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Our season is on the line as Crewe come chugging into Town!

Discussion in 'Ipswich Town' started by Spanish, Nov 26, 2021.

  1. Buckyohare

    Buckyohare Well-Known Member

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    Very even. And they were the away side…

    Big question over Bonne. Two big misses.
     
    #61
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  2. Southcoastoldgaffer

    Southcoastoldgaffer Well-Known Member

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    TBH, we are no better than a mid-table team, with flashes and spells of excellence, but no consistancy, we always go adrift out of the game and present chances to the oppo.

    PC must take a long hard look at things.

    Still, 3 pts to the good.
     
    #62
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  3. San Diego

    San Diego Sir Mediator
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    Phew, glad to get out of that match with a win in the end.

    First half looked like we could score a few goals, second half we looked disjointed, especially after the subs. Overall there was some good play from us but also a lot of wasted, easy chances to make the game way more comfortable than it was.

    Still, a win is a win and the points are on the board.
     
    #63
  4. Bigalreigned

    Bigalreigned Well-Known Member

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    Another game we should have had well and truly tied up before half time and in the end the difference was in the quality of finishing.Crewe almost matched us in terms of chances but thanks to Celina’s wonder goal we hung on for the win.Not convincing.
     
    #64
  5. Southcoastoldgaffer

    Southcoastoldgaffer Well-Known Member

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    Here is my take after yesterdays stuttering win.

    We have seen some of the most entertaining football for years – today there were flashes of brilliance and short periods of how we can play to our potential.

    At Wycombe away we saw a Town team battling in defence and then played brilliantly to win, with the travelling support, as Mick said, the best he could remember – we were on the up.

    Now, following a miserable drought of goals and 1 win in 5 games, Cook got the players off to a cracking, pacey start. Donacien and Aluko were mesmerising.. The front three were buzzing and it was a case of how many goals…then it stopped. The subs made no difference.

    I haven’t watched an Ipswich side who were so poor off the ball, Crewe simply bypassed straight thru our midfield. With simple triangles, or 1-2’s. Luckily for us they had little quality up front. If they had a Bonne, Norwood or Pigott they would have buried at least 4 chances.

    The players and the fans are getting nervous, anxious, and I am thinking this is a belief, confidence issue, the mental approach not right. The players went AWOL 2nd half. For long periods they were a better team than us, and their club confidence must be rock bottom – luckily for us, we just had a bit more quality where it mattered in Aluko and Celina. And I don’t think Cook knows what to do with it.

    It is clear to us all PC has no Plan B. His Plan A has been sussed out. Make no mistake, this really is Cook’s team – he made a big deal of dumping the last squad – no excuses on that front either.

    I’m really surprised this hasn’t worked out – a big investment in the squad, proven manager, but here we are.
    Ultimately, the manager is responsible. No more excuses.

    This is the time of the season November/December when teams that have become well organised, playing to their strengths, begin to push on and climb the table. - we just don’t look good at all in any area consistently. Bar having some good individuals.

    This side has all the ability to play one-two touch football and play forward, and to be quicker, sharper and hungrier box-to-box. But inevitably in the 2nd half, we saw the same error strewn passes from Evans, even Morsy, and the odd heart-stopping Nsiala moment. Above all, we had several stone dead certain scoring chances that went missing.

    I envisage that Ashton will give PC til December to turn things round big time. I cant see them waiting another 4 or 5 months. He will be in close discussion daily with Gamechangers. This is not their plan. Then they will consider a replacement in time for the January window. So, lets hope for the Club, Cook and the players confidence, and all the long-suffering fans that things change over the next few games.

    It is hard for me, and many others, to see how a change could make things worse. We’re a mid-table League One team; struggling to beat the bottom end clubs, and given a hard lesson by top clubs. We have to get out of this league, and nothing that PC is managing presently gives me any confidence.

    The answer long term is employing someone who leads, and with the right coaching staff alongside, who can instil confidence in the minds of both players and fans, by demonstrating he has tactical nous and the guts to change things when faced with teams who have worked out his plan A.

    Who would think that for spells we would get torn apart by bottom of the table Crewe?

