Do you not feel Leif is a terrible defender, no positional sense, gets caught out of position and not great in the tackle. Do Ipswich fans make exceptions for him due to his assists which will also be high due to corners. I’m not on a wind up, defensively I think he’s a huge liability
No… the same is true of our whole back line. We take loads of risks. He’s capable of being a terrific defender but it’s not the focus.
Just watched the goals back. There can’t be any excuses for the defending of those goals. Absolutely shambolic. No marking. No-one taking responsibility.
Bloody hope not. The Premiership is a nightmare for teams who can't lay out a few hundred million. Just look at the bottom three. Would rather you be next season's whipping boys than us. Maybe we can lose to you in the play off final on pens!
Doesn’t feel that way. Still any 2 from 4. teams have good and bad patches, you and Leicester earlier on, Southampton had a great run a while back, we have been on one until the Huddersfield game. none of us have a clue what will happen
The Gaffers take. Town TV had a poor game too. Screen often freezing and Extra Time it froze solid and so didnt catch their goals! We may not get automatics but as others have said, it is still 2 from 4 and all teams have wobbled. In many respects, this is still a club in development, another building season. The fact remains, all season we have conceded far too many, usuallly in the opening 10, but not as shambolick as yesterday. I don't know what the answer is here. Something dramatically needs to change defensively. We don't stop enough crosses and we don't deal with them well enough. We have to tighten up, mark every man, challenge every cross. Our clearances were poor. And after going ahead, we let them attack in waves. And ffs please stop playing this silly tippy tappy stuff. Maybe Travis should have been brought in for his solid defensive strengths capabilities. Will Burgess and Wolf will be our centre pair next season? I rather doubt it. I would like to see Taylor getting a run in the starting line up. I am also sure that after 3 long away travels Sat, Tues, Sat, we looked unusually tired. And the idiot start time of 12.30 didnt help.The previous Tuesday game was physically and emotionally draining. It was going to catch up with us like it did yesterday. Spanish mentions the loss of control in the middle, Luongo needs a break, and we don't start games as fast and direct as we did back in August & September. Although a poor and disappointing result, it’s not the time to be too critical, we just need to keep supporting our amazing team of players that are giving their best in this superb season. Move on to the next game at fortress PR.
I agree that Luongo has looked tired in recent games and could do with a break - we have decent alternatives in Taylor or Travis. 1 of the previous questions was about Leif as a defender. There are certain aspects (positioning) that could be tightened up on but the big issue for me is that he doesn’t get a lot of cover from the player in front. Sarmiento was very poor yesterday and I don’t think Broadhead did much better. What I think we need is a leader at the back who will take control of the defence - a Mowbray / De Vos type. Individually, I don’t think our defenders are that bad apart from maybe Clarke but there is not a leader among them
Here is a candid view from another forum, which Spanish will like! "Any normal post-promotion season a narrow away defeat in Cardiff after a six game winning run would be an unproductive, but fantastic Friday afternoon piss-up after a great week at the office. As it is, we've just knocked over the waste paper bin whilst being poured another glass of champagne, and some of us are having kittens"
I felt that the entire game was a continuation of the first half in midweek v Bristol City, no energy, no drive, and quite frankly the entire side looked tired out from the from the first whistle. It could be that the last three away matches have been long distance to Swansea, Plymouth, and Cardiff respectively but this slow motion, lethargic, play has crept into our game gradually since Christmas, there have been exceptions such as Millwall and a couple of other games but we are not buzzing like we were which has led to chaotic defending at times and defeat to teams who are not at our standard. This is the the run in to the end of the season and although we really should struggle to compete with money bags teams with parachute payments to fund Premier League class players we are right in amongst them and have got somehow to get that snap and urgency back into our play which makes us such a dangerous team when we are playing well. The play offs would be a Hell of an achievement for us and i am proud of our Club and management staff no matter what, but theres more to be had not far away from where we are so lets go for it.
Disappointing end to the game and from what I've seen on other fan sites, sounds like the defence is coming in for heavy criticism which I think is harsh in the extreme. We concede a lot of goals but for me that is not down the the quality of our CBs it's how we play as a team, we're an attacking team, we take risks, our CBs goalkeeper, full backs all take risks. I think in general all the CBs who've played this season have been nothing short out outstanding perhaps with the exception of Tuanzebe who is certainly a talent but clearly lacks games. Woolfenden and Burgess have been outstanding and given the way we play I'm surprised they haven't made more mistakes. I'd say Tuanzebe and Edmundson have made as many mistakes as Burgess and Woolfenden have done and have played far less games...that's not me criticising them as its tough coming in from the cold and integrating into how we play. In McKennas first season in charge, we were very solid at the back barely conceding goals but we were nowhere near as effective going forwards, it was actually quite a cautious approach and remained relatively cautious until February last year, now we play quite a risky game and that leaves us open to concede but it also means we look such a dangerous team going forwards. I know what I'd prefer to watch and also what has brought us more success. I remember watching us under Burley and Royle, both teams we had some very good defenders (more so under Burely) but we still conceded a fair number of goals because its the way we played and its similar today. I think CB is actually one of our strongest areas including back ups. I see so much criticism of Woolfenden and Burgess and just dont understand it, last season people said they werent good enough for league 1, then they werent going to be good enough for the championship, now in whats set to be a record breaking championship with us being 3 points off what was required to get automatic promotion last season ive seen some comments saying even if we dont get promoted they need replacing next season because they havent been good enough...did anyone see how Woolfenden played against Leicester (one of the strongest teams ever at this level)? We collectively and them as individuals can always improve defensively but I think they've been outstanding as a partnership and individually this season. Yes I think full back is an area we can improve defensively, the RB position remains a concern with majority of our goals coming from down that side and Davis is not the best defensively but he can improve and would you still get a full back with the most assists in the whole football league over the past 2 seasons if he focused more on that side of his game..I doubt it (he would probably be at a Champions League team if he was that good). Whatever happens from now until the end of the Season the team and individual players have been superb, the whole favoured starting 11 have proved they are more than capable of playing at least upper championship level and whether we get promoted or not I hope its evolution not revolution with this team in terms of how we strengthen.
Lots of valid points PTC, and most on here agree that if we had kept up our attacking and hunting for more goals in last 10 mins, and not sat back, it might have been a different result. That's football, sh...t happens!
I think a few people have unrealistic expectations for CBs at this level.It is always going to be a compromise between outright defenders and those who are capable of playing out from the back in the way KMc wants.If they were all-round footballer/defenders it's very unlikely we'd be able to afford them. Having said that it should be easier to coach a bit of clogging into a ball player than vice versa!
Everyone saying our defence is what will cost us, experts saying they was surprised we didn't strengthen at cb in Jan and you say it's been our strongest asset.....really???? I know you love Wolfy but outstanding and strongest assets really is stretching it!!!
I mean I know it's may be a bizarre notion but the fact that our forwards have bailed us out sooooo many times, might just prove that they are actually our strongest assets!
We are **** at defending, but if the team was playing to keep clean sheets, we wouldn’t score as many goals either. That said, the goals we let in Saturday were just down to nobody marking or clearing, which is failing at doing their basic defensive jobs.
