Evans has left us in a right mess and by January our fate would be sealed. We need to turn this game around tonight.
McCarthy was a miracle worker by current standards. Right now we have Lambert and we need a couple of goals from somewhere and a clean sheet in this half. Forget all the other petty foibles for 45 minutes and will that ball into the net!
This is what happens when a lunatic sells off your entire strike force and best defender, for Gods sake Evans just go and count your money.
This is what happens when you keep taking a punt. We need an owner with something resembling a strategy.
Oh the irony of Jackson scoring a hat-trick in the reserves and then only on the pitch for a few minutes and netting. You couldn't write this stuff.
And free kicks. To try something like that once, I get it. To do it every time - completely and utterly bizarre.
Much better second half. We weren't really expected to get anything from this game but we were really poor first 45. Good to see Teddy back on the pitch and unlucky that Lankester's shot didn't go in, maybe he should be starting instead of Edwards, who hasn't done much in the last few games. I personally thought it was a penalty on Jack as well. It's good to see that we are trying to play out from the back, we're not that good at it right now and it creates some **** your pants moments but I want us to stick with it so that we can improve. Bart's kicks were terrible today and we gave possession away too easily again, which doesn't help. Lambert got them fired up for the second half and it showed, a draw would have been a great result after we should've been dead and buried in the first. I'm still believing that we can get enough points to get out of the bottom three with the improvement I've seen so far. Come on Ipswich!
Sounds like it's just me, but I'm really not seeing any improvement. If that had been a Hurst match there'd be total meltdown and absolute pelters from all angles. For our pen, maybe, but West Brom had a stone waller in the first half. With Lankester and Bish coming on and giving us something different and Woolfenden hopefully coming back in in January and two transfer windows ahead, I think the '19-20 Town side is going to bear very little resemblance at all to this one.
Well there is more emphasis on trying to play from the back, we're getting more bodies than we used to in the box and we have players playing next to each other every week. These are all good signs to me. The way a game plays out is still very similar though. Gifting possession too easily, poor clearances and not being first to the ball are still symptoms of this team and so watching a match doesn't feel much different at times but I just have more faith that if we stick at it that we will get better. Paul has a clear way that he wants us to play and knows that it will take some time, and probably some better players, to get there. He's going for wins and not damage limitation and makes decent substitutions that affect things on the pitch and those are the improvements I see. Hasn't changed results much but I feel more promise under Lambert than Hurst.
The improvements under Lambert is so patently obvious to see. That said, we do require a win. I feel very sorry for Lambert this “side” he’s inherited with glaring holes.
I don't get the "playing it from the back" ... We tried it in the first few minutes, West Brom sussed us out, and then stopped us doing it...making Bart kick it long and wide every time. Our back four are not good enough to play that way. When we had a goal kick, we had our two CB's looking for the pass from Bart.. .when West Brom had a goal kick, they had three or four looking for it, giving the keeper more options. Same with our midfield, no one wanted the ball, we need a fully fit bish and Dozzell in the middle with a new midfield enforcer. As well as chalobah played, I don't know what his role is. Is he a defensive midfielder? He's also not creative enough to be an attacking midfielder.. It's all well and good playing passes in defence, but that doesn't create and score you goals. Forget the defence, we need to players to come on and create, and score.. Two forwards, a tough tackling midfielder and a box to.bix midfielder that will score a few gials...
Completely in agreement with this - you can only do it with a backbone capable / midfield making space etc or it’s an absolute waste of time bothering. Good sides will think Christmas has come early ya messing around with it - one misplaced pass, and ten seconds later it can be in your net.
Typical mixed bag performance,played reasonably well in short spells but overall thought we were lucky not to go in at half time three down. Glaring areas to improve are right back,creative midfielder and up front of course. Could have nicked a point at the death but it would have been more than we deserved.
I thought we were outplayed for most of that match. We could have nicked it at the end, but let’s be honest, we didn’t deserve anything. I guess you could argue we weren’t favourites against a high-flying West Brom side, but that’s another game gone and we could be eight points adrift by the end of Saturday. We are winless in six matches, no home wins all season, and a squad looking well short of quality. Lambert has a massive task on his hands and I wonder if he’s having second thoughts? Looking like he’s going to oversee two successive relegations. We looked more up for it tonight than under most of Hurst’s matches, but huff and puff only sometimes makes up for the lack of footballing ability. We need a new right-back, left-back (as the current one is departing), central midfielder (maybe two), left winger, and two strikers. Bristol City in midweek is a must win game. As for who must shoulder the blame for our current predicament, I’d argue that Evans, Hurst, and Mick are guilty of mistakes and oversights. Evans has to take most the blame, as somebody who has one play off season to show for his 12 years in charge. Most notably for his recent underinvestment in the club and for making millions on player sales, without providing enough of that money for investment. Evans is also responsible for the complete lack of cohesive plan on and off the pitch. No identity, no real philosophy, and a youth academy working well and producing players despite not straining Category One. The long-term stagnation of the club is ultimately Evans’ fault, as well as his general poor managerial recruitment record. I think he gets a far too easy ride from most of our supporters and there would be protests against him at most other clubs. Hurst is responsible for the poor tactics, inconsistent player and formation selections, poor quality of incoming transfers, and his divisive approach to management. One win in 15 has ultimately left us where we are, poor managerial appointment. On a wider basis, the loss of several key first-team players, including Waghorn, Webster, Garner, and McGoldrick, and our failure to replace them sufficiently, is the main reason I think we are where we are. And finally Mick cannot avoid responsibility as somebody who had been in charge for the previous six years. We had no long-term plan under Mick, living game-by-game playing some awful football that I believe has seriously impacted these players’ ability to play any other style of football. The way he cynically portrayed the fanbase and almost anybody else as outsiders against him and his team may also have had bad consequences, as over the past few years, this team has lost a lot of the passion and commitment they were previously notorious for.
