Match Day Thread Town v Charlton

So just a couple of days after saying we can't play 4-4-2 Lambert changes to just that for the first time this season.

 

We also didn't have the injury list we have now though.

 

The injuries we've had since last season have been an absolute joke, how many out of this squad are injured or returning to fitness?

There's something wrong with our sports science, or we've tried to do stuff on the cheap and taken a risk on too many injury prone players

 

SD, you just cannot defend this, he has rested players for all the cup comps & we are not getting the returns for those decisions made by PL.

 

He’s not a right back, for the millionth time.

 

He’s not a schoolboy either!

 

Sorry but you can't keep making excuses for Lambert, I don't care how many injuries we have, there is no excuse for constantly picking poor performing players like Judge and Nsiala, I would rather see Toto the dog and Judge Rinder than Toto Nsiala and Alan Judge, at least it would be entertaining!!!!

 

Booooo!!!!

 

I'm not saying I think Lambert is doing a good job but are you trying to tell me we don't miss Edwards and Bishop or that the missing players wouldn't make a difference?

 

No idea to be honest SD,just breaks my heart to see what we have become. every season I say to myself I won,t bother, but you get sucked in & suffer the agony of watching a team that just isn,t performing & has not for several years now.

 

For me in terms of results considering our injuries I'm not too displeased with because at the end of the day our injury list is atrocious and we are 3 points off automatic spot.

The biggest concern is the manner of the past few performances, just the absolute lack of idea how to change games when things aren't going our way or playing a formation which doesn't make the most out of the players available.

 

I know mate
We come into every season hoping for the best but I've lost count of how many seasons we have been without our best players through long term injury.

There is so much wrong in our play, I guess you could describe it as not being streetwise.
We don't get the ball forward quickly to spring a counter attack after an opponents attack breaks down.
We don't put pressure on opponents throw-ins in their defensive third.
We play short corners or free kicks instead of getting the ball into the box when there's only a couple minutes left in a half.
For a wannabe possession based, passing team we are too lethargic moving the ball.
I've seen our strikers standing in front of the goalie to prevent him passing out quickly. I suppose it allows us to get back in shape but it also wastes a lot of time that we need to get back in the game.
We're not flexible in our system, expecting the results from the first few games to replicate themselves all season as though no opposition manager studies our style and formulates a tactic to beat it.
We keep allowing Chambers to stay high up the pitch, making a midfielder fill in his position sometimes and exposing an already sketchy Nsiala all the time.
We keep playing Judge and Nsiala.

Lambert is failing miserably but he has the injury list as a ready made excuse. I'd say we miss Edwards, Bishop and Wilson. KVY would no doubt make a difference as well.

 

Another couple of seasons of this and there might be no way back for the club.

Ultimately Evans has got every single call wrong for a decade.

 

Interesting comment from Brenner about the pitch, and our dreadful injuries. Have we mismanged penny-pinched our groundstaff resources and materials, and our hallowed PR turf? A world-renowned pitch 20 years ago.

 

This is how it will be until Evans is gone. I'm not sure he even wants a manager to win promotion. It suits his budget to keep us in League One or lower and we're probably losing even more money that he can write off and get a tax break from, allowing him to maybe get richer?

A lot is being made of the impending salary cap putting us at a disadvantage as one of the bigger teams in the league. Not sure that's really true. It just means that player contracts will change. We should still be able to flex our financial muscle by offering contracts to players coming in that offer much better wages on promotion.
For example - we'll give you 2000 quid a week now but 12000 on promotion. Theoretically we should still be able to entice the better players with contracts that other teams can't match. It would also lead to a much bigger drive from the players to get promoted with such a tasty carrot dangling in front of them.

Unfortunately, although this is the way it could be I have no confidence that this is what will happen at Ipswich.

 

In the last two home games we've conceded 5 and scored 0, we don't have a ball winning midfield to take the pressure off the defence and equally we don't have a creative midfield to provide service to the front players, not that I think our so called strikers are much above pub league standard.
Season after season anyone whose any good is sold and their replacement if there is one is a free transfer or an ageing journeyman, so the process of diluting the quality of the squad continues until we get to where we are now, a laughing stock.

 

With little attempt or ,it seems,desire on the part of our owner to put a brake on this ever spiralling decline.

I’m beginning to fear the only real way we are going to recover is a catastrophic failure of the Club and rebirth as a community based project.I know he’s a contentious person but someone like Sheepshanks leading such a project may be our best hope involving a past player or partnership.Get a bit more passion and drive behind the Club.

 

Yes it defies logic that someone that sees their business in trouble does absolutely nothing to address the decline, normally one of three things happen, they invest to become competitive, sell up, or close it down, but Evans just stands and watches year after year, it makes no sense whatsoever, I think there's something smelly in the woodshed.

 

That's assuming it's not benefiting him somehow to have a loss making business within his empire. I reckon League One is more in line with his preferred budget, pay less for players, don't push for Cat 1 academy and have an excuse for not improving the stadium.

It seems to me that aside from Paul Hurst, Evans has employed managers that are happy to take the wages in return for pitiful transfer budgets and little pressure on results, as long as they don't publicly complain about it.

 

I think it is one of many contributing factors that add up to our current state, along with the early decision not to go for a top level academy.