Match Day Thread Ipswich Town vs AFC Wimbledon

In at the death, last gasp, much to be learnt fron tonight. So glad for Jackson and Judge played a bit part.

Better players to come in, missed Huws, but must push on now and keep the momentum.

 

TWTD will now be a much different place tonight!

 

Lesson learned...4 ****ing 4 ****ing 2

 

2 CB's ok
2 full backs shocking
Skuse is Skuse
Rowe is ****
Doz and El Miz too weak for me atm
Downes good
Norwood good

Judge is ****
George looks good
Jackson **** but done what he is there to do

 

Not confident with Holy either!

 

So happy to come out of that game with a win. We didn't really deserve it but the second half changes made the difference. If KVY and Garbutt can make the defence better we won't need Skuse any more. Huws should be starting in there with Downes. Georgiou and Rowe on the wings.

Holy - did ok, wish he would come to collect loose balls a bit more
Donacien - terrible. Don't want to pick on him but today was a bad day for him. No confidence in playing forward and gave us nothing down the right side
Woolfenden - quality again
Wilson - decent game from him. Solid for this level
Kenlock - better today. Had a lot of the ball and could've made more use of it if El Mizouni stayed wide. Linked up with Georgiou well.
Rowe - stays wide, pity his full back can't pass forward. Donacien not helping Rowe look good but I'm looking forward to the KVY/Rowe partnership
Skuse - we really don't need a midfield sitter against a team like Wimbledon. Once the defence is stronger we should replace him with Huws
Downes - solid again, would benefit from somebody a little more influential next to him
Dozzell - time's running out lad, anonymous for the most part again
El Mizouni - use him in a 4-4-2 so he stays wide. Got involved but not in the right areas
Norwood - happy for his goal, starved of service for most of the game but made it count when he needed to

Georgiou - much needed injection of pace, directness and trickery
Judge - some decent dead ball deliveries, not bad today
Jackson - Poor first touch most of the time but his pace is of real value to us if we want to stick with the long ball into the channels. I so want him to be successful with us

4-4-2 next week please

 

It does seem like we have issues out wide, but hopefully Kane Vincent-Young and Georgiou from Spurs can help the right back and left wing positions. Edwards and Garbutt will return from injury, with any luck they can make the right midfield and left back positions their own.

This squad, and particularly the current bunch of available players, look more comfortable with 4-4-2. Happy to hold up my hands and admit I might be too optimistic hoping for a 4-3-3 / 4-2-3-1 formation to work, certainly short term and on basis of that first half performance. Hopefully it was a case of confusing system and not complacency by our lads.

Onto Bolton U19s at the weekend, and what should be another three points. Hopefully in a more comfortable fashion than tonight!

 

Interesting interview PL has just given stating he would still like 1 or 2 more players through the door before the transfer window closes. I’m trying to think seriously of what he might want. I can see him wanting a left back to allow Garbutt to play further forward and provide competition for Kenlock (who I am not 100% convinced about - still young so time to improve) other than that, we appear to have cover for all positions once players are back fit. Nolan & Nsiala are getting there. Keane has just arrived & may need a few weeks. Sears should be back November time which leaves bishop & Lankester as longer term absentees but we appear to have adequate cover in these positions. If left back is 1, what would be the 2nd player he wants?

 

Crying out for a CDM and more CB cover. A left back. A number 8. Another forward. That's five more players, of which I would say three are pretty crucial.

 

Personally, I think Skuse is fine at this level as a CDM. If we are going to play 442, it will be him & Downes mainly. We have 4 centre backs & 4 forwards all on (I imagine) decent wages so without offloading anyone, can’t see any additions to this position unless Chambers moves in to some sort of coaching role. The number 8 which I think of as Downes in current formation, we have a number of players that can play there - Nolan, dozzell, El Mizouni, Hews, judge. Again, unless we sell (dozzell??) not sure the squad needs to be any bigger. On a separate note, we had almost 19000 tonight for a midweek game against Wimbledon. Can’t get to midweek games myself but kudos to everyone that did

 

I've always preferred 2 upfront whether that be 442 or 532, I can't think of a town team which played well with 1 upfront.

The only negative about 442 at the moment is we literally only have 2 fit strikers which means if 1 gets injured we need the other one to be in good shape. Secondly it also means it's really difficult to change the direction of the game if we can't bring a striker on.

In terms of signings, in my mind whilst Keane is a good player he's not match fit and injury prone, strikes me as a bit of a panic signing. With that in mind i think we still need another striker, a CB and a LB. And apart from Skuse and Downes we have midfielders made of glass.

We're in quite a risky situation at the moment, if we manage to get all our players fit and firing, we have a great squad for this division but Lambert really does not have many options at the moment, if we get any more injuries to our key players we could find ourselves in serious trouble.

 

It probably comes down to our ambition. If we want to be promoted automatically and get a foothold in the Championship next season - or at least be having a good go at that and building towards it for 20/21 - then we have got to do better than Skuse and find that number 8 talisman. Nolan ain't it. Dozzell and Judge certainly ain't it. Huws could be, but is miles away from even holding down a place at the moment. Downes is a good player but he's not a star player at Championship level for me. He's being made to look good in a poor squad. That said I think he has got more in the tank to show us.

Norwood is the real deal. Woolfy is the real deal. Garbutt is the real deal (but not our player). We need to improve the quality of the first choice options in midfield (it's not there which is why we rotate so much) and have more options at centre back and attack, as well as left back being an area of concern.

