McCarthy has asked for Ipswich to play their home games next season on the moon. When you play like Ipswich Town, gravity can be a bugger.
Nah, that would not suite our style of play at all, are you not aware that playing on a paddy field is more suited to us....apparently.....I never knew other teams thought we were so versatile!
Compared with the Carrow Road game 2-0 loss and the 1-1 draw we've certainly closed the gap. While still direct, we were miles better than in either game vs you so far. An interesting encounter, first goal really is key.
I don't think you'll be scoring anymore goals and I wouldn't call it interesting, lord knows why McCarthy thought it was a great game, both teams were poor. The reduction in gap you talk of was us going down, not you going up. Your still a poor side as far as I'm concerned.
I agree with Carrabuh that we were pretty poor - our pass completion, for example, was a truly awful 61%. And while I accept that stats don't tell you everything, when you consider we are supposed to be broadly a passing side that tells you that movement and passing was poor. However, I do think your performance was significantly better than in either of the previous two games and, in particular, you were able to force the game to the style that best-suited Ipswich. It was pretty even. I would add, though, that Ipswich's pass completion rate was 53%!! That is the worst I can remember seeing and means that pretty much every single pass was a 50/50 ball. If you have any hope of beating us next week, I think you're going to have to do a lot more with the ball because at the moment the only thing giving you chances are defensive cock-ups (which, admittedly, our back four are quite prone to, but we tend to alternate between a solid defensive game and a shocker and I wonder whether that was our shocker...)
I thank you for being the voice of reason Westlake. Your take on the match is broadly in line with my own. Neither side imposed themselves to any notable degree, and both goals were basically from the mistakes of the opposition. I would guess, if they were honest, both sides were relieved to escape with a draw.
" The reduction in gap you talk of was us going down, not you going up. Your still a poor side as far as I'm concerned. " Well lets put it this way then - you're lightyears ahead of us. Look at your midfield. Did you click / flow? No. We stopped you doing so. Were we anywhere near as AV IT as before? No. At times we played some decent stuff. Grabban looks a massive loss for you. I would fancy Murphy/Sears to carve something up at your gaff. For the size of Bassong, absolute beast he looks petrified at times! Needless corner he headed out. First goal, is absolutely massive Saturday. We'll give it a damned good go!
Agree with just about all of that Westy, but (and I am not just trying to WUM) I can honestly say I saw only two times when you "played some decent stuff" and they were both one-twos between (I think) Mings and Anderson on the left winig. That was quite literally it insofar as I remember - I don't recall you managing more than four passes in a row - it was a very poor game of football, as demonstrated by your pass completion rate of only just over 50%. It was extremely rare that you received the ball in your own half and didn't hit it long (which was pretty effective as you say because of panicking Bassong and Martin - in fact I thought Martin was the one who struggled more than Bassong). And that's certainly not to say we played decent stuff - we certainly didn't. You definitely stopped us playing extremely effectively.
I did something I've never done before during a Norwich game on Saturday, and given the magnitude of the fixture I can't quite believe I did it. What did I do I hear you ask? I fell asleep at half-time and missed the entire second half!! I was watching it on the IPad at home, vaguely recall the half-time summary from the pundits then the next thing I knew the missus was nudging me telling me it was over - I didn't see a single kick in the second half at all! Sounds like I didn't miss much, I've got a ticket in the Jarrold for Saturday so I can say with utmost confidence that that won't happen again!
Well the best bit of the second half you missed was when one of the Binner defenders hit a long ball, which bounced through to Ruddy, then Ruddy hit the ball back, which bounced almost into the penalty area and into Bialkowski arms, who kicked it back up the pitch and it came off ?Murphy and rolled through to Ruddy. For a moment I thought I might have been watching Murray v Nadal.
Draw was a pretty fair reflection of a pretty poor game. Thought Ipswich probably had the better clear cut chances but that overall our general play was somewhat better. Russell Martin had an utter stinker. Culpable for the goal with an awful "clearance" - at school you are taught keep defensive headers up to buy time and send them out wide to make the angles more difficult for the attackers. What did RM do? Flat header straight ahead directly to an opponent. He was beaten for strength and pace on more than one occasion subsequently. Ryben must look at this and think how the hell am I going to ever get a game if the manager thinks that this joker is better than I am. Disappointed with Wes's cameo - when he was on the ball he showed some class touches but his passing was dire. If he does not have a better game on Saturday then we could struggle creatively. I don't know what Dorrans has to do to be dropped I just hope he has now managed to do it. We had quite a few players under par on Saturday who could well come good - there is definitely more to come from BJ and Wes and hopefully RM cannot have back to back shockers. Redmond flattered to deceive although I did think both Town full-backs had good games.as did their defence generally. Come Saturday we will have home advantage and a deep squad from which AN can choose his best XI and tactically impose himself over 120 minutes if require from the bench. first goal will be important but I am still very confident we will prevail and then take our chances against 'Boro although if we do play them in the final and they go up early in the match neutrals will be treated to a football match more akin to an episode of "Casualty". Somewhat surprised 'Boro's keeper did not even get a nomination in the BAFTA's last night.
Good OP Westlake, and I agree with most of your comments since. It was an even game distinguished by an excellent cut-back by Jerome and goal by Howson. Ipswich deserved the equaliser and kept to their game-plan very well. BJ will be a bigger threat in the home-leg and I expect Wes to start. As others have said, the first goal will be massive, but I'm optimistic.
BJ scored 12 of his 15 at Carrow Rd. I fancy him to add to those 15 on Saturday. I thought Redmond did ok although I still don't rate his delivery from set pieces. Wouldn't be surprised to see him come off the bench at the weekend. Hopefully Hoolahan will start on Saturday because Dorrans was the worst player on the pitch for me. Absolute stinker, lacking the composure I'm sure he was brought in to supply. I wonder if the midfield will get a bit of a shake up for the second leg. I wish we had Grabban available, because although Jerome put himself about and was a presence, he doesn't look like scoring right now - and his passing isn't all that. Hooper to get a bit more game time than he did at Portman Rd? Only other doubt is Martin. He was poor for the goal, but also failing to clear which led to Ruddy's double save and other moments when he rushed, fluffed and flapped. Hope he is more assured because we can't afford to concede more sloppy goals unless we already have something of a cushion. It doesn't get much bigger than this...
Irritated at Russell Martin's insistence at playing centre back. If the Scotland manager is watching you would not pick him in this position in a million years
I dunno, Ipswich are pretty dull. Your midfield never played "decent" stuff. It has not done so all season. Your midfield did nothing special to stop us, we were not harrassed at every turn, it was the usual sloppy poor movement by Redmond that stifled us. Decent stuff indeed. You sound like McCarthy trying to paint it as a great honest game, it was crap. The difference being we played crap where as you played well and were still crap.
I guess you have something in common with the team you support.....you are full of Crap please log in to view this image
Isn't long ball just the most fantastic thing. I'm not surprised your gates are going through the roof. Oh sorry my mistake, thats just your passing game.
