Norwood and Sears should be the front two. Although Freddie missed a couple of easy chances today he still looked the most dangerous and natural striker when compared to Drinan, Hawkins or Jackson.
Seriously....how many of current squad would you keep for next season and who (and don't you dare say fecking judge) I honestly can't see anyone i would like to build the team around, probably kvy but he is made of glass so....
KVY, Downes and Lanjester are worth keeping, maybe Bishop if his wages reflect his contribution...and Holy is good enough to get us out of L1. After that we need a total overhaul and some youth coming through. We can’t just buy ourselves to glory. We’re not Man city and even they bring through through da yoof!
I thought Nsiala did well again. Solid as a rock. Downes and Dozzell tried some good things but made the forwards work for their position and it's that vital second or two that allows the defender or 'keeper to cover - if Downes is going to be any type of player at a higher level (he won't be) those passes need to be inch perfect far more often.
There was one absolutely shocking one there where Judge had so many options with three Town players on and any half decent pass would have won us the game. Another one where Sears had an easy square ball on but opted to shoot from a difficult angle. Never seen us create and squander so many opportunities. I suppose creating that many clear cut chances is some kind of progress.
Could’ve,should’ve,would’ve won that game with a half decent finisher! Perhaps our new owners will splash the cash for a seasoned pro’ in the Drogba mould,we can but dream!
I don’t think any of that was ability and we had Parrott on the bench who still has the swagger the others are missing.
My 99 yr old Auntie down in NZ who I have been in touch with today, would have gleefully bagged those 2 chances!
I've thought that for a while, though Norwood is never fit and could Sears cut it as a striker now he hasn't played there consistently for about 5 years. What a waste of a player playing him our wide. Their movement upfront and Norwoods strength would open up the space much more. This team is an average League 1 side but add Norwood, KVY and Downes and it is a good promotion chasing team although it shows you how weak we are that we've come down from the Championship and we pin our hopes on an academy player who's pretty much played 1 full season and 2 players who we've got off pretty much 1 good season in League 2 (the highest level they've played at). Area of major concern though, why has PC refused to do press conferences the past few days?
Sears has been in and out the side with rubbish service for a long time like the rest of them. We can’t expect players to be sharp in those circumstances. We know Freddie can score goals and he’s always at his best coming inside from the left. He’s one of the few attacking players I would not be writing off.
Freddie Sears is done. He’s a spent force. He had one and a half good seasons for us many, many years ago. I honestly don’t get how he has so much esteem and admiration by some Town fans. He’s a very average finisher that lost his pace a few seasons back.
I think its that him and Murphy looked like the best partnership we'd had in years upfront and that season and a half playing as a striker he had a pretty good scoring record. Since then he's played virtually 99% of games on the wing or as a wide forward which he is ineffective at. Every once in a blue moon he starts in a top 2 and I just always think we look quite dangerous when we do play with him and a target man upfront because his movement is so good, not necessarily the best finisher (but he hasn't exactly been played in that position for years or been given the confidence by a manager to play there) but neither is Norwood. Sears movement creates space for others and provides defenders/midfielders with more options, he reminds me very much of how Alun Armstrong used to play who often used to pull players out for the way for Stewart to score. I think Sears and Norwood could compliment each other despite neither being the best finishers but they both have good positional awareness as strikers, Norwood to get in the right spot at the right time and Sears to stretch the defence it would provide our midfield and defence with more options. I remember after Lambert initially came in there were a couple of games where he played Keane and Sears up top and we started to look quite dangerous bit then Sears got injured. Perhaps too much water under the bridge for Sears but whether we get rid and continue to misuse him or not his talent has certainly been wasted by Mick in a similar way to how Chambers has gone from being a very good CB to playing at RB for so long that he looks all at sea as a CB. Add to this PC clearly likes playing with 1 main striker to which Sears doesn't really suit, to be fair the type of player Sears is seems a bit of a dieing breed in the modern game, although I'm sure they'll come back in fashion at some point again
Freddie needs a strong no nonsense fit Norwood up front with him. If the latter comes back, they will grow in confidence, and we have a chance. Otherwise we will get beat by in form Wimbledon & Charlton and that will be that.
This statement concerns me: https://www.itfc.co.uk/news/2021/april/paul-cook-on-town-takeover/ Sounds like he's leaving to me
That last line does sound a bit problematic, doesn't it? Sort of thing you'd say wishing an old employer well in the future. I'm hoping this is a case of a badly worded press statement from the media team and not a verbatim quote from PC. His interview this morning does make it sound like the new owners see him as part of the future, and they're prepared to back him in the summer transfer window - https://www.twtd.co.uk/ipswich-town...citing-times-ahead-under-fantastic-new-owners Also explains why he didn't take the last couple of post-match press conferences - he doesn't want to sound like a stuck record criticising players and saying the same thing. I don't think he was quite aware about the scale of the problems at the club. Encouraging to hear he's still got the enthusiasm, hopefully he can get his trusted assistant from Wigan back alongside him (despite the guy doing well at Wigan).
Very strange closing remark.I can’t believe he would have been offered the role without the prospective new owners having a major input,but then we are talking about Marcus Evans so there’s no knowing what (if any) the thought processes were.