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If we beat the Millers..

Discussion in 'Ipswich Town' started by Southcoastoldgaffer, Nov 23, 2021.

  1. Southcoastoldgaffer

    Southcoastoldgaffer Well-Known Member

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    For the first time in the game, our 'new formation' troubles them. Why on earth was Fraser put out of position for 60 mins?
     
    #41
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  2. itfcptc

    itfcptc Well-Known Member

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    Who does Celina think he is Ronaldinho?
     
    #42
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  3. itfcptc

    itfcptc Well-Known Member

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    We try to play like Barcelona in League 1, not enough strength in those front 3 positions, too many luxury players.

    Gone 442 and we've not lost anything in the midfield
     
    #43
  4. Nuggets

    Nuggets Well-Known Member

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    Forget talk around formations and systems, the players are playing with no desire, no tempo, and no real idea. This second half has been painful to watch. Rotherham have barely got out of second gear for most of this. Our moves are consistently breaking down. No fluency. Set pieces have been awful for weeks. It’s as if the players think we’re not getting promoted. All the enthusiasm and goalscoring from months ago is evaporating.

    All in all, really disappointing. Cook needs to sort it out, otherwise this will be a shambolic waste of goodwill and investment put into the club since the new owners came in.
     
    #44
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  5. Southcoastoldgaffer

    Southcoastoldgaffer Well-Known Member

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    Nice late flourish, shots woefully of target. Disappointing, and will lessons be learnt?
     
    #45
  6. Southcoastoldgaffer

    Southcoastoldgaffer Well-Known Member

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    As I said at head of post, it's crunch time for Club and Cook if we lose. It's like the heart and desire to play has evapourated.

    Good night all. Let's hope we can get our club enthusiasm & mojo back.
     
    #46
  7. Spanish

    Spanish Well-Known Member

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    I still say it.... Cook ain't the man!!
     
    #47
  8. YorkieLancsHampyLondoner

    YorkieLancsHampyLondoner Well-Known Member

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    What’s changed from the start of the season? We are sort of back to where my expectations were earlier in the season.
     
    #48
  9. Buckyohare

    Buckyohare Well-Known Member

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    The idea we’re not actually that good at attacking is hopefully less controversial and clearer now we’re not getting goals from other teams mistakes.

    cooks system (not formation) is predictable and unsuited to the players we have.

    Talking of controversial statements; anyone else glad Celina is a loan? I’d feel short changed if we’d paid big for him.
     
    #49
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  10. Spanish

    Spanish Well-Known Member

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    Yorkie, i see no improvement, if anything we have started to regress. We all said it takes time to gel etc but looking at recent performances, not results, we have been woeful and devoid of ideas, this is down to the manager and his tactics/formation etc.
     
    #50

  11. Bigalreigned

    Bigalreigned Well-Known Member

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    Very disheartening display,ok Rotherham are up there but we just didn’t seem capable of matching them in any part of the pitch,very little penetration and few goal chances as a result.
     
    #51
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  12. YorkieLancsHampyLondoner

    YorkieLancsHampyLondoner Well-Known Member

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    I wouldn’t be bothered but we don’t look like we’ve got a goal in us. The main reason we didn’t beat Sunderland was that we didn't score when on top. We didn’t have the composure or the power in front of goal.
     
    #52
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  13. Roystonblue

    Roystonblue Well-Known Member

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    Just got home and what can I say except how disappointing that was. Rotherham are definitely the best side to visit this season but what was clear to me was how each of their players know their jobs and where they should be whilst ours were running around like headless chickens. How to fix this? 1st, we need a leader in the centre of defence to play alongside Edmundson (who was clearly our best player tonight) and who can organise us defensively as well. Toto hasn’t played badly but a leader he isn’t and still terrifies me when the ball comes towards him. Evans is only in the team because of his hat trick -since then, he has been poor and Morsy has to try and do the work of 2. Carroll /Harper/Fraser need to be given a chance instead of Evans. Wide areas - Aluko was missed today (best wishes to him & his family), Burns injured so with what we had remaining, Celina should be on the left or not play at all - wasted on the right or centre. I might have tried KVY on the right today. Chaplin has the number 10 role until he plays badly. Finally, felt really sorry for Bonne today. He was feeding off scraps going up against 2 big centre halves - he did win a few headers but no one picked up 2nd ball. With PC refusing to change the system, teams have figured us out and unfortunately, I see us limping to a mid table finish
     
    #53
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  14. YorkieLancsHampyLondoner

    YorkieLancsHampyLondoner Well-Known Member

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    Isn’t it just the case that we’re playing better sides and our quality has been found out? It feels to me like as though we’ve got weaker game on game over the last few weeks. Confidence and belief in our forward play ebbing away. I don’t think it’s personnel or system. We didn’t bother Rotherham and there was no closing down for the first goal where we’ve looked razor sharp in defence up until last night.
     
