| [Blog] Who Are We? Written by Solly on Tuesday, 3rd Jan 2012 22:08 Nottingham Forest won 3-1 on Monday against a Championship team. Just another, ordinary Championship team, one going through a very bad and prolonged spell of form, not dissimilar to themselves. But however poor Forest have been of late, on Monday in a crucial match for both sides competing in terms of league position, it was they who stepped up to the mark, who wanted it more, who dug in defensively and attacked incisively. Who did they beat? Ipswich Town. But not the Ipswich Town I know, or continue, against my better judgement, to love. I have said before that a big part of the problem this season has seemed to stem from the players' simple lack of fight and spirit, but that accusation cannot be put upon every squad member and indeed on Monday, for me, it looked like the vast majority of the players did care. Andy Drury put himself about, Grant Leadbitter, although not everybody's cup of tea, is never one to shirk his responsibilities, Damien Delaney, although at fault for the goals, always looks passionate in a Town shirt, Lee Martin is always busy, although yes at times infuriating and even JET looked up for it. Besides, it is the manager's job to get the players up for it. It always has been and always will be. It is also the manager's job to put in place a gameplan, to have an ethos with which to stick to, a footballing philosophy that the club is run by. It's what Ipswich have done so well down the years, and yes, it is a cliché, but it also happens to be true. That's not to say that a footballing philosophy has to be pure, passing football, it could be more like a Sam Allardyce or a Tony Pulis philosophy. But you need one. When Paul Jewell arrived at the club, it appeared he had one. Consistent selection was near the top of the list, in a settled formation. We did keep the ball nicely, although I shall not labour this point because in the hustle bustle of the Championship it isn't always easy to do it, however much we as Town fans pine for it. We used the flanks extensively, with Martin on one side and Wickham or Carson the other. Now, four months into the season and what have we lost? Consistent selection was put on the back burner a long while ago, Jewell becoming a tinkerer like Keane before him. We've stopped even trying to pass the football which has created lots of other problems for us, which I'll come to, and finally Jewell has restored his faith in our wingers, but clearly hasn't got the belief in Carson to start regularly and pushes Murphy out there, who although experienced has very little pace and thus is quite ineffectual. Indeed, we look utterly clueless in the final third. It appears Jewell's philosophy now is to chuck his talented squad out onto the pitch and hope that they'll be good enough to beat whatever team we face. After the Forest game he blamed the defence for the defeat which is fair enough - but when all we do is lump long balls forward for JET to try and win, of course the ball is going to come straight back to us most of the time, turning our two slow centre-backs and putting them on the back foot. Of course they're going to make mistakes. I lost count of the amount of times that Arran Lee-Barrett could have simply passed the ball to Aaron Cresswell, who was in absolute acres on the left-hand side, and we could have built our attacks from there. Instead, it went long, we lost the ball, and Forest attacked us again, using the pace of Garath McCleary and Marcus Tudgay to stretch our fragile back line. People also seem to think that there's no creativity in the midfield any more. How can there be when the ball is pinged above their heads? They're bypassed. As a club we've been treading water with no clear direction for far too long. We can't just keep throwing money at the situation to bring in more players who might solve our problems all on their own (unless it's Gio, then I'm fine with it), because it hasn't and won't work. We need to lay some foundations, to build a philosophy. Look at Blackpool, at Swansea, at Southampton, heck, even Norwich. Clubs that were united from top to bottom, that played football The Right Way, stuck to their guns and their beliefs. And they reaped the rewards. Ronan Murray, Shane O'Connor, Luke Hyam, Tommy Smith. Youngsters who don't cost much money, who are passionate about the shirt, who'll give 100%. Yes, Jewell may say they're not ready - but look where we are in the table? They can't do a worse job. When he insists on giving Nathan Ellington 10 minutes at the end of every game to absolutely no avail, why don't we recall Murray from his successful loan spell at Swindon and use him as our impact sub? He's quicker, has a far better recent goal record and has looked good almost every time he's worn the Town shirt. Shane O'Connor - if anyone can tell me what he's done wrong whenever he's worn the Blue and White I'd love to know? When Cressy was suspended earlier this season, the straight up natural replacement for him was O'Connor because he's quick and gets up and down. Instead Kennedy was played and had a poor game, getting beaten for pace time and again. Our central midfield has looked very pedestrian for a lot of this season and yes, at times it has clicked, but at other times, especially recently, it's been overrun and slow. Why not give Hyam a try, or at least get him involved in the first team squad, on the bench? He's done it before under Roy Keane, back him to do it again. Or Jewell could try and sign 31-year-old Alan Smith, who is almost as slow as Ingimarsson, whom we've been linked with today? It beggars belief. Tommy Smith was our great hope about three years ago before he broke his ankle, and despite some shaky games this season, he has shown his quality before and will hopefully do so again. So why play Ingimarsson every time we're short if he's that slow and that mistake prone? Why not try Smith? I fear that there is a gap emerging at the club between the first team and the youngsters, that we're not a united club, that there is no strategy. We need one and we need to be united. And Jewell has to go. Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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