Very good game yesterday maybe not for the purist but an entertaining game however. The BBC match summariser said it was a terrible game, clearly he hasn't witnesed some of the drab football we've experienced over the years, this was an entertaining championship game, we played some good stuff and showed some good movement off the ball. I noticed whilst we still played a high pressing game we were a bit more measured in this and that meant we still had some energy left at the end of the match, which meant we didn't drop quite so deep when we were trying to see the game out. It helped that Mick didn't bring on another defender he actually brough Sammon on which meant we again didn't drop deep. Again our midfield looked so much more dynamic, balanced and showed much more intent without Skuse in the team and really our midfield plus Hunt won us the game yesterday that alongside some very resolute defending. I thought Murphy and McGoldrick were actually pretty quiet yesterday and without a willing runner uptop can sometimes be a little static but this was made up by having willing runners in midfield and in Hunt. Match Ratings: Bialkowski - 7 - looked very assured in goal, from what I've seen so far I think he looks slightly better GK than Gerkin and he seems much more inclinded to play it out from the back Chambers - 7 - Solid if unspectacular performance, solid at the back and supported where he could going forwards Smith - 7 - Very solid and capped off with a good goal Berra - 8 - Again very solid as per usual, made a monumentus tackle at the end Mings - 8 - Have to say I haven't seen previously why all the fuss about this lad, in the few appearances i've seen him I thought he looked like a bit of a donkey but today defensively I thought he was spot on, he looked very solid without making too many forays forward. Bru - 8 - Growing into his role, looks an able player both on and off the ball, certainly makes the midfield a bit more creative and dynamic Tabb - 8 - For me he ran Hunt close for our MOTM and Skuse please take note that is how you play the anchor in midfield, he broke up play with tenacious play and then played it quickly or drove us forward. Williams - 8 - Brave performance in midfield, I think I prefer him in with the midfield 3 rather than in a free role, when he plays the free role we seem to rely on him more to make something out of nothing whereas in this role his all round game is far better and it makes us look a far more balanced outfit, we attack more as a team rather than rely on one man. Hunt - 9 - My MOTM, showed so much energy which added an extra dimension upfront because as I said sometimes McGoldrick and Murphy can be a bit static if they're togethe upfront by themselves. McGoldrick - 7 - Showed some nice touches and passes, certainly by no means a bad game but not outstanding. Murphy - 7 - Certainly looks very confident but Watford actually seemed to manage the physical side of his game quite well which meant he had a quiet game Bishop - 7 - Came on and took over from where Williams had left off. Showed some outstanding bits of skill over on the right touchline. If we show that much intent and passing and movement for the rest of the season I'll be very happy. I certainly think Skuse and Gerkin should be made to fight for their place to get back in the team
Decent report / thoughts there. My main thoughts are this - * Off the ball we must be the hardest working team in the division. * On the ball, the tempo at times is way too slow and getting the ball to stick from central midfield from defence is very very poor. We so often knock it slowly back to the centre backs, let teams get organised. Need to improve this if we're to finish top 2............. Yes I just said top 2. Burnley did it last season with an unfancied side, why can't we. This division is very tight this season.
Off the ball this is the best Ipswich team I have ever seen, never have I been watching Ipswich even when we were in the PL have we been as good off the ball as we are now. On the ball we are improving, not great but at least the intent is there and there was some nice passing and movement there but this isn't the case in every match. I agree about the passing being to slow sometimes but we were much quicker yesterday with Skuse being out of the team, I think he slows it down far too much Tabb was actually very good at upping the tempo yesterday. That is one of the things which frustrates me about Skuse, he has the ability to set the tempo of a game but he never shows any intent to do so!! Mick talks about being good as a collective unit defensively, we are great at this but sometimes I think we need to do this more when we attack, all too often we attack as individuals rather than a team (not yesterday though), for example alot of the time last year we relied on having a solid unit then scoring from set pieces or an individual piece of brilliance from either McGoldrick or Williams, we didn't attack as a unit
Watford kicked lumps out of our players yesterday but we stood up to their brutality and cynical style and played some decent football. You have to earn the right to win and I thought we did that brilliantly yesterday against a team that just wanted a scrap!
It looked to me like our attacking play had them worried so they did often resort to fouling our players.....
They accuse us of being just a long ball team but I seem to remember that their best chance came from a long ball.
Don't go on the Watford board, they think we were the ones trying to kick our way to a win and only had hoof ball tactics......Maybe it's playing in yellow that makes them delusional, probably why Dave spends so much time on their board!
I thought Watfords systematic fouling of J W was an absolute disgrace, and to applaud the player who kicked him out of the game for good was shameful. Justice was done in the end and although satisfying this thuggery has no place on the field, come on Refs deal with this before someone gets hurt.
