A positive thought.

I'm sure if you follow my posts through out the years you would know I am naturally overly optimistic about all things ITFC. I would try and convince you all taking voluntary relegation to league 2 and closing the academy would be part of a bigger picture that would be good for Ipswich. (I've already got to we'll use all the local clubs and schools as feeders and reenergise our community spirit while winning lots of games because we'd be a big fish)

With that disclaimer out of the way I present you with my positive spin on our current league record. 7 of our 12 games have seen us come away with something. While not impressive in its own right, the next team above us who can say similar is QPR, who currently sit 18th. This is in contrast to those who join us still in single digits whose loss column vastly outstrips the other two.

I think this shows that the we're not far off line rings true. Top of the bottom 6 is not what we want to aim for but is a realistic, and more importantly, safe reflection of where we are as a club and will provide Hurst with his own foundations to build the long term future and for next season.

 

I've been saying similar things for the last few weeks Mike...no one has spanked us, We've held our own in most games, and probably only the Bolton game was one where we were poor.
I'm not saying this after one win, as i thought before Saturday that we could sneak up the table.
Even though top 6 seems possible, as we're only 9 points behind, the fact that we don't have any strikers firing, will make things a lot more difficult.
We're a work in progress, including the manager who is not only learning about his players, but also the championship .
Hopefully we can get a couple more wins on the board, as our next handful of games are all winnable (bar leeds).
As i mentioned last week, if we stay up this season, I feel we could see the start of something good at our club .

 

Evening gents. Five goals in two away games is not bad either, the midfield is already chipping in with far more goals than last season (goals per game, if anybody wants to be picky).

I don't think our last performance was any better than Middlesbrough or Birmingham, we just had the rub of the green. We need to make up that gap to 18th and wins against Preston and Millwall will help our cause, although they will be fighting for their lives so it won't be easy. All I am looking for is for us to keep plugging away and stay afloat until January because I think we do need more quality in the side to climb the league.

If we do get more wins on the board in October then it will be interesting to see what this side can do when they're playing with a bit more confidence.

 

Good post Mike.Like you,I try to find the positives.

Given our starting point this Season with so many changes to the squad,manager inexperienced at this level and the general low feeling around the Club, it was always going to be difficult.But I am more hopeful about the future than I have been for several years.

Ideally I think it would have been great to hang on to Waghorn until the January transfer window and then I’m sure we would have turned one or two of those draws into wins to help bridge the transition.Hindsight is a wonderful thing though and unfortunately we have an owner who takes a bit of a short term view and,probably,wanted to cash in while Waghorn’s stock was so high from last Season.

 

I was pleased with the Waghorn transfer at the time so can’t say it was the wrong decision now. Ben Morris staying would have made more of a difference.

 

The result against Swansea was certainly a positive, especially against a well-fancied side with a very strong defensive record. Five goals in our last two away games is also something to take away with us over the international break and hopefully be used as motivation for this team, which can often look and feel disjointed and nervous in attack. Hurst is also somebody that comes across like he is willing to learn from his mistakes. He may look back on the first quarter of the season and recognise that overhauling the starting line-up week in, week out, as well as occasionally changing formation and system, was the wrong approach to a side that is relatively new and still gelling with one another. However, Hurst's willingness to change the starting eleven (in moderation) is also a strength. Unlike our previous manager, Hurst seems more open to dropping under-performing players. Removing Knudsen, Nolan, and Jackson from the starting eleven last weekend provided an improved attack and gave Knudsen, someone who played every minute beforehand, a much-needed reminder that he cannot take his place for granted. Being able to drop Nolan, very much a 'Hurst player' and somebody he has relied upon for a couple of years, also points to an ability to drop out-of-form favourites.

Regarding personnel, I think Dozzell is a bright spark who has hopefully proven to Hurst that he can handle Championship football and that he has another chance against QPR. Hurst's transfers have largely played okay so far, with Chalobah, Edwards, and Pennington standing out in particular. I have a few concerns with some players, and I still think Hurst doesn't know our best back four (mainly due to his faith in Chambers, who I honestly think we can do without), and obviously our league position is a concern. However, we have some winnable games coming up against QPR, Reading, Millwall, and Preston where we should be targeting more points that we need to accrue. Hopefully, we can string a couple of wins together and start to climb what has been a fairly poor Championship with few stand-out, consistent teams.

 

The positives I've held on too are that we whilst we've had poor spells.. We haven't actually been bad for a full 90 minutes... In pretty much every game there has been something positive. The exception being the Hull debacle (and large parts of the Bolton & Derby games), but we've always had some flicker of optimism to cling on to for those who were there watching.

Our biggest challenge is joining the dots and making sure we are decent for more than 20 minute spells in matches.. And making sure that when we are under the pump we don't concede silly goals... which seems to be slowly improving in the past couple of weeks, but I'm sure there will be plenty more kinks that need to be ironed out.

 

Maybe the players would have folded by now without Chambers' leadership, he certainly earned himself a reprieve in the last match as far as I'm concerned.

