I will take a win playing percentage football, we have given away to many points in recent weeks, we have been easy on the eye going forward but that has left us to open at the back, not necessarily in open play or vulnerable to the counter attack, we just seem to have lost our focus doing the dirty work and concentrating on the defensive side of the game, clearly training has been back to basics this week!
I have no issue with grinding results out, sometimes you need to, the best sides do it, the great teams of Man Utd were great at it but first and foremost they tried to play football and if it wasn't their day they could grind a result out what annoyed me today was we chose to grind a result out as a style of play rather than if we needed to. Just pumped the ball long all the time. Good 3 points and much needed for what could have been an awkward fixture, i don't mind us grinding out results every now and then but when Mick intentionally grinds results out it annoys me. Mick has done a great job in the 2 years he's been here but with him I always feel he could've done better. For me supporting town is not about just getting results the things that really get me reminising about Town are the exciting games I can remember, the glory the thrill, the great come backs and whilst Mick may have done a great job on many fronts he's not one for evoking those great memories of following town which IMO is what it's all about. It becomes a percentage game when it's like that and you may aswell just watch a vidiprinter, football may aswell be played behind closed doors
I can imagine you now in some seedy Blackpool strip club surrounded by baying Northern monkeys knocking back the whiskey chasers... You can take the boy out of Whitton but you'll never take the Whitton out of the boy... Have fun mate.
Sorry mate but I completely disagree with this! Winning Ugly is part and parcel of being successful and I would rather this than getting stuffed each week trying to play the 'Right Way' whatever that means! We played some good stuff yesterday and we fully deserved to win so in my book it's job done! Just how you can compare us to how Man Utd win games is strange! You have to face the fact that we have a team of limited players due to all the money that was wasted by Magilton and Keane to begin with! Do you honestly believe that if Mick had been given some serious funding like those other clowns we would be playing this style of football? I really thought we had put this arguement to bed but it appears that some people are just never happy! Mick has spent a paltry ten grand on a player who turns out to be worth at least 4 Million, another for nothing who is worth 8 Million! Mick is brilliant at getting the maximum out of every single player and we are now playing as a team as opposed to a bunch of individuals. Style of play is important but not as important as getting out of this bloody division!
You completely disagree but then you go on to say much of what I actually said!! And I agree with alot of what you say I have no problem with grinding results out, we've done it under all our managers the issue I have is when we set out to grind a result out, when there's no real attempt to pass the ball and keep possession it's percentage football, the only other manager we played it under previously was Keane and he couldn't master it (at least Mick can) which is why it was soo bad. The frustration I have with Mick is I think he really could be a top top manager, he has all the attributes but his willingness to not take risks and always fall back on erring on the side of caution frustrates me, especially when he definitely is a very capable manager. This kind of talk is what has sucked the soul out of football, clubs happy to get out of this division a be a bottom half PL team because of the money, this is not what football is about, football is about the excitement, the glory stuff that gets the heart pumping if Mick gets us to the PL (which I feel he will eventually) are we going to be content at just being a team grinding out the odd result to keep us in the division for a few years, in 20 years time will we remember that? I'm sure if you asked Wigan fans would they have preffered to win the FA cup or not be relegated most would've said win the FA cup because they are the days which we cherish and remember, I'm sure if you were to ask which seasons Norwich supporters enjoyed and will remember most in years to come they will say the Lambert years coming up through the divisions and competing in the PL, the years after with Hughton in charge where they just kept in the division grinding results out that won't be spoken about in years to come. The things I remember as an Ipswich fan is the playoff games, the 2000/01 PL season, the Inter Milan game, the Sheffield utd matches, the freescroing Royle era, the great home run under the Magilton era, under Mick who has done a good job I just feel even if he does get us up and in the PL I feel we won't ever have moments like this because we just need to do a job. If we ever got into europe through fair play or something like that can you just imagine Mick would probably want to abscond from it to focus on a relegation battle in the PL, or put a second string out, we'd never get moments like the Inter Milan game can anyone remember when he played a reserve team for Wolves against Man U because he was focusing more on the next game? that's IMO is not how football should be played If football was just a results based business we may aswell just not bother watching matches and just look at the results on a screen.
The idea in getting to the prem is not just about grinding out results to stay in the league. Sure the first couple of seasons may turn out that way but the big picture would be to consistently improve the team to a point where you are not only playing just to stay in the league. That's the dream for me, not a cup run but making ourselves a steady premier league club.
Some of the birds were that rough we paid extra for them to keep their clothes on! Good night out nonetheless and I had a few beers with some of the Blackpool lads who I found to be decent folk. I feel sorry for them and the way their club has been raped by the owner.
Not much of a game of football but mission accomplished and 3 points, and a round of applause for all the Townies who made the trip, there must have been over a thousand of us. jonny was it you I saw several times in the jams on the M6 on Friday afternoon? It was a Vauxhall estate with ITFC stickers in the rear window.
Not me mate I got up at 5am on Saturday morning and did the trip in just under 5 hours! My Bed and Breakfast was spot on mate. A lovely fry up this morning to soak up all that alcohol.
Sorry but that was not football, that was a sad excuse for football, yes we won but **** me, we really are ****!! Anyone that is happy with that, in my mind, does not have a ****ing clue about football and those of you who think we have a chance of promotion have obviously been sniffing glue!
And no chance of promotion with that shower of ****, you may celebrate **** wcp but this Ipswich team is one of the worst i have seen!!
One thing i will say in MM's defence is, it infuriates me how we try and sit on a lead and invite pressure but i have realised its down to the players and not Mick!! I saw him and TC waving the players up the pitch yesterday, they were going mad!! So i guess the trying to defend a lead thing is down to the players!!
I couldn't get to the game Spanish so can't really say how **** we were.....currently 8th best team in the league though so still a chance of a play off place.