    #54
  15. itfcptc

    itfcptc Well-Known Member

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    I think we've majorly missed Burns and also taking Chaplin out of the team was a mistake
     
    #55
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  16. Nuggets

    Nuggets Well-Known Member

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    I don't think it's the quality of the players, it's the lack of flexibility in Cook’s system and the poor standard of coaching. Our approach, performance, and result were reminiscent of late season Lambert’s Ipswich and Mick’s Ipswich whenever we played a relegated Premier League team. Aimless long ball, isolated strikers, no fluency, no tempo – a resigned ‘going through the motions’. These players and this manager are better than that. I presumed the complacent culture at Ipswich had been removed. On that evidence, it hasn’t.

    Looking at this squad, you've got several players who have dropped down a level from the Championship or Scottish Premier League (Edmondson, Morsy, Harper, Chaplin, Edwards, Aluko, and Bonne) – some of whom were relatively well-regarded at their club. We’ve also cherry picked some of the stand-out League One performers from last season, most notably Burgess, Evans, Fraser, Burns, and Pigott. There is an argument that we’ve changed too much, too quickly. Perhaps our summer recruitment comes across as too ‘Football Manager’ – i.e., just picking the best players available on paper, but not really paying much mind to an overarching system or style of play. Then again, these are all players Cook specifically wanted, many of whom he had managed and coached before.

    Rotherham are a good team with Championship experience and track record of getting promotion from this league. I’m not denying that. They’re confident in their style of play and they’ve got a very good, tactically astute manager in the dugout. But you know what you’re getting when you play them. It’s 5-3-2 with attacking wingbacks and a more direct approach. The game was begging for us to stretch the play and attack them down the flanks. Edwards did this particularly well when he came on, but by that point he had half an hour and we were two goals down. So why on earth did Cook and our coaches think that Fraser and Chaplin - both naturally central attacking midfielders – were going to stretch the play and get behind the defence?! And why were we so insistent on playing long ball against essentially a five-man defence with only one guy up top? Rotherham were lapping that stuff up. The attacking midfielders were nowhere near Bonne to receive the knockdowns. We were made to look toothless, despite being the joint top scorers in the division. The team’s glut of goals has dried up, we’ve now had blanks in the last three league games. We only registered one shot on target last night, in bloomin’ injury time!
     
    #56
  17. Nuggets

    Nuggets Well-Known Member

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    This is what happens when you’ve got a coaching staff consisting of a novice (Roberts), someone who’s barely coached senior players (Jeffers) and a former kit man (can’t even remember his name)! I’ve been banging on about this all season. It’s not good enough. The impression is we’ve hired a bunch of Cook’s mates, who are just ‘yes men’. I was willing the give them the benefit of the doubt and time, but we’re clearly coming up short. We’ve won two consecutive league games only once this season.

    Where’s the assistant manager? Do we even have one? What’s Peter Reid doing – cashing in a cheque and keeping quiet? We’d look so much better if we had experienced, competent coaches and somebody like Chris Hughton in charge.

    Rant over! I thought a night's sleep would calm me down, but we're so badly off the pace it's frustrating. The goodwill and positivity from the summer has all but evaporated. I blame the manager and the coaches. We're just not well prepared. It's like we went out last night in the hope that Rotherham were going to have an off day.
     
    #57
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  18. itfcptc

    itfcptc Well-Known Member

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    What positions do you reckon? For me we've only got about 5 players who've shown enough consistency to be considered a first team regular Walton, Edmunson, Morsey, Burns and Bonne and 2 of those are regulars. That's not necessarily certain players faults because they haven't been consistently played but that is part of our problem.
     
    #58
  19. Nuggets

    Nuggets Well-Known Member

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    Yeah, agree with that. I’d put Chaplin in there too, although he doesn’t appear to be considered a first team guarantee anymore.

    From the last few matches, I think our main area of concern is the fullbacks. Cook’s system typically has fullbacks that bomb up and down the flanks and contribute to the attacking moves. They’ve offered nothing recently. Down the left, we’ve had Penney (not up to it in my opinion), Coulson (apparently made of glass, unreliable with fitness), Clements (doesn’t look League One quality on basis of last few matches and was targeted by Sunderland/Rotherham), and Kenlock (strangely sidelined, but regardless, not a player I rate). We look better stocked at right back, although Donacien’s form has dropped since signing the new contract (definitely feels he struggles without Burns in front of him) and KVY has looked inconsistent this season and is another with a poor fitness record.

    Regarding the changes we can make with the squad options we’ve got – I’d hope to see Burgess back at centre-back. I think it’s time to play Fraser or Harper in central midfield alongside Morsy, replacing an out-of-form Evans. I’d also put Chaplin in attacking midfield and drop Celina. We desperately need Burns back.
     
    #59
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  20. Buckyohare

    Buckyohare Well-Known Member

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    I was thinking about this too; aside from pointing out all the errors and gaffs which is easy, offering solutions is definitely interesting to think about.

    I completely agree; the system relies on overlapping fullbacks for an overload in attack. I also think this is where I’d invest in jan; I’d get two bang in form nailed on attacking full backs because no one has fulfilled that role yet as per cooks former teams.

    for this system to work, these two positions are essential. Through a combination of injury and lack of ability to play this position all the players tried have come up short.

    coulson is so fragile he might need to go back to boro. He won’t be at full match sharpness without a run of games and we dont have time to give him that?
     
    #60
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