So I can see why Lambert feels he wants more players if the ambition is to get promoted. If the ambition is just to finish above mid-table and have a shout at a play off place, then stick with what we have.

 

That was the archetypal game of two halves.
First 45 you'd think we were struggling to stay mid table,no real threat,typical soft goal at the end.
Second 45 (or at least the last 20) shows we should be storming this Division.
Which is it to be Paul?!

 

Should we really be looking to add yet more players? When does the buying stop? Whatever happened to developing the players we’ve got? We don’t want or need a big squad like last season. Lambert made a big song and dance about getting in three signings that were required - and rightly so. He’s now got them, and they are all good players. We now have, in theory, a competitive squad with at least two players for each position who should be good enough for this level. Let’s stop making excuses for Lambert – he must now get the best out of what he has. And what he has is a squad that should be easily finishing in those top six spots and should be good enough, fitness permitting, to mount a serious automatic promotion push. Buy, buy, buy shouldn’t be our stock answer. This is not Football Manager, we’ve got a good enough squad. That should no longer be the issue.

The shapeless, tentative mess that we saw for most of the Wimbledon match was ultimately down to Lambert. He picks the team, he does the training, and he’s responsible for getting this side fired up. Regardless of the formation, we should be dominating teams like AFC Wimbledon at home. We should be comfortably putting those sides away. Clearly, the team that started last night were not ready or comfortable playing 4-3-3. The attacking players looked like they had no idea what their roles were – the wingers were poor. The full-backs were poor. We still have a safety-first mentality that needs to be coached out of this squad if it wants to take the initiative and win games. It’s not a case of buying in more players, it’s putting the hours in on the training ground and changing the approach of some of these players.

I don’t get the criticism of Skuse this season. I’m nowhere near his biggest fan, but I thought he was pretty good last night, easily one of our better players and, like him or hate him, he’s clearly adapted well to this division. He’s in good form, we shouldn’t be dropping players in good form. Clearly, we should be starting Georgiou from the off. I know there is a reactive scoff from some Town fans when it comes to loan players – but he’s a talent and if he contributes to us getting promoted, then he’s worth starting.

I don’t care what formation we play on the weekend; I just want to see an Ipswich Town side that is coached to attack effectively and one that is comfortable taking the initiative in games. Bolton U19s is a great opportunity to build some confidence. But I still get the horrible feeling we’ll continue to play this weird combination of aimless long-ball football and sedate sideways passing in the middle of the pitch - but scrape a one-goal win. In that case, the concerns will continue.

 

Totally agree Nuggets...we don't need anymore signings, unless of course they are markedly better than what we have.

Will be interesting to see if anyone get loaned out...we can't keep all happy.

I have a feeling Roberts will get shipped out, maybe even permanently, along with Emmanuel

Donacien will be a bench warmer, and cover for RB, and CB if we're desperate.

Dozzell, i would've shipped out earlier to a champ club, but unfortunately thats too late now, and don't think it would be wise to send out to a rival. I've lost patience with him, he's only living on his old man's name, and his debut.
I also have a feeling Nolan might get loaned out.

 

The first half is probably the worst I have ever seen at PR, wrong formation, wrong line up, resulting in hoof ball that got us nowhere, our lightweight front players El Mizouni and Dozzell were pushed around by a solid Wimbledon back four and didn't carry a goal threat and we went behind to their only serious goal attempt.
Donacien was dreadful the entire match and it surely must be obvious to a fool that he is not good enough even against a terrible team like Wimbledon, he was missing yet again for their goal.
PL realised at half time that he had got it wrong and made changes throughout the half, Georgiou looks to have something about him and Judge got himself involved at last and suddenly we were a different team, we dominated the half and Norwoods bullet header evened things up then Jackson finally did something useful and scored a winner after out muscling the defender.
I don't believe its luck if you score late on and we deserved the 3 points against a team kickers and time wasters, lets hope the line up lessons have been learnt and Dozzell in particular either performs or goes and as for Donacien loan him out and get rid.

 

Good reports everyone and from what I have heard and read, agree we need to ditch a few, and no urgent need to buy. Down to Lambert proving his worth to manage the club, and I am quietly confident that we can stay in top 6 and once several key injured payers return - and stay ft ffs - then push on and compete for top 2.

The question is, do I get in my old Audi and and hare up the M25 and A12? I am astonished and in awe of the regualr 16-19,000 who continue to watch. What a fan base, does the Club deserve them?

 

Evans doesn't deserve the support but our Club does, it was great to be in SBR upper crowded with people as it wasn't so long ago we few that were up there used to joke and say we could lay flat out on the seats and there would still be plenty of room.
There's plenty of players to return after injury so our team theoretically should get stronger in a long season, also there needs to be another clear out of Hursts deadbeats, lightweight posers, and honest triers who are not going to make it, the seeds need to be sown now for future team members some of whom might just be as impressive as Wolfy and Downes

 

IF ALL FIT (UNLIKELY)

Holy

KVY
Wolfy
Nsiala
Garbutt

Edwards
Downes
Huw's
Georgieu

Norwood
Keane

Subs,
Any GK
Jackson
Judge
Nolan
Skuse
Wilson
El Miz

 

Thats a good line up for this division spanish and a good bench too, but I would find a place for Sears assuming he will come back as fit and strong as a year ago.