    What I did hope is for a team with the highest budget in the league to outplay a Crewe side that had all their best players pinched in the summer, or so I heard in the commentary.. We expect to be higher than 11th at this point. We expect to see some progression after 20 games, not to be told it’s a ‘new’ side again. The town support has been nothing short of phenomenal to this point. Gutted but perhaps not surprised to hear booing at the end, after a win ffs!

    We keep saying that the next few games are vital, season defining, our spirits temporarily lifted, but sadly I feel our season has already been wretchedly defined and characterised by a poorly performing gaffer.
     
    #65
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  6. San Diego

    San Diego Sir Mediator
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    Sorry gaffer, going to have to disagree with you <ok>

    We are only 20 games in with a brand new team, I don't expect it to be functioning at full performance right now. No work team I've ever put together has been as good after 3 months as it has been after 6, or a year. I can't see Gamechangers making a switch in manager as they all know that it will take a bit longer than half a season to get us going at full tilt.

    I know it's been a tough few years for us Ipswich supporters but now really is the time for a bit of patience. We can't just keep swapping managers and expect success from each one without giving them time. The team is new, the coaches are new, how about we give them some time to rebuild this club instead of constantly expecting instant success?
     
    #66
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  7. Southcoastoldgaffer

    Southcoastoldgaffer Well-Known Member

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    I respect your view SD, and I too want to be patient a bit longer. As the eternal optimist I hope for the best.

    If our present malaise and poor all round results continue, then I doubt the owners will want to see another season in the doldrums of football.

    Lets hope for better times. Starting with FA Cup run.
     
    #67
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  8. YorkieLancsHampyLondoner

    YorkieLancsHampyLondoner Well-Known Member

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    Arent those exactly the excuses made for McCarthy and Lambert? We need to make progress from our January signings to finish in or very close to the play offs and we need to be in automatic contention all next season.
     
    #68
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  9. Buckyohare

    Buckyohare Well-Known Member

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    Agree with SD; no one was going to recruit the perfect 11 in one window starting entirely from scratch. Some bits of the puzzle are there, others maybe, others def not.

    he needs at least one more window. If after jan some new players come (I’m hoping wing backs…) and we’re a lot better then he deserves the next phase of his contract for what he’s trying to do.
     
    #69
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  10. Bigalreigned

    Bigalreigned Well-Known Member

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    They didn’t clear out a whole useless squad and recruit 19 new players in one window!
     
    #70

  11. San Diego

    San Diego Sir Mediator
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    Look at our history and the successful periods we've had. They've all been at times when we have had a manager in place for a few seasons. We're not going to get there by changing manager every 2 years.

    MM was unlucky during his tenure, especially the play off year, that he had Marcus as a boss. He was not backed at a crucial time during the January window, we were sitting high in the league and one or two savvy additions may have helped us over the line. We have owners now that will fund that push if needed. Not saying I think it will be this window, that may depend on our league position at the time. If we're not close enough then I think we will wait until summer. I hope they fund us enough to at least make play offs and give us a chance.
     
    #71
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  12. Southcoastoldgaffer

    Southcoastoldgaffer Well-Known Member

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    I am not hoping for instant success. But I have been looking for signs of development, growth, team understanding, settled formation, resilience, sharp in game management tactical nous, discipline, and consistency over 3-4 matches. As well as entertainment, urgency, excitement, wins against clubs we should be beating.

    What I am actually watching is brief spells of a refreshed Town, glimpses of individual brilliance and poor understanding, squabbling between players and poor pitchside management when we are being outplayed, out thought and despair sets in, resulting in far too many poor
    results, unhappy fans and endless apologies.

    Or am I watching a different team?!
     
    #72
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  13. itfcptc

    itfcptc Well-Known Member

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    I agree with the content of your summary gaffer although I also agree that it's too early to get rid of Cook. Partly because this is kind of how I expected this season to go although given the quality of player we have its disappointing not to see more consistent performances (not necessarily results). I just hope the next part of the season goes how I think it will do (we'll sneak in the playoffs last game of the season).

    If you take away the first 5 games of the season we are in playoff form. This all being said Cook's performance since he's come to the club has been disappointing, last season was horrendous and given the standard of player we've recruited we're not dominated games as I would have expected.