I think there's a tendency to overestimate the impact of Dozzell because he's 'one of our own' - he wasn't involved directly in the goals at either end. He's a decent player but lacks a cutting edge and I think Nolan has more potential as an attacking midfielder. Sears gave us something extra, but failed to score a couple of sitters. Knudsen came on at half time and his replacement scored an own goal so it's quite a stretch to say that dropping him was a good idea.

In other words, the positives that were there against Swansea were present in previous games and the issues that were apparent in other games were also there against Swansea. The only difference is a fingertip and a post away from a draw - winning just makes everyone feel better.

The only thing that I have changed my mind about is Grant Ward, he's not a natural left footer and has to come inside to get a good ball in, but he seems to be improving game on game and is our best option for left side at the moment.

I would still like to see Bart back in
I would still like to see us play Donacien / Nsiala / Pennington / Knudsen back four
I would still like to see us play with four in midfield - Edwards / Chalobah / Dozzell / Ward
I would still like to see us play with two up

But I'm sure we'll be sticking with this system and most of the first team squad is fairly interchangeable with the only stand out player being Edwards. It's time for some of the others to nail down their place by also standing out and until they do that Hurst is right to rotate a couple of players to give others a chance to stand out.

 

I think Chambers’ “leadership” is generally overstated. He isn’t a very vocal player on the pitch and he doesn’t frequently communicate with the rest of his defence anywhere near how a traditional on-pitch leader would do. He is obviously well-respected by the youngsters and most the players, and I’m sure he’s a positive role model off the pitch and in training, but he is not an on the pitch leader and I honestly don’t think he’s suited to the type of football that Hurst and a majority of the fanbase wants to see.

I agree Knudsen is currently our best left-back, and with his contract expiring in the summer it is probably an area we will have to look to strengthen. My point was that his form has been poor in general this season and he has struggled playing the type of football Hurst initially set out to implement. Dropping him after he has played every minute of the season (up to that point) gave him a timely reminder he should not take his position for granted. Donacien, however, should not play left back for us again. Keep him on the right where he looks more comfortable.

 

Trouble is dropping players can also be demoralising and lead to insecurity and erode respect. Sometimes players need a break or they are dropped for poor form but no great manager ever dropped a player to ‘teach him a lesson’.

 

One loss in 5
First win on board
Dozzell back

 

I disagree, no player should think he's guaranteed a start unless you're Messi or Ronaldo...especially with a new manager and 11 new players . They have to earn their place in the team, so if they feel insecure and throw their toys out, either step up or get the F out of the club.
And if you are a great manager, and a player is pulling his weight, then he should be dropped to teach him a lesson

 

stretchy, players will be their own hardest critics, so they will generally already know themselves if their place is under threat. With our league position no player will feel they are guaranteed to start.

If a player’s form isn’t good, then of course he should be dropped, but what nuggets appears to be saying is that even though Knudsen is our best left back he should be dropped to teach him that he’s not guaranteed to start, and that somehow this will improve his form. It’s usually going to have a negative effect.

And as human beings, players will react differently to different situations. Building confidence and empowering players is what top managers do, not the opposite. As a manager, if you don’t want him in the XI, that’s fine, but otherwise you’re really not going to get very far in the game if you treat your first team players without respect like that.

 

No, I said that I believe his performances have been poor this season, and that he is one of the few players who has serious difficulty playing the style of football Hurst was ultimately brought in to deliver. Knudsen had played every minute of the season before the Swansea match, despite this poor form. By dropping / rotating him, he has been showed that his place should not be taken for granted. My concern is that we do not have a good replacement at left-back, unless Kenlock has got significantly better defensively over the past few months.

 

You wouldn’t find Pep, Sir Alex, Sir Bobby, or even Gareth Southgate doing things like this with one of their key players. It’s exactly the reason Mourhinho keeps having issues.

 

Dropping players who are in bad form? Of course they do.

 

There has to be a justifiable reason to drop a player, Be it out of form, not obeying orders, or even taking the pi$$ going on a bender the night before a game.
The manager is in charge, and unfortunately there are too many prima donnas out there who they are bigger than the club.

 

I got dropped for a cup match due to a night out on the Friday, game Sunday. The previous week in Bristol, (2008) I found a bar that was ‘drink all you want for a tenner.’ Everyone was all over it, naturally. Two issues.

1- it took me 45 minutes to remember where it was. The manager was getting really annoyed with me.

2- finally found it. Shut. The reason it was the deal the week before, was it was the final night of the bar!! He told me there and then ‘ you idiot, you’re dropped Sunday’. I assumed kidding...

Sunday came, first time on bench all season. We argued all match from the sidelines that he stuck me on half time simply to shut me up

Scored 1, assisted 1 second half from cm. We were through.

 

The point is here nuggets. He already knew that. The team is in the bottom three. No player needs to be shown or told this.

 

In the '95-'96 season I was the only over-present having played every minute of every game for Cherrytree Wanderers since we founded the club, I was the top scorer even though I was a left winger and I'd played half the season filling in at right back.

With two matches left of the season, a new manager came in and for about the second or third week running I played through a hamstring so he dropped me for the final game of the season when there was nothing at stake and that was the last they ever saw of me.