| The biggest problem Ipswich has at the moment 10:17 - Mar 8 with 919 views | Guthrum |
is only being able to field 11 players at a time.
If we set up to attack, then Bialkowski ends up very busy, with the inevitable risk of conceding. Hence being pegged back so many times over the last month.
Make ourselves solid at the back and we don't have the spare players to attack properly. We were relying on individual, long-range efforts from Lawrence, but other teams are wise to that now. McGoldrick is creative, but there's no-one to get on the end of opportunities he manufactures.
People are drooling over the idea of a "ball-playing manager" and more aggressive setups, but I fear that would merely result in a situation like Jewell's Diamond, where our players helplessly stagger around the pitch while the opposition carve through on goal with glee.
McCarthy has failed to recruit enough players who are good at turning defence into attack. Partly because he seems more inclined to protection than all-out assault, but more significantly that quality footballers with those skills are expensive - increasingly so in recent windows - not having the budget to afford them. He's stuck with trying to find young or unregarded gems, which are too rare to guarantee a decent success rate.
The good playes we pick up are often in the fragile bracket, easily damaged and thus frequently absent from the team. Or those who develop well are then sold off to cover running costs. Many of our best players are loans.
It's very difficult. I can't see what McCarthy can do, think he's run out of ideas and is cheesed off, nor what any likely replacement would be able to achieve either. Evans seems intent on coasting on idle (which will lead to a gentle downward drift), but is unlikely to find a buyer who will cover much of his losses.
If we do change manager, I can see us being back to a similar scenario in eighteen months time or so.
Gloomy, isn't it? |  |
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| The biggest problem Ipswich has at the moment on 10:26 - Mar 8 with 883 views | No9 |
Can I recommend you take a look on the BBC site & re-review the Town game at Brighton. |  | | |
| The biggest problem Ipswich has at the moment on 10:36 - Mar 8 with 864 views | Guthrum |
| The biggest problem Ipswich has at the moment on 10:26 - Mar 8 by No9 |
Can I recommend you take a look on the BBC site & re-review the Town game at Brighton. |
How many other examples this season where things have clicked at both ends for Town (exclude Lawrence individual efforts from that). Maybe Bristol at home. | |
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| The biggest problem Ipswich has at the moment on 10:49 - Mar 8 with 825 views | ClausThomsen |
Sack the manager and we get 18 months off it being gloomy...
Jewell's gone, no-one's playing a diamond these days. If your surname was Jewell, you'd probably want to play a diamond formation as well. Jewell was finished after Derby and so it proved.
Today we have no attacking strategy whatsoever, we've got a loanee with a deadly shot on him and that's been our only source of goals for the season. McCarthy's as defensive a manager as you could ask for, when his hand was forced and he had to play Chambers, Spence and Knudsen as the back 3, and Diagouraga for Skuse, we were creating plenty of chances and giving as good as we got against the best in the division.
MM's shackling the players in an attacking sense, when the shackles were off we were competing well there for a few weeks. Now they're back on again and we can't create chances against the leakiest and most out of form teams.
MM's had more options and we're now worse.
You don't give this guy a transfer kitty.
He should have gone after Lincoln. | | | |
| The biggest problem Ipswich has at the moment on 11:02 - Mar 8 with 805 views | Guthrum |
| The biggest problem Ipswich has at the moment on 10:49 - Mar 8 by ClausThomsen |
Sack the manager and we get 18 months off it being gloomy...
Jewell's gone, no-one's playing a diamond these days. If your surname was Jewell, you'd probably want to play a diamond formation as well. Jewell was finished after Derby and so it proved.
Today we have no attacking strategy whatsoever, we've got a loanee with a deadly shot on him and that's been our only source of goals for the season. McCarthy's as defensive a manager as you could ask for, when his hand was forced and he had to play Chambers, Spence and Knudsen as the back 3, and Diagouraga for Skuse, we were creating plenty of chances and giving as good as we got against the best in the division.
MM's shackling the players in an attacking sense, when the shackles were off we were competing well there for a few weeks. Now they're back on again and we can't create chances against the leakiest and most out of form teams.
MM's had more options and we're now worse.
You don't give this guy a transfer kitty.
He should have gone after Lincoln. |
We were creating some chances. And, as people kept saying, Bialkowski kept us in games with his outstanding abilities (but still leaked the odd one or two). It was an improvement, but not all rosy in the garden.
Eighteen months before, with a sprinkling of slightly better players (Mings, Murphy), and some more energetic ones (S Hunt), Ipswich were among the best in the division. But we sold those players (or they retired), without buying equivalent quality to replace them. | |
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| The biggest problem Ipswich has at the moment on 11:09 - Mar 8 with 777 views | LankHenners |
In our playoff season we were excellent at being better than the sum of our parts, but since then Mick's struggled to get the balance right on a consistent basis, both through tactics and a lack of investment in the right players/areas of the pitch.