    People seem to be disappointed about the Crew performance and whilst I didn't see it to be honest what I saw of the highlights it doesn't seem to dissimilar to the performances at Wycombe or Portsmouth the difference being we didn't take our chances.

    Our performances are bizarre as alot of the time we dominate possession but without having any spells of sustained pressure (like under Lambert) but we have a few moments in the game like the Celina goal and the Bonne misses where our quality shines through. The team doesn't quite look balanced and the link up between parts of the team isn't there.

    Whilst I'd expect inconsistent results I had expected to start to see a bit more consistency and connections being formed in the team
     
    #73
  14. YorkieLancsHampyLondoner

    YorkieLancsHampyLondoner Well-Known Member

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    It needed doing and we’ve spent barely any money doing it. Granted there are a few players we could have kept and a few players not working out. With that done it’s time to add quality not quantity in the next one.
     
    #74
  15. YorkieLancsHampyLondoner

    YorkieLancsHampyLondoner Well-Known Member

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    At the same time I’ve got no sentimentality for Paul Cook. If a new manager bounce got us promoted then I’d go for that. Far from any guarantees of that though, which is why as long as we keep climbing the table and improving I’d stick. It’s daft to make judgements on a few less than ideal performances or results. Especially when we deserved all the spoils at Sunderland. A streak of ten + games without a win and maybe you start to think about that.
     
    #75
  16. Southcoastoldgaffer

    Southcoastoldgaffer Well-Known Member

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    Highlights are well, highlights and show the best bits of play from both sides. And if 2 or 3 of those Bonne, Chaplin, Aluko, Edwards, Morsy sitters had struck home, we would have won 5 - 1!

    And a different feel about our future.
     
    #76
  17. Nuggets

    Nuggets Well-Known Member

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    Although I personally believe that we're lacking from a coaching/in-game management perspective - particularly with an inflexible playing philosophy and a lack of a 'Plan B' - I ultimately think it's only reasonable that we give Paul Cook and the coaching staff the full season to see what improvements they can implement. I feel a second transfer window is also fair, considering the amount of turnover this summer.

    Come the end of the season, if we've missed out on the play-offs or are languishing in mid-table, then we should look to hire a replacement and really invest in the coaching side of the club. It'll be a massive disappointment if we're not able to finish as one of the best six clubs in this division.
     
    #77
  18. stretchyboy

    stretchyboy Well-Known Member

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    I think it's absolutely crazy to be even thinking about getting a new manager in. We need some kind of stability, on and off the pitch.
    Paul Cook has won the title with his last 3 clubs FFS - who would seriously be a better manager in division 3?
    Don't get me wrong, i was hoping and expecting to be around, if not in the top 6 by now, but we're not that far off the pace. Everyone said that the first half of the season would be patchy, time for the team to gel and find their feet, and the second half of the season would be where we kick on - nothing has changed.
    We have a good manager, and some top players in this division - there just needs to be a little fine tuning.

    My biggest issue with the whole set up of the club, is the non-appointment of an experienced no 2 / coach. All our coaches seem to be rookies just starting out.
    Probably a bit of arrogance from PC

    I'm not over the moon about our current league position, but im still quietly confident we'll make the play offs at least - i'm keeping the faith.
     
    #78
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  19. Southcoastoldgaffer

    Southcoastoldgaffer Well-Known Member

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    I will keep the faith, Stretchy, and lets all hope for turn around in our fortunes. We all agree about his Coaching staff inexperience. I wonder how much better things would have been if he had been able to bring his previous mate,cant recall his name.
     
    #79
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  20. Buckyohare

    Buckyohare Well-Known Member

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    Yes but, as per Wycombe and Portsmouth, it would only mask the deeper issues you correctly raised.

    The team is not functioning well we can all see that. In Edward’s , Chaplin, Fraser, Celina and burns there is more pace and flair than any other team (and possibly half those in the championship?) but it’s the settled, time worn, experienced teams full of team players, grafters and guys that know their role and who can do what is asked of them in their system that are the ones doing well as per Plymouth and Rotherham.
     
    #80
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