He won't lift his head and look up so he shoots from impossible angles when others have run to support him and are in better positions.
It goes to show that you cant compete in the Prem with a team largely made up from Championship and Lg1 players.
I wouldn't dig him or Hutch out for their poor decision making at times.We're asking an awful lot of inexperienced,young players to step up and keep us in the PL.
And, more than that, a young manager. I do wonder if we would have more goals overall with Hirst in the side rather than Delap. McKenna’s subs stifled our momentum at a time that we were well on top. Frustratingly Hutchinson kept going backward. To make these criticisms, first we have got to acknowledge that we have already come a long way to compete in that game. Not too long ago we were frequently penned into our own half and only hitting sides on the break. The tragedy is that almost every other side has improved too.
Good balanced debate here. I feel parts of our game have gone backwards due to a multitude of reasons but mainly due to the sheer number of new players we've brought in, the patterns of play aren't there like they used to be and I have felt in general the players from last season when on the pitch you can just see the connections and their awareness are far more in sync. We needed to bring new players in, so this was always likely to happen, we saw it under Cook and it took a while for us to look fluent under McKenna. It wasn't until Hirst came in that we saw that real flow in an attacking sense because he made space for others. Delap is a better player than Hirst but he's far more selfish and doesn't create the space for others which Hirst does as he comes from deep. This was always going to be a hard season and we've had a lot of injuries and some really poor decisions go against us. But definitely room for improvement in the transfer market and I do feel on occasion McKenna has dropped players who are in form.
As someone resigned to relegation, I'm hoping we've got enough to mount a promotion push next season and return to the Premier League as a stronger, better side. As others have said, this season was always going to be a struggle after such a rapid rise up the football pyramid. We've come into a Premier League that is markedly different than our last season here in 2002. There are clubs owned by actual nation states, it's a division of unprecedented financial disparities, and lately there are several well-run 'middle class' type teams (Brentford, Brighton, Palace, Fulham etc.) that have maximised several continuous years of Premier League income to build deep, talented squads. We all knew that coming in, but it's one thing to know and read about it - quite another to watch it unfold week in, week out against your club. As I've said elsewhere, Premier League defences and central midfielders are often tall and big! The old cliché would be the lower leagues are where the big physical types dominated, but that's just as applicable at the top flight level now - with the added bonus that those players can play football to a high standard. It's clear to me that if we were to come back up to the Premier League (or somehow stay up this season), we need to prioritise signing some more physically robust players because I do think we look a bit lightweight at times - possibly because we're a young squad. Did we do enough in the transfer window to stay up? Benefit of hindsight, I'd say no. I'll caveat this by saying we clearly weren't in a position to bring in top class, experienced players. But surely we could've picked up better players than Muric, Greaves, Ben Johnson, Kalvin Phillips, and Jack Clarke? None of them look Premier League ready. Signing Godfrey on loan also looks like a waste of time and money. He's clearly not fit after spending most of this season on the bench in Italy - were there no better alternatives? But we have signed some good players. O'Shea's been our most consistent defender, Cajuste our best midfielder, and Delap - with double figures goals - our best attacking player. We're probably kicking ourselves that we didn't spend big on Palmer in the summer, as he's also looking like a top addition. Szmodics looked promising, chipping in with a few goals - but his long-term injury has coincided with our recent collapse in form (one point from the last available 21). Have the players that have been part of two successful promotion winning sides made the step up to the Premier League? Again, it's another mixed bag. Tuanzebe certainly looks the part. Woolfenden looks calm on the ball and fits in, but hasn't played too many games. Davis has occasionally struggled attacking wise, but I can see a Premier League side taking a chance on him. Hutchinson - if you count him, as technically he's in both camps - also looks like he has the potential that a bigger club might unlock. Morsy in the first half of the season looked the part, but now can't get in the starting eleven and rightly so after a poor run of games. The biggest disappointment for me has been our attacking players from last season. Continued injuries to the likes of Chaplin, Burns, Hirst, and Broadhead suggests they've struggled with the step-up in intensity. They've still played their fair share of minutes but between them have currently mustered two league goals (the same amount as Philogene, recently bought in) and just three league assists. That's not a good enough contribution.
