The fact that you say that Burns crosses were to no one shows the lack of ability at this level that im talking about, having the intelligence to know when and when not to cross a ball is surely part of the game ? We know we have Hladky for the foreseeable future but that doesnt that hes immune to criticism when he makes errors that cost us matches, also i dont know where you sit in the ground but you clearly saw a different game to me to state that Jackson " played a blinder " is laughable, in the first half he made a couple of runs but in the second half he was annonymous, at times standing still when needing to shift position to be available for a pass, basically he didnt know what to do.
Just another thought, we were also up against a manager who knows this division inside out and knows how to win at this level ( just not the next level up )
I think we all know we missed key players, the 3 subs perhaps a tactical error on KM's part, and our defense and keeper made errors, but from what I saw we were the better team for much of the game. And we all know where we need strengthening, most likely in the next window. And take a look at the Leeds forum! Foul abuse aside, they rate Ipswich and some say we are deffo top 6 team. Which is where most on here aspire to this season.
Whatever opinion you or I have, McKenna clearly rates Jackson. As a team we need to improve our high crossing. It’s as much about how we attack the space and beat the defender as hitting the right area with the ball. At the moment we are miles off it. With the coaching staff and strategists we have at the club now, I’m sure when McKenna feels it’s worth the focus that our high crossing will improve. McKenna will know the attributes and potential of all his players and if anyone has the potential then there’s been no better manager at the club for the past twenty years to unlock it. As it turned out, there were a lot of squandered high crossing opportunities in the second half of the Leeds game, I’m not so sure McKenna anticipated that - from the options we had Ladapo would have been the best man to attack those and the change was made too late (and at the same time Hutchinson came on and as usual created nothing).
Agree with you Hampy, I havent noticed it quite so much since Hirst has been in the team but it's very obvious without him and before he came to the club. The first part of last season in some of the games I noticed Burns and in particular Davis were putting some decent balls into the box but none of the forward players were trying to attack the ball or get across the defender they were all waiting for the ball to drop to them and at one point it became very easy to defend against. Ladapo is half decent in the air but doesn't attack the ball in the box, reminds me a bit of Jon Stead who was technically very good but could never make out where he fitted in terms of his role as a striker and always felt with him in the team the balance wasn't quite right. Some strikers just seen to have that instinct and movement to shake off or get across their marker in the box, we don't seem to have many with those qualities. What we do have is some good players who like to come onto the ball from deep who find those pockets of space, the trouble is as we found through the middle part of last season if we rely on that too much it becomes predictable and if you don't have those players attacking the ball from a higher position or attempting to there is less space for those coming onto the ball from deep.