Evans ballsed up, essentially. Jan 2015 was the best time for him to invest - we were pushing for the top 2 (well, in them in fact), as such an attractive proposition for players to sign, and it may have been enough to see us over that line for automatic promotion. If it didn't, we may have had a better chance in the playoffs or if not then we'd have a stronger squad to go again the following season. He didn't, so should have then invested more in the summer immediately afterwards.
What Mick achieved that season was, quite frankly, miraculous, but Evans didn't see it that way, thinking instead that only a minor (relatively) increase in wage budget would be enough to secure at least another playoff finish. Our brightest sparks since have been loan players, which isn't sustainable, especially when you can't afford to buy them afterwards. We're left with an aging spine, which isn't going to increase in quality (Bart aside perhaps, he'll at least stay just as excellent) and younger players who will naturally be inconsistent/need time to grow into good Championship players. That middle band of good-aged, experienced Championship players, or top players in the leagues immediately below us cost money, not a ridiculous amount but a few million spread out across 4 or 5 players to get that improvement.
Mick I feel has made up his mind - he knows deep down there's not a lot he can really do anymore. He's had his wonder season, with 3 consecutive top 10 finishes, but he's lost something with a lot of the fans that he can't win back, and he seems to have slipped back into giving people reasons to beat him with the 'negative' stick.
I said at the start of the season that anything less than top 6 and we should see a change in management to give the place a breath of fresh air and allow a new man to go at things from a different angle. My one nagging objection to my own thinking is why would Evans suddenly give a new manager the investment necessary when he hasn't with the one man who's proved he's earned it?
Whatever happens with the immediate future of the club, it needs to be sorted out soon. If Mick's to stay he needs backing, real backing. If he ends up leaving the summer afterwards then I still have confidence in Mick's ability to spot a player that he'll leave us with a decent squad. If Mick's to go, a replacement needs to come in ASAP after the season ends so they have the full pre-season and transfer window to sort things out. They, again, would need backing.
Sadly, I don't trust Evans to make a good choice if Mick went, and if Mick stays I can't see too many fans sticking around. Yes, very gloomy indeed. |  |
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| The biggest problem Ipswich has at the moment on 11:32 - Mar 8 with 739 views | SWGF |
Issue we have is that we have far too many players (particularly in the midfield) who do just one facet of the game (to varying degrees of success) therefore we seem, as you point out, with our teams to only be able to do one (defend) or the other (attack, albeit VERY VERY rarely) at any one time.
For example, Skuse can only defend; it is hard-wired into him to do just that and it's nose-bleed if he gets into the opposition half. Whereas Huws/Diagouraga have highlighted that midfielders can, given ability and coaching, actually do more than one thing; they can tackle and pass with purpose, they can carry the ball at pace through the centre and create goals. They're seen as a breath of fresh air where, in reality, this should be the norm for a central midfielder in the second tier of English football.
We're now playing five at the back with wingbacks who can't attack with any great purpose which turns into a flat back five, at home, with two defensively-minded midfielders in front of them. |  |
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| The biggest problem Ipswich has at the moment on 12:16 - Mar 8 with 695 views | Pilgrimblue |
| The biggest problem Ipswich has at the moment on 11:02 - Mar 8 by Guthrum |
We were creating some chances. And, as people kept saying, Bialkowski kept us in games with his outstanding abilities (but still leaked the odd one or two). It was an improvement, but not all rosy in the garden.
Eighteen months before, with a sprinkling of slightly better players (Mings, Murphy), and some more energetic ones (S Hunt), Ipswich were among the best in the division. But we sold those players (or they retired), without buying equivalent quality to replace them. |
Maybe but very few as the stats show. If it hadn't been for Bart we'd definitely be in bottom 3.
Perhaps MM hasn't recruited the right players but setting his sides up not to lose is his style. He constantly uses subs to hold on to a point and has a bench that is unlikely to change the game. The best midfield he had was at Villa (who have a good team despite results) but he brings back Skuse every week like he's some sort of game changer. He isn't, he's just another defender and a slow one at that.
Only injuries have forced him to change so i'm not expecting anything different from him in the run in. I'd have Dave Spence Huws McG Dozzy to pick from behind Pitman and Tom with Freddie as back up. Then have youngsters on bench. |  | | |
| The biggest problem Ipswich has at the moment on 12:26 - Mar 8 with 682 views | ClausThomsen |
| The biggest problem Ipswich has at the moment on 11:02 - Mar 8 by Guthrum |
We were creating some chances. And, as people kept saying, Bialkowski kept us in games with his outstanding abilities (but still leaked the odd one or two). It was an improvement, but not all rosy in the garden.
Eighteen months before, with a sprinkling of slightly better players (Mings, Murphy), and some more energetic ones (S Hunt), Ipswich were among the best in the division. But we sold those players (or they retired), without buying equivalent quality to replace them. |
Some chances is better than none though, we've gone from creating some chances to again gagging for a corner or a free-kick, at home, to worse sides, with more players available to the manager.
The sales haven't hurt us that much. | | | |
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