To inject a bit of positivity after my last post, looking ahead I think there's more to be optimistic about. While this isn't a squad that's guaranteed to 'walk the Championship' (and an instant promotion will be a tough fight), I think we've got the makings of a really strong, competitive Championship side. We've given plenty of Premier League sides this season a good fight and run for their money, even if we haven't been able to win enough games. We'll likely lose more first team players than expected, but even if the likes of Delap, Davis, O'Shea, Hutchinson, and the loan players depart - we've still got plenty of proven second-tier talent. We've also got an ambitious board that invests in the club both on and off the pitch and will be committed to get us back to the Premier League, but working from a more solid structure. I think there's little risk we'll do a Luton - who took the Premier League riches and did little with it. Palmer's a top keeper, who I hope we can keep hold of next season where he has impressed. A first-choice defence of Tuanzebe / Woolfenden / Greaves / Townsend should be solid enough, before adding in a likely first choice left back signing to replace Davis and defensive depth from Harry Clarke, Ben Johnson, Cam Burgess, and potentially another centre-back. If we do manage to keep Davis, then we have a player who can rack up assists. Midfield clearly needs re-tooling and investment. Morsy's proven at the Championship level, although a long-term successor will need to be brought in. We'll possibly need two signings here. Reportedly Downes will come back, which is a good move in my opinion. One more central midfielder - with the right profile - would be good addition. Attacking-wise, we've got some top Championship talent. We know what the likes of Chaplin, Burns, Broadhead, and Hirst can do. Fans of other Championship clubs will tell us what Jack Clarke, Szmodics, and Philogene can do. With Hirst's fitness issues and Delap more than likely off, we'll need to bring in at least one striker. Al-Hamadi - despite only one goal in six for Stoke - could be a dependable third choice striker, only if we need to re-invest elsewhere. Any transfers in the summer should be made with a return to the Premier League in mind. We don't need to sign half a squad in the next window again, but should look to replace any outgoings with the best player available. I don't think Ashton or McKenna will be sentimental about the old guard (e.g., I think it's the right time for Luongo to depart) or go down sunk cost fallacy thinking (e.g., it doesn't matter how much we paid for Muric, his future shouldn't be at this club). This leaves us with the likely return of the dreaded McKenna saga. His star reputation may have had the shine taken off it, but most of the wider football world had us down as relegation favourites so I don't think our relegation will put off many club. He doesn't have the big playing career reputation to fall back on (see Kompany), but I think if a Premier League side does come in for him this summer, he'll take it. Ashton will have done his contingency planning in any event, but hopefully it's not something we need to worry about as I don't think we'll get a better manager than McKenna. If McKenna stays, next season gives him a great opportunity to build his Ipswich Town 2.0 team. A third promotion will solidify his standing as arguably our third best manager in history. His ambition will be to build a squad even better than the one that got us to the Premier League, with the view to become an established top flight side. As painful and frustrating as this season has been at times, relegation is not the body blow it used to be decades ago. Parachute payments, a squad proven at Championship level, and battle-hardened from our time in the PL trenches gives us a jump start on most other Championship teams. We've got to hope Burnley, Sheffield United, and (hold your nose) Leeds go up to make things easier. Big money Birmingham and Wrexham will both possibly come up to the Championship next season, but it'd be nice if it was only Birmingham.
It’s just a little bit early for that kind of talk. If we lose the next three and Wolves win the next three then we can consider ourselves relegated. But it could still swing the other way with Cunha out.
Good article from the BBC sport site. A bit grim . https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cjevk7pjg53o
Agree it's disappointing so many of the attacking players have been out. As you say we haven't had many goals from that area except Delap this season. That's partly a quality issues, partly a new players issue and linked to that the fact Delap is a different type of striker to Hirst, more selfish but also one who prefers to drop deep, meaning the chances for the players behind him have been less. The balance of our team last season and the 2nd half of the season before was near on perfect, with new players, injuries and a step up in quality we haven't had that this season with our play often looking disjointed or players trying to do too much. Hirst has never been prolific for us but he done such a good job for the team allowing others the space to score it didn't feel like it mattered. I feel Chaplin and Broadhead are unfortunate not to have played more games this season as in general I think they've had some decent performances and both have been dropped when they've shown good form. Broadhead has looked our best left 10 this season and I'd argue Chaplin has looked our best 10...if Enciso had played more or came in at the start I'm fairly sure we wouldn't be saying that. We needed to improve the squad and apart from the first 11 from last season we had trimmed it quite significantly. Perhaps long term this seasons signings have a higher ceiling than those who were here before but there's not 1 signing we've made where the player they have replaced we haven't lost something from the side. Even Palmer, who looks a great GK isn't anywhere near Hladky when it comes to passing. Delap who's got some absolutely real high quality attributes his understanding and off the ball play is nowhere near the level of Hirsts. And even Cajuste who's a superb player and probably one of the better signings he doesn't slot in to cover Davis as well as Luongo does.
Broadhead is an interesting one. He constantly looks 1 of our better players and threats in an attacking sense (feel he has been much better than J. Clarke) but doesn’t get the minutes, I wonder if there has been some kind of fallout with McKenna. Think we’ll find out in the summer if he’s sold - no matter what division we are in.
