Cambridge up

I have to agree SD, we do make life difficult for ourselves. When we are good we are unbeatable, when we are poor, we are the pits!

 

Every one catching up.

 

Just not good enough!!

 

On our day, we can beat anyone in this division easily, sadly we have no consistency!!

 

Derby could overtake us if they win their game in hand

 

At this rate, we'll be glad to make the play offs

 

That was a deflationary afternoons football, even for us optimists on here, I suspect we now have to accept that we are headed for the play-offs.Barring a briiliant result next Saturday, which will be or last chance to to make a big impact on the 2 upfront.

Most teams around us are winning and consistant too.

KM has a tough week ahead, what with the Cup game on Tuesday to deal wth.

 

How can you go toe to toe with with Burnley then fail against Cambridge?

 

That's league one football for you.
If you're not ready for the rough and tumble you may come unstuck. We do seem to do alright against teams that attack but not against those who use a game plan of first and foremost trying to disrupt us and then try and play football.

 

When was the last time we won a game from being behind?

 

Morecambe away earlier this season we were 1 down and won. Our consistency has gone and teams have figured out how to play us. It doesn’t matter how much possession you have if there is not enough end product. I really hope we start 2 up front against Sheff Wed but have a feeling it will be back to number 10s behind a striker. Top 2 is looking more and more out of reach. At what point do people stop saying “there are x number of games left, don’t worry”. For me, we need a run of wins now starting with next Saturday

 

Feel like this is getting away from us. 2 decent performances against teams who came to play but we struggle against teams which sit back and get organised as there's not enough variation in our play and we don't get the ball forwards quick enough.

Feel we are getting done tactically week after week at the moment. No signs that the teams around us are going to stop and we're going to find form again as we keep doing the same things. We have to keep faith in our bright young manager but he has shown his naivety a lot the past couple of months against some wiley old managers who know this league

 

Not here as a wind up so please don't take this the wrong way. The point about the above post is that any of the sides in this league can beat any other. It is like that this season as it has been for many others. You do seem to go from euphoria to despair on this board where it isn't really that simple. No need for Ipswich to implode quite yet. There is a long way to go and as a Green I am certainly not counting any chickens. I've learnt not to over many years. You may not like it here but at least it's open as opposed to the upper leagues which have several leagues within a league.

 

I don’t think it’s about counting chickens in your case. Maybe Sheffield Wednesday need to worry about complacency, but you don’t have chickens to count.

 

I think we have to be realistic and hold our hands up. We’re not quite there yet as a side.

McKenna has some learning to do:

He makes too many bad selection choices. Perhaps he should stop worrying about being tactical about the opposition at this level and play his best XI, with the exception of freshening up.

We don’t have the right balance between defence and attack, between the left and the right sides. We create too many wasteful chances. We need to improve our chance to goal ratio, likely by creating fewer, better chances. We need a radical overhaul in the final third. The full back on one side and winger on the other was okay as a temporary measure but now it really needs addressing.

Morsy may be a very good player at this level, but he may not have what it takes as captain. The lack of intent from players that we’ve seen at times - after they step over the line, that’s his responsibility. Give the captaincy to Walton.

 

Valid points Hampy, when did we last play the same X1 or more or less? Too much chopping & changing breeds an unsettled team.

Over thinking and tactical changes have contributed to our pretty sharp passing game coming unstuck. When did we see an opportunist goal being slammed in from outside.Just hoof it at times will score goals!

Interesting to see who he fields in the Cup game.

 

Our defense has gone from rock solid to a leaky sieve in 6 weeks! Never really get why Keogh at 36 has started regularly.
For me, the best pairing has been Wolfenden & Edmundson. Luke wasnt on the bench!

Keogh is a wise old bird, but hasnt got the agility or speed we need. We have given away too many soft goals from players just dribbling thru us, and trying their luck.

 

Fair observation - it's a tight, tough league with a lot of good teams. I'd say the key word among the Ipswich supporters is 'frustration'. Frustration because we can see the clear signs of development on the pitch. We're playing a better style of football than under the last several managers. We're also spending a lot of money and investing into the club, which wasn't a given under Marcus Evans (the previous owner). It feels like we're in a good place, financially and on the pitch, but the fear is if we miss promotion - key players in the squad will want to return to Championship football. My main fear is that we'll miss the promotion boat and good players will leave and McKenna might get a Championship job. In short, we don't want to return to the days of underinvestment and three consecutive mid-table finishes in this division.

Although there's a lot of football to be played, Sheffield Wednesday look like they'll secure top spot or at least automatic promotion. That leaves us, Plymouth, and then teams like Derby and Bolton who have been coming into form and closing the gap to the top two positions - all playing good football. Play off football has been an Achilles Heel for Ipswich (on the rare occasion we make the play offs). I don't think we've had a play off win since the 1999/00 season, so there's a fear among Ipswich supporters that we'll bottle play off football and it'll be five years in League One.

 

That was quite possibly the worst half of football ive ever seen us play, ok Cambridge were doing all sorts of underhanded things like taking shots from outside the box ! Whoever heard of such a thing ? clearly not our defenders as they let Knibbs pick his spot and crack a good shot into the corner of our net, then Edmondson gave away a penalty and but for a good save from Walton we would have dead and buried by half time, we on the other hand had no worthwhile shots at goal in the entire half, in fact the highlight was the bloke in front of me who was pissed out of his brains falling down the stairs packed with our supporters.
The half time subs livened us up and Ladapo equalised but we didnt look like scoring the winner if we played all day, plus Morsy was booked again so faces missing the Sheff Wed game, Cambridge had a couple of breakaways and Walton saved us by diving at the forwards feet and injuring himself in the process.
Another game where we had over 70% possession and didnt win, and the clock turned back with us resorting to tippy tappy sideways backwards football, so disappointing.
I found myself thinking that are we really credible promotion material ? if we are to progress something needs to change, we have the skills in the team but we dont have enough players prepared to take a shot instead of preferring to try and walk the ball into the net, its a bit worrying.

 

It feels like we play academy football, it's the process and development of players that matter over the result. McKenna has shown he's a great coach and to be fair pretty good at man management from what I can see but for me has got a lot to prove tactically in league football, too wedded to perfection over pragmatism.

The squad we've got at this level alongside in comparison to others is ridiculous add to that it doesn't look like a team of individuals, the ethic, workrate and team work is all there it just seems tactically we are either really stubborn or naive or a combination of both blinkered by idealism and the process. All these things I've argued for for 15 years and now I feel we've gone too far the other way.