header, never attacked a ball in the box and didn't hold it up too well either DJ - 5 l ooked uninterested at times, didn't make anything for himself and when he did receive the ball he was often too deep to create anything My Summary Although Leicester are a good team and outplayed us for 90 minutes we didn't exactly put up any resistance for their goals, in fact we all but scored their first 2 for them. Once we went behind it was the 'same old Ipswich' with heads going down and every one trying to hide, the lack of options when we had the ball was plain to see for all and when we did have possession in dangerous areas players panicked and it was all to easy for the confident Leicester side to dominate us. Had we not have given away such sloppy early goals we may have had a bit more bite but we were outplayed all over the park by a better team and the fluidity and confidence Leicester showed was enviable, the passing and movement and the distribution into the front man's feet and then playing from there, particularly as our disjointed and unstable team put in another abject performance. Again we were beaten by a better team and fair play to Leicester they will do well this season but the way we simply allowed them to outplay us was the most disappointing - some real fight needs to be put back into the team and I think it's fair to say that no team has ever done well with 6 loan players in the starting line up, particularly in such key positions in the spine of the team
Nice work. Some sensible analysis for a change. Fills me with dread that this is now an ingrained problem, as it's not as if we were missing key players. What sort of reception are they going to get against Posh on Saturday?
Well done KPR, as one who just can't travel much, I appreciate these summaries very much. Is it really this bad all over again, or can we hope that MM can instill some belief, determination, old fashioned team spirit and confidence. I have never known such gloom around for what, 50 years! A bright, if grind out win against the Posh might lift spirits a bit. Surely not much to ask.
The lowlights (?) are shown here http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01p2qqf/The_Football_League_Show_2012_2013_18_11_2012/ towns match starts at 20.20 From these clips its very very worrying. The keeper is responsible for 4 by my reckoning but they should never have got to the box so easily in the first place. The throw in for the second goals basically takes out half our team ffs.
Had to look very carefully to see if our players were real, or cardboard cut outs, as we were so lacking in movement and pace when Leicester attacked us, which was very often. Think our malaise is caused by many factors, such as a lack of pace all over the pitch, especially in crucial errors. Players who are not fully fit, and some who quite honestly are just not good enough for this level. Also I would include commitment to the cause, in our last home match Tommy Smith has arguably the best game he has ever played for us. midweek he pisses off to China for a meaningless friendly, and returns Friday. Notice that Ryan Nelson pulls out of the trip with an alleged injury, but did indeed play for his club side on Saturday.
In all seriousness, losing, or winning for that matter, over a period of time become habit forming, MM is not going to be able to address that until January! You'll have to hope that there won't be too big a hill to climb then! I think he'll drag you out of the mire, but it won't be easy and it won't be pretty! Sincerely I wish you luck!
Dave, spot on. I think reality set in on Saturday. However, should we beat Posh we will almost certainly be out of the bottom three, a feat I didn't give us any chance of achieving before Christmas.
First game back at RM/W - anything to do with it do you think? With such an abject performance by Orr is it better to move Edwards back to RB?
Second game for Edwards at RM. Orr is a very good right back, he made a mistake for the penalty but that's it. The real problem are the two completely inept CBs (and Henderson).
I think it was a combination of a lot of things, Bradley Orr looked how I would expect I would look if I was out there playing which certainly is a worry. The fact that Orr was so bad and Lloyd Dyer was having so much joy meant that Carlos wasn't really able to make any meaningful impact and never really looked comfortable. It might simply be a case of 're-learning' the position or that the fact he had Orr behind him for the first time was an unsettling factor... I don't think we should make too many knee jerk reactions and Orr can't play any worse so I expect the pair to be unchanged for next Saturday but Orr really was bad, possibly Chambers can fill it at RB again as he did against Burnley but I'm hoping Orr can prove himself and that Saturday was a bad day at the office all round
Orr was the worst player on the pitch (barring Henderson) he was not just at fault for the penalty, the 3rd he was well out of position and the 4th he played Leicester onside. He was a liability throughout the game in possession and I doubt Lloyd Dyer will have so much freedom to attack again this season as he did on Saturday
Excellent report and a fair assessment of your team. I was suprised by the effort your team didnt show and it was as if they accepted defeat before a ball was kicked! strange really as we always have a tough game against your boys. im sure Mick will change your fortunes round and keep you up! good luck for a tough season ahead.
Aslong as come Jan your not cut adrift from safety Mick will do some work in the transfer window and keep you up. On paper you actually have some decent players. On Saturday Lloyd Dyer was made to look like Lionel Messi and Bradley Orr just couldnt deal with his pace. Your back 5 looked like they have never played together and the midfield was non exsistent. We didnt score 6 because we was brillaint. We was made to look good by a very poor Ipswich side. Full marks to your fans, class act throughout the day. Hopefully you have a much better 2nd half of the season then first
My first posting on here and also my first match of this season. Excellent analysis KOPR and I agree with just about all your judgements. It is so difficult to know where we go from here because the very heart seems to have gone out of the club that I have supported for the last 50 years. The club seems to be losing its roots in the community,while the owner communicates with the chief executive from the other side of the Atlantic. The board and the chief executive can't communicate with the fans because they don't share the same language or vision of what this club is about; the manager clearly didn't succeed in his motivational talk to the players on Saturday and it was clear to all of us who were there that players have great difficulty in communicating with each other. Watching the Football League show on Saturday night I could several of our ex-players holding their places in top championship teams and even captaining one of them, while 2 others were freely scoring goals. We can all remember the abuse that was given to at least two of them on here so why did their spell at Portman Rd represent the nadir of their playing careers? Why have so many players left the club and then their performances have improved? It's a mighty big ask for Mick McCarthy and his backroom staff to do reinvigorate this club on their own and the best we can hope for is that he pulls us out of this mess and we limp through to the end of this season. If he succeeds will next season be much better? Perhaps, but I think we need radical rethink of this whole club, and that can only start from the top.
Welcome aboard SP. Simon Clegg would argue those decisions are up to the manager. Roy Keane would argue he was forced to sell to buy. Paul Jewell is a bit too spineless to blame anyone else. I can't see Clegg getting away with it with McCarthy though. The difference is that McCarthy knows exactly how things should run.
It wasn't so much that the players were sold as the fact that their performances seemed to get much better when they left that bothers me. At the moment to underachieve when arriving at Portman Rd seems to be the norm.JET, NRC, Chopra are just I consider typical examples of this. I am trying to think of a time when a player arrived and exceeded our expectations. Shefki Kuqi and perhaps Darren Currie and Bullard on occasions are the only two that spring to my mind although I am sure there must have been some others.
Those that exceeded expectations: Alan Lee, John Walters, Darren Currie, Shefki, Kelvin Davis, Chris Bart-Williams, David Wright are probably the only examples of decent buys over the last 10 years and most of these were under Joe Royle! I hate to think how much money we have spunked on all the flops including loans that we have had over the last 5 years! Sumilokoski, Campo, Voltz, Wright (pug), Murphy, Delaney, Leadbitter, Fulop, Priskin, Bullard, Bowyer, Chopra, Sonko, that bloke from Reading who was a crock, Henderson and the list goes on! The ones we let go and will always regret: Rhodes, Garvan, Ambrose, D Wright and probably a couple more!
That annoys me too Punch. Players seem to do much better after they have left us and I have no idea why that is. Leadbitter, McCauley, Walters, Garvan, Trotter, Rhodes have all gone on to do well since leaving PR and it does make you think wtf goes on at our club to make good players turn in average performances.