It does feel like McKenna is having to make enforced changes to the line-up through injuries and the odd suspension. If he had a few weeks with a fully fit squad, we’d possibly be able to get some fluency going with our attacking patterns. Last season, we were possibly fortunate in that we didn’t pick up a lot of injuries, certainly not key players out for prolonged periods (other than Hirst). I do wonder if an element of our injury record is through players not being acquitted to the pace and relentlessness of Premier League games. In the Championship, we had a lot more margin for error and more time on the ball, which you just don’t get in this division - particularly away from home. I agree Hirst’s main strengths are holding the ball up and playing in others. Delap doesn’t really do that, as he’s more of a more old-fashioned centre forward who prefers to run at goal than turn his back to it. We had better balance in the lower divisions, partly through a healthy squad. Maybe starting Delap has upset that balance. Another key part of our success last season was the system allowing Davis large amounts of time and space at left back to push forwards. With him, we stretched the pitch and essentially had two number 10s in Broadhead and Chaplin ready for cut backs. In the games where we struggled in the Championship, typically against stronger teams on paper like Leeds, who set themselves up to nullify Davis (they knew all about him), hit us with pace on the counter, and took their chances better. Premier League sides know to watch out for Davis and have the players to restrict him and keep him wary of pushing too far forward. It’s been mentioned before, but we haven’t been able to threaten teams consistently down our flanks. Chaplin and Broadhead have had some positive performances, but their best work at this level has been on the ball in deep positions where there’s more time. When they’ve played, they’ve not been able to take their chances in the attacking third. Chaplin, when fit, struggled to get another power and placement on his shots in the area which he often buried last season. We get fewer chances than last season and we’re against better opposition with less time to shoot. Chaplin was lethal last season, Broadhead always needed a few chances on goal before scoring. Maybe it’s a criticism of the different styles and systems we’ve been using this season - as it’s hardly a unique issue for those two players in particular - or it could be the logical issue that they’re playing at a much higher level where they haven’t had previous experience. And that applies to most our attacking players this season. Hdlaky is a great passer with the ball at his feet for the Championship. But he was error prone and made big mistakes last season. I’m not convinced he’d have made the step up to the Premier League. He’s certainly not done enough at Burnley to warrant a start in the league. Either way, he didn’t want to be with us and it was his choice to leave for a contract with an extra year. People might think I’m being unfair or harsh on the players who helped get us to the Premier League. It goes without saying, but the team from the promotion winning seasons were my favourite seasons as “younger” Town fan almost in my mid-30s. They’ll always be among my favourite players and memories as a supporter. But for me - I think some of last season’s heroes have struggled to make the step up and put in consistent, reliable performances. McKenna’s not picking the likes of Luongo, Broadhead, Chaplin, and Burns because all of a sudden he doesn’t like them - I don’t think he trusts them to keep up with the pace of the Premier League and properly influence games, which is what their performances, fitness record, and stats are showing us when they’re on the pitch.
You have all sensibly put things in perspective. Our recent astonishing Promotional run reminds me, as a 76 yr old today, of the extraordinary achievement back in 1960, 1961 when I was 12 yrs old. Ipswich finished the season as champions of the old Second Division, one point ahead of second-placed Sheffield United, and won promotion to the top flight of English football for the first time in their Club history. We are indeed lucky to have experienced such exciting times, the last 2 seasons prob the most enjoyable for me.
The most enjoyable season by far for me was the League One promotion. Thrilling, unexpected and joyful. A team of heroes turning the tide.
While the League One promotion was amazing, it felt more like relief to me. Relief that we were finally able to get out of that awful division, after failing to even make the League 1 play-offs in the previous three or four years. Last season's promotion to the Premier League was the most enjoyable, for me, as it was completely unexpected. Considering the parachute payments swilling around that division, I assumed we'd need at least a couple years of consolidation before credibly pushing for promotion. Last season, we had teams like Southampton and Leicester - who had several consecutive PL seasons under their belt - dropping down and expected to go straight back up. The fact we got promoted automatically and in the fashion we achieved it (end-to-end, thrilling games where we scored several last minute goals) just can't be topped for me. Even if we do go down and win the Championship title next season with 100 odd points, I don't think it would compare to the drama, intensity, nerves, and the ultimate pay-off from last season.
If i've understood it right, then many happy returns Gaffer (if i've misinterpreted, then please ignore me )
I don't think either of the two last promotions top 2000 for me.We'd had the near misses of the previous Seasons and the fantastic games against Bolton and Barnsley.By comparison the escape from Division One was pure relief and last Season was unexpected with concern about how we'd do in the Premiership. Having said that I can honestly say I've enjoyed most of our games this Season with the vastly improved quality of football and getting to see World class stars.
