Guru I agree entirely with your point about Delaney, and itfcptc I can see your point of view as well. Would we be prepared to swap what we have now for what used to be? Not a chance, and I believe thats a reason why the whole side is playing well at the moment, as jonny says its about confidence. The fowards and midfield are confident that we are secure at the back ( very important when we are playing Brighton) instead of being terrified of going beyond the half way line in case they have to stream back to help the defence. All over the park everyone wants the ball, good stuff.
ITFCPTC I will be the first to admit that I have had reservations about PJ and his tactics towards the end of last season and the start of this. You can't really fail not to after being smashed by Norwich at home, Leicester, Swansea, Peterboro away and against Southampton at Home. He didn't play the right formations numerous times 4-5-1 with Scotland as the lone striker! It's bloody obvious that Scotland is never a target man and wants the ball played to feet. Our strategy last year was to bypass midfield with a long hoof hoping that Scotland would get on the end of it! To PJ's credit it looks like he has decided to stick with the same group of players and woreked on a system that they are all comfortable playing with. As a long time paying punter I believe I have the right to criticise when all I have been watching at Portman Rd over the last few years is garbage. I will continue to praise and to criticise when I feel it is deserved. That is all
I find some fans change of views highly amusing. 6 months back we were constantly being told how great the likes of McAuley, Delaney & Norris were and how important it was to tie them down to long term contracts. Unfortunately a lot of people seemed to thing workrate was more important that footballing ability. Its nice to have a team which combines the two aspects and actually seems to know what to do, when to play football and when to get rid. I wish we had more of a mix of youth and experience if Im honest but at the moment cant complain too much about any of our players. I think the Sonko has proved how to be a no nonsense defender but without the headlessness (is that a word) of Delaney. Andrews, Bowyer and even Leadbitter had shown how to put energy into a midfield without being everywhere but useless like Norris. Im not trying to be smug but possibly feel that a lot of fans brought into the Keane excuses due to his standing in the game and therefore accepted mediocrity. How many excuses did we hear about the inability to attract a certain calibre of player? I think the truth is Keane didnt know what he needed rather than couldnt get them here.
Completely agree. I think in time tractorbhoy we shall get more youth in the team and hopefully find a few more like Cresswell but at the moment we have what we have and that is now considerably more quality than we've had in years amazingly put together over a few months. Now we have that base to build upon. I am very impressed with the quality of player Jewell has got to PR considering there was not much here in terms of decent playing staff and therefore we didn't really look like a promotion outfit. I find it astonishing the amount of criticism Jewell has got compared to Keane at the start!! As I've said before I think a large part of it seems to be that people were will to give Keane the benefit of the doubt and used all their patience up on him and having none left for Jewell due to 2/3 seasons of mediocracy!! We were in a mess and we still have a very long way to go before I think Jewell can really put his print on this team, at least another year!!
I think we can all agree that Norris was god awful and this obsession Jimbo had about signing him! I cry when I recall that Magilton spunked over £2 Million on him! **** me Plymouth must have been laughing all the way to the bank but as things have turned out they obviously spunked our cash! I remember that he had the same fixation about getting Maca and again he paid way, way too much for an average centre half from a relegated team. I know these weren't PJ's mistakes and I am not holding him responsible for any of that. PJ is doing a great job but he has made mistakes and I think its right to criticise and air frustrations when they arise. Thats what being a supporter is all about and yes I have been the first to acknowledge that we finally seem to be turning a corner. With the team that he has assembled at very little cost we should be in the top 6 come the business end of the season.
I must say that i was gutted when Macalay left for now't because he was one of our best players at the time . But seeing Collins and Sonko play it shows that we were used to average players playing average